Imperfect Metamorphosis
by TakerFoxx
Summary: It's the first day of spring, and Cirno and her friends are once again up to no good! But after stealing a strange box from Marisa's house, they soon find themselves over their heads as they discover some things are meant to remain locked up.
1. The First Day of Spring

The First Day of Spring

Spring had come to Gensokyo, and nobody cared.

Of course, this could be easily forgiven, as it was in the wee hours of the morning, and most of the mystical country's denizens were either hours from awakening or just getting to bed. A shame too. For as far as mornings went, it was a beautiful one. The sun was just beginning to peek over the tips of the mountain range, illuminating miles of dewy fields and sleepy forests. The buds of the first flowers of the year began to open in response to the sun's rays. A low mist hovered over the ground to billow over the lakes, enjoying its last few moments of dominance before the sun banished it entirely. In the forest, birds began to flit from tree to tree, singing their greetings to one another.

However, everyone else couldn't care less. Beyond the birds and the flowers, the various inhabitants of Gensokyo were asleep and planning on remaining that way for the foreseeable future. Everyone that was, except one.

"SSSSSPRRRRRRIIINNNNGGGGG!"

Lily White literally exploded into the air, showering the land with projectiles of various sizes and shape as flowers bloomed in her wake. The first day of spring always worked her into frenzy, and this year was no exception. Laughing with joy, she zipped to and fro through the air, announcing winter's end to anyone who would hear. Whether they liked it or not.

"Wake up everybody!" she called as loud as she could. "Wake up! It's here, it's finally here! Spring has arrived!"

And it worked. Throughout the forest, various youkai stirred in their makeshift beds, wishing that she would just shut up for once. Kappa poked their heads above water, curious to see what all the fuss was about. Even the humans in their villages weren't immune to Lily's cry, as many of them cursed themselves for forgetting their earplugs this year while those who had remembered cursed themselves for not investing in a stronger set of earplugs. And in an ancient mansion several miles away, a cranky young vampire demanded that her maid "Shoot the damned thing down already." Unfortunately for them, Lily had learned from past experience to stay well out of firing range,

If the white-clad fairy had any idea how irritating her self-imposed duty was making her, she gave no indication. This was her job, and she would do it to the very best of her ability. If people didn't like it, it was their fault for sleeping through part of the first day of spring. She twirled in the air, joyfully spreading love and bullets as she went.

"SSSSSPRRRRRRIIINNNNGGGGG!"

That was when something hit her in the face, something cold, wet and soft. Startled, she forgot how to fly and tumbled head over heels back to the ground. Fortunately there was a soft patch of grass for her to land in, but the impact still knocked her senseless. She struggled to sit up, but three seconds after her arrival, a sudden burst of lilies erupted around her, knocking her back down again.

Lily groaned and rubbed her head. She had no idea what had hit her, but she was growing increasingly aware of the fact that it was still in her mouth. She frowned and spat it out. Whatever it was, it was white and colder than anything had a right to be. Come to think of it, it looked a lot like…

Snow?

A snowball? Someone had hit _her_ with a _snowball?_ On the first day of _spring?_

The fuzziness in her mind burned away, engulfed by the fury that was now growing within her at an alarming rate. Someone had dared use an element of winter to attack her. She was going to find that someone. She was going to make them hurt.

A raucous round of nearby laughter suggested that she would not have to look far.

Growling, she pushed aside the lilies and got a good look at her attackers. There were five of them: three youkai and two fairies. The youkai were the ones responsible for the laughter. One of them, a girl in a black dress with a red and white ribbon in her yellow hair, was helping support a sparrow-girl with short brown hair, a tan dress and a strange winged hat. The third, a firefly by the looks of her, one with a mop of green hair and strangely boyish clothing, wasn't even bothering with trying to hold herself up and was rolling on the ground in hysterics. One of the fairies, a girl in a blue dress whose green hair was tied into a ponytail, looked incredibly nervous as she hovered behind the group. However, the other, this one with blue hair and six crystalline wings, didn't look nervous at all, and judging from the unrepentant grin on her face and the snowball she was tossing up and down Lily had found her culprit.

Lily knew them, of course. Everybody knew them, nobody liked them. Rumia, Mystia Lorelei, Wriggle Nightbug, Daiyousei and, of course, Cirno. It was generally agreed that no matter the time, date, or season, Cirno's gang was going to be up to no good. It was also agreed that there wasn't enough brains between them to fill a water bucket. The combination made them very infamous indeed.

"You!" Lily spat.

Cirno's grin just increased. "Well, what'd you expect? All that flying around, screaming 'Spring!' at the top of your stupid lungs and waking everybody up! Frankly, I'm surprised someone didn't shut you up earlier!"

Lily's eyes narrowed and she pulled herself to her feet. "How dare you!" she shouted. "This is spring! Winter has no business here!"

In response, Lily got another face full of snow. She quickly wiped it off to see Cirno's tongue sticking out and her thumb pressing up on her nose.

"I'm an ice fairy, not a winter fairy," Cirno announced. "So nyah!"

Unlike her leader, Daiyousei didn't look to confident about harassing Lily. "Um, C-Cirno," she stuttered, "maybe you shouldn't-"

This warning was ignored. "What, you can dish out but you can't take it? Is that it?" Cirno taunted. "I guess you really are all talk! And that is why I'm the-"

"Look out!" Daiyousei shouted.

She swooped down and tackled Cirno to the ground. Just in time too, because Lily's trademark hurricane of bullets obliterated the area she had been occupying. The rest of her gang stopped their laughter to stare up as Lily White rose into the air. Though to be honest, the Spring fairy was now quite the captivating sight. She was now literally blazing with fury, with chaotic energies swirling around her fists and dancing in her eyes.

"WHY YOU DISREPSECTFUL LITTLE TRAMP!" Lily bellowed with all the force in her lungs. "I'LL TEACH YOU TO DISRESPECT SPRING'S MESSENGER! FEEL THE MIGHT OF SSSSSPRRRRRRIIINNNNGGGGG!"

"Scatter!" Rumia called. The surrounding around was immediately bombarded by a storm of firepower. Grass exploded upwards in clumps and flower patches bloomed just in time to be cut to shreds.

Cirno's gang, however, had not stuck around to see this happen. All five of them were now shooting through the forest, most of them sending out taunts and catcalls back at Lily. This of course did absolutely nothing to improve her mood.

It would probably be pointless to go after them. There were five of them, after all, and in the Forest of Magic even one would be difficult to catch.

Still, they had disrespected spring. You just didn't let an insult like that slide.

Lily took in a deep breath. Well, she had been planning on shooting the landscape up anyway as part of her yearly ritual. It looked like this time she would have a target.

After taking a moment to ready all the energy she had available, Lily began to follow.

…

It was generally agreed upon that while being a part of Cirno's gang was great fun, it was not without risks. As such, having to flee the angry victim of one prank or another was had long become routine.

Fortunately, Lily White was far from the strongest person to have pursued them with murderous intent. And they did outnumber her five-to-one. In fact, Cirno could probably have taken her on her own. But why stand and fight when driving your victim nuts was so much more fun? And seeing how Lily had never been playing with a full deck to begin with, they really didn't have to try hard.

Three youkai and two fairies dashed and darted through the trees of the Magic Forest, laughing and taunting as they went. Above the treetops, a furious Lily could be seeing trying to shoot them down with burst after burst after burst. She was certainly doing a great deal of damage, but thanks to her growing frustration none of her shots were hitting home. This of course was not lost on the targets of her ire, and their taunts and catcalls barraged her from every direction.

"Ha! Missed again you loser!"

"Wow, you really are a bad shot, aren't you?"

"Not even close, not even close, and the dumb fairy can't hit the broad side of a mountain!"

"Ahhh! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, don't hurt me! Ahhh!"

Well, taunts, catcalls and one plea for forgiveness. Daiyousei never had gotten the hang of the whole "danger" thing.

Frustrated, Lily skimmed above the treetops, angrily searching every which way for her prey. Movement to her left caught her eye, and she launched another barrage in that direction. A high-pitched cackling told her she had missed.

Lily balled up her hands. "Where are you?" she cried out in frustration. "Come out and fight! You're all a bunch of filthy cowards!"

A nearby voice answered. "Is that so!"

"Huh?"

And that was when the world went dark.

Lily shrieked in surprise. She balked in mid-air and swung about in confusion. It was as if someone had deactivated her eyes and then struck out the sun for good measure. Now that was just cheating.

"WHAT IS THIS?" Lily screamed into the darkness. "WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING, STOP IT!" When her opponents failed to answer, she tried firing several more blasts in random directions. She swooped around, listening carefully for sounds of impact. From the sound of things, she had managed to hit several trees, but there were no cries of pain. Damn it.

Then the darkness disappeared.

Lily breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently she had managed to hit whoever had swallowed the light. There was that at least…

It was then that she noticed that she was on a collision course with a surprisingly tall and hard looking tree.

Lily's eyes popped in their sockets. She tried to bank hard, but her momentum was too great. She slammed face-first into the trunk hard enough to make the top of the tree sway back and forth. Her brain rattled in her skull and her thoughts immediately dissolved into nonsense.

"Guhhh, what in the tree love Spring I like beans-"

Rationalism managed to catch up before she went tumbling. Lily shook off the confusion and steadied herself. She noticed a sizeable bump beginning to form over her right eyebrow. She gingerly touched it and winced as it protested the contact.

Oh yeah. Someone was going to die. Unfortunately those someones were nowhere to be seen. She couldn't even hear their annoying taunts anymore.

"That was a cheap shot!" she called out in hopes of luring them out. "Come out and face me like a ma-" Wait, that wasn't right. "Like a fai-" No, that didn't quite work either. "Um, like something that's really, really brave!" Uninspired, but it got the point across.

Still there was no response. Again, Lily felt murderous urges surge within her. This was by far the worst First Day of Spring she had ever had, and that was taking the incident with the vampire into account.

Well, she couldn't kill anyone if she couldn't find them. Lily skimmed over the tops of the trees, hoping for some sign of those who had completely ruined her favorite day of the year.

…

Unfortunately for Lily White, Cirno's gang was no longer running. After Lily had collided face-first with the tree, they had taken shelter under a fallen log and snickered away while she shouted out her challenge. And once she had finally wandered out of earshot, their muted chuckles erupted and they fell over themselves laughing. Even little Daiyousei couldn't help but join in.

"Oh wow, I can't believe she fell for that!" Wriggle said as she wiped tears from her eyes.

"Me neither!" Mystia agreed. "And when Rumia hit her with the darkness?"

Seeing an opportunity to claim the spotlight, Cirno jumped up and began twirling around in a passable imitation of Lily's movements while blinded. Her friends laughed and cheered their encouragement.

"Oh, I'm blind, I'm blind," she wailed. "Where can I be?"

She then spun around and pretended to collide with a nearby bush.

"Oh no, I am defeated by a giant stick!" Cirno declared as she tumbled onto her back. "May your mothers be cursed with lameness and you fathers with dysentery!"

This performance was rewarded with another round of cheering from the gang. "Bravo, bravo!" Rumia applauded. "Your performance moves me to tears!"

Cirno popped to her feet and bowed low to her audience. "Thank yew, thank yew. I call it 'Stupid Windbag Who Refused to Shut Up and Got What Was ComWAHHH!"

Cirno's acceptance speech was suddenly interrupted by a hard metal object that had flown through the air to smack her in the head. Cirno was knocked over on her face, while the object in question tumbled into the underbrush.

Her gang immediately dove for cover. Flying objects targeted towards their heads was an occupational hazard in their line of work, and one didn't survive long by being a hero.

When it seemed that no more things would be flying with intent on doing them harm, they carefully peeked out from behind the log's shelter. Cirno was still lying unmoving on her face, and the thing that had hit her was likewise just as motionless. They gathered their courage and snuck out to check up on their leader.

"Cirno?" Wriggle said as she prodded the nearly unconscious fairy with a fairy. "Hey Cirno, you all right?

Daiyousei took a more direct route in her inspection. She flipped Cirno over and grabbed her face. "Hey Cirno, are you okay? Say something! Cirno?"

Cirno's head wobbled from side to side as she me mumbled, "Gugghhh, no teacher, I swear the pink umbrella wasn't in the lovely garbage flower I need scissors, sixty-one. Where's the bus!"

Everyone exchanged a look that clearly said "Huh?"

"Sadly, that's the most intelligent thing she's said in awhile," Wriggle muttered.

That got a snicker out of Rumia. "I hope no brain cells were killed. It's not like she can afford the loss."

That was when two pale hands shot out to grab them by their necks, ending their slanderous conversation. Jerking in surprise, they saw a still damaged but irate Cirno rising to her feet.

"I...heard…that…" she snarled as she began to throttle her backbiting subordinates. Daiyousei yelped and tried to pull her away, but her efforts were completely ineffectual. Wriggle and Rumia both began gasping out their apologies as their faces began to change color.

Mystia, it should be noted, was more interested in inspecting the strange flying object than saving her teammates. She pulled it out of the bushes and inspected it in puzzlement. "Huh. I wonder this came from," she muttered as she ran a hand over its surface.

Cirno stopped her murderous rampage long enough to take notice of her comment.

"What?"

The quarrel quickly forgotten, Cirno quickly released her teammates and the four of them joined Mystia in inspecting on object.

The object in question turned out to be a small iron cooking kettle. Its black surface was covered with dried grease, and its interior was coated with something that could not be easily identified.

Wriggle picked it up and inspected its side. "Wow Cirno, your head really dented this thing!"

"Well, whose fault is that?" Cirno muttered. "I didn't _ask_ to be assaulted by a crazy flying pot!"

"Hehe, pothead."

The cold glare this comment received told Wriggle that discretion would probably be the better part of valor in this situation. Mystia paid no attention to their exchange and instead turned her attention to the kettle's interior.

What she found inside made her grimace. "Ugh, good thing you didn't get this stuff on you."

"Why, is it gross?"

"Big time."

Daiyousei peeked in. "Ew, is that _alive?"_ she gagged._ "_When was the last time somebody cleaned this thing?"

"Wow, it looks almost sentient," Rumia agreed.

Cirno looked at her in confusion. "Centa-what?"

"It's a type of cheese," Mystia explained.

Rumia didn't bother to correct her. She picked the kettle up and squinted at its dented side. "Now, I wonder where this could have come from?" she mused.

A slight movement caught her eye. Reflexes honed by years of hanging out with Cirno took over and she dove out of the way. Just in time too, because what appeared to be a bamboo fishing pole whizzed right through the area previously occupied by her head and rebounded off a rock.

Everyone's eyes boggled. "What the hell is going on-"

Then they fell silent. Almost in unison, they turned to see where the objects were coming from. There, sitting by itself in a small clearing, was a one-story house. The building was T-shaped in construction, with the front door at the end of the lower-most bar. Its tiled roof sloped sharply upwards, and one of its arching windows, presumably the source of the thrown objects, was open. From inside, the sound of crashing and yelling could be heard.

Cirno and her friends exchanged a look and crept forward to investigate. As they approached, the shouting voices became more and more coherent.

"Stop throwing my stuff, ze!"

"Do you ever even _use_ any of this junk? No wonder you can't find anything!"

"I could until you started throwing things around and messing everything up!"

"Messing things up? This place is a wreck! It is beyond a wreck! This place makes the dump look like a museum!"

Rumia scratched her head. "Uh, is that…"

"Marisa Kirisame and Alice Margatroid?" Wriggle answered. "I think so. That's Marisa's house at least."

"So…what are they doing?" Cirno asked.

Her question only got shrugs and blank looks in response. Fortunately, there was a rather convenient open window available. The five of them arranged themselves around the opening and warily looked inside.

…

The young witch known as Marisa Kirisame was renowned throughout Gensokyo for her sharp intelligence and strong work ethic. Unfortunately, this was heavily counterbalanced by her infamous rudeness, impulsive nature, a tendency to be "free" with other people's belongings, a lightning quick temper and for being extremely messy. This latter trait was best exemplified by the state of her home. The place was almost a literal landfill of junk. Boxes, books, weapons, toys, clothing and a variety of other items were piled in her typical careless manner throughout the house. Dirty laundry was piled in unruly mounds, mixed in with several old volumes that looked rather valuable. Filthy dishes filled the mold-coated washtub and lay stacked along its sides. And to top it off, everything was coated with dust and spider webs.

The girl herself had gone into a frenzy. Her arms were loaded with even _more_ random items and she was frantically running to and fro trying to catch others as they flew through the air. The reason for her stuff's sudden interest in aerial acrobatics was her "guest," though that term would be applied loosely. Alice Margatroid was the closest thing Marisa had to a neighbor, in that she was the only person whose home was within walking distance. As such, the two could be technically considered friends, though given how often they were seen to be sniping at each there was much confusion as to whether they were close companions, bitter enemies, or passionately in love. Really, the rumors went all over the place.

At the moment, Alice was busy digging through one of Marisa' many junk piles, tossing item after item over her shoulder in her search. Over Alice's shoulder floated what appeared to be a blonde-haired doll in a black dress. Like the girls themselves, Alice's doll Shanghai was the source for many rumors, and no one could agree upon whether the anthropomorphic toy actually possessed a will of its own or was just controlled remotely by her master.

"I swear to everybody," Alice muttered as she dug her way deeper into the refuse, "this is the last time I let you borrow my-What on Earth is this?"

She held up a strange black plastic box. Buttons and odd holes dotted one side, and a square-shaped bit rising out of the top. Painted onto the square bit was some kind of smirking blue-and-yellow creature.

"Huh?" Marisa dropped her armful of rescued items and wandered over to look. "Oh, that. Dunno, got it from Rinnosuke's shop. I think he said it was some kind of game."

Alice tugged experimentally on the square part. To her surprise, it popped right out, revealing itself to be a cartridge of some kind. She looked at Marisa in confusion, who just shrugged.

"Lame," Alice said as she tossed them both her shoulder.

…

Outside, five sets of eyes watched the two with intense interest.

"Wow, where'd she get all that stuff?" Mystia wondered.

"Knowing her?" Wriggle said. "Probably stole it."

"That I can confirm," Rumia added.

"Huh?"

"Remember that summer I had to…" Rumia coughed, "…'intern' at the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library?"

"Intern?" Mystia said. "They conscripted you because you broke Patchouli's-"

"Anyhow! They never actually let me work with the books, so most of my job was trying to keep Miss Marisa out. She'd show up at least once a week, trying to snatch some of Miss Patchouli's rare books. Plus I hear she likes to shoplift from Mister Rinnosuke's shop, Miss Eirin's clinic, been caught over at Miss Yuuka's mansion a couple of times. The lady's a total klepto!"

Cirno rubbed her jaw as she thought. The wheels in her head were turning, which rarely meant anything good.

"Huh, so that means there's probably some pretty cool stuff in there…" she mused.

They turned their attention back to the scene unfolding inside.

…

At the moment, Alice had just extracted a large book with the keyhole on its cover from under a pile of dirty bloomers.

"Ah, here it is!"

"See, I told you I didn't lose it," Marisa said with a smug smile.

Alice frowned. "You have a very loose definition of the word 'lose'."

"Hey, you found your damned book, all right? Quit your bitchin'."

The doll-master stood to her feet and brushed off her dress. "Sure, found it under your filthy laundry and…" Something glittered in the same pile of laundry that her grimoire had been in, catching her eye. "What's this?"

She pulled away the various scraps of linen and felt to reveal an odd looking chest. It was about half the size of a sailor's chest and made completely out of pale lavender quartz. The lid was cut in a crystalline shape, with four sharp edges slanting inward to support a flat rectangular top. The top itself was cut into a sort of grid shape, with each square containing a letter or number painted in deep scarlet. The chest itself was locked tight, with no keyhole or other visible means of opening.

Marisa came over to peek over her shoulder. "Huh, I completely forgot about that, ze."

Alice prodded the box with her foot. "What's in it?"

"Dunno. Found it as the SDM. I think it's Patchy's."

"You stole this too?" Alice said with a scowl. "How haven't you been arrested?"

The blonde witch turned up her perpetual smirk. "Maybe because I'm just that good!"

…

Alice wasn't the only one interested in the odd chest. Now that there was treasure to be acquired and mischief to be had, excitement was mounting at an alarming rate.

"Now _that_ looks interesting!" Cirno said as she rubbed her hands together. Her eyes began to glitter.

"I've seen boxes like that!" Rumia said. "They're where Miss Patchouli kept all her really valuable stuff, the stuff they wouldn't let me touch!"

Cirno nodded. "It's probably full of jewels and gold! And…other cool stuff!"

"From Patchouli Knowledge?" Mystia said. "It's probably just all her cough medication."

"Maybe it's a really rare book," Daiyousei suggested. "Like a first edition!"

"Or maybe it's porn!" Wriggle cut in.

In the minds of her teammates, that last suggestion trumped all others. "Ooooohhhhh…" they all said in unison.

"That's it, now we have to grab it!" Cirno announced.

"But how do we get in without being noticed?" Mystia wanted to know.

Rumia tapped her lower lip while she thought. "Well, first of all, we need a distraction."

"Hmmm…"

The team of youngsters floated to the ground and leaned against the wall as they pondered the problem before them. Heads were scratched, positions were shifted, and suggestions were cut off before being vocalized. Then, one by one, each head began to turn to stare directly at a single member of the gang. For her part, she was too deep in thought to notice right away. But no one can be stared at for any length of time without sensing it sooner or later. In time, she looked up and did not like what she saw.

"Erm, w-why is everybody staring at me?" Daiyousei asked nervously.

…

Back inside the house, the two magicians were still discussing the box and Marisa's unorthodox and possibly unethical means of acquiring it.

"I swear karma's got such a hard-on for you," Alice muttered. "So…how do you open it? I don't see a keyhole or anything…"

"Ah, its password locked," Marisa said, carelessly waving off the mention of something so mundane as a keyhole. "She does this with all her stuff. Just type in the right phrase on the crystals and pop goes the lid, ze!"

"Great," Alice groaned. "How are we supposed to figure that out?"

"Are you kidding?" Marisa laughed. "She uses the same password for everything. You'd think she'd learn after the fourth or fifth-"

A sudden knock at the door interrupted them. Marisa and Alice exchanged a confused look.

"The hell?" Marisa muttered as she made her way towards the door. "You'd think living in the godsdamned Forest of Magic would keep people away, ze."

She grabbed the door handle and pulled the door open. To her surprise, there was nobody there. She squinted in confusion and looked up, to the left, to the right, and finally down. It was then that she noticed a very nervous looking Daiyousei standing on her porch, looking down at the ground.

"Huh?" Marisa said. "Oh, it's Whatshernamesei, Cirno's friend. What do you want?"

The small ice fairy blushed furiously. She started fidgeting by pressing the tips of her index fingers together over and over as she tried to think of what to say.

"Um…um…um…"

Marisa's already thin patience was evaporating quickly. "Um? Um? Um?" she repeated, making a rolling "Let's move this along" gesture with her hand.

…

Unbeknownst to Marisa and Alice but beknownst to Daiyousei, the rest of the gang slipped in through the window and swooped down towards the crystal chest. Cirno, catching Daiyousei's eye, gave her friend an encouraging wink.

Daiyousei steeled herself and blurted out, "Um…I heard noises!"

Alice scratched her head. "You heard…"

"Noises?" Marisa finished for her.

"Yes!"

Inside, each of Daiyousei's friends gathered to a corner of the chest and, working together, lifted it off the ground. Cirno looked over her shoulder to see a floating Shanghai staring at her. The ice fairy grinned conspiratorially and pressed her finger to her lips. Shanghai mimicked the gesture and watched as the four young pranksters slowly moved the chest towards the window.

Unfortunately, Marisa had begun to pull the door shut.

"Yeah, I would talk to your shrink about that…"

Daiyousei started to panic. Her friends were in the process of trying to fit the chest through the window and would surely be seen. "I mean here!" she shouted. "I heard…crashing and yelling! And I…wanted to see…if everything was okay…"

Marisa blinked. "Huh? Is that it?" She rolled her eyes and allowed herself a luxurious sigh. "Kid, it was nothing, okay? Alice here was just looking for her damned book and making a mess."

Her companion glared daggers at her. "_Making_ a mess?"

"So thanks for the concern," Marisa finished, "but there's nothing to see. Now scram.

"Um…Um…"

Finally her friends turned the chest sideways and got it through. Cirno shot her a thumbs-up and they disappeared into the forest.

Finally. It was time to wrap things up.

"I'm very sorry for intruding!"

Daiyousei bowed low and shot off as fast as her wings would carry her. Startled by her sudden departure, Marisa and Alice stared as she flew over the house and disappeared.

…

"Well, huh," Marisa muttered.

"That was weird," Alice agreed.

Marisa nodded. "Makes me kinda suspicious, you know?"

"How so?"

Marisa turned back into the house, closing the door behind her.

"She's part of Cirno's little gang of idiots," she explained. "Anything that has one of them acting weirder than normal usually means that they're…"

Her eyes fell upon the pile of linen Alice had been digging through.

"…up to…"

The pile of linen that was now conspicuously bereft of a certain lavender quartz box.

Marisa grabbed her head as she screamed, "WHAT? Where's the box, ze?"

Behind her, Alice crossed her arms and smirked. "And that would be the karma I was talking about earlier."

Marisa began to freak out. Her house turned into a virtual whirlwind of motion as she desperately tried to find the chest. Items flew every which way as their master, so previously disproving of Alice's own method of searching, began to toss them aside without heed of where they may fall.

"What…where…it's gotta…" Marisa stopped her search to pump her fists at the roof. "Cirno! It had to be Cirno!"

"You're sure of that?" Alice said.

"Of course I'm sure! Who else would use that little green-haired punk? Ohhh, I just got fooled by Cirno! That little twerp and her stupid friends stole my box!"

"You mean the same box you stole from Patchouli?"

"Shut up! And you!"

Marisa whirled around to jab a finger at the still-hovering Shanghai.

"You backstabbing piece of firewood! Why didn't you try to warn me?" she demanded.

In answer, the doll lifted her finger to her lips and made a shushing sound. Marisa stared at her in disbelief, and then her face began to grow a deep shade of red, edging on purple. Veins throbbed in her forehead and her fists were clenched so tightly that her knuckles conducted a symphony of pops.

For a moment nothing happened. Then a thunderous _boom_ shook the house and rippled outwards to the surrounding forest. The door to Marisa's house slammed open, and she tore out into the air. She was balancing on her broom, with one hand grasping the tip of the handle and the other clenched tightly around a wooden octagon-shaped amulet, which was now beginning to glow a blinding white. Her purple face was twisted into a grimace of rage. Anyone who knew anything about Marisa knew that when she looked like that, everyone in a thirty-mile radius should probably evacuate.

Behind her, Alice wandered out of the house to watch her go.

"Hmmm, should I follow her or should I let her handle it?" she wondered out loud. She turned to her ever-present miniature companion. "What do you think Shanghai?"

Shanghai repeated the shushing gesture.

Alice shrugged. "Good point. None of my business." She took to the air and flew off in the opposite direction. "I wonder what Medicine's doing today?"

…

Successful capers were hard to come by these days. When the overwhelming majority of people worth playing tricks on were either A) smarter than you and B) capable of turning you into a greasy little smear, it meant that the pranksters of Gensokyo often had to be content with targeting the small fry, such as Lily White. Therefore, having successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of the Mad With herself and gotten away to brag about it was cause for celebration.

And celebration was certainly in the air. Cirno's gang jabbered and laughed as they rushed away through the forest, carrying the crystal chest with. Cirno herself was in the lead, with Wriggle and Mystia handling the chest behind her. Daiyousei and Rumia floated in the rear, though Daiyousei looked like she was having trouble holding in her breakfast.

"Woohoo!" Cirno shouted. She pumped her fist in the air. "Mission accomplished!"

"That went even better than I thought it would!" Wriggle added.

"Victory, victory, we have victory!" Mystia sang. Then, in her normal voice, she added, "And nice work Dai! Best distraction ever!

"R-really?"

Rumia flew up to the nervous ice fairy and put on arm around her shoulder.

"Sure!" she said encouragingly. "You did a great job!"

Daiyousei managed a weak smile. "T-th-thanks!"

Cirno grinned. "No doubt about it!" She spun in the air and struck a victory pose. "Another win for Team Ni-"

"MASTER FREAKING SPARK!"

A blazing pillar of white light tore through the gang's flight formation. Caught totally off guard, Cirno and her friends were knocked in every which direction by the force of the blast. The chest itself was knocked free from their grasp and was sent sliding down a dew-slick hillside to crash into a mulberry bush.

Unfortunately there was no time to go after it, nor was anyone even considering it. The arrival of a furious Marisa who's out for your blood will do that to almost anyone. As soon as Cirno managed to pull herself off the ground, every bit of her attention was sucked up by the fearsome sight of the fast approaching witch.

A thousand things went through Cirno's head, none of them fully capable of conveying how the situation made her feel. Her mind went numb, and the only thing she was able to say was, "Oh wow, she looks pissed."

Wriggle was suddenly at her side. "You think?" the firefly screamed. "Scatter!"

A moment later everyone was in the air and fleeing for their lives as the ground beneath them simply ceased to exist. Had they the time to reflect, they would have probably experienced an odd sense of déjà vu, as the situation almost completely mirrored the chase with Lily White. Except this time, there was no laughing. There were no taunts. There were only screams and pleas for mercy.

"WAH! Watch out! You almost hit me!"

"Dammit, that was too close!"

"Oh jeez, oh jeez, not good, not good, not good!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Ahhh! Please don't kill me!"

"Whoa!" Cirno banked hard to avoid being pasted. The blast intended for her demolished a bed of poppies instead. She growled and whirled to face Marisa. "Okay, that's it! Let's end this!"

For all her faults, Cirno was certainly no coward. She intended to challenge Marisa directly, an action tantamount to suicide in many circles. But this was a matter of reputation and pride. Marisa had assaulted her gang, now she had to pay the price.

Cirno placed herself directly in Marisa's path, her fist raised in defiance. "I'll show you who's the stro-

She never got the chance. A beam of pure white hit her directly in the face and she was propelled backwards through two groves of trees, a patch of overgrown yellow-spotted mushrooms, and a very surprised hive of bees before coming to rest at the roots of an old cedar that was made of sterner stuff than its neighbors.

"Cirno!" Daiyousei cried before having to dive to avoid being shot herself.

"And now for the rest of you!" Marisa shouted.

She flew into the air above the treetops. Her eyes began glowing with gathered energy. Circles of power began forming around her, each one containing an eight-point star. She raised her arms in the air, her fists crackling with lightning.

"NON-DIRECTIONAL LA-"

"Duhduh-duh-duhduh!"

"Huh?"

Surprised, Marisa broke off from charging her spell to see a white bundle of fury coming directly at her.

"Spring power!"

Lily White fired one of her trademark barrages at Marisa. The witch was so taken back that she didn't even think to dodge until she had already been struck. The force of the blast cancelled her spell and knocked her right off the broom.

Above, Lily began ranting. "First that gang of rude jerks and now you? Why can't you people just enjoy spring like you're supposed to?"

Marisa managed to grab the handle of her broom just in time. Holding her hat in one hand, she tried to pull herself back up.

"What? What the hell are you talking about, you stupid flying klaxon alarm?" she shouted back. "I'm trying to…"

It was then that she noticed that Lily's blast had ripped a sizeable tear in her hat's brim.

"…you ripped my hat."

Thunder shook the treetops and Lily was sent flying.

Marisa was now on her broom and furious beyond all reason. Play her for a fool, steal her box, shoot her in the face, all these she could forgive. But never, _ever_ touch her hat!

"YOU RIPPED MY HAT!"

Her rage still burned as brightly as before, but now it was focused on Lily. For her part, Lily did not back down from the challenge, and the two were soon doing everything in their power to eliminate the other. Cirno's friends took advantage of the distraction and hid as the sounds of destruction moved further and further away.

…

For the longest time nobody dared to move. Then, one by one, their heads popped out of their hiding places.

"…Are they gone?" Mystia whispered. True to form, she had taken shelter in the branches of a gnarled old oak.

"I think so," Rumia said. She was in the shadows of a large boulder. Nearby, Wriggle was creeping out of a patch of tall grass.

Mystia sighed in relief. She dropped down to the ground. "That was way too close." This statement was met with agreement.

That was when they heard Daiyousei cry "Cirno!" Wriggle, Mystia and Rumia looked at each other and went to go investigate.

They found Daiyousei over by Cirno's prone body. The blue-haired ice fairy had taken quite a beating. Her clothes were burnt, her skin was now a shade darker, her wings were lined with cracks that were just beginning to heal, and her entire body was covered with a fine layer of ash, dirt and bits of honeycomb. Still, she was alive and awake, though the way her eyes refused to focus was worrisome.

Wriggle whistled between her teeth. "Whoa, she got messed up pretty bad."

Rumia waved a hand in front of Cirno's face. There was no response.

"How's she doing, Dai?" she asked.

Daiyousei shuddered. "I d-don't know. She's p-p-pretty out of it."

Cirno's body suddenly began shaking. "…like a diamond shining in the sky…" she mumbled. Or perhaps wheezed would be more accurate. Her voice sounded like it had been strained through a rusty smokestack.

"Cirno!" Daiyousei cried. She grabbed her leader and began shaking her back and forth. "Snap out of it!"

"Wahwahwahwah!" Cirno wailed as her brain rattled in her skull.

"Dai! That's enough!" Mystia grabbed Daiyousei and forced her to release Cirno. Cirno, for her part, just pitched forward and landed on her face.

There was a groan, and then she muttered, "Why do people keep hitting me in the face?"

Everyone sighed with relief. "Just one of those days," Rumia said.

They all helped her up. Cirno was still a little shaky, but for the most part she looked all right. Annoyed and a bit dazed, but all right.

"Damn it, that hurt!" she complained. "Why'd she do that for?"

"I don't know, maybe because we robbed her," Wriggle said sarcastically.

"Yeah, but she didn't have to take it so freaking _personal!_ I don't go around barbequing everyone who-" Her voice cut off as something horrible occurred to her. She looked around wildly. "Wait, where's the box?" she cried.

"Seriously?" Rumia asked. "After all that?"

Cirno stamped her foot and winced as pain shot up her ankle. "Yes, seriously! I did not just take a Master Spark to the face for nothing!"

The others conceded the point.

"Um, I think we dropped it back there," Mystia said, pointing.

"Fine! Let's go…whoa," Cirno said as she tried to fly, only to begin wobbling immediately.

Her friends tried to convince to slow down a bit, to wait until her wings were fully healed. But now that her mind was latched onto an idea, Cirno would have none of it. Finally, a compromise was struck. Rumia took one arm, Daiyousei the other, and together they helped her through the air.

The chase had taken them a long way from where they had lost the chest, but fortunately the trail was easy to follow. Marisa's rampage had left a clear path of destruction almost a mile wide. They followed the line of craters and smashed trees until they found the hill where they had first been attacked. To their immense relief, Marisa was still occupied with Lily and hadn't returned for her prize. The box lay on its side in the mulberry bush it had landed in, glittering in the mid-morning sun.

Cirno's gang immediately flew down to the bottom of the hill. They set Cirno down carefully at the edge of the bush.

"Whew, it's still here," Rumia breathed. She didn't dare to think of what Cirno's reaction would have been had it been gone.

Mystia agreed. "And it didn't even crack!"

Cirno grinned from ear to ear. This day was starting to look a little brighter. "That settles it!" she declared. "Whatever's inside must be super important!"

"Only one way to find out," Rumia said. As usual, Cirno's enthusiasm was infectious. "C'mon!"

She and Mystia pulled the chest loose and brought it over to the group. They all gathered around their prize and began oohing and ahhing over its shiny surface.

Then Daiyousei said, "So…does anyone know how to open it?"

"Sure, Miss Patchouli had a bunch of things like this," Rumia said. She pointed to the lid. "Just type in the right code on the keyboard and it'll open right up."

"Type on the what?"

"The pretty purple squares," Rumia explained. "Fortunately, Miss Patchouli uses the same code for everything. Now let's see…"

Her hands moved over the keys, typing in an odd sequence of letters and numbers. Everyone held their breath, fearing some sort of security countermeasure to activate should Rumia misremember the password. Instead, there was a click and the lid popped up a tiny bit.

"Yay, it worked!" Cirno whooped "Rumia, I love you!"

Wriggle scratched her head. "2BRNT2B? What the hell does that mean?"

"No clue," Rumia said happily. "Now let's see what sort of treasure she has stashed…"

She pushed the lid open. Everyone edged in closer to look.

"…inside?"

"Ew, what is that?" Mystia asked, sticking out her tongue.

Wriggle just blinked. "Well, that's bizarre."

"What?" Cirno said. "All that for a giant booger?"

That was certainly what it looked like. The entire interior of the chest was taken up by what at first appeared to be a glistening bubble, but the way it moved showed it to be some sort of thick blob. Its body was composed of a completely clear jelly-like substance, and the slightest movement caused shivers to ripple over its mass.

Cirno and her gang couldn't decide whether or not they were disappointed. Certainly this thing was interesting, but it didn't appear to be worth invoking the wrath of Marisa. At any rate, their opinions of Patchouli Knowledge's personal habits were taking a sharp decline.

Then Daiyousei pointed and called out, "L-look!"

"Huh?"

The blob thing, whatever it was, had started to move. Its surface shivered, and a long tendril extruded from the main body.

"Ah!" everyone cried as they leapt away.

"It's alive!" Mystia screamed as she backed away.

"Oh wow, that is so wrong," Wriggle agreed.

"Wh-what is t-t-t-that?" Daiyousei stuttered.

Unfortunately, the appendage had apparently sensed them. It shot out on the direction of their voices. Startled, they all dove out of the way, but Rumia's foot caught on a stone and she fell. She turned to see the appendage hovering only a few inches from her face. Her eyes went wide and her body began trembling.

The others had no idea what to do. They certainly weren't going to leave Rumia on her own, but none of them wanted to chance shooting the thing. For all they knew they would just make it angry.

"This is not good," Wriggle muttered. "So what now, boss?"

Cirno stared at the tentacle-like appendage and shook her head. She was out of ideas.

Suddenly Daiyousei called out, "Watch out Rumia!"

The tentacle now seemed to be inspecting Rumia's body. It hovered a mere inch from her skin as it ran up and down her torso. Although it didn't seem possible, it appeared to be sniffing her. Rumia set her teeth and closed her eyes tightly.

Then it poked her.

Rumia's eyes shot open. "Wha-?"

The tentacle began to tickle her. It dug into her side and dug in. She squirmed and tried to push it away, but it just dug in deeper.

"Huh, wha…hey, stop!" Rumia said. She started laughing. "Come on, knock it off!"

That only seemed to encourage it. Soon she was on the ground, laughing hysterically while trying to get away. The others could only stand and stare at what had to be the weirdest thing they had seen in their weird lives.

"So…" Mystia began, "it's friendly?"

Cirno shrugged. "It looks like it…"

"Wonderful," Wriggle said. She folded her arms. "Just what I always wanted, a pet booger."

Daiyousei shushed her. "Careful! You don't want to make it angry."

For its part, the tentacle didn't even notice them. It definitely seemed to have taken a liking to Rumia though. Finally, it stopped tickling her and began staring at her again.

This time, Rumia smiled back. "Hey, you're a nice little pile of weirdness, aren't you?" She rubbed the body beneath the tip, giving it a friendly squeeze. "You are, aren't you? Yes you are."

The tentacle's surface shook slightly. To everyone watching, it almost looked like it was giggling.

Then the tip began changing. It expanded and reshaped itself. Soon Rumia found herself staring at what appeared to be the smiling face of a young girl with short hair. It winked at her.

She blinked in confusion. "Hey, what…"

The face collapsed back into a normal tip again. Then it slithered down to envelop her hand in its viscous substance.

"Hey, what's this all about?" Rumia asked. She wasn't sure if she liked what her new friend was doing.

Suddenly it lunged forward, dragging the rest of its body out of the chest. Before she knew it, Rumia's arm was completely covered.

"Hey, what is this?" she shouted. She tried to claw it off with her other hand, but it wouldn't budge. "Get off, get off!"

The rest of the team was at her side in seconds. Wriggle and Mystia tried clawing the thing off her arm while Cirno beat it with a stick.

"Let! Go! Of! My! Friend!" she shouted. "Let! Go! Of! My! Friend! Let! Go! Of! My! Friend!"

Unfortunately there was no such luck. Instead of disengaging, the tentacle only began slither over more of her body. Soon Rumia's entire chest was covered.

"Get it off me, get it off me!" she cried as she tried to get away.

"We're trying!" Wriggle said. "This stuff is tougher than it looks!"

"All right, I've had ENOUGH!" Cirno shouted.

At that last word, her hands suddenly blazed with white light and a blast of freezing mist shot out from her. When the mist cleared, the entire lump of goo was frozen solid.

Cirno grinned and put her hands on her hips. "There!" she declared triumphantly.

Rumia tried to move. Unfortunately, she was just as immobilized as the blob was. "Um, that didn't help much…" she began.

That's when cracks starting forming in the ice. Little ones at first, but they spider-webbed outwards, joining one another until the surface of the ice looked like some kind of crazy patchwork. Then the ice broke apart into small pieces that were slowly sucked into the goo's body to disappear completely.

Everyone was in shock. "It _ate_ the ice? Mystia said.

"Kill it, kill it!" Cirno shouted.

They certainly tried. Bullets of every kind shot from their hands to impact against the blob's body. But instead of exploding, they just stuck there until the thing looked like a giant, writhing pincushion. Then, just as the fragments of ice had been, they too were absorbed.

"It's not working!" Daiyousei cried as she fired off another shot.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Wriggle shouted back.

By now, Rumia was almost completely covered, leaving only her head. She cried and gasped and tried to escape, but nothing she did had any effect. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and her cries for help were now little more than whimpers.

"Please don't let it eat me," she sobbed pitifully. "Oh gods, please don't let it eat me."

"Hold on Rumia, we got you!" Wriggle shouted. She turned to the ice fairy hovering over her shoulder. "Dai!"

"Huh?"

"Make yourself useful and go get help!"

"B-but where-"

"Anywhere!" Then a thought occurred to her. "Reimu, get Reimu! Go!"

Daiyousei nodded and shot off as fast as her wings could carry her.

Meanwhile the others continued to try to release Rumia from the blob's hold, but it was now obvious that it was hopeless. Only her face was uncovered, and that was rapidly being sucked in as well. "No…please no, please no…" she whined, and then had to shut her mouth as the goo oozed over her last bit of free flesh.

Rumia was now completely inside the thing. Cirno, Wriggle and Mystia stared and she kicked and struggled to break free.

"Rumia!" Mystia cried. She slashed as the blob with her talons. It caved in to her assault, and then bounced back out, knocking her back a step.

Cirno began pounding on the blob's surface. "Let go of her already, you giant pile of…huh?"

That was when Rumia began to dissolve. It started with her clothing, which blurred and distorted. At first they thought it was due to being refracted through the blob's substance, but then they started to tear apart and disappear. Just as quickly the tips of her digits and hair began to fade away like smoke. The process sped up as her skin melted away, revealing the muscles and ligaments beneath. These too evaporated into nothingness.

"WHAT?" Wriggle shrieked as she leapt away. "What is _this?"_

Mystia's body began trembling, but she couldn't tear her eyes away. "Oh my gods," she whispered as Rumia's digestive system came into full view. "Tell me this isn't…"

Cirno didn't say anything. She just turned and vomited out everything she had eaten in the last ten hours. Then she looked again and retched out everything from five hours before that.

Rumia was now nothing more than a small lump of meat and bone. It turned and swirled in the blob's body like a boiling egg, fizz surrounding it like so much steam. It shrunk until it was about the size of a small coin, then a postage stamp. And then, with one final sizzle, nothing.

"She's gone…" Mystia whispered. She had gone completely pale.

They stared at the blob in shock. Never had it occurred to them that they would lose one of their number. Being young, foolish and immortal, they had thought that their days of mischief making would continue for eternity. Even when their plans blew up in their faces, there was no question that they would always bounce back in time for the next caper.

But now Rumia was gone. It didn't make any sense.

As for the blob, it sat in a glistening lump. If it had any idea of what it had done, it gave no indication. Well, that it, until the surface began shivering again. Than three more tendrils shot out of its body and snapped at Rumia's friends.

"Ack!" Wriggle yelled as they dove out of the way. "It's after us now!"

Mystia snapped out her stupor. She screamed, a piercing sound with perfect pitch that could have shattered glass. With that she took to the air, flying blindly in her desperation to get away.

"I won't be eaten, I won't be eaten, I won't be eaten…" she chanted over and over again.

"Wait!" Cirno shouted after her. "What about Rumia?"

The goo lunged for her again. Fortunately, Wriggle pulled her out of the way just in time.

"C'mon, she's right!" Wriggle said, pulling on Cirno's arm. "We gotta get out of here!"

"But I can't leave Rumia!"

"You won't help her by getting eaten too!" Wriggle responded. She pointed at Mystia, who was now a distant spot in the sky. "We need to go and get help, understand? This isn't something you can do on your own!"

Cirno's eyes filled with tears, but she stiffened her lip and nodded once.

"Right. Let's go," she said. Anymore and her voice would have cracked.

Wriggle nodded in return and her into the air. They flew forward, heading for Hakurei and trying not to look back. But nothing would stop the glittering tears that dripped from Cirno's face to crystallize into snowflakes as they fell.

…

The blob was now left to itself, though it didn't know it yet. It sat where it was while its many tendrils roamed the surrounding area, searching for any indication of its prey. Two of them brushed against the now-empty box that had been its prison, only to retract quickly as if they had been burned.

Once it was satisfied that it was alone, the tendrils all returned to the main body. Than it began to shiver again. This time, however, the shivering didn't stop. It increased in intensity, until the whole thing was shaking violently like a lump of jello in an earthquake.

And then it began to change. Most of its mass was sucked into itself and was sent out again in four limp tendrils. Another lump bubbled up at one end, while the body below it writhed and thinned itself out. Digits extended from all four of the tendrils, which were now smoothing themselves out into humanlike limbs. The lump began to take shape, forming a nose, cheeks, lips and other facial features. A mass of tendrils erupted out of its end and smoothed themselves out into something resembling hair.

Meanwhile, a darkness began forming at the thing's core. As it continued to reform itself, the darkness swam through the body, gobbling up the clearness of the substance.

And the transformation was complete. Where a lump of transparent goo had been, a body that superficially resembled Rumia now lay. It had the same features, the same body-type, and the same dress. However, the entirety of its body was pitch black. Its fingers ended in tearing talons. Wisps of darkness danced liked smoke danced over the surface of its body. And the ribbon Rumia always wore in her hair was gone.

One gnarled hand twitched, and the wisps of darkness shot out and twisted into the shape of a wickedly curved sword.

Then, clutching its new weapon, the thing that wore Rumia's shape lurched to its feet. It turned its head to the sky and opened its eyes.

Two blazing spheres of fire stared at the world around it.

Then it rose into the air and headed away from the Forest of Magic, its sword held limply in one hand. Grass and flowers wilted beneath its shadow, but it paid them no heed. Now that it was free, it had business elsewhere. Hopefully those it intended to see would be just as glad to see it as it was going to be to see them.

…

_You know, I've always wondered why Daiyousei so often gets left out of fan depictions of Team Nineball, despite being the same species as Cirno and appearing on the __**same freaking level!**__ Meh, it's probably her lack of dialogue._

_Anyway, I'm trying to stick as close as I can to the generally agreed upon personalities of the characters, but there's going to be minor changes here and there. For example, I'm going with timid Daiyousei rather than mischievous Daiyousei, just because Cirno needs the foil. Also, Lily's usually much less aggressive and really isn't likely to give chase. It was just funnier this way._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	2. Unwilling Rescuers

Unwilling Rescuers

_Deep Within_

_Is this what dying feels like?_

…_falling…falling through darkness. Eyes opened or closed, it's all the same. I guess I should be happy. I _like_ darkness. Darkness is my element, my comfort. But it's never felt so cold, so empty._

_What happened to me? Did I just get eaten? Did that blob just swallow me whole? It sure felt like it. Like my body was tearing itself apart from the outside in. I should have asked Mystia what it was like for her when she got eaten. She came back. Does that mean I'll come back too? But how?_

_This _must_ be what dying feels like. Endlessly falling through darkness. I may like darkness, but I don't want to be stuck in it by myself. I don't want to be alone forever!_

_Falling through…wait. Something's not right. There's something out there. There's something…no, _someone_ nearby._

_I am not alone._

Rumia opened her eyes.

…

It was a slow morning at Hakurei shrine. This is to say, it was exactly like every other day. Despite its importance to Gensokyo as a whole, the shrine didn't see much in the way of visitors. One would think that guarding the actual gate between Gensokyo and the Outside World would inspire more in the way of reverence, but for the most part people went out of their way to avoid it entirely. Or was the close proximity to the Outside World the reason for the lack of visitors? Either way, it meant that the shrine's single shrine maiden, Reimu Hakurei, had a lot of downtime on her hands.

At the moment, she was killing time with three of the shrine's only regular visitors. Unfortunately, they weren't the donating types. This was to be expected, as a youkai, a ghost and an oni couldn't be counted on to be particularly reverent. Still, if they were always going to be hanging around bugging her, couldn't they drop the odd tip in her donation box every now and then? Well, at least the oni helped her around the shrine every once in awhile, and the ghost was practically one of the shrine's patron deities by now, so the shrine couldn't expect anything coming from her. No excuses for the youkai though, and she remained forever oblivious to Reimu's constant hints that she really should be supporting her favorite hangout more.

Still, she had grown more-or-less accustomed to having them around. The four of them were lounging around the storehouse's porch. The oni had produced a pack of cards from…somewhere, and they were now glaring at one another while clutching their hands tightly.

It was the youkai's turn, though she was taking her time. Sometimes she would choose a card, seize it between her thumb and index finger, only to reject it and go back to frowning at her hand.

Reimu's hands drummed out an impatient rhythm on the porch's wooden railing. "Yukari, you've been taking three times longer than the rest of us. Just pick a damned card already!"

"Shush you," Yukari responded. "Some things are not to be ruuuuaahhhh…" That final word dissolved into a cavernous yawn.

The ghost, a girl with green hair and a blue outfit, was reclining on the porch's steps. "Long night Yukari? Or should I say, long winter?"

"You can shut up too," Yukari grumbled. "And I would still be asleep if it weren't for that damned spring fairy. Woke me up with her idiotic announcements, and then something set her off and she went crazier than usual and wouldn't stop yelling. Drove me nuts. Mima, you got any threes?"

"Go fish," the ghost said.

Yukari selected one of the cards sitting in the pile between them, looked at it and smiled. She put down a pair of threes.

"Lucky bitch," Mima grumbled.

Yukari smiled sweetly at her. Then, to Reimu, she said "Okay, your turn."

Reimu nodded and looked at her hand. It wasn't very encouraging. Seven cards, none of them related. Plus, she had the least amount of pairs at the moment. "I heard someone was trying to shoot her down," she said as she started playing mental eenie-meenie-miny-moe. "That's what upset her."

"Remilia again?" Yukari asked.

"I don't think so. It was by the Forest of Magic, a good ways from the SDM. Suika, got any fives?"

The short oni was staring intently at her cards. Almost too intently. Of course, given the amount of alcohol in her system, she was probably having trouble making out the numbers. Then again, her pile of pairs was the largest. Reimu wasn't exactly sure how.

"Uhhh…" Suika said in a slow tone, slurring slightly. She shook her horned head. "Uh-uh."

Reimu picked up a card, grimaced when she saw that it was useless, and nodded to Suika to take her turn.

While they waited for the oni to make up her mind, Mima said, "It was probably Marisa then. Good for her. About time someone shot that flying ball of nonsense down. Suika, are you going to go or are you trying to burn a hole through those cards with your eyes?"

"I'm _thinking_!" Suika snapped. "Okay Yukari. You got any…_sevens?"_

Yukari blinked. Then she scowled and flipped a card over to her. Suika snatched it out of the air and started cackling.

"Okay, seriously," Yukari said. "You have got to be cheating. No way is anyone that lucky.

Suika stuck out her tongue. "I'm not _cheating_!" she announced. "I'm just _that_ good!"

"This is embarrassing," Mima grumbled. "Reimu, you got any ni-"

"REIMU!"

"Huh?

Everyone's head snapped in the direction of the interrupting call. Reimu's eyes widened when she saw the green-and-blue blur approaching faster than anything had a right to. Before she could react, it slammed right into her chest and they both were sent careening into the storehouse. From there, everything was a rolling confusion of cardboard, cloth and wicker until they landed in a messy heap against the far wall.

Back outside, her companions watched with detached interest, as if seeing Reimu being tackled by surprise fairies out of nowhere were a daily thing. "Well, now she's got one," Yukari muttered to Mima.

Inside, Reimu groaned and tried to put herself back together. She pushed a basket off her head, a basket that had, not five seconds ago, been filled with apples. Said apples were now scattered all over the floor. And the culprit was now sitting on her chest and staring at her with panicked eyes.

"Reimu, you gotta help her!" Daiyousei shouted at the shrine maiden. "We got the box away from Marisa, and Marisa started chasing us! Only, she didn't get us, because Lily stopped her. Except, Lily probably thought she was us, so never mind! And then Rumia opened it up! The box I mean! She didn't know it was bad, she thought it was porn! But it wasn't porn, it was a giant booger! And Rumia thought it was a nice booger, because it started tickling her! But then it turned into a face and-"

"Kid," Reimu said, nice and slow. "You have exactly three seconds to get off me before I turn your wings into wind chimes."

Daiyousei stiffened. "Yipe!" she yelped as she bolted out the door and hid behind one of the porch's columns.

Grumbling to herself, Reimu pulled herself to her feet and surveyed the damage. Well, it could be worse. Just a bunch of boxes and baskets knocked over. She could deal with it later. But for now, there was a certain aerial torpedo she needed to deal with.

"All right Daibooya or whatever your name is," she said as she exited the storehouse. "What the hell was that all about? And it better be damned good."

The small fairy cowered. "Um…well…"

"REIMU!"

Reimu looked up to see a tan blur fast approaching. She had just enough time to say "Oh crap" before she was once again knocked back into the storehouse.

Yukari snickered. "Now she has two!" she said to Mima. "It's your lucky day!"

In the storehouse, Reimu once again found herself sprawled among fallen containers with one of Cirno's annoying friends sitting on her chest.

"It _ate _her!" Mystia shouted at Reimu's face. "It ate her, Reimu! And it tried to eat us too-"

"GET OFF OF ME OR I'M GETTING OUT THE BARBEQUE!"

"Ack!"

Mystia fled the storehouse to hide behind Daiyousei. Reimu pulled herself to her feet, took a deep breath, and started forward.

"All right," she said in a low growl. "That is it. Now Reimu needs to choke a couple of-Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

"REIMU!"

Fortunately, this time Reimu had the presence of mind to duck as not one, but _two _blurs sped towards her. They missed her entirely and crashed together against the storehouse's far end.

Yukari said, "And now she has-"

"Shut up," Mima snapped.

Suika scratched her head. "Reimu, you didn't tell us you were having a _party_."

"Oh yes," Reimu said in a calm steady voice. She walked into the storehouse. Inside, Cirno and Wriggle Nightbug were just coming to their senses. "An Idiot Stomping Party, everyone's invited."

With that, she grabbed the nearly senseless fairy and youkai by their collars, hauled them out of the storeroom, and hurled them at their friends. With a cry of alarm, Daiyousei and Mystia tried to dodge, but Mima chose that moment to appear behind them. With a sadistic grin, she shoved them back in time for them to be struck by the incoming missiles.

Reimu watched dispassionately as Gensokyo's most notorious pranksters tried to straighten themselves out. She had, on more than one occasion, being inconvenienced by those four. Whether individually or as a whole group, their presence always meant her day was going to get a little more annoying.

She waited until she had their attention. "Okay Gensokyo's Most Unwanted, I'm confused, I'm angry, and I'm armed. So whatever problems you have-"

Terrified by her threat, her unwanted guests all began talking at once. Cirno kept going on about how it wasn't their fault, Daiyousei wouldn't shut up about a carnivorous ball of snot, Mystia was prophesying their impending doom of devourment, and Wriggle kept trying to get the others to be quiet and let her handle it. Taken together, Reimu learned absolutely nothing of importance.

She listened as long as she could stand, which was about seven seconds. "Shut _up!" _she screeched.

They shut up.

Reimu sighed and eyed each of the idiots individually. _No, too nervous, too freaked, too stupid… _She pointed at the last one. "You! Bug!"

Wriggle stood up straighter. "M-me?" she stuttered.

"Yes, you! Tell me what the hell is going on and make it understandable!"

Wriggle told her.

Reimu and her friends stared at her.

"So…" Reimu began. "You guys stole a box from Marisa…"

"Yes."

"…and inside was a…giant gooey bubble thing…"

"Uh-huh."

"…and it ate your friend Rumia?"

Reimu exchanged a look with her friends and they all sighed. Well, all except for Suika, who seemed utterly fascinated and completely confused.

"That's it; this has officially become too stupid. I'm leaving before I lose anymore IQ points," Yukari muttered.

"I don't know, I think it's kind of cute," Mima smirked. "In a really pathetic sort of way."

"Which might be catching," Yukari pointed out. With a wave of her hand, she ripped open a tear in the fabric of reality. Staring eyes peered from within, and for whatever reason, the top and bottom of the tear was decorated with a deep purple bow. Nobody was bothered by this. They had long become accustomed to Yukari's "ways".

"It's true, I swear!" Cirno protested as Yukari took a step through the tear.

The border-watching youkai paused. She raised one elegant eyebrow at the small fairy. "Really now?" she said, irony dripping from every word. "Just like you once 'swore' that all the paint in the human village had come alive and was drinking all the sake?"

Suika's head whipped around in Yukari's direction. "Wait, it _did?"_ She was ignored.

"Um…" Cirno said.

"Or how about the time you 'swore' that the Forest of Magic was flooded with blue honey?" Reimu added.

Suika's eyes boggled. "It _was?"_

"But that was Wriggle's idea!" Cirno said, pointing at the firefly in question.

"Hey!"

Mima calmly examined her incorporeal but somehow perfectly manicured nails. "And wasn't there that one time where you were convinced that a bunch of flowers appearing out of nowhere meant it was time for everyone to get down and party?"

"Now _that_ I remember!" Suika said with a grin.

"Hey, I wasn't lying!" Cirno protested. "I was just…confused is all!"

"But that's the point!" Reimu said. "You guys aren't exactly the most reliable sources of information. So why should we trust you?"

Cirno looked like she was about to start tearing her hair out in frustration. "But this time I'm serious, I swear! I swear by Santa Claus himself!"

"P-please Reimu," Daiyousei begged. "She's our friend!"

Reimu sighed. She wondered exactly how much ofuda it would take to rid her of these pests. "This would be the same Rumia who tried to eat me that one time, yes? Even if she were in trouble, I'm not really seeing a whole lot of reasons to go help her."

"Wait."

Everybody's eyes turned to Yukari. The elder youkai had reemerged from her portal and was looking at the four mischief-makers with a thoughtful look on her face.

"This friend of yours…Rumia, was it?"

"Yes!" Cirno said, happy that someone was finally taking them seriously. "She's in big time trouble and really needs-"

"Yes, I know," Yukari said. "But refresh my memory: she would be the darkness youkai that often wanders the shore of the Misty Lake, correct? Likes to surround herself in a bubble of shadows and has an unfortunate habit of running into trees?"

"Yes! That's her!"

"And does she wear a red-and-white ribbon in her hair at all times?"

"The one she can't touch, don't know why?" Wriggle asked. "Yep, that's her!"

"I see," Yukari mused. She appeared to ponder this for a moment long. Then she stepped out of the rift she had created and closed it again.

"Reimu, I think you should go with them."

"Uh, say what now?" the shrine maiden said in disbelief.

Yukari smiled at her. It was not a nice smile, but then it never was. "Well, look at it this way. If they are indeed telling the truth you have the opportunity to prevent another unfortunate incident from occurring. But if they're lying, all you stand to lose is a few hours of wasted time, and let's be honest: you weren't doing much anyway."

"Oh, that's all, huh?" Reimu's finger swung around to point accusingly at Cirno's gang. "The last time I listened to them, I ended up hanging upside-down in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's courtyard covered in noodles!"

Cirno and the more daring members of her gang cracked a smile at the memory.

"You got them back," Yukari pointed out.

Cirno and every other member of her gang winced at the memory.

"So? Doesn't mean I want to do something that stupid again."

"Oh, come now," Yukari said as she playfully ruffled Reimu's hair. The shrine maiden bristled under hand, but she didn't move away. "I'll come with you and make sure these naughty ruffians don't hurt my sweet little Reimu."

"You're asking for a Fantasy Seal to the mouth, you know that?"

"Mmmm, sounds like fun."

Reimu sighed and pushed Yukari's hand away. "Okay, fine. Just stop…flirting with me." She eyed the green-haired ghost who was watching everything with evident amusement. "What about you, Mima? Wanna join this pointlessness?"

"Eh, might as well," Mima shrugged. "Been meaning to check up on my little Marisa anyway. I guess this is as good a time as any."

"Can I come too?" Suika asked. "I wanna help stop the blue paint-drinking sake giant and save all the honey!"

"Wait, no. Suika, that's not-" Reimu cut herself off and sighed. "Yeah, sure. Come along."

"Hooray!" the little oni cheered. She took a celebratory swig from the gourd of sake she always carried. "Lesh _go_!" she slurred.

…

_Deep Within_

The position Rumia found herself in was both alien and strangely familiar.

The best she could figure, she was floating through a pitch black void. Absolute nothingness stretched in every direction, with not even a star to break the darkness. And yet, despite her natural affinity with darkness, her body was emitting a faint yellow glow. That was odd. Also, her clothing was completely gone, leaving her naked to the emptiness. That was embarrassing. And her arms were stretched out to either side, fingers spread, with her legs pointing straight down. Considering that that this was a pose she had been fond of adopting ever since she was told about its religious significance to the outside world, that was both funny and slightly ironic, especially since she now seemed to be stuck that way. As hard as she tried, every part of her body other than her head refused to respond to her commands.

Unfortunately, she didn't have the luxury to further examine the weirdness of her surroundings, as there was something else demanding her attention. As she had thought, she was not alone in the nothingness. Another girl floated nearby. She was sitting in the fetal position, with her knees drawn up under her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs. She had straw-colored hair that just brushed her shoulders, a round face with blue eyes, and if she straightened her limbs she would stand just a little taller than Rumia. Like Rumia, she wore no clothes and had a halo of light surrounding her body, though hers was pure white and about three times brighter. Unlike Rumia, she didn't seem to have a problem moving her limbs. Now that was just unfair.

Rumia recognized her, at least her face. It was the same face the tentacle had shaped itself into before devouring her whole. All things considered, her presence here didn't exactly fill Rumia with optimism.

But the girl was at least happy to see her. As soon as she saw Rumia trying to move, she squealed "Rumia! You're awake!" and lunged forward to wrap her arms around Rumia's body.

"I'm so happy you're here!" the strange girl gushed as she pressed herself uncomfortably close. "See, I was worried you might not make it here okay, 'cause I've made mistakes in the past and well, it's been awhile. But hey, it's all okay, right?"

Given the circumstance, Rumia did the only thing any rational person would do in such a situation. She started screaming.

…

Empty. The box was empty.

Marisa stood stock-still, broom clasped in one white-knuckled hand, staring. The chest was still there, whatever it had once held was not. Which meant that Cirno's gang had somehow managed to get it open. Which meant they had it now. And on top of that, they had gotten away.

Which meant they had won.

Marisa wasn't angry. Her anger had been spent chasing those idiots earlier and during her fight with Lily White, whom she had left lying dazed in a smoldering crater. She just felt cold. And that was fine. She did her best work when she felt cold.

Had her moment of self-reflection continued uninterrupted, she might have eventually succumbed to a round of maniacal laughter. But interrupted she was, as her attention focused on eight distant figures traveling towards her through the sky. And when she saw who they were, a wide, sadistic grin spread over her face. This promised to be _very _interesting.

Before they could spot her, Marisa hid herself in a nearby tree. And, just to make sure, she muttered a word under her breath. A slight tingle ran over her skin, and her body faded to transparency. Satisfied that she was now for the most part undetectable, she watched the new arrivals through the branches as they touched down near the box.

Surprise, surprise, Cirno and her friends had returned, and this time they had brought reinforcements. Poor Reimu. Marisa wondered exactly what kind of bull they had spun to get her to come along with them this time. One would think that after the incident with the noodles she would stop listening to them all together. Suika's presence was somewhat of an oddity, but explainable. The oni would eat rocks if you dressed them up right.

Yukari though, that was a puzzler. The youkai rarely involved herself such events, and there was no lost love between her and Cirno. Marisa couldn't help but wonder if Yukari's presence meant that the ice fairy and her friends had gotten themselves into some kind of trouble, of the punishable variety. Well, more trouble at least.

But perhaps the strangest visitor to the forest would be Mima. The presence of her old master frankly bothered Marisa. Not that she was displeased to see her. Mima was one of the only beings in Gensokyo that Marisa harbored any sort of genuine respect for. And as a result, having her become involved in this dispute was troubling.

Still, given Mima and Yukari's personalities, Marisa doubted that they would take offense to her intentions. Keeping an eye on the group, she pulled out her hakkero and hid it in her grasp. Between her fingers, it began to glow. Now she just had to wait for the perfect opportunity to present itself.

Cirno seemed to be worked up about something. "See? See!" she shouted, pointing frantically at the opened chest. "There it is, just like we said! I _told_ you we weren't lying!"

Reimu looked at the chest with a dubious expression on her face. "Okay, there's a box, sure," she said. "But I don't see a blob."

"It must have left after we did," said the firefly, Wiggle something or another.

Marisa frowned and leaned in closer. A blob of what? Some kind of weird security system Patchouli had wired into the chest? If so, then maybe letting those stupid kids open the box first had been for the best.

That one green-haired fairy, the one whose name Marisa could never remember, seemed agitated about something. Well, okay, so she always looked agitated, but the way she kept bobbing up in the air only to come back down again while constantly glancing in every direction made it look like she was being hunted. Marisa grinned. Good, she at least hadn't forgotten whose woods she was in.

"Um, g-g-guys?" the fairy said. "M-maybe we'd better be c-c-careful. It ate Rumia, so maybe it's just waiting around to eat us too."

What.

"Quite the voracious eater, this thing is," Mima muttered. The ghost floated over to the empty chest and inspected it with evident interest. "At this rate, it must have devoured half the forest by now."

Little Mystia stamped her foot in frustration. "We're serious!" she cried. "It ate all the bullets we shot at it, including Cirno's ice!"

_What._

"Mebbe it's a _friend_ of the Blue _Giant_ Paint!" Suika said as she began to happily wander around in a circle. "And they drank _all_ the sake _noodles!"_

_What!_

"About as likely as anything it seems-" Mima suddenly cut herself off. She lifted her head from her inspection of the chest and started looking in every direction. Then she stared straight at Marisa.

Oh. Right. She would be able to sense the young witch. After all, she had been the one who taught Marisa that hiding spell in the first place.

Fortunately, her former master didn't seem inclined to blow her cover. Instead, she just shot Marisa a friendly smile and a half-wave, as if finding a transparent Marisa spying on people from the trees were an everyday occurrence.

Marisa glanced nervously at Reimu and Yukari, hoping they hadn't noticed the exchange. Fortunately, Reimu was too busy arguing with Cirno about the validity of this blob thing (whatever in the holy farting hell that was) while Yukari's attention was taken up by a trail of dead grass. Marisa looked back at Mima and brought her finger to her lips.

Mima frowned and spread her hands in a "What are you doing?" gesture.

Marisa motioned at Cirno and hefted her hakkero, which was now humming with energy.

Mima's eyes widened in realization. She shot a glance over to Reimu and pointed at her with her thumb.

Marisa shook her head.

Mima nodded. She floated over to Reimu and said, "Say Reimu, take a look at this box. I think our culprit may have left some trace behind. Oh, and kids? Would you mind standing about…three feet over there?"

"Huh?" Cirno said. "What for?"

"Because your combined energies are interfering my detection spells."

"Oh! Sorry."

Mima glanced at Marisa with a smug "How's that?" smirk on her face. Marisa grinned and shot her mentor a thumbs-up. With a grace learned from years of living in these woods, Marisa dropped from the tree and strolled over to where Cirno and her friends were milling about. When she got about ten feet away she solidified herself and said in her most causal voice "Hey guys. How's it going? Master Spark."

Things seemed to happen in slow motion. Glorious, immensely satisfying slow motion. Their heads automatically turned in the direction of the voice. There was a brief moment of horrified realization, no more than maybe one second, when they saw exactly who had just arrived. And then their world exploded into white light and tumbling bodies.

Marisa smiled as she surveyed the trench of scorched earth that now slashed its way to the hill's summit. Her targets were now smoking, senseless, and draped carelessly over the branches of the old pine that resided at the top of the hill. She nodded in satisfaction. It took way too damned long, but at the end, a job well done.

"Feel better?" Mima asked. Her arms were folded over her breast and a half-smirk of amusement crawled its way up her face. Behind her, a shocked Reimu was staring in incomprehension and Suika was laughing so hard that the hysterics had her rolling on the grass. Yukari took no notice at all.

With a nod Marisa said, "I do now. Thank you, Master."

Mima shook her head and sighed. "Marisa, you're not my minion anymore. When are you going to stop calling me that?"

"When you stop deserving it, Master." That got a laugh.

For her part, Reimu was far from amused. "Wha-Marisa?" she squeaked. "Who, big laser, not there and…Where did you come from?"

"Rinnosuke's shop. Haven't you heard? I'm sold in six-packs, ze."

"_What!"_

"Actually, that was going to be my line," Marisa said. She tossed her hakkero from one hand to the other. "What's all this nonsense about a hungry blob I've been hearing?"

"We were actually hoping you could tell us," Mima said. "Those kids you just smoked showed up at Hakurei shrine about half an hour ago, babbling about finding a large mass of something in that box over there" the elder ghost nodded in the chest's direction "that apparently devoured one of their number. According to them, they acquired that box from you."

"They did, huh?" Marisa felt an annoyed tic become active in her eyelid. "Did they mention the part where they _stole_ that box right out of my _house, _ze?"

"Yeah, they did," Reimu scowled. "They also said you blew up half the forest chasing after them. Looks like they were right." She shook her head. "Godsdamn it, Marisa, this isn't your forest to just destroy whenever something pisses you off!"

Marisa waved off the shrine maiden's complaints. "Oh, chillax Reddie. It's more mine than it is yours, ze. 'Sides, it'll grow back by tomorrow. It always does."

"That's not the point!"

"Who cares? It's not like you haven't caused wanton amounts of destruction before." Marisa shoved Reimu aside as she marched back to the chest. "Move it, Armpits."

Reimu growled and grabbed Marisa by her collar. She whirled the witch around to face her. "What did you just say?"

In answer, Marisa matched Reimu stare-for-stare and shoved herself up against the shrine maiden. "I've had a pissy day, so let me make this clear. Get out of my way…bitch."

Reimu's face went blank. Then she held up a single card. There was a flicker of motion around her fingers, and suddenly that one card became eight. The air around her shivered and her two yin-yang orbs materialized into view. They began revolving around their master. Marisa grinned at the challenge. Holding her hakkero between her thumb and two primary fingers, she held it up in plain view.

"So you wanna play too, is that it Reddie?" As she spoke, the hakkero began to blaze with violent energies. Two icy blue blues formed and began dancing around the fingers of her other hand. "Bring it on. I'm tired of wasting small fry and wouldn't mind-"

Suddenly both the shrine maiden and the witch felt long, cold fingers wrapping around the backs of their necks. The owner of those hands shoved, and there was a loud _crack_ as the top of their heads collided. A moment later the two combatants were on the ground nursing a throbbing bump apiece.

"Owww!" Marisa complained as pain bit its way through her head. "Godsdamn it, that hurt!"

Reimu agreed. "Yukari, why the hell did you do that for?"

Yukari stood over the two, arms folded in annoyance. "As much fun as it would be to watch you two beat the snot out of each other, we have bigger concerns than your egos."

"Wow Yukari, bigger than watching them throw down?" Mima said. She pressed her hands to her face in mock horror. "Say it ain't so!" Yukari apparently chose not to dignify that comment with a response.

"You didn't have to do that though," Reimu grumbled as she straightened up, wincing at every movement.

"You'll live. Now, if the two of you are done comparing the sizes of your dicks, there's something you need to see."

"We don't have-"

Yukari silenced them with a look.

She led them over to a spot a little way up the hill. There, Suika was sitting at the beginning of the trail of dead foliage Yukari had been inspecting her.

"They're _all_ dead," the tipsy oni announced. "Right downa to the _roots_!"

"Yes, I feared as much," Yukari sighed.

"This better be worth knocking our heads together, ze," Marisa hissed. She flinched as another lance shot through her head.

"Oh, it is," Yukari said. "Tell me: do either of you know anything about Rumia's history?"

Reimu and Marisa exchanged a look. They both shrugged. Mima, however, seemed troubled. She rubbed her jaw as she searched the recesses of her cavernous memory. She apparently found what she was looking for, because her eyes suddenly widened in realization.

"Wait, are you saying she got rid of the ribbon?" she said. That got Marisa's attention. She didn't know what Rumia's ribbon had to do with anything, but the small sliver of concern that edged Mima's words was as good as outright panic in anyone else.

"I don't know just yet," Yukari said. She scuffed the dead grass with her foot. "But far too many things are adding up."

"You mean about that blob thing? Reimu asked. "So that isn't complete bull?"

Yukari shook her head. "Still have no idea about that one, but that's not what I was talking about. You see, I also once encountered Rumia, a good fifty-seven years before any of you. And she was much, much different than how she is now."

Marisa stared at her with an incredulous look on her face. "Um, yeah. I know you ancient youkai like being cryptic and all, but what say you tell us what the hell you're talking about?"

"That…might take awhile, but I'll do the best I can," Yukari said. "But in the meantime, let's just say if I'm right, the next few days are going to be very, very busy.

They all stared at her. For her part, Yukari was gazing down the dead trail. It twisted and looped around various obstacles, but maintained a southward bearing, out of the Forest of Magic and towards the Bamboo Forest.

And Eientei.

…

_Deep Within_

It had been nearly half an hour since Rumia had first awoken to find herself in the literal middle of nowhere, sharing the space with a strange glowing girl. And she still had not calmed down.

Though honestly, who could blame her?

The glowing girl winced as another barrage of demands, verbal abuse and vulgarities assaulted her. "Rumia, please stop yelling. It hurts!"

Another incomprehensible string of syllables blew past her.

"Rumia, please! I'm trying to concentrate here…Okay, seriously, stop it. I can't understand you if you talk that fast…please be quiet…I…don't think…SHUT UP!"

Rumia complied. Not because she was intimidated or due to being interested in opening a channel of communication, but because her mouth had ceased to exist. Sound still bubbled up from her throat, but with no means of escape it was reduced to nothing more than a series of muffled squeaks.

"Sorry I had to do that," the girl said, making it sound sincere. "But it's been a long time since I've controlled a body, and I need to concentrate. So I'm willing to answer any questions you have. You just gotta promise me you won't start screaming again, 'kay? Calm question, straight answer."

"Eeeee?"

"Yes, I promise. Scout's honor." The girl held her right hand, three middle fingers extended, thumb bent over pinky.

"Eeeee!"

"No, I'm not going to hurt you. Believe me, I just want to be your friend."

"…eee…?"

"Yes, seriously! Do you have any idea how long I've…" The girl broke off. She took a shaky breath (of what?) and said. "Okay, I'm gonna give you your mouth back. Remember, no screaming, 'kay?"

Numb with fear, Rumia managed a nod.

Suddenly there was the bizarre feeling of skin parting without pain, a sliding, almost tingling sensation. Rumia gasped and panted in relief.

"Better?" the girl asked. She was now kneeling, though the lack of a level floor meant that she and Rumia were still eye-level.

Rumia nodded. Then she managed to get out, "W-w-where…where are…"

"Inside me."

Rumia's eyes boggled.

"Sorry, I said that wrong," the girl said. She frowned and started hitting her head with the palm of her hand. "C'mon Rin, do better! You can explain this…Okay, listen. You're not really in a place. Your body isn't a real body, it's sort of a…a make-believe, a construct. A familiar shape your mind took to help it cope. So you're not actually seeing or talking or breathing for that matter, it's just the way your mind is interpreting the sensations it's experiencing." Then she brightened. "Okay, think of it as a dream body in a really, really realistic dream. It's not real, but it feels like it is, and all of your consciousness is focused in that body. And it's in my dream, not yours. And it's really happening, which would kinda discount the whole 'not real' part. Also, you're actually awake right now, and so am I, so…Wow, that metaphor broke down really fast."

A small whimpering noise trickled out of Rumia's mouth.

"Okay, it's like you're your ghost, only you're not dead. Mental ghost, soul, mind, whatever. It's inside my mind and this is how our, um, talking, conversation, line of communication is being translated."

Rumia's head lolled back and forth. She felt a minor aneurysm forming. "And my body…"

"Oh, it's fine," the girl said brightly. "It just got broken down to its base particles and was absorbed into the material of my being. It's safe and sound, promise."

Rumia tried to shiver but found that it only occurred from the neck up. This was just getting weird. "And how do you know who I am? Did you read it from my mind or something?"

"Yep. And I'm using your power, too."

"What?"

The girl seemed a little embarrassed. "Um, sorry about doing it without asking, but you were unconscious and I needed to leave before anyone found me. But anyway, I sorta combined your body with mine to create a wholly new body that looks kinda like you, and I'm using it to get around."

She waved a hand, and a rip formed in the blackness beyond her. Rumia gasped as the rip expanded, forming a screen that had to be a good thirty feet tall and another forty across. Within, Rumia could see what appeared to be the dirt and shrubs of the old Night Road, just south of the Forest of Magic, passing below at high speed. Again, there was an odd sense of familiarity, as this was a road Rumia had flown over many times herself. However, everything seemed to be viewed through a filter of red, as if they were peering through a scarlet lens. Rumia wasn't sure what that meant and frankly, she wasn't sure if she wanted to.

"Anyway, right now we're only a few minutes away from the Bamboo Forest. That's where we're going," the girl added, as if it were necessary.

Rumia stared. "Uh, wh-what's in the Bamboo Forest?"

"Old friends." A wistful smile spread across the girl's face. "Very old friends."

Rumia shook her head. Despite the girl's promise of straight answers she _still _hadn't learned much of use. "Look, whatever it is you…What _is_ this place? What happened to me, what did you…_Who are you?"_

"Oh!" The girl exclaimed, her mouth perfectly forming the "O" shape. "Sorry, I forgot you can't…well, you know…anyway, my name is Rin. Rin Satsuki. And don't worry, we're going to have plenty of time to get to know each other. I guarantee it."

…

_For those of you who don't know, Rin Satsuki was originally going to be one of the playable characters in Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil, but she was cut out at the last minute. What little we know about her is her name, retrieved from some of EoSD's leftover data, and a possible picture taken from ZUN's website around the same time. This is my explanation for her absence: Patchouli had her locked up in a box the whole time. The how and why will be revealed soon enough._

_Also, I am discovering that balancing scenes with multiple characters is tougher than it looks, resulting in Mima and Suika only getting bit parts. Still, given that they, along with Yukari, are said to spend a lot of time around Hakurei Shrine, I couldn't resist having them all together at once. Here's hoping they get bigger parts in the future._

_And don't worry, Team Nineball will be fine. Sorta. _

_Until next time, everyone!_


	3. The Prodigal

The Prodigal

…_can't always be looking out for you…_

…_you did a great job…_

…_ou hear me? Dai, can yo…_

…_that was pitiful…_

A movement. A twitch and she edged a little closer to consciousness. Not enough though. Darkness still flooded her mind, and distant-sounding voices kept talking to her, though never at each other. It was confusing.

…_ster Spark…_

…_she's still not waking up…_

…_c'mon, I believe in…_

…_no one expects us to be gods…_

"Dai!"

Finally one of the voices shouted loud enough to fully seize Daiyousei's attention and drag her from the depths of her mind. She opened her eyes just a crack, squinting at the shadows hanging over her. It was too bright to make anything out and the light hurt her eyes.

"Wha…happen…" she managed to mumble through swollen lips.

"Oh, thank the gods, she's awake," one of the voices said. It sounded like Mystia.

"Good, I was starting to get worried," said another voice, Wriggle's this time. The shadow that most resembled the firefly pushed its way to the front. "Hey Dai, you okay? C'mon, say something!"

Daiyousei tried to push the remaining fragments of fuzziness from her mind, a task that was much more difficult than it sounds. It felt like someone had hit her in the face with a sledgehammer and then dropped a house on her for good measure.

Slowly and painfully, Daiyousei pulled herself to a sitting position. Mystia and Wriggle helped the best they could, but every movement still made her body throb. "Wh-" she started to say, but it was swallowed up by a fit of coughing.

"Whoa, easy there," Wriggle said, lightly slapping her back. "Take it slow."

Daiyousei nodded. When she could talk, she croaked, "What happened?"

"Marisa," Mystia said. "She got us all."

Now that her vision was starting to clear, Daiyousei could see that her friends weren't in the best shape themselves. Both of their clothes were torn and singed, Wriggle was sporting a nasty black eye, Mystia's right arm was resting in a makeshift sling and her wings were missing a few feathers.

"W-wait…M-Marisa…?"

"Yeah, don't you remember?" Wriggle said. "She snuck up on us when we were showing Reimu Hakurei and the rest where Rumia got eaten."

Daiyousei struggled to remember. Everything seemed so…distant. Little fragments drifted in and out of her memory, slowly piecing themselves into larger clumps. These in turn stuck together to form…

The chase through the woods.

The chest's horrifying contents.

Rumia's useless attempts to free herself.

Running to Reimu for help.

And then, Marisa had appeared out of nowhere…

Oh yeah. Master Spark.

It was the first time Daiyousei had actually gotten hit with the infamous spell. Certainly she had run afoul of Marisa on a couple of occasions, but the young witch had never unleashed her ace in the hole on her before. Now Daiyousei understood why people preferred to avoid upsetting Marisa unnecessarily.

Then she noticed something out of place. "Wait," she said with a cough. "W-where's Cirno?"

"She woke up before the rest of us did," Wriggle explained. "After me and Mysty were up, she left us to go look for Reimu and the rest."

"Huh? But she's already been knocked out _twice _today! How'd she get up so fast?"

Mystia shrugged. "We figure she's just used to it. Who else would shake off a Master Spark that fast?"

Good point. "So…where is Reimu?"

Another shrug. "Cirno said they were gone when she woke up. Marisa probably told them it was all stupid and that they should go home."

Daiyousei's shoulders slumped. "B-but what about Rumia?" she asked, her voice cracking at the mention of their absent friend.

"Don't worry, we'll figure out a way to get her back," Mystia said reassuringly. "Don't give up on her yet."

Daiyousei wasn't so reassured. Though they had managed to make some crazy plans work in the past, she had a feeling that they were in over their heads with this one.

The fairy pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around her scratched and bruised knees. She looked out at the countryside around them. They were still at the top of the hill, with that stupid box glittering near the bottom, almost smug in its exposure. It was now midday, and the sun nearly reaching its zenith. Somehow, Daiyousei found the knowledge depressing. Had all that madness only occurred within a few hours' time?

Despite the balminess of the day, Daiyousei began shivering. It started with a slow tremble but eventually her whole body was shaking so hard her teeth began rattling. She tried to stop but found that she had no control over it.

Her friends of course took notice. Thankfully they said nothing. They just sat on either side and wrapped their arms around her. Daiyousei appreciated the gesture. She closed her eyes and leaned her head on Mystia's shoulder. Right now she would take all the comfort she could get, and there was no doubt they felt the same.

The three of them sat together in the shade of the old tree, waiting for their leader to return.

…

As it would turn out, Cirno was not the only person on the hunt. Reimu and co. had not returned home as thought by Mystia, but were busy tracking whatever it was that had escaped from the box. Unfortunately, they were discovering that following a trail of withered grass and flowers only worked in areas that actually had grass and flowers. Once they reached areas that had more dirt than foliage, things slowed down considerably.

Surprisingly, the one who proved to have the most aptitude for picking up the trail was Suika. Just when it looked like they had lost it again, she would spot a patch of weeds or a clump of leaves displaying the same signs of decay that the grass had. It also helped that the trail remained more-or-less pointed southward. Still, it was slow going, and many members of the party were getting impatient.

As they continued through a grove of orange trees, Reimu took the opportunity to ask Yukari some questions.

"So," she said as she hovered closer to the ancient youkai. "You wanna tell me what this is all about?"

Yukari frowned in annoyance, but she said, "If I must. It's just hard to think of where to begin…Let's see, you first met Rumia back during Remilia Scarlet's red mist incident, correct?"

"Yeah, she tried to eat me and Marisa. We messed her up for it. So what?"

"Well, I also had a little encounter with the same girl, only this was long before you were born. Your mother was about your age, maybe a little older, and was the current shrine maiden of Hakurei Shrine."

Reimu shot her an odd look. "You know, one of these days you're going to have to tell me exactly how you knew my parents."

"Perhaps," Yukari said, casually waving off Reimu's probing. "But that can wait. Right now, all you need to understand that when I met Rumia, she was much, much different from the silly prankster you know her as."

"Different? How so?"

"She was a life destroying abomination."

Reimu nearly ran into an orange tree. She managed to recover just in time. "Say _what?"_

"Just what I said. Rumia is, or at least _was,_ one of the deadliest youkai ever to wander Gensokyo." A faraway look grew in Yukari's eyes. "We never did figure out where she came from. It seemed like she had climbed out of Hell itself. Maybe she had. But whatever her origins, she was bound and determined to burn Gensokyo to the ground."

Reimu didn't say anything. She knew Yukari well enough to know that she wasn't pulling one of her jokes, but to picture silly little Rumia as some sort of harbinger of the apocalypse nearly caused her imagination to hemorrhage. So she remained silent and allowed Yukari to continue.

"At any rate, there was a good chance she might have done it too. Fortunately, your mother and I got wind of it before things got out of hand and put a stop to it."

"Oh. Well, good."

Yukari smiled at her. There was no warmth in the expression. "It wasn't a simple matter. We got to her before she could do too much damage, but she wasn't one to go down easy."

"Really? How so?"

The origin of the question was Marisa, who had been pretending not to listen to the story but had taken the opportunity to enter the conversation. Mima floated a little ways beyond her, listening but not taking part. All of this she knew already.

Yukari shook her head. "Rumia's power, the Rumia you know, is darkness. For her, it is a simple absence of light, an ability so ineffective it ends up blinding the silly girl as well. But the power of the Rumia I knew went much deeper. She was the antithesis of life itself. Lower life such as plants and small insects simply died by being in her presence. She could stop a heartbeat of a weaker person with a touch. The stronger could resist for a time, your mother and I being the prime example, but it was…

…_horrifying to behold. The Shadow Youkai knelt among the skeleton of the small human outpost, dried blood on her rosy lips and gore coating her pale curving talons and the black blade of the twisted sword she carried. Around her, the ash of the wreckage continued to burn, despite having little in the way of fuel left._

_Everything was dead. The humans, their youkai and fairy allies, the local animal life, and a fair portion of the surrounding forest. Anything that hadn't been ripped to pieces by the Shadow Youkai herself had shriveled up in her shadow. Even the stones themselves were cracked and splattered with blood. Above, the sun was blocked by dark clouds that rolled and billowed over one another as silent lightning cut its way through the sky, never enough to actually illuminate the place but enough reveal short glimpses of the carnage beneath._

_Yukari stood at the far end of the outpost, staring. It was at times like this she wished that her night-vision was not so good. When the Hakurei shrine maiden had first alerted her about the danger, Yukari's response was to laugh in her face. But now…_

_The shrine maiden herself stood to Yukari's right. Despite her young age, she didn't seem fazed by the devastation around her. She just looked…tired. Tired and grim._

"_Now?" she said. "Now do you believe me?"_

_Yukari didn't respond. The Shadow Youkai had noticed them. The monster rose to her feet, tattered dress fluttering in a cold wind that had started blowing as her ruby red eyes focused on the two newcomers. Her grip on the sword tightened, and her bloodstained lips parted in a smile._

_Yukari and the shrine maiden readied themselves to meet the Shadow Youkai's attack. And not a moment too soon, because within moments it was flying through the air, howling in delight at having found more victims, the blade of its sword coming down on them…_

…unpleasant, very unpleasant." Yukari said. "Still, we managed to beat her in the end. After that, we sealed off her powers and erased her memories. She was harmless after that.

Reimu frowned. "Uh, harmless? Excuse me, I'm no big fan of executions, but wouldn't it have been best to just kill her?"

"I'm with Reddie on this one," Marisa put in. "Something _that_ crazy dangerous shouldn't be allowed to run around, mind-wipe or no."

"And yet," Mima said without emotion, "we let you roam free."

Marisa winced. "Hey, waitaminute! I may be a little nuts, but I'm not genocidal, ze! Even Remilia knows that people like Flandre shouldn't be set loose, and _this _Rumia sounds way worse than psycho-vamp."

"I agree," Yukari said. "In fact, I insisted we do just that. Unfortunately, that proved to be problematic."

"How so?" Reimu asked.

"Well, for one she turned out to be incredibly hard to kill. She wasn't a complete immortal like the Moon Princess or her pyromaniac of a rival, but she was still pretty close. For another, we discovered that even if we did manage to destroy her, all the life she had absorbed would be released in a manner that could be best described as…Well, let's just say it would be enough to turn the Forest of Magic into a desert of glass."

Marisa whistled.

"Indeed," Yukari said. "At one point we considered dumping her in Makai, but Shinki would hear none of it, further lending credence to my 'Having crawled out of Hell' theory. We also tried draining her of her power, but that just made a mess. A great big, steaming mess that had me picking dead skin from five different people out of my hair for a week."

"And that would be when you came to me, correct?" Mima said.

Marisa's head swiveled in the direction of her former mentor. "Say _what?_ Wait Mistress, you're telling me you were a part of this?"

Mima smiled at her. "Dear, I know it pains you to entertain the thought, but I did have a life before you came around. This was just one of the many incidents I was involved in. Didn't want to be, given I wasn't exactly on speaking terms with the Hakurei family at the time, but Yukari managed to convince me it was in my best interests to help remove the soul-scarring affront to all that is good and holy."

"Indeed," Yukari said. "With her help, we were able to work out a way to seal her more deadly powers where she couldn't access them, and at the same time reset her memory, wiping away the bloodthirsty killer we had encountered. It wasn't quite as perfect as sending her to oblivion, but it was the next best thing."

Reimu was having several thousand different thoughts and feelings rushing through her head, and little way to decide on a specific one. She chose one of the most prominent. "Bu…wait, why did you never tell me about this?"

"Because you didn't-"

"Okay, stop. If you say 'You didn't ask', I swear I'm going to kill you."

"Very well."

There was a moment of silence during which they emerged from the orange grove and into a meadow. The trail became easy to pick out again and they quickened their pace.

Then Reimu got annoyed. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Yukari shot her a long look. "You told me not to say 'You didn't ask'. I was simply complying with your request."

"Oh, come on! That can't be the only reason."

"But it is. Like Mima said, as nasty as that incident was, it was far from the first crisis I had to deal with, nor was it the last. And it was dealt with before it became especially memorable, at least in comparison to some of the other messes I've had to clean up. If I were to take the time to detail every battle I've had to fight in my life, I would still be telling it to your great-grandchildren without having reached the halfway mark."

"Then why didn't my mom ever tell me?"

"The same. She had her share of problems she had to fix, and on the whole, this one only took a few days. After that, she had the thing with the guy with the killing notebook, then that mind-controlling revolutionary, and then yet another genocidal girl, this one with invisible arms, and the list goes on. Even you've had your fair share of incidents, and you're not even twenty years old."

"I told Marisa," Mima said.

Marisa once again turned to stare. "Wait, you did?"

"Certainly. It was during our lessons about magic seals. I told you the story about the life destroying youkai and how I found a way to partition off a portion of her powers using a simple hair-ribbon as an amulet."

"Oh yeah, but you didn't tell me it was-"

"Wait!" Reimu snapped her fingers in front of her nose. She turned to Yukari. "Is that why you asked Cirno about her ribbon?"

"Indeed. The ribbon was the spell's anchor. It had an enchantment that prevented her or anyone else from touching it. It seems something managed to bypass it though."

"A ribbon?" Reimu asked, incredulous. "Seriously?"

"Don't knock it, child," Mima said reprovingly. "That ribbon was much sturdier than it appeared. If something did manage to remove it, than it must be formidable indeed."

"Terrain is a-_changing!"_ Suika suddenly shouted, drawing everyone's attention. She drank deeply from her gourd, burped, and announced, "Bamboo Forest is _dead ahead!"_

"Wonderful," Marisa groused. "How are we supposed to find someone in there?"

Yukari looked thoughtful. "You know, we may have an advantage. If I recall, Ran and Chen are at Eientei right now. I could call them and have them start searching the area from the other end."

"Really? What are they doing there?"

"Eh, Chen needs her shots," Yukari shrugged. "Hang on a second."

She pulled a small, flat box from…somewhere, and began pressing the bumps that adorned one side. With that, she held it to her ear.

"Yes, Ran," she said, seemingly to the air. "Yes. Fantastic. Listen, we have a problem here. No, actually. We're pursuing a rogue youkai who seems to have fled to the Bamboo Woods. As soon as you can, I want you to take Chen and began sweeping the area from your end. We'll be entering from other end and catch her in the middle. Rumia of the Darkness. Indeed. It seems the Shadow Youkai is back. If you see her, do _not_ engage unless you have no other choice. Inform me immediately, and we'll be there as quickly as possible. Not yet, but signs do point in that direction. Fortunately, I'm bringing a lot of firepower with me. Find her, tell me, and fall back until we arrive. Understood? _Understood?_ Good." She pressed one of the bumps and returned the box to wherever it was she kept it.

Marisa stared. "I have _got_ to get me one of those."

"As soon as Verizon opens up shop in Gensokyo, you can. Now, shall we begin?"

"Sure," Reimu said. "Another question though: if this version of Rumia is really so badass, doesn't chasing her seem a bit…stupid?"

"Don't forget your mother and I were able to handle her on our own," Yukari pointed out. "And like I told Ran, we're bringing considerably more firepower with us this time."

Reimu looked from one of her companions to the other. Yukari was easily one the oldest, if not _the_ oldest, beings in Gensokyo. As such, she had several centuries of experience at her disposal, not to mention an incredible amount of power. And despite her youth, Reimu came from a family specially bred for exterminating threats such as this, in which she was extraordinarily talented. Then there was Marisa, who had numerous spells that leaned toward wanton destruction with no reservation at firing early and often. There was also Mima, who also was very old and had taught Marisa everything she knew while retaining a good portion of that knowledge for herself. And that wasn't even getting to Suika, whose preferred method of bypassing mountains was punching straight through them with her bare fists. And even then, there was the possibility of Ran and Chen coming to their assistance as well, and neither of them were exactly slouches in the combat department. All taken together, this response bordered on overkill.

Reimu conceded Yukari's point.

"Okay, fine," she said. "But one more question, for curiosity's sake."

Yukari sighed. "Very well. What is it?"

"Exactly what kind of shots _is_ Chen getting?"

"Rabies."

There was a bark of hoarse laughter. Yukari turned to frown at Marisa, who was laughing so hard she was having trouble staying on her broom. But before she could reprimand the witch, the box she had used to contact Ran began to sing.

…

_Deep Within_

Despite the promise of straight answers, Rumia had learned relatively little about her new companion, Rin Satsuki. It wasn't for a lack of trying though. It seemed that every time Rin tried to explain something, her words would become confused and jumbled up, with about two or three different metaphors mixing together and creating an absolute mess.

Still, Rumia had managed to learn a few things. First, Rin had originally been a youkai of the Kirin variety. Rumia didn't know much about the Kirin, but she was reasonably sure they didn't consist of transparent lumps of goo that delight in swallowing innocent girls just to talk nonsense at them.

This brought her to the second bit of important information.

"Seriously?" Rumia said. "Someone _made_ you this way?"

"Uh-huh," Rin said. She was sitting cross-legged, her back to Rumia, and was watching the huge red-tinted screen that was supposed to represent her new body's viewpoint. "It felt weird too. You ever been to the beach and accidentally step on a cucumber? Not the veggie-kind that kappa eat, the animal kind? And it's all squishy and disgusting but you still feel bad for stepping on it because it didn't do anything to you?"

"Is that what it felt like?"

"No, I was just thinking that that's what it would probably be like for someone who steps on _me._ No, for me it was just…weird. All melty. Like literally."

Rumia's head (or metaphorical construct of a head, she was still trying to get used to the whole avatar of consciousness idea) swam as she tried to comprehend what that must have been like. The closest comparison she could come up with was when she had literally dissolved away inside of Rin' gelatinous body. _That _had been akin to being skinned alive by acid. She wasn't sure if she wanted a detailed description of Rin's experience, though the vengeful side of her found some satisfaction in the idea.

She quickly moved away from that train of thought. "So is that where we're going? Did someone in the Bamboo Forest change you?"

"Huh? Oh, no." It was still awkward talking to Rin. Beyond the absolute strangeness of their surroundings, lack of garments, and the fact that Rin had, for all intents and purposes, eaten her alive not three hours ago, Rin just didn't seem like she was paying attention. It could be that controlling her new body required a great amount of concentration, or maybe being locked up in a box for who knows how long didn't do much for one's social skills, but despite her previous enthusiasm at finally having someone to share her space with, Rin was treating Rumia more like a passenger than a new friend: she was certainly welcoming, but spoke with her out of obligation than an actual desire to interact.

Then again, taking Rumia's entire life story directly out of her head did mean conversations would be a little one-sided.

Rin continued, "No, it wasn't them, the people that…the ones we're going to see. But it was a little bit kinda sorta their idea, you know? I mean not the blob thing, that wasn't their idea. I don't think it was anyone's idea. Just something that went wrong. Happens I guess. But the whole experiment was their idea."

"Experiment? What experiment?"

"The one that made me like this."

This was getting frustrating. "But what was the experiment _for? _What was it trying to do? And who is 'they' anyway, and what did-"

"Hold that thought, 'kay?" They were approaching a particularly thick cluster of bamboo shoots. Rumia expected them to simply go around, but then Rin hunched over, the muscles in her back tensing up. An arm and the attached hand drifted into view on the screen, and it was all Rumia could do to keep from screaming. It looked like someone had constructed it from the very substance of midnight itself. The entire appendage was pitch black, with smoky tendrils dancing along the edges and leaving clinging wisps whenever it moved. But the worst part was the digits, which weren't so much fingers as they were claws. No, not claws, _talons. _Curving instruments, long, thin, sharp and cruel. Their purpose was obvious.

Was that supposed to be _her?_ Rumia felt a chill sweep through her astral body at the thought of what the rest of the thing must look like. She knew she didn't have the best reputation, but she never thought she would be used to create a monster.

Then her stomach lurched. From the palm of the horrid hand shot a twisting cone of darkness, apparently from the same substance that the hand was made of. It struck the bamboo cluster and immediately the shoots turned black and wilted like so many wet noodles. Seeing how Rumia had been hit with a bamboo shoot on more than one occasion and knew firsthand how hard they could be, the ease in which they were corrupted made her break out into cold sweat.

They continued their journey through where the cluster had been. "Sorry Rumia, you said something?" Rin said, unconcerned at what had just been revealed.

Rumia shook her head. "Ne…never mind."

"Hmmm." Rin shrugged. "Okay. Anyway, you ever been to Eientei before?"

Rumia shook her head. She knew of it of course. Everyone did, especially after that incident of the never-ending night, but she had never actually gone to visit.

"Oh. Well, that's where we're going. Used to work there, actually. Got some unfinished business that I need to take care." She nodded slowly, speaking more to herself than Rumia. "Long time unfinished. Needs some resolution, you know? Otherwise, what are we left with?"

…

For the first day of spring, it had been an unusually slow day at Hourai Clinic. On most days, there would be a steady stream of humans, youkai, fairies and other creatures, all bringing with them any number of bizarre ailments. But today there had just been one catgirl in need of shots and one really beat up fairy. All in all, things were getting boring.

_Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump_

Tewi sat behind the receptionist's desk, trying to amuse herself with a ball-and-paddle. She had previously had a set of throwing darts, but Eirin had taken those away. She stared balefully at the empty waiting room. The clinic was a relatively new addition to Eientei, constructed after Kaguya Houraisan and her subjects had gone public. They had the option of importing building materials from outside the Bamboo Forest but in the end Kaguya decided to reduce the cost by using what was already available. As such, the clinic was almost entirely constructed from bamboo. Split bamboo stalks formed the walls and ceiling, while smoothed down and polished bamboo tiles made up the floor. Even the furniture was made from crisscrossing bamboo slats. Fortunately, cushions had been provided for the patients' use, even if Tewi thought their lime-green color to be the absolute ugliest thing she had ever seen.

_Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump_

Still, despite the simplicity of the building material, great lengths had been taken to make the place as modern as possible, especially by the standards set by the Outside World. Eirin was weird like that. To that end, mostly with Yukari's help, three fans swung round and round from the ceiling and the paper-paneled doors had been rigged to automatically slide open as soon as approaching movement was detected. Pictures of generic landscapes hung from the walls, potted plants were placed here and there, and horribly outdated magazines from nobody really knew where sat on the chairs and tables. All in all, when combined with the bamboo, it made for an interesting looking room. However, Tewi had ceased to be impressed by it years ago. Her ball-and-paddle was losing its appeal, and if something didn't happen soon she would develop an uncontrollable twitch, one that often resulted in her doing something that would get her yelled at.

_Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump- thump-thumpthumpthumpthumpthump!_

Then she heard the sound of the doors sliding open. Tewi sighed in relief. Hopefully this was the start of a busier day. She put the ball-and-paddle away and put on her best Helpful Receptionist smile.

"Hi, welcome to Hourai Clinic!" she said cheerfully. "How can we help…um…you?"

A nightmare stood in the doorway. It was like someone had taken the smoke from a forest fire and somehow made a girl out of it, like a shadow had come to life and abandoned its master. A humanoid shape of twisting darkness and ripping talons. And that wasn't even mentioning the fact that it held the scariest looking sword Tewi had ever seen in her life. It looked like a saber combined with an entire set of kitchen knives and meat hooks and then spray-painted black for good measure.

But the thing's most striking feature was its eyes. Twin globes of fire, smoldering red set against the sooty black of its face. Tewi had seen things with glowing red eyes before and knew enough that they never showed up just because they wanted to be your friend. Except for Reisen, but she didn't count. Most of the others tended to be a bit…aggressive.

And yet, while one would expect the eyes of such a being to convey emotions such as rage, cruelty and a desire to rip innocent young rabbits limb from limb, this one's eyes just looked curious. It turned its head from side-to-side, surveying the room as if it were just there to do a property appraisal. For some reason, that just made it more frightening.

Tewi wasn't scared however. One didn't last long in Gensokyo by being intimidated by every soul-scarring abomination with a nasty weapon that waltzed in through the front door. Nope, not scared all. Cautious maybe. That slight trembling around her calves? That was just her body preparing her for possible action in case things got nasty. But who was to say they will? Gensokyo was home to such creatures as ghosts, demons and vampires, and most of them were more-or-less benevolent. Maybe this new arrival was a new patient who was just looking into getting a sprained ankle fixed and would be perfectly pleasant…

The thing turned to look at her.

Oh. _Shit._

It didn't so much walk up to the front desk as it floated. Tewi couldn't help but notice that the sunflowers sitting in the pot on the desk turned brown and shriveled up as it drew near. So did every other plant in the room. But Tewi wasn't afraid. Maybe it had been infected with some sort of plant-killing disease and its love of botany had driven it to seek help here before more of its leafy friends suffered.

But that didn't explain why her throat suddenly felt like she had been inhaling the smoke of a thousand burning corpses.

Tewi straightened in her chair as the thing stood before. "H-h-hi!" she squeaked. "C-c-c-can I h-help you?"

The thing cocked its head. There was an indeterminate amount of time in which nothing was said, and then, speaking in a voice that sound like cinder-blocks been dragged against the floor from the other end of a very long, very dark tunnel, it said, _"Eirin. I need…to speak…Eirin. Please."_

Tewi laughed nervously. Being nervous was okay, right? It wasn't the same as being scared. "Well, um, I-I-I'm s-sorry, but D-Doctor Yagokoro is seeing other patients now! B-but if w-w-want to c-come b-b-b-b-back later I'll be happy to-"

The thing placed a single hand on the top of the desk. The polished bamboo directly under its touch wasted away to sawdust. Tewi sucked her teeth.

"_Now," _it said firmly. _"I…need to…see her…now."_

Tewi nodded enthusiastically. At that moment nothing sounded more reasonable. Of course the new patient would want to see the doctor in person! Eirin was probably done with the catgirl by now and would have plenty of time to meet with the thing. It was only natural.

"Of course! Stay right _there,_ and I'll…and I'll…"

With that Tewi leapt from her seat and ran to Eirin's office. No sense in dawdling. Nothing would be accomplished in just sitting around. Plus her legs desperately needed to be stretched and _oh_ _gods don't let it follow me_ she prayed. As she ran, she became aware of a loud pounding noise. It sounded almost like her ball-and-paddle. But she had left that at her desk. Why was she hearing it now?

_Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump_

It was then that she realized that the sound was the beating of her heart.

_Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump_

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia stared as she watched as Tewi fled on Rin's giant red-tinted screen. In all honesty she couldn't blame the rabbit. In fact she was somewhat envious. Her life would have been so much simpler right now if she had possessed the presence of mind to run when the blob had first taken interest in her.

"Wonder what's up with her?" Rin wondered out loud. She shrugged. "Oh well."

Rumia declined pointing out the obvious. "So, uh, you used to work here?" she said instead.

"Mmmm-hmmm. As a nurse. Lived here too. Place looked different though."

"Is that so."

"Yep. Didn't have this big bamboo hospital, just a little infirmary in the mansion."

"Ah…Um, exactly what are you planning?"

"Oh, you know. Talk. Catch up with my old boss. She how she's doing, how the clinic's working out for her. Find out why she never cured me like she promised and abandoned me to eternal loneliness. That sort of thing." The view suddenly shifted as Rin directed her new body to wander over to the various chairs set out for waiting patients. Then it shifted again and lowered. It took Rumia a second to realize that Rin was sitting down.

Rumia shook her head as she tried to think. _Come on Rumia, you can figure this out, _she told herself. _There's got to be a way to get a message out without Rin knowing. Some way of regaining control. _

But what good was making plans when your captor could literally read your mind? Rumia shot a nervous glance at the captor in question. For her part, Rin did seem like she had heard her thoughts of escape. Maybe the mind-reading thing wasn't constant and Rin only did it when she wanted to find something out? If so, than Rumia might have a chance. Might.

"Hey Rumia?"

Rumia sucked in a sharp intake of breath (at least, that's what it felt like). "Y-yes?" she said, trying to sound as casual as possible.

Rin gestured to the screen. From the looks of things, she was reading one of the magazines.

"What's all this about Princess Kaguya falling in love with Fujiwara no Mokou? Because when I got locked up they hated each other."

…

At that moment, Eirin had her hands full with her current patient. The procedure itself was uncomplicated: just a simple prick of the skin with the needle and then pressing down on the injector. Five seconds, tops. However, the difficult part was getting the patient to just sit still already!

Fortunately, having treated Chen in the past, Eirin was well prepared for the task at hand. The two-tailed catgirl was strapped to the swivel chair in the center of the operating room. Handcuffs bound her arms to the armrests and her legs to the foot rest. Several yards of bandages had been converted into makeshift rope, reinforcing the arm restraints and tying her body to the chair's back. A ball-gag covered her mouth and a blindfold was tied securely over her eyes. Eirin's assistant Reisen had remarked upon its resemblance to a BDSM scene. Reisen was now holding an icepack to her head as a result of her comment.

Normally the operating room wouldn't be used for something as simple as given someone their shots. But considering the frenzy Chen had been in even before she had come in through the front doors, Eirin decided to take advantage of the greater amount of equipment the room offered. Indeed, it had taken the help of Ran, Reisen and two other rabbits to restrain the frantic catgirl, wrestle her into the chair and secure her. Band-Aids and lollipops had then been distributed all around.

At least her other patient hadn't offered her any trouble. The spring fairy, one Lily White, had arrived earlier in a state of complete disarray. She had been talking too fast to be understandable, but once she mentioned the words "angry" and "Marisa", she had been granted immediate access to a special emergency room they had reserved for such an occurrence. According to Tewi, once the Mad Witch had learned that Hourai Clinic had an entire room nicknamed "Marisa's Dumping Grounds" she had sent the staff flowers and a thank-you note for thinking of her. Fortunately, Lily wasn't hurt too bad, just very banged up and dealing with the aftereffects of a Master Spark. She was now resting comfortably and would be ready to leave by evening.

Eirin could only wish Chen were so easy to deal with. Honestly, it was just one shot. She had suffered worse in all the fights she tended to pick. Eirin grunted in annoyance as she finally snapped the final handcuff into place. "There we go," she muttered, more to herself than anything. "Finally."

Behind her, Ran slumped with relief. "I'm sorry about all this, Eirin. She's normally much better behaved."

Chen's head turned in the direction of her mentor's voice. _"MMMPPHHH!" _she hissed angrily.

"Well, getting a rabies shot can be frightening," Eirin said, even if she did agree that Chen had overreacted. "Reisen, could you prepare the syringes please?"

"Huh? Oh, okay." The moon rabbit put the icepack down and walked over to the counter. From one of the cabinets she extracted two bottles and from one of the drawers, two syringes. She placed the nose of each needle in one of the bottles and pulled back on the injectors. Then she tapped out the bubbles and handed them to Reisen.

Ran blinked as Eirin inspected the syringes' contents. "What's the second one for?"

"Knockout drug. We will have to release her eventually you know."

Ran stared at her. "Wait, you have a tranquilizer and you didn't think to use it _before_ she covered us with scratches?"

"An injection is an injection. Would _you _have wanted to stick this in her when she was perched on your head and clawing your ears?"

Chen stiffened in the chair. Then she began pulling at her bonds, thrashing and wailing incomprehensibly.

Eirin groaned. "Oh for heaven's sake…Reisen, hold her still!"

Her assistant looked dubiously at the catgirl. Foam was starting to form around the gag and drip down her chin. "Um, are you sure-"

"Just do it already."

Careful to keep any vulnerable body parts away from Chen's claws, Reisen grabbed the catgirl from behind and did her best to hold her steady. Eirin held the syringe with the tranquilizer with one hand, thumb on the injector, and squinted.

She started counting down mentally. _Three, two, one, go! _With that, she plunged the needle into Chen's shoulder and pressed down on the injector. Chen's howl was loud enough to still rattle eardrums even with the gag in place.

"Well that was considerably more difficult than it had to be," Eirin muttered as she removed the syringe and handed to Reisen for disposal. "Okay, any second now…"

Ran scratched her head as she looked over her Shikigami. Chen was still growling and pulling against the restraints. "Shouldn't she be falling asleep by now?"

"It varies from person to person," Eirin explained. "Depending on their age, weight, power levels, and so on."

"But she's barely eighty pounds! She should be…"

Chen suddenly stiffened in her seat and slumped back. Her head rolled to one side and a sliver of drool mixed with foam dripped from the gag's side.

"…oh wait there she goes."

"Tenacious, isn't she?" Eirin muttered as she hefted the other syringe. She was about to proceed with the injection when loud music started playing. She had to react quickly to avoid dropping the syringe and turned to glare at the music's source.

"_If you embrace you hopes without fear, nothing exists that can keep you from it. You will meet with ominous disaster in the field where black death dances…"_

Abashed, Ran pulled the singing cell phone from one of her robe's many pockets. "Sorry," she said, her face turning red, "Yukari. I have to take this."

Eirin sighed as the Shikigami turned and walked to the other end of the room, answering the call as she went. One would think that living in Gensokyo would make it possible to avoid being interrupted by something like an annoying phone call, but she had to be treating the Shikigami of one of the only two people in possession of cell phones and they had to receive a call during the visit. How irritating.

Eirin finished giving Chen her shot while listening with partial interest to Ran's conversation. "Master? Is something wrong? Chen's almost finished with her shots. Do you wish us to return? Understood. Who is this youkai? Who? Wait, is that…Yukari, are you serious? I remember what she was like last time around. Are you sure? I...Yes."

Apparently Yukari hung up first. Ran was left staring at the now silent phone with a troubled look on her face.

"Miss Ran?" Reisen said, cocking her head in curiosity. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Yes, what was that all about?" Eirin asked as she disposed of the spent syringe. "You forget to clean out the toilets or something?"

"What?" Ran started out of her reverie. "Oh, oh no, nothing like that. It just seems that there may be a…problem we'll have to deal with. Nothing you have to concern yourself-"

"Eirin! Help me Eirin!"

All eyes swiveled towards the room's entrance. Tewi stood in the doorway, one hand clutching the frame in a death grip while she hyperventilated, her eyes wide in…fear? Excitement? Overstimulation? Eirin wasn't sure, but something had gotten the rabbit worked into a tizzy.

"Tewi!" Reisen said. She looked concerned for her friend. "What happened to you?"

Tewi ignored her. "Eirin! You gotta…There's a…It said it wanted to…It was really scary!"

"Um, I'm getting that," Eirin said, looking completely confused. "What in the world are you on about?"

"A monster!" Tewi blurted out. She lunged forward and grabbed Eirin by her collar. "In the waiting room! A big smoky monster with red eyes and a really, _really _big sword! It made all the plants die and said it wanted to see you!"

Eirin had absolutely no idea how to respond to something like that. But before she could respond Ran cut in.

"Wait, what was that about plants dying?"

Tewi's wide eyes swiveled to the multi-tailed Shikigami. "All of them! She just _looked _at them and they shriveled right up!"

"And you say she had a sword?"

"Yes! A big nasty one with lots and lots of blades! I thought she was going to make mincemeat out of me!"

Ran's posture stiffened. Her hands began trembling, but the rest of her body remained steady. When she spoke, her voice was calm and unwavering. "And did she have red eyes?"

Tewi nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Big ones, like this!" She pulled open her own eyelid to demonstrate the size of the thing eyes.

Ran's eyes rolled back. "Oh, fuck me."

"I'd rather not," Eirin said in irritation. "You sound like have some idea of what's going on. Care to enlighten us?"

Ran already had her cell phone out. She pressed buttons while she talked. "Yes, but first, have your assistants go and round up every rabbit-at-arms and tell them to suit up. This is going to be ugly."

"What is going to be ugly? Is explaining that really so hard?"

"Hold that thought. Yukari? Yes. Bad news I'm afraid. We just got confirmation that the she's here at Eientei. No, not yet. Shall I engage? Yes, I do believe it's necessary. Okay, understood. No, I'm amassing reinforcements now. I'll do my best. Thank you."

"Uh, Miss Ran?" Reisen asked when Ran hung up. "What's going on?"

"For the love of the gods, are you two still here? Go get those soldiers!"

Reisen looked confused. She glanced over to Eirin, who was frowning. But she nodded her permission.

After the two rabbits had scampered off, Eirin turned to Ran with her arms folded. "Okay Shikigami, you've got your backup. Care to fill in the very large blanks here?"

Ran shook her head. "I don't have much time…"

"You might be endangering my girls here. Make time."

"Point," Ran sighed. "Okay, how much do you know of, um, 'incidents' that have occurred in the last century or so?"

"Considering that we started one? Quite a bit, actually. I may not leave Eientei often, but I make it a point to keep up with current events."

"Good. Now, do the words 'Shadow Youkai' mean anything to you?"

Eirin frowned as she thought. Her memory was exceptionally good, but there was much data to sift through. She recalled about hearing something a few decades back, something of…

Oh.

That.

"Now, by Shadow Youkai do you refer to an incident that took place about sixty years ago," Eirin asked calmly. "One that resulted in the destruction of several human and youkai settlements in particularly messy fashion until your master intervened?"

"Yes."

"And am I understand the person responsible for those murders is in fact in my waiting room?"

"Seems to be."

"And how much of a crisis would this be?"

"Think the Flandre Scarlet World Tour."

"I see." Without another word, Eirin marched to a locked cabinet, set a ways apart from the others. She pulled a key out of her pocket and unlocked it. From inside she extracted a heavy black suitcase. The Lunarian doctor popped the clasps and pulled the lid open. From inside she removed several syringes filled with a sickly green fluid. These stuck into her uniform where she could access them with ease.

After this she reached back into the cabinet and pulled out a sawed-off shotgun. She pumped the action once and nodded in satisfaction.

"Well then," she said to a staring Ran. "It seems we have a bit of problem on our hands. Shall we get started solving it?"

…

_Okay, we've had two chapters of mostly talking. Next is fighty time!_

_Anyway, a few things I should note. First, the body that Rin constructed from Rumia's power and Rumia's Shadow Youkai form, popularly known as Ex-Rumia, aren't necessarily the same. One is a physical body with a lot of destructive power while the other is more of a manifestation of that power, thus more unstable in appearance. So while there are similarities, they are not identical._

_Second, the relationship between Gensokyo and modern technology is…complicated. For the most part the country resemble feudal Japan, at least development-wise, but there's been instances of more advanced tech popping up here and there. So I figure that some areas are simply more advanced than others, which is why Eirin was able to recognize the cell phone and Reimu was not. And why Eirin has a shotgun. Yukari probably has a regular black market going._

_Also, I was originally going to have Hourai Clinic be a part of Eientei's original construction, but then I learned that Eientei isn't constructed from bamboo. It's a classic style Japanese mansion. But I really wanted to make a bamboo clinic. So I decided that the clinic was constructed at a later date and might very well be a separate building. I guess it doesn't really matter, so long as I got my bamboo clinic. If Gilligan has taught me nothing else, it's that there's no problem that can't be solved with lots and lots of bamboo._

_And finally, while next to nothing is known about Rin, two of the most popular theories are that she's a Kirin and works as a nurse. The latter is derived from the Japanese arrangement of her name "Satsu__**ki Rin**__" while the latter is taken from one of Marisa's lines in EoSD, in which she tries to pass herself off as a shrine maiden (referring to Reimu), fails, and says she should have said nurse (possibly referring to Rin)._

_Until next time everyone!_


	4. Forgotten But Not Forgiven

Forgotten But Not Forgiven

It had been almost fifteen minutes since Cirno had left the rest of her gang to search out Reimu and company. Within those fifteen minutes she had become convinced that the Forest of Magic was a labyrinth designed by an absolute sadist, one with ADD. She had to have come back the same mushroom patch five times already, and the trees were all starting to look the same.

Still, she had to press on. Rumia was counting on her. A general never abandoned her men, no matter how gross of a manner they've been devoured by…

Cirno drove out that memory, or at least tried to. The look of utter terror on Rumia's face as her skin began to waste away kept forcing itself to the forefront of her mind. That in itself wouldn't be _as _bad if it weren't for the voices in her head providing color commentary.

_She's dead, you know,_ they whispered. _No one could survive that. She's dead and there's nothing you can do._

_Shut up! _she shot back. _She's not dead, okay? I'm gonna find her and I'm gonna save her and everything will be okay!_

_Stupid. You _saw_ her body get ripped apart. No one could survive that. Why do you keep trying to fool yourself?_

_Mystia got eaten once, and she came back, _Cirno reminded them. _Rumia's a youkai too. She can come back._

_Far from the same thing. Mystia at least had pieces left behind. Rumia didn't even have that._

Cirno ignored that last part. Instead, she came to a brief halt in order to select a route she hadn't already traveled. She was at the foot of a gnarled old willow tree, with the path branching off in three different directions. Biting her lip, she closed her eyes and began pointing at each path in quick succession.

"Eenie-menie-um, money-mie? Which path do I…no that's not right."

"Well, _hello _there, sweet thing," a low, syrupy voice said from directly overhead. "Are you lost? Maybe I can help."

Cirno looked up and had to keep from screaming. A spider youkai, tarantula by the look of him, was slowly descending on a string. Soon he was hanging upside-down directly in front of her, a wide toothy grin plastered on his face.

"It's not safe for little girls like you to wander around by yourself," he leered, giving her a mocking tip of the bowler he wore. "Why, there's no telling what kind of-"

Before he could finish, Cirno shrieked and fell back, bringing her hands up to bear. White light flashed, and a moment later the tarantula was frozen stiff, web and all. That lecherous smile remained on his face, displayed far too many jagged teeth.

Cirno shuddered and immediately left the area. She had to get out of this forest. Too many freaks wandering around.

She decided to change tactics. Instead of continuing her fruitless wandering from one twisting path to the next, she shot straight up. Cirno closed her eyes and covered her face the best she could with her hands, but branches still scratched at her exposed skin as she tore her way through the intertwining treetops.

Then suddenly the leaves gave way to open air. Sunlight burst into her vision and she was through. Cirno soared up and up until she was she could clearly see the landscape stretching around her in every direction.

_I really should've done this from the beginning, _she thought as she shielded her eyes from the sun and looked in every direction. Nothing, nothing, nothing, noth…

There! Over the fields south of the Forest of Magic, Cirno could see five dots moving quickly through the air. She could barely make them out, but it looked like one of them was riding a broom. That was good enough for her. She immediately starting heading in that direction, ignoring the weariness and pain that was started to spread through her beat-up body. Fairies had amazing recuperative powers, but no one took two Master Sparks twice in one day and expected to be on their best game.

To top it off, those damned voices still wouldn't stop taunting her. _Even if she's still alive, what are you going to do? Your ice didn't do anything, nothing you and your friends did anything. You'll probably just end up getting eaten too, and then who will-_

_Shut. __**Up**__._

Mercifully, this time they complied. Cirno steeled herself and added as much speed as she could. It didn't matter if Reimu and the rest thought she was useless. Rumia was _her _friend and she would be damned before she got left behind.

_Hang on Rumia, _she thought as she sped over the treetops. _I'm coming._

…

_Deep Within_

At that moment, Rumia was busy calculating her odds of surviving the coming encounter with Eirin Yagokoro. From what she had heard the Lunarian doctor wasn't one to be trifled with. Reportedly, back during the incident of never-ending night, she had stood fast against Eientei's invaders and almost held them off single-handedly. And considering those invaders had been composed of some of Gensokyo's biggest names, including Marisa Kirisame, Reimu Hakurei, Yukari Yakumo and several others, Rumia was growing understandably apprehensive about the upcoming meeting. Even though she personally wouldn't be the target of Eirin's wrath, she was still inside of Rin's body, and anything that happened to Rin would probably happen to her in some form or another. And since Rin had only Rumia's meager powers to defend herself with, Rumia was starting to wonder if now would be a good time attract the attention of as many deities as possible and try to make peace.

Of course, there was that one incident with the smoky pillar of darkness and the bamboo stalks. Rumia was still trying to figure out exactly where in the hell that had come from.

For her part, Rin didn't seem all that concerned about the coming confrontation, though Rumia was starting to think that was more due to a short attention span than any measure of confidence. She was still in the sitting position and was watching her red screen intently. On it, her gnarled talons were turning the pages of the magazine she had picked up.

"Oh look Rumia!" she squealed as one particular article caught her eye. "Did you know that there's a new shrine at the top of the Youkai Mountain with _two _goddesses? And the shrine maiden is one of the goddess' descendants? Oh wait, yeah you do. Sorry, forgot."

Rumia sighed. "The Moriya shrine isn't exactly big news anymore, Rin. That magazine's a little outdated."

"Is it? Oh well, my memory's even more outdated, so it's all good. But did you know that the goddess and the maiden were caught in an incestuous relationship? And the other goddess ran away crying? It says she was in love with the first goddess. Wow, things must be downright _insane_ over there!"

"Rin, it's a tabloid, it's all bullshit. Don't take it seriously. 'Sides, shouldn't you be more concerned about meeting your old boss?"

Her words made the Kirin cringe. "I know, I know! It's just I'm so nervous about what I'm gonna say, I need some kind of distraction to keep from wetting myself. I mean, she was kinda pissed last time I saw her, but maybe she's calmed down. I don't know, do you think she'll be happy to see me?"

…

"Ran and I will lead the first squad," Eirin said to the assembled soldiers. "As we understand it, close quarters is this thing's specialty, so we'll try to force it outside. Once it's clear of the building, Tewi and Reisen's teams will move in and pound it to oblivion. That is, unless Yukari and her friends show up before then, in which case you let _them _pound it to oblivion. Do _not_ engage in hand-to-hand combat, you will die. Maintain your distance at all times and if it singles you out, retreat immediately. But above all, do not, do _not, do not_ let it go after the princess! Her safety is our number one priority. Do you understand?"

On cue, the members of the Eientei Guard snapped to attention and saluted. "Ma'am, yes Ma'am!"

"Good. Now get to your positions, this is going to be nasty."

As Tewi and Reisen led their squads away, Ran took the opportunity to sidle up to Eirin.

"Hey Eirin? Quick question. Why do you have a…machine gun?"

"Shotgun."

"Right, shotgun. Why do you have one? After all, you can shoot a virtual storm of danmaku from your fingertips. Doesn't it seem a little…redundant?"

A mirthless half-smile touched Eirin's lips. She hefted the weapon and ran on hand lovingly over its wooden handle. "Sure, if you want them to survive."

Ran blinked. "What does that thing _do?"_

"What does it do? It solves problems, my dear Shikigami. It solves problems."

…

_Deep Within_

"So I can see why Eirin would get mad at me," Rin was saying. "I did go a little crazy and cause a lot of problems. But did she really have to squeeze all of my friends out of me and lock me up like that? I mean, she didn't even _try _to talk to me afterwards. Have you ever been alone in the dark?"

"…yes. All the time."

"And you couldn't leave? And you were stuck in that darkness forever and ever with no one to talk to, nothing to do, can't even _sleep _or do anything to take your mind off of how lonely you are? That's just too much."

Considering how Rumia had been convinced that that was going to be her fate she was hard pressed to disagree. "But you're just going to talk and sort things out, right? There's not going to be any shooting going on, right?"

"Of course! I learned my lesson the last time around. No shooting, only talking…Oh look, she came!"

The view on the screen shifted, and Rumia found herself staring at the door at the far end of the waiting room, the one that rabbit had ran through. Through it had entered a long-haired woman wearing a red-and-black dress (at least she assumed it was red-and-black. It was a little hard to tell with the screen's tint) and hat decorated with what appeared to be depictions of constellations. Accompanying her was a fox youkai wearing a long robe and in possession of far more tails than should be considered strictly necessary. Rumia recognized the latter one as Ran Yakumo, Shikigami to Yukari. Which would mean the former was Eirin. And neither of them looked like they were there to talk.

Rumia had no idea what Ran was doing here, but her presence couldn't be anything good. In fact, it probably meant that Yukari was close. For some reason that Rumia could never fully explain, the ancient youkai terrified her. Sure, everyone was scared of her on some level, but to Rumia it was akin to a phobia. She bit her lip and watched the proceedings while thinking _I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home._

"There she is!" Rin said happily. She directed her borrowed body to stand up. "Okay, here we-"

That was when twelve rabbits, all dressed in green militaristic uniforms, took position on either side of the newcomers and, on Eirin's command, started shooting.

…

Eirin watched dispassionately as the air filled with danmaku, all focused on a single target. She was mildly surprised when the Shadow Youkai didn't even try to defend itself. If anything, it almost looked shocked that they would take initiative and throw the first punch. Whatever the reason, every shot hit home and the Shadow Youkai soon disappeared behind blinding flashes of light as the bullets exploded upon impact.

Eirin waited a good ten seconds before shouting "Cease fire!" She wasn't so optimistic to assume they had finished it off with the first volley, but the smoke kicked up by her girls' firepower would make it difficult for her to take a shot of her own. And she didn't want to miss.

"That was…easy," Ran muttered as they watched the smoke fade.

Eirin took aim with her shotgun, barrel focused at where the Shadow Youkai had vanished. "It's not dead."

"Yeah, probably not," Ran sighed. "You want this one?"

"Yes."

The smoke cleared enough for Eirin to get a good look at the other end of the waiting room. Aside from some splintered furniture and torn magazines, it was empty. Eirin frowned but she didn't move her finger from the trigger. She wouldn't relax until she did the thing's autopsy herself.

There. Hiding behind one of the overturned chairs, a shadow was moving. _The _Shadow, to be exact. Eirin held her fire as the top of its head peeked out into view.

"_Wait…Eirin, wait," _it said in a horrible gravelly voice that made her think of tombstones being ground into dust. _"Don't shoot…it's me…"_

Eirin lined up her shot and fired.

The shotgun belched smoke and a blazing green fireball shot out, starting off the size of a pellet when it exited the barrel but swiftly grew as it charged towards the thing's face. By the time it impacted, it was the size of a cantaloupe and neatly blew off half of its head.

The room filled with a soulless howl of agony as the Shadow Youkai fell backward, clutching at the ruined remains of its face. Its sword fell clattering to the ground.

Ran whistled her appreciation. "Wow, you weren't kidding about that thing. What is it?"

Eirin frowned, but said, "It's of Outside World make, but I had the kappa upgrade it."

"Upgrade? That's putting it mildly. You look disappointed though."

"It was _supposed _to launch it through the wall."

"Oh."

Well, if they couldn't force it outside at that moment, then they would just have to change tactics. Eirin pumped another round into the chamber, walked around the waiting room until she had a clear shot at the moaning, writhing monster and fired. And fired again. And again.

…

_Deep Within_

Gongs were going off in Rumia's head and light was exploding behind her eyes. All around her, the endless sea of nothing had become an endless sea of thrashing energy and pain. She could literally _feel _the substance of it twist in agony as the impacts of whatever it was hitting them reverberated through the recesses of Rin's mind.

Rin herself had taken the worst of it. She was lying curled up in the fetal position, clutching her belly and staring with glazed eyes at the shattered remains of her screen. She had managed to withstand the first round of fire without much difficulty, much as she had absorbed the bullets of Rumia's friends earlier. But whatever Eirin had shot at her had been much, much worse. The screen had exploded upon impact and though it was not actually Rumia's body taking the hit, she could still feel the echo of it rip through her core.

"She shot me," Rin was whispering. "She shot me she shot me she shot me…"

Rumia cried out as another impact sent pain ripping through their space. "Rin, snap out of it!" she screamed. "You've got to get us out of here!"

"…she shot me she shot me she shot me…"

"She'll keep shooting you if you don't move your ass! Rin, listen to me, we have to-"

"It was supposed to be a talk!" Rin screeched. Suddenly she was to her feet (metaphorically speaking) and shouting towards where her screen used to be. "I just wanted to talk! It wasn't supposed to be like last time! Why did you shoot me? _Why?"_

…

Eirin was seriously considering demanding a refund from the kappa. Despite shooting five rounds into the monster and blowing off its head and most of its torso in the process, it was _still _moving. And to top it off her shotgun had maybe one round left before it completely melted to slag from the heat.

Oh well, at least they were making progress. Her concentrated fire had reduced it to a quivering mass of shadows that didn't even resemble a humanoid form anymore. If this last shot didn't finish it off, then she would turn to the syringes.

Eirin pumped the final round into the chamber, noting with displeasure the amount of force required to accomplish just that simple movement, aimed for the core of the thing's mass, and fired.

It hit, but not in the way she had intended. A literal split-second before collision a thin twisting appendage formed itself from the main mass and shot out to catch the fireball in mid-air. To Eirin's surprise, the projectile did not explode upon impact but remained burning in the monster's grasp like some sort of flaming baseball.

A shiver ran over the thing's body and it began to grow. The tentacle holding the fireball grew fingers and shaped itself into an arm. Another arm braced itself against the floor and pushed the main body up as legs formed underneath. While all this took place, four smaller tentacles popped out of the top and twisted together to recreate its head.

All of this takes time to describe. In reality, it was on its feet and opening its eyes in less than three seconds. Eirin felt the first quiver of unease, but she didn't lose her nerve. Before it could regain its senses, she threw away the ruined shotgun and shouted, "Shoot it down!"

Her girls responded immediately, Eirin and Ran adding their own firepower to the barrage. This time, the Shadow Youkai didn't bother to seek cover. Its body shook as the bullets exploded against its frame, but it didn't disintegrate.

Then Eirin's quick eyes noticed something strange. "Cease fire!" she snapped. The danmaku cut off in an instant.

Ran sidled up to her. "Hope you got a plan," she muttered to the Lunarian. "Because we're kinda dropping the ball in the whole 'force it outside' department-"

"Shhhh!"

Eirin squinted at the Shadow Youkai's form, still visible through the smoke. It was as she had thought. The bullets had ceased to detonate upon impact and were instead sticking to it like knives. It still held the green fireball in one hand like some sort of demonic lantern.

Eirin had seen that phenomenon from exactly one being before. Pieces came together in her mind, constructing a conclusion that she didn't even want to entertain.

_Oh no, _she thought as the feeling of unease grew into icy fear. _No, not this. Not her._

As if in confirmation of her fears, bullets began to sink into the thing's body. At the same time, it began squeezing the fireball, causing it to grow smaller and smaller. It seemed to be literally pressing it into its palm.

A wave of uneasy muttering spread through her soldiers. It was clear that they found the situation as disturbing as their leader did. A few of the older veterans had been there the first time this had happened and, judging by the looks on their faces, they were reaching the same conclusion Eirin was.

The last of the bullets vanished and the thing was whole once more. Eirin opened her mouth to ask a question, but before the first word left her mouth the Shadow Youkai screamed, a high-pitched echoing cry that caused all to wince in pain and cover their ear.

Then it grabbed up a fallen chair and hurled it at Eirin. "Watch out!" one of Eirin's rabbits shouted as she tackled her out of the way. The chair crashed against the far wall hard enough to crack the bamboo as it shattered into splinters.

The rabbits immediately began firing again, but this time the Shadow Youkai wasn't interested in being hit again. It snatched up its sword from the ground and leapt straight at the wall. The bamboo exploded into dust and it fled to the outside.

"Are you all right, Ma'am?" asked the rabbit that had saved her, Utada Eirin thought her name was.

Eirin nodded and allowed herself to be helped to her feet. "Thanks," she said. "Want a promotion?"

Utada smiled wryly. "Do I get my own quarters?"

"Don't push you luck." She took a deep breath and surveyed the battleground. It was bad, though not as bad as it could have been. The far end of the waiting room was a complete loss. Even without that hole in the wall, the floor and all the furniture was completely ruined. Still, all in all they had gotten off lightly.

"Ma'am, forgive me, but it's her, isn't it?" Utada asked. "It's Rin Satsuki."

There were some muffled gasps coming from the other assembled soldiers. Eirin pressed her lips together in a thin line, but she said, "Looks like it."

"Huh?" Ran asked. "Who's Rin Sat…seki? Suki?"

Eirin shook her head. She could feel on hell of a headache starting to form. "In a minute." She turned to the soldiers. "All right, we're clearing out. All of you, go find-"

That was when she heard someone yell "Fire at will!" and the sound of flying bullets filled the air. Eirin froze as she realized what had happened. The shock of what she had seen had completely driven one important fact from her mind.

"Reisen and Tewi," she spat, making the names sound like a curse. "Godsdamn it, I forgot." She whirled back to Utada. "Okay, change of plans! You're in charge now. Go get the princess, sneak her out of the back, and get her as far away from her as possible! Head for the Scarlet Devil Mansion and tell Sakuya Izayoi what happened, got it?"

The uncertainty vanished from her new commander's face as she snapped to attention. "Ma'am, yes Ma'am!"

"Good. Move!"

As Utada led her soldiers away Eirin grabbed Ran and pulled her along as she started running for the side exit. Ran complied, but she was still baffled.

"What? What's going on? Who the hell is this Rin person? I thought we were dealing with the Shadow Youkai!"

"We might be!" Eirin shouted back. "But it's much, much worse than that."

"How could it be worse? What's all this about? Eirin!"

"Later! We have a buffet to crash!"

"Buffet?"

"Yeah, and if we don't hurry it's gonna be all-you-can-eat rabbit. Now shut up and move!"

…

Reisen had never liked fighting. She could do it if she had to, but on the whole it was something to be avoided. So when she found herself leading twelve of the Eientei guard, ready to attack an unknown enemy, she was understandably nervous.

Her squad had taken position along the right wall of Hourai Clinic, waiting for the Shadow Youkai to reveal itself. Tewi's group was stationed at the left side, with the plan being to catch it in their crossfire and _hopefully_ stall it until reinforcements arrived. Despite what Eirin had said, there was no question of ending the fight themselves. From what they had learned this thing didn't play by the rules.

For what had to be the fifth time, Reisen dared to peek around the building's corner. The knowledge that the Shadow Youkai was only separated from them by a few thin walls of bamboo and paper was not doing her nerves any good. On the other side, she could see Tewi doing the same thing. The two met each other's glances, and Tewi shot her friend an encouraging smile and a thumbs-up. Reisen shakily returned the gesture and ducked back behind the clinic. She sighed and slumped against the wall. Now that there was a definite plan of attack, Tewi had gotten over her previous panic and had become downright chipper about the upcoming battle. Reisen couldn't help feel a little envious of her friend's confidence. As for herself, she kept imagining the Shadow Youkai's sword suddenly jamming itself through the wall to pierce her skull.

In which case she should probably stop leaning against the clinic. She gulped and scooted away.

"Reisen?" said Shiina, one of her soldiers. "Are you all right?"

"What? Oh, I'm fine!" she said, forcing a laugh. It sounded fake even to her ears. "Just wondering what's taking them so long, that's all."

Shiina shot her a dubious look. "If you say so." She turned away from Reisen and focused on the forest, presumably keeping an eye out for their promised help.

Reisen had to repress a moan. And to top it off, she had been drafted as some kind of military leader. That was supposed to be Tewi's job and Tewi's alone. She wasn't cut out for this.

That was when the chaos began.

It started with Eirin's voice yelling something she couldn't make out, and then the sound of large amounts of danmaku being discharged pounded through the walls of the clinic. Reisen tensed up immediately. _Oh gods, oh gods, it's really happening, what do I do, what do I do…_

"Reisen?" said Shiina. "Reisen! Your orders?"

Her voice jolted Reisen out of her panic attack. The Lunar rabbit pulled herself to her feet and took a deep breath. "Um, well, Eirin doesn't want us attacking until the Shadow Youkai's forced outside. So wait until you, um, see it come out, and, and take it out. Do your, um, do your, you know, your thing."

_Great speech Reisen, _she berated herself. _They're just overflowing with confidence now._

But she didn't have time to worry about that now. The sound of firing had cut off inside, to be replaced with a repeating _click-_BOOM! That would be Eirin and her shotgun. Reisen had accompanied her when she had picked it up after the kappa had gotten done upgrading it and had witnessed a demonstration. Despite herself, she was almost starting to feel sorry for the Shadow Youkai. Almost. After all, Eirin stood a good chance of finishing this herself. If so, Reisen wouldn't even have to look at the thing.

The sound of shotgun blasts ceased, and there was still no sign of the Shadow Youkai. Reisen found herself feel a small trickle of hope mixed with worry. Was it over? Had they killed the thing? Or had it killed them? The former was more likely, as there would have been a great deal more yelling if it had rose up and slaughtered the lot. But still, what if could kill someone with a look, just stop their heart and that was it? Reisen told herself not to entertain such thought, that they weren't doing her any good, but she couldn't help but think of worst case scenarios.

And then the yelling started. And the shooting resumed. Oh gods, it wasn't dead. And it was going to kill them and then kill everyone outside.

That was when a good chunk of the clinic's front disintegrated and something charged out of the newly created hole. Reisen felt all the doubts she had been feeling freeze into ice. It didn't take a genius to identify the newcomer as the dreaded Shadow Youkai.

"Reisen! Do we fire?" Shiina demanded.

Oh yeah. They had a job to do.

"What? Oh right. Fire at will!" Reisen shouted. At the same time, Tewi was giving the same command to her squad on the other end. Somehow, now that she was actually facing the monster instead of waiting for it, she found the fear easier to ignore. Adrenaline was funny that way.

The response was immediate. At her word, both squads of rabbits rolled into range and pointed their fingers at the Shadow Youkai. Fat spheres and small, sharp blades of energy in red, blue and lavender hurled forward from both directions. The Shadow Youkai tried to turn to face the new sound, but was caught in the crossfire and soon disappeared behind the barrage.

_It worked! _Reisen thought numbly. _It actually worked!_ Grinning, she pointed her right hand at the monster, index finger and thumb extended, and added her own firepower to the assault, adding wave after wave of glowing red blades.

"How long do we keep this up?" Shiina shouted over the noise.

"Until we see it explode!" Reisen yelled back. The surprising success they were experiencing was starting to fill her with confidence.

"Sounds good to me!"

Reisen nodded and kept firing. Funny though, the monster didn't show any of sign of caving to their attack. She had to squint to tell, but it looked like it was still standing. That couldn't be good. And then…

"Stop shooting!" someone's voice cried, somehow rising about the sounds of battle. "Cease fire! Fall back! _Shut those fucking things off!"_

_Cease fire? Huh? _Confused, Reisen did as she was told. Around her, her soldiers were doing the same.

Eirin was standing on the roof of Hourai Clinic. The Lunarian doctor was holding a megaphone, which was how she had managed to make herself heard.

"Okay, everyone with ears longer than two feet, listen up! I've already sent my squad to help evacuate the princess! I want you to gather up the rest of the mansion staff and join them! Commander Utada will fill you in on the rest. Now move!"

_Huh? We're supposed to go, just like that?_ Reisen exchanged looks with her squad they looked just a confused as she was.

"I'd listen if I were you," said a soft voice directly behind her.

Reisen whirled around. "Gah! How'd you-"

Ran the Shikigami stood there, clasped hands covered by her sleeves. "There's been a change of plans. You're to follow Eirin's orders and let her handle this."

"Bwuh? But it's not dead!" Reisen shot a glance over her shoulder to confirm. The Shadow Youkai was on its hands and knees, staring at the ground. It looked hurt, but it was definitely not down for the count.

"How is Eirin supposed to kill it by herself?"

"I'm not sure, so maybe you can tell me," Ran said calmly. "Does the name 'Rin Satsuki' mean anything to you?"

"Rin?" Shiina gaped. "That thing is _Rin?"_

As for her part, Reisen felt like someone had punched her in the gut. She wobbled a bit and had to brace herself against the clinic's side. Her weak legs slipped out from under her, sending her sliding to the ground.

"So you do know her. Good. Perhaps you would care to explain who that is and why she is such bad news."

Reisen didn't answer. In fact, she barely even heard Ran's words at all. The rhythmic percussion of her heart was pounding so loud that it drowned out everything else.

_Ba-bump. Ba-bump. Ba-bump._

Someone called her name from far away. Reisen didn't acknowledge it. Her mind had been forced to a stop and had yet to restart.

Someone clapped their hands in front of Reisen's face. "Reisen! Wake up!"

Reisen jolted. She stared up with wide eyes at Shiina's face, which was looking down at her in concern.

"Reisen, are you still with us?"

Reisen swallowed but didn't respond.

Shiina cursed. She whirled to the other soldiers and screamed, "You heard the doctor! We're getting the hell out of here!"

There was no argument, no questions. They also knew the name Rin Satsuki. Shiina grabbed Reisen by the arm and hauled her off the ground. From there the Lunarian rabbit was partially dragged as squad turned and ran for the Eientei mansion as fast as they could, a disgruntled-looking Ran floating right behind.

As for Shiina herself, she had been friends with Reisen Udongein ever since the latter's arrival. And she also remembered Rin Satsuki very clearly, both after the change and before. She couldn't fault Reisen for falling apart, but she also couldn't let that make her forget the current crisis.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Tewi's group had also gotten the message, judging by the way they hadn't even bothered going around the clinic and were now bounding across its roof. They had good cause too. If Ran was to be believed, and there was little reason not to, Rin Satsuki was on the loose again. May the gods help them all.

…

It felt…strange, walking towards the intruder. Out of the many, many people she never expected to deal with again, Rin Satsuki was in the top five. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of living so long is that people on those sorts of lists tend to show up sooner or later.

That is, of course, if the creature really was Rin Satsuki. There really was no way to tell based on sight alone. Of course, there was no one else who would simply absorb danmaku shots like that, and her showing up in Eientei would be quite the coincidence otherwise. To that end, Eirin was going to assume that it was her until proven otherwise.

To that end, she had taken the time to retrieve her bow from storage. It was a bit of a step down from her now ruined shotgun, but it would get the message across.

From the looks of things, her girls had done their job well. The thing she believed to be Rin was kneeling in the dirt, hands splayed before her and sword lying some feet away. It was partially turned away from her, but Eirin could still see what appeared to be smoking bits of pitch dripping from it face to leave smudges on the ground.

Eirin frowned and notched an arrow in her bow. Tears or no, Rin Satsuki was still one of the greatest threats to Eientei. She would be damned before she let another rampage happen.

"Rin," Eirin called out. "Rin! Rin Satsuki! Turn around."

Still sniveling, the thing pulled itself to its feet and turned to face her. _"Eirin. You…recognize me?"_

_Now I do for certain, _Eirin thought to herself. Aloud, she said, "What are you doing here, Rin? How did you escape from your prison?"

"_Rumia…helped me. She opened…the box."_

That name didn't ring a bell. "Is Rumia the Shadow Youkai's name?"

"_I don't…know…what that…is."_

Huh, that was odd. "And is this Rumia's whose body you're wearing?"

"_Yes."_

Eirin pulled back on the bowstring. "Let her go, Rin. I don't want to hurt you."

Rin's stolen eyes blazed up with new fire and her guttural voice came in stronger, losing that note of forced hesitation. _"You already hurt me! Why? I just wanted to talk."_

…

_Deep Within_

_I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die…_

Her mind locked up by fear, Rumia stared with frantic eyes as Rin angrily addressed her newly created screen. On it, she could see Eirin grimly holding them at arrow-point. Considering that Rin had managed to absorb all attempts to destroy her, Rumia had little doubt that she could survive the arrow. But that didn't mean getting skewered first was going to be any fun, especially since it appeared that Rumia would be taking some of that backlash as well.

Besides, this was Eirin they were talking about. The arrow was probably cursed or poisoned or something like that.

"You didn't even give me a chance to explain myself!" Rin screamed. Her balled fists were trembling and angry tears were pouring down her face.

"_I didn't know it was you, not at first," _Eirin said, her voice sounding strangely mechanical when filtered through Rin's borrowed ears. _"But even if I did, have you seen yourself lately? Would you take the chance?"_

"Uh, R-Rin?" Rumia ventured. "Maybe you should calm down-"

"If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have bothered sending Tewi to get you!" Rin shouted. "I would have just smashed my way in and done it! I'm strong enough to do that now!"

"Rin, stop shouting at her. You only have my power, and I-"

"Rumia, please," Rin said in a strained voice. "Not now."

"_I'm sure," _Eirin responded. _"But even if I knew it was you, do you really think I'd be waiting for you with open arms? Face it Rin, you didn't exactly leave us with a good impression last time around."_

"But I've changed!" Rin cried in frustration. "I'm different now! I just want to get my life back!"

"_Oh? And how does this 'Rumia' feel about giving up her life so you might regain yours?"_

Rumia's spine stiffened.

"She's my friend!" Rin protested. "She helped me escape!"

"_And did she willingly let you devour her body, trap her mind and steal her power?" _Eirin said._ "I see no difference between what you did then and what you're doing now. Still taking away people's lives against their will. Did you know that there are still those who wake up screaming from nightmares about what you did to them? And you wonder why we're not taking chances."_

Rumia glanced around at the endless void around them, at the gigantic crimson screen, at her own paralyzed body and at the increasingly nutty girl who had made it all happen. She thought about the brief glimpses of what Rin had created from her power, of the pain she had felt coursing through the space around them when Eirin had shot them. She thought about the signs of Rin's mental instability and being trapped forever in this place, unable to escape, unable to move and with no one except one very strange girl with more than a few issues for company. Rumia found herself seeing Eirin's logic, harsh as it was, to be wholly reasonable.

"I had no choice!" Rin shot back. "What was I supposed to do, just slither my way back? Let the sun dehydrate me until I shriveled up? Let all the fairies of the world turn me into a kickball or a beanbag chair? I'm not working with a lot of options here!"

"_Then prove it."_

"Eh?"

The steel in Eirin's eyes sharpened. _"You say that you're different, that this one incident was just an act of desperation? Then prove it. You've made it here, so you don't need Rumia anymore, right? Let her go, and I'll believe you."_

Rumia's heart leapt, though she did her best to conceal it. This was it. If Rin would only listen to the pissed off lady with the bow-and-arrow, then Rumia stood a chance of walking away from this nightmare.

Then again, there was just a good a chance that her captor would completely disregard Eirin's words and keep her imprisoned.

Or go crazy and tear her mental ghost apart. It could go any way, really.

Rin, however, didn't respond. She just stared at her feet.

"_How about it, Rin? Are you really willing to start over with a clean slate? Let Rumia go."_

Rin's eyes remained downward. Her shoulders shook slightly, but other than that she made no move.

"_Rin, I need an answer here. Hello?"_

"Hey Rumia?" Rin said suddenly.

"Huh?"

"Am I really so terrible?"

Rumia gulped. "W-what do you mean?"

Rin looked over her shoulder. Her eyes were devoid of emotion, her voice a dead monotone. Rumia couldn't tell, but it also looked like her aura was starting to darken. _That _couldn't be good news.

"Am I really that much of a monster, something to be feared and despised?" Rin turned completely and started walking towards where Rumia hung, her bare feet striding across the open nothingness. "A horrible freak of nature, something's whose very presence makes your insides squirm. Is that how you see me?"

Rumia gulped. "Well, um, you know I've really only known you for a couple hours, so it's way too early to make any, um, _judgment _calls," she babbled. "But you know, you seem like a nice person all around, and whatever happened back then, well, that's in the past right? So if Miss Eirin's giving you a second chance, hehe, then maybe you should, um…"

Rin reached up with one luminescent hand to touch Rumia's cheek.

"…listen…to her? Oh gods, please don't…"

A small, sad smile touched Rin's lips. "I guess it's true then," she said. Rumia couldn't tell who she was talking to.

"Um, is that so? What's true?"

Rin didn't answer. She turned again to face the screen.

"Eirin?"

"_What is it, Rin?"_

Rin took a deep breath, and Rumia's body tensed with it. She squeezed her eyes shut. This was it.

"Eirin, I-"

That was when something hit them and the world was knocking spinning.

Rumia screamed as the darkness started convulsing around them. White, red and purple bursts of energy erupted around them like pustules. Rin was knocked off her feet and knocked sprawling.

The view in the screen was in complete disarray. It was difficult to tell if what they were seeing was static or if Rin's body was being whirled around at great speed.

"What's going on?" Rin shouted as she tried to pull herself up. Another quake shook the place, knocking her flat again. "Rumia, what happened?"

"How should I know? This is your mind!"

Rin managed to stumble her way over to the screen just in time for the picture to clear. From the look of things, her constructed body was lying on its side in the dirt, staring at the bamboo forest. Both she and Rumia gasped in unison when they saw some of the biggest names in the Gensokyo's Who's Who list.

Reimu Hakurei, youkai exterminator extraordinaire and Gensokyo's resident problem solver. Marisa Kirisame, Mad Witch of the Forest of Magic and someone who still might be holding a grudge against Rumia. Mima the Evil Ghost, notorious dark magician whose name was still spoken of in whispers. Suika, the only known oni active in Gensokyo and reported to be able to bench press the Youkai Mountains without a warm-up.

And, in keeping with the sort of day Rumia was having, Yukari Yakumo, Gensokyo's vicious watchdog and the closest thing they had to a Capital-G God. Also the person who ranked the highest on Rumia's Avoid-At-All-Costs list. All taken together, Rumia estimated their chances of surviving to be somehow near Cirno's chances of successful enrollment in the Gensokyo University.

The cavalry had arrived, and they had brought hell with them.

"She tricked me!" Rin screamed. She started banging her fists against the screen. "She tricked me! She just wanted to keep me busy until _they_ showed up! Well, I won't let her get away with this."

Even though Rumia knew it wasn't real, the feel of bile rising in her throat was pretty damned convincing. "Um, w-w-what d-do you mean b-b-by-"

"I'm sorry Rumia, but I need for you to go away for awhile. I can't afford any distractions."

"What? What does-"

"Don't worry, I'll come get you after I'm done teaching these guys a lesson."

"Wait! What are-"

And then everything disappeared. Rin, the screen, the writhing substance around them, even Rumia's imaginary body and the sensations it was experiences. All gone. Just nothingness.

_Hello? _she said, or at least tried to. Her mind formed the word, but there was no outlet.

_Oh Rin, _she wondered as despair rose up. _What are you doing?_

…

"No!" Eirin screamed as Rin was ripped from the ground and tossed in the air like a ragdoll. "Not now! I was reaching her!"

"So am I," Yukari said. "Watch me reach her."

She called up fire and plasma and twisted them together to form a blazing rope of destruction, which she promptly hurled through one of her bizarre portals. Another portal opened directly over the still-flying Rin, causing the twisting rope to bear down on her and slam her to the ground.

"That reached her! Didn't it reach her Suika?"

"Sure _did_!" the little oni cheered. "Hey, I can reach _her_ too!"

The little oni suddenly stopped being so little. Within a matter of seconds she was more than fifteen feet tall and tearing up bamboo by their roots. When she had enough to fill her enormous palm, she raised it over her head.

"No!" Eirin cried, but it was too late. Suika slammed the entire load down on Rin, who was just struggling to her feet. The force of the impact literally drove her into the ground.

Eirin stamped her feet in frustration. "You idiots! Stop! You don't know what you're dealing with!"

"Maybe not, but we know how to deal with it!" Marisa laughed. "Reimu?"

"Got it." The shrine maiden extracted a card from her skirt. At her command, it started hovering in the air, her yin-yang balls circling at high speed.

"Evil Sealing Circle!" she snarled, and the card exploded in red and blue light, which surrounded the ripped-up stalks of bamboo and burnt them to ash.

"Ready dearie?" Mima said sweetly to Marisa. Her former prodigy grinned and gave her a thumbs-up.

"Am I ever!"

Mima's teeth flashed as she grinned. "Good."

The two of them flew high above the smoking impact zone. Directly beneath, there was a still a small dark speck, lying motionless in the crater. Mima gently placed her hands on Marisa's shoulder. At the touch, her fingers began glowing with a sparkling green light. Meanwhile, Marisa's hakkero hummed loudly as it gathered power.

"No!" Eirin screamed. She pointed her arrow at the pair, but then she was suddenly snatched up from the ground, dropping the bow in the process.

"Uh-uh-uh," Suika chastised the struggling Lunarian. "Play nice!"

Unable to break from the giant's grasp or even reach her syringes, Eirin could only watch helplessly as the light in the sky grew brighter and brighter, until…

"_Final Spark!" _Marisa and Mima cried in unison. Pure destructive force, thicker and brighter than even the Master Spark, shot forth from the hakkero directly down into the crater.

"What's wrong, Lunarian?" Yukari said mockingly as she hovered over to Eirin's side. "You seem concerned for the monster's safety. Don't tell me you've gotten soft."

"Idiot!" Eirin spat. "That's not the Shadow Youkai!"

"Is it not?" Yukari seemed wholly unconcerned about this revelation. "Hmmm, it certainly looks a little different, all smoky and such." She shrugged. "Oh well, still close enough."

"No it's not! Seriously, you don't know what you're doing!"

"And you do, I suppose?"

"Yes! That's no normal youkai, that's-"

"Hey guys!" Marisa shouted, magically amplifying her voice to make herself heard over the roar of her attack. "Something's happening, ze!"

All eyes turned to her and Mima. They were still digging their way to Makai with the Final Spark, but Marisa's face had started to look strained. Considering that her ridiculously overpowered spells didn't usually tax her, especially with Mima lending her power to the mix, this was somewhat odd.

"Marisa?" Reimu said as she floated to the witch's side. "What wrong?"

"Don't know," Marisa mumbled back. "Feels like something…pushing back…nneeggghhh!"

Suddenly the Final Spark seemed to tamper off near the hole's entrance. Just as it expanded out from Marisa's hands to a thick cylinder of energy, it shrank back down again to disappear into another set of hands. A sharp-taloned, pitch black set of hands that were slowly rising from the hole's epicenter.

"Oh, here we go," Eirin groaned. She slumped over the oni's fingers. "It's the Satsuki incident all over again."

"Uhhh, say what now?" Yukari said. Like everyone else, she was entranced by the seemingly impossible sight of someone not only surviving, but _absorbing_ Marisa's Final Spark attack.

Eirin ignored her. "Marisa!" she screamed. "Stop firing! You're only making her angrier!"

"What?" Marisa shouted back.

"I said…"

The Final Spark suddenly pulsed and reversed its direction, turning on its source and launching a very surprised Marisa and Mima into the sky.

"…never mind."

Over the hole hovered Rin Satsuki, wearing the nightmarish form of Rumia the supposed Shadow Youkai. There was no denying it, the girl was pissed off. What had been small, dancing wisps along the edges of her body had erupted into angrily writhing vines of pure midnight. Her eyes had lost all her hurt confusion from earlier and now only blazed with hate. Her sword was clutched in one hand and by the looks of things she fully intended to use it.

"You're going to want to put me down," Eirin told Suika.

"Huh?" The overgrown oni stared down at the woman clutched in her hand, as if she had forgotten that she was even there.

"Put me down. You'll need your hands free."

"Oh. Okay."

Eirin was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. She landed with a thump on her rear but pulled herself to her feet as quickly as she could.

"Uh, Eirin?" Yukari said. "What's going on?"

"The end of the world."

"Seriously?"

"Near enough." Eirin reached into her dress and removed three of the syringes. She held these between her fingers on her right hand like a set of throwing knives. "Now, listen up: grab your friends and get the hell out of here. Things are about to get _really _ugly."

Yukari bristled. "And who are you to tell me what-"

A savage roar of hate and rage exploded from Rin's Shadow Youkai form. There was no more time. Eirin grimly readied the syringes as she started to run towards the whirlwind of darkness that was starting to form. She ignored everything around her; Yukari's cries of surprise, Suika's clumsy attempts to grab her again, the dark storm clouds that were forming overhead, the way the light seemed to grow dimmer over time, everything. The only thing she was focused on was her target and the single thought that repeated over and over in her mind.

_Now this? This is going to __**suck.**_

…

_One of the very few drawbacks to having an all-female cast is that everyone uses the same pronouns, meaning I have to use their actual names more than is usually necessary. Ah well._

_Anyway, not a whole lot to say about this chapter, except that the spider-youkai in the beginning segment (i.e. the __**least**__ important) isn't supposed to be anyone important, just something to freak Cirno out. I kinda liked him though. Maybe I'll bring him back. Or not. Haven't decided._

_Also, the entire fight at Eientei was originally only going to be about seven pages long and cap off chapter three. However, this proved to be…impractical._

_And with this I've exhausted my update buffer and have some schoolwork coming up. I'll try to get the next chapter up by the end of next week though._

_Anyway, thanks for the comments! As always, praise and criticism are equally welcome. So if there's something that caught your eye, leave a review!_

_Seriously, the amount of reviews I receive is how I judge my worth as a man. God, I need to get out more._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	5. Voices

Voices

Being an exiled princess of the moon came with both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, there was no longer an advanced civilization under Kaguya's command. No more worshipful populace, no more gigantic palace full of servants, no more entire army ready to die at her word. Instead, she was left with a single mansion of Earth rabbits, Eirin and Reisen aside, whom she had to actually pay. The number of eager suitors seeking her hand had also dropped considerably. And while she locals seemed to like her well enough, she still had to get used to the fact that the most she was going to receive from them was a friendly hello instead of them prostrating themselves on the ground and begging for her favor. And of course, there still was the damned Mokou. There was always that damned Mokou.

Still, there were upsides as well. At least people had stopped pretending to like her just because they were supposed to. Mokou aside, the number of assassination plots was at an all-time low. What few people she had serving under her seemed to be honestly loyal to her personally instead of just her family. All those marriage proposals were starting to get a little annoying anyway. And damn it, she was starting to like being one of girls. Just last week she and Tewi had snuck out to one of Suika's infamous parties and had gotten so smashed that they had somehow woken up in five miles from where they started and were wearing each other's clothes. Of course, Eirin had had some choice words for them when she had found out, but it had been totally worth it, even if she and Tewi had been looking at each other awkwardly ever since.

Plus, on the moon she wouldn't have access to Yukari's black market of Outside World toys. So on the whole things were going just fine. She was enjoying her life in Gensokyo, thank you very much, and as far as she was concerned, the Moon could go and hurl itself into the asteroid belt for all she cared.

At the moment, she was in sitting cross-legged on her bed, dressed in shorts and a simple white tee shirt with a green-and-silver scarf around her neck and glasses on her face, reading the latest novel she had acquired from Yukari. It was from a series that, according to Yukari, was all the rage back in the Outside World. Even though she didn't get most of the references, she was still enjoying it immensely.

She turned the page and gasped. "Wait, Snape kills Dumbled-"

A sudden knock at the door startled her out of her trance. She looked up, blinking in confusion.

"Your Highness? Your Highness!" said a frantic-sounding voice on the other side as they continued to slam their hand against the door. "Please, it's an emergency.

Kaguya scowled. Out of all the inconvenient times! She removed her glasses and scarf, slid off the bed and donned a robe patterned with blue flowers. Then, after tightening the sash around her waist, she went to see what the problem was. Whatever it was, it had better be damned good.

"Your Highness, please! It's important!" the voice kept saying.

"All right, all right! I'm coming already!" She slid the door open and frowned when she saw twelve nervous-looking members of the Eientei guard standing at attention.

"Uh, what's going on?" she asked. "Is Mokou PMSing at the front Gate or something?"

The rabbit who looked like she was in charge, the one who had done all the knocking and yelling, shook her head. "No, Highness. I'm sorry, but we need to evacuate you from the premises as quickly as possible. Eirin's orders."

Kaguya stared at her. "Evacuate? That's preposterous! Eientei is a veritable _fortress! _What could possibly be so threatening at it would force us to retreat?"

"Highness, it's…Rin Satsuki. She's back."

"Wait, who?"

"Remember?" one of the other rabbits said suddenly. "Eirin's little people-eating blob girl?"

"Quiet!" the first rabbit snapped, giving the second an admonishing whack across the forehead. "Do not speak out of turn!"

Kaguya, however, didn't even notice the disrespect. Now she remembered Rin Satsuki.

"Wait, the same one that ate Reisen and most of the staff until Eirin managed to blow her up? That one?"

The first rabbit inclined her head. "Yes, Highness. I saw her with my own eyes."

"Then what are we waiting for, you ignorant fools!" Kaguya shouted, forgetting in her panic that she had promised to stop calling them. "Let's get out of here!"

All of the gathered rabbits saluted. "Yes, your Highness!"

They started to move, but then Kaguya paused. "Wait, where is Eirin?"

"I'm sorry Highness, I do not know. She sent us to find you immediately after confirming Satsuki's identity."

Kaguya's face became even paler than usual. "So you just left her there? She'll get eaten! We have to go back for her!"

She moved to go find her companion but found her way blocked by the rabbits, who moved to stand in her way.

"Your Highness," said the lead rabbit in a firm but respectful tone, "we were given direct orders from Eirin to evacuate you from the palace immediately, and we intend to follow those orders."

Kaguya's jaw dropped. "What? How _dare_ you! I outrank Eirin, in case you've forgotten. Since when do her orders supersede mine?"

"When your safety is concerned," was the prompt answer. "I hope you can forgive us one day, but we cannot allow you to come within range of that creature."

Kaguya was about to tell them in no uncertain terms exactly how forgiving she intended to be, but then the lead rabbit added, "In addition Highness, perhaps you have not considered the exact implications of what were to occur if you were to be devoured yourself."

Being contradicted made Kaguya bristle, even if the rabbit had a point. But before she could respond the sound of yelling attracted her attention. Everyone turned to see even more rabbits, soldier and mansion staff alike, rushing toward them. Only this time, it looked like Reisen and Tewi were with them. And, curiously enough, that fox youkai that was always following Yukari around.

"Kaguya!" Tewi wailed. "She's back! It's-"

"I know!" Kaguya snapped. "Rin Satsuki. She's back, it's awful, panic and fear, I got it! Now, where in the hell is Eirin?"

It was Yukari's pet fox (Ran! That was her name) that answered. "She said that she was going to talk to the intruder, try to reason with her. Considering that she had the intruder ambushed twice with a literal barrage of bullets not five minutes ago and shot it several times with a shotgun, I must confess I do not have high hopes for her success."

The first soldier, the one that had knocked on Kaguya's door, cleared her throat. "Highness, forgive me, but we must-"

"Shut up," Kaguya snapped. To the fox, she said, "What, is she insane? Satsuki's a psychopath! Delusional, mixed up, cuckoo, her brain is on extended leave! What is Eirin thinking?"

Ran tilted her head. "Seeing how I have _absolutely _no idea who this Satsuki is in the first place, I cannot even hazard a guess. Though I should point out that Yukari is already on her way to help, and is bringing reinforcements. Perhaps Eirin is simply trying to distract said cuckoo psychopath until my Master arrives." Her eyes darkened. "And while I still remain uninformed as to this Rin Satsuki's history, I do know a thing or two of the new power she's acquired. And I know that is quite often a bad idea to get in the way of Yukari's operations. So you are going to tell me everything that Yukari will find useful and then you are going to evacuate. Now."

…

_Pain. Uncontrollable, agonizing pain. Energy, much, much more than I can absorb, coursing down on me, burning, tearing, annihilating. Trying to stop it, trying to deflect it, trying to adapt to it. No good. It's too much, too fast. Not nearly strong enough._

_Feel my body start to disintegrate. Shriveling away, from the outside in. Is this what it felt like for Rumia, when I took her in? If so, then I owe her an apology. Too bad I'll never be able to give it._

_No, can't take much more of this. Trying to hold together, but it's so hard. Losing control of my cells, feeling the ones on the surface start to collapse. Wouldn't that be ironic? End it all in a nuclear explosion. Do organic cells work that way? I don't think so. Be funny if they did. Guess I'm gonna find out. Too bad, I was starting to enjoy the open air. _

_Please, somebody help…_

_**Well, I do believe that's my cue.**_

_What?_

_**Hello.**_

_Rumia! But I-_

_**Rumia? Heh, not quite.**_

_Who are you?_

_**A friend. One you cannot afford to ignore.**_

_What? What do you mean?_

_**In short, I'm here to help you, Rin. And given how you're slowly being boiled away to vapor, I'd say you could use all the help you can get.**_

_Bu-but how? How did you even get into my mind? That isn't supposed to be possible!_

_**Is that so. Well, sorry to hear that. If I'm too much of a distraction I'll just go. Say hello to oblivion for me.**_

_No, wait!_

_**Hmmm?**_

_Can you really help me?_

_**Oh yes. That much is certain.**_

_Please, I don't know who you are, but if you can help me then help me! _

_**Oh, very well. First of all, you're going about this the wrong way.**_

_What?_

_**It's too much energy to take in all at once, right? Sort of like a raging river crashing against a dam. It can absorb and disperse some of the force, but too much too fast and then…bye bye!**_

_I know that already! How-_

_**So stop thinking of yourself as a dam, and become a meander. Let the energy flow **_**through **_**you and back at them.**_

_But…but how?_

_**Here, let me show you.**_

…

"What?" Marisa shouted at the tiny figure of Eirin Yagokoro. The Lunarian doctor had shouted something at her, but with the roar of the Final Spark it was difficult enough to hear her own voice. Plus, most of her attention was focused on the Spark itself, which had suddenly decided to behave rather oddly, almost like it was pushing back.

Eirin shouted again, but again her words were swallowed up. Just as well, because at that moment her hakkero started shaking uncontrollably.

Marisa exchanged one very confused look with Mima. This was new. And in their field, having new things happen while controlling highly destructive forces tended to end badly.

Suddenly a massive wave of force from their own attack rose up against them. Marisa had exactly enough time to think _Oh shi- _before her beam suddenly reversed direction. And then there was nothing but noise.

…

_I did it!_

_**So I see, good job! But don't celebrate too soon; your work isn't done yet.**_

_It's not?_

_**No. The others who attacked you are still there. The traitor is there too. Am I right?**_

…_yes._

_**The traitor who took you in, pretended to care about you, made you love her like a mother.**_

_How did you-_

_**Who used that bond to manipulate you. Who tore away your life and made you into an abomination. Who assaulted and tried to kill you when you **_**dared **_**to try to take it back, to try to find some escape from the endless loneliness of your own mind. Who claimed that you were the monster just because you tried to defend yourself. Who stuffed you in a box and handed you off to the vampire lover. Who left you alone in the dark for years, claiming it was for your own good when she knew damned well that there would be no end to your torment. **_

_Yes._

_**And to add insult to injury, once you finally freed yourself, saw the sky and felt for the first time in years, what did she do? After you tried to make amends, did she greet you with open arms? No, she lured you in with talk of reconciliation and let her new friends try to kill you.**_

_Yes!_

_**Such a sad story. Now, what are we going to do about that?**_

…

Reimu tumbled head-over-heels through the dirt, tearing clothing and scraping skin. She finally skid to a very undignified stop, face down in a small puddle of mud. She did not want to know what had made the mud, but judging by the smell and the taste she could hazard a few guesses.

She gagged and spat out the foul stuff. When she had seen Marisa and Mima's Final Spark start to backfire, she had dived out of the way as fast as she could. Her feet had gotten singed in the process, but she had made it. Barely.

What had happened though? Marisa and Mima were two of the most powerful practitioners she knew. In addition, when it came to magical matters, they were perfectionists. Their spells, once perfected, never backfired like that. It was something that simply didn't happen.

Coughing, she pulled herself up and looked over her shoulder and got her answer.

Her eyes widened and small squeaking noises emerged from her slack mouth. Oh, holy _shit!_

_**The shrine maiden is a problem. She will not stop until we are destroyed. **_

_What do I do?_

_**Hmmm, well, you could try this.**_

…

A twisting vine of darkness writhed its way over to where Reimu landed. The shrine maiden tried shooting it down, but it dodged her attack and struck.

Reimu cried out as it wrapped around her left ankle. The touch was icy cold and poisonous. Pins and needles erupted over her foot, and then it went numb. The numbness began climbing up her leg.

It wasn't done though. The vine lifted her off the ground, dangling her like a chunk of butchered meat. It swung her around a couple of times, almost playful in its abuse. And then it hurled her into the forest. Her body slammed through the bamboo stalks, shattering several until finally coming to a limp stop.

…

_**Not bad. Should have waited until the taint spread through her body though.**_

_But wouldn't that…kill her?_

_**Of course.**_

_I-I don't think I can do that. I'm not a murderer!_

_**I see. Well, baby steps then. Meanwhile, watch your back.**_

…

Yukari emerged from her portal, directly behind the Shadow Youkai. She had to admit, the thing was tougher than she remembered. Normally, she would be approaching such a threat more cautiously, but there were larger issues at hand.

The bitch had hurt Reimu. It was going to pay.

Once again she called up fire in one hand and plasma in the other. She pressed her wrists together and sent out death.

Faster than she thought possible, almost as fast as thought itself, the Shadow Youkai whirled around and thrust one hand outward. Yukari's attack hit it in the center of its palm.

_Oh, this can't be good, _Yukari thought numbly. She tried to turn off the juice, but before she could her own attack turned against her, redirecting itself to slam against her torso. Cloth disintegrated and flesh burned and Yukari was knocked backwards through her portal.

Yukari tumbled through her unnatural world of eyes, completely senseless. She didn't even notice when her cell phone started to ring.

…

_**Now **_**that**_** was a long time coming. Oh irony, how I love thee. Now then, you say you don't want to kill anyone, correct?**_

_Yes! Hurt, maybe. But not kill!_

_**If you say so. Oh, I wouldn't remain hovering in one place if I were you.**_

_What? What do youAAAGGGHHHH!_

…

Attacking a pissed-off Rin Satsuki head on was tantamount to suicide, but Eirin had run out of options. Now she just hoped that she could distract her long enough for Kaguya and the others to evacuate safely. At this point, nothing more mattered beyond keeping this thing from the princess.

For its part, Rin hadn't turned her attention to her yet. She was too busy picking apart the rest of Yukari's posse. The ghost and the witch had already been dispatched, and the shrine maiden was soon to follow. Eirin felt her heart drop as Reimu was hurled screaming into the forest, but there was no time to worry about her now.

Yukari was next. To the youkai's credit, she had kept her head for tactics despite the fact that the battle was turning against her. She appeared through a gap right behind Rin and tried to finish her off at point-blank range. Unfortunately she was unfamiliar with Rin's unique abilities and was promptly removed from the game.

Her useless attack did some good though. It got Rin to turn her back on Eirin. The Lunarian doubled her speed and leapt forward at her onetime prodigy, throwing the syringes with all her might. Like her rifle, the syringes and their contents were made special. Each one had an enchantment that would press down on the injector once the needle pierced skin, sending 40ml of a particularly nasty bacterial disease Eirin had whipped up herself into whatever poor sap so happened to be on the receiving end of her wrath. That in itself was enough to paralyze and kill most people in seconds, but Eirin wasn't interested in taking chances, so three it was. Followed by three more. And a focused blast of danmaku to the head for good measure.

To her surprise, it worked. As soon as the needles plunged in, Rin's spine stiffened and her dark aura began thrashing. Her sword fell from paralyzed hands as she wobbled in the air.

_I'm sorry Rin, _Eirin thought as she watched her greatest success and most tragic failure start to fall back into the pit that had been dug for her.

…

_**Wow, I actually felt that. Nasty stuff.**_

_AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!_

_**Oh, stop your crying. It's giving me a headache. Well, mind ache. Whatever. Anyway, you're fine.**_

_I can't move…burning…whole body burning…_

_**Yeah, this would be lights-out for you under normal circumstances. One major problem with that though.**_

…_wha…_

_**Looks like that toxin is organic in nature. Spores, maybe? Germ warfare? Really cranky microscopic fairies? Whatever the case, life is life, and it's not going to work.**_

_Why? _

_**Because **_**I'm **_**here. Don't worry about the toxin, it's under control. All you have to worry about is the traitor.**_

…

Whatever steel resolve had been driving Eirin's assault began to melt into ice water. Rin wasn't dying. Just as it looked like she was going to fade away completely, her spine had straightened, her shoulders had squared, and the fire in her eyes began blazing with new life.

Then the syringes started to sink into what passed for Rin's flesh. Damn it.

Eirin acted without thinking. As soon as Rin turned to face her, Eirin leapt into the air and slammed her foot into the monster's face. The contact felt like a dagger of ice being driven into her heel, but she managed to take Rin off guard. Her scarlet eyes bulged in surprise and the force of the kick sent her flying against the pit's side where her head collided with an audible _crack._

…

_**So, you still don't want to kill anyone?**_

_Um…_

_**Can you make just one exception for her? She did just try to kill you.**_

_But I..._

_**And she kicked you in the head. Now that was just rude.**_

…

The biggest drawback to kicking someone poised over a large hole is that once the kick connects, you really had nowhere to go but down. Of course, this being Gensokyo, Eirin could have simply flown to safety, but there were certain factors that made that impractical. Namely, an angry Rin recovering far too quickly and grabbing her by and arm and a leg, swinging her round and round and tossing her headfirst down the pit's throat.

As she fell, Eirin couldn't help but think, _I knew this was going to suck. _If she had time she would have smiled at the irony.

Then lights exploded behind her eyes.

…

_**Feels good, doesn't it? Feel free to finish her off anytime.**_

_Huh…_

…

Eirin stared up through glazed eyes and swollen eyelids as the shadowy blur descended. Something in the back of her mind told her that she should probably be panicking right now, but for the life of her she could not think of why. Especially since staying down and going to sleep seemed like such a good idea.

Something grabbed her by her collar and hoisted her up. She frowned in annoyance. Why wouldn't people let her rest?

Then the fuzziness in her mind cleared enough for her to recognize Rin Satsuki's stolen mask. Oh, that was right. Rin was back, and wanted to kill her. And from the looks of things, that was about to happen.

Despite literally facing her impending death. Eirin felt an almost eerie sense of serenity. There was a certain _rightness_ to going out this way. She had done her best uphold her duty and was now going to be ended by the person with the most reason to. It was almost karmic in a way.

Holding her up with one hand, Rin reached back with the other. Eirin smiled slightly. Well, this was it.

But to her surprise, Rin didn't rip out her throat or tear off her head. Instead, she hauled out and decked her.

…

_**Oh. Well. That was…primitive.**_

_Yes._

_**Now I'm curious; you had the perfect opportunity to kill her right there and every reason to. Why didn't you? Don't tell me you're still hoping to patch things up with her. I think we're a little beyond that now.**_

_I know. I'm not._

_**Then…?**_

_Because I'm not done with her yet._

_**Really now? What more could you…oh. **_**Oh. **_**Hehehe, I get'cha! Rin, I'm starting to like you!**_

_Um, thanks?_

_**Just be careful. These little games have a habit of coming back to bite you in the ass.**_

_I know. I'll be careful._

_**Good. Oh, ah, look out for the oni.**_

_What?_

_**Yes. The very big one that flattened you earlier and is now reaching into the hole with one really large hand, looking to pop you like a pimple.**_

_Oni?_

_**The nasty kind that are really three pimples in one and are so filled with pus that you swear there must be some sort of viral civilization living inside.**_

_Oh! That oni!_

…

Wrong! This was all _wrong! _

Suika charged at the hole, arms pumping furiously, angry tears leaking out of the corner of her eyes. It wasn't supposed to go this way! It was supposed to be just another brawl! They would go find the painted-blue-honey-sake-she didn't even _care_ anymore and beat it up until it stopped being bad. That was how all the other times went!

But now, in the space of thirty seconds, her two biggest buddies and the grumpy doctor lady had gotten the crap beaten out of them, and not in the usual way. You just didn't _do _that to people! Beat them up, sure! It was a time-honored tradition! But this thing was going too far! It didn't play by the rules. You just don't break the rules like that!

And through the whole thing, Suika had just stood there, watching everyone else try to do something. Why hadn't she moved faster? She could have _saved _them! But no, she had to stay frozen like a big, stupid rock.

Well, the time had come to fix all that. Suika reached the edge of the hole and looked in. At the bottom, the evil shadow person was standing over the doctor lady. The doctor lady looked kinda dead, which meant the evil shadow person was now a murderer.

Suika could think of only one thing to do to murderers. Her eyes red with fury, she reached down with one gigantic hand, intending to twist the little monster's head right off.

The evil shadow person didn't even so much as look at her. Instead, moving so fast it was almost a blur, she snatched up her black sword thing from the ground and jabbed it into Suika's palm.

The pain of it was so great that for a moment Suika couldn't think. Her mind just locked up and she tumbled backward onto her rump. There was a loud crunch, signifying that she had landed on something, but she had other things to worry about now.

The shadow thingy leapt out of the hole, sword in hand. Suika bared her teeth and got ready to crush the little pipsqueak.

However, said pipsqueak didn't even bother attacking. Instead, it jumped right over her hands, pushed off of her head, and went right over her. Suika whirled in surprise, unable to understand why it hadn't wanted to fight.

But there it was, running away from her, running towards the mansion. Suika was almost insulted.

She bared her teeth and shook her fist. "Where do _you _think you're _going, _you _coward!"_ she yelled. "_Come _back and-"

Something wet leaked through the bottom of her dress.

Suika's eyes went wide and she leapt to her feet, sending tremors through the ground around her. She was pretty sure she hadn't wet herself. She wasn't nearly so drunk for that to happen. But still, what else could it have been?

Then she saw the shattered remains of her gourd floating in a puddle of sake. And there, lying among the pieces, was the squished body of the sake bug it had contained. Dead.

Her heart fell in her enormous chest. Her gourd. Her most precious possession. An unending source of sake, and that made it good as family in her book. She must have landed on it when she fell back. But how could she have been so careless? It had always survived all of her fights before.

Suika reached towards its fragments with twitching fingers, but couldn't bring herself to touch them. She didn't deserve to. It had been entrusted to her, and she let it get smashed. She was now a failure as an oni. She had let her friends get hurt, and now her gourd was gone, all thanks to her stupid clumsiness. Exile was too good for her now. It was all her fault, all her…

No.

Not her fault.

_It's _fault_._

Her breathing slowed to a steady pant as every negative emotion focused itself into a single clear conclusion. She looked up at the fleeing form of the evil shadow person. It was swinging its sword at Eientei's walls, cutting its way in.

"Not so _fast, _murderer,"Suika whispered as she began walking towards the mansion with slow, deliberate strides. "You and I have _unfinished _business."

…

_**You are entirely too merciful for your own good. She's not even unconscious! You should have decapitated her on your way up.**_

…

_**What?**_

_Who are you?_

_**Well, that sounded aggressive. Way to bite the hand that feeds you.**_

_You forced your way into my mind without permission, something that not even the strongest empaths could do. You know my history, despite the fact that my very existence is a closely guarded secret, known only to Eientei, the scientist sisters and certain residents of the scarlet vampire's staff. You know things about my abilities that I didn't even know. _

_**Heh, wow. That's surprisingly insightful of you. Why so lucid?**_

_Look, who are you, and how did you get into my mind? What are you doing here?_

_**Is this really the best time for a Q and A session? We're kinda in the middle of something here.**_

_Answer, or I'll banish you!_

_**Okay, okay, Jeez! Bipolar much? As for who I am, think of my as your conscience. Except instead of telling you what's "good and proper", I tell you what's smart. I'm the part of your mind that's not deluding itself with ideas of "redemption" and "acceptance". I'm the part of you that tells it as it is, that you are going to be hated by everything and everyone no matter what you do, so you might as well become what they're going to accuse you of anyway. Because you have no chance of surviving otherwise.**_

_But…but…that doesn't even make sense!_

_**So? Face it, sister: it doesn't really matter where I came from, because I'm all you've got. That Rumia girl is absolutely scared **_**shitless **_**of you. All your former friends at Eientei think you're pure nightmare fuel unleaded. Everyone else is trying to smash you into paste anyway, and if they're not now, they will as soon as word of this little scuffle gets out. I'm the only one looking out for you, so if you banish me, you're on your own. Stuck running for your life with no one but a terrified little girl who thinks your some kind of psycho-kidnapper for company. Does that sound fun to you?**_

…

_**I'm sorry, was that an answer?**_

_What do I do now?_

_**That's better. And now, you get to do what every great hero aspires to do someday. You get to storm the castle, fight off the guards and rescue the princess! Oh, won't that be fun!**_

_Yeah, sure. Fun._

_**Oh, chin up already. It's not that bad! Once you do this, you'll never have to worry about anything ever again. Cross my heart, hope everything else on this godsforsaken wad of dust dies.**_

…_what?_

_**Sorry, reflex. Anyway, enough talk. Tally ho!**_

…

Yukari was not accustomed to losing, nor did she enjoy being manhandled. So when she finally came to her senses and realized what had happened, she was somewhat put out.

"I will _kill _that fucking thing!" she raged. "I will kill it, kill it, kill it, and bring it back from the dead so I can kill it some more! I will kill it so hard that it won't even be a memory anymore! I will-"

Then she noticed the many, many eyes floating through her world of borders, each of them staring at her.

"What do you morons think you're staring at?" she shouted.

All of the eyes suddenly found something else to look at.

Yukari took a deep breath and opened a portal back to the bamboo forest. With any luck, the situation was still salvageable. Unfortunately Yukari had never been much of a believer in luck.

And with good cause too. The place was a deserted mess. Just like last time she had encountered the Shadow Youkai, black clouds blotted out the sun, and what little light there was had became strangely muted. The fallout from the battle was still there, such as the pit in the ground and the hole in the side of Hourai Clinic, but other than that there was no sign of anyone, friend or foe alike.

Yukari's insides went sour, but she forced herself to investigate. Reimu, that's right. The young shrine maiden had been tossed into the Bamboo Forest. That was probably the best place to start. After that, she could get to work piecing the rest of the team together.

Yukari floated into the patch of forest where Reimu had been thrown. The path that her hurtling body had made was still fresh, with several bamboo stalks snapped in half. "Reimu!" Yukari called as she followed the trail. "Are you all right? Reimu!"

Then she saw her. The shrine maiden was on her side at the foot of several stalks that apparently been too tough to break. Her clothing was ripped, the bow she usually wore was missing from her hair and she was covered with cuts and scratches. Worst of all, her left foot and part of her shin was a dark shade of purple, almost black in some places. Yukari swallowed. It was the taint. She had seen it enough times to recognize it, and had actually suffered from it herself.

Reimu wasn't moving, but she was still breathing. Her breath was shallow, but at least she was alive. Yukari dropped to her side and gently took Reimu's head in her hands and laid in on her lap.

"Oh Reimu," she muttered as she gently stroked the girl's smudged face. "If only you know…how completely ridiculous you look right now."

Reimu cracked one eye open to glare at her. "Wow, thanks for the sympathy, dumbass," she mumbled.

Yukari smiled wryly, not letting the relief she felt show on her face. "The mighty Reimu Hakurei, taken out by a single youkai. Oh, just wait until I tell everyone. No one will ever be able to take you seriously again."

"Shaddup."

With Yukari's help, Reimu pulled herself up to a sitting position. She winced and said, "What's up with my foot, frostbite? I can't feel it."

"It's called the taint," Yukari explained. "Something Rumia used to do. Once she touches something living, it slowly corrupts and shuts down."

Reimu's eyes widened. "Seriously? She killed my foot?"

"It's not permanent. I had a nasty case of it myself, taken from our last encounter. Covered my entire right arm and part of my shoulder. But it stops spreading once she releases you and will eventually go away."

"Yeah? And how long does that take?"

"Depends on the size." Yukari tilted her head as she examined Reimu's foot. "Yours doesn't look that bad. I give it about four days until you'll be a hundred percent again."

"Four days," Reimu groaned. She sighed heavily. "You know, this incident is becoming a lot harder than you said it would."

Yukari frowned. "So I've noticed." She shook her head. "Look, just wait here. I'm going to try to find the rest of the group."

"What, with that thing on the loose? Fat chance!" Reimu tried to straighten up but fell back with a gasp of pain.

Yukari frowned as she felt Reimu's side. "Looks like you've got some broken ribs there. You're in no shape to be going anywhere."

"Yeah? And how about you? Looks like something torched your midriff there, or that just some daring new fashion?"

"Hush. Wait here until I get back. And by the gods if you move I will knock you out!"

Reimu glowered but she complied. Yukari left her to head back to Eientei. First order of business would be to find Eirin. A doctor would sure be handy right about now. Plus, she seemed to have some idea as to why the Shadow Youkai was suddenly so strong. After that, she should probably also find out what happened to Suika. They could use her strength in the coming rematch. Also, Yukari couldn't but feel just a little concerned for the oni. Suika could handle herself just fine, but impulse control was not one of her stronger points.

And she supposed she might as well find out where those witches had landed, if for no other reason than to make Reimu happy.

The mansion would probably be the best place to start, mainly because of the hole torn out of one of the walls. Well, at least it now matched the clinic.

On her way over, Yukari glanced in the pit by chance and froze in midair. Eirin was lying in a crumpled heap at the bottom. Her condition made Reimu look the absolute picture of health. Her face looked like it had been smashed in with a brick and there were the telltale signs of the taint on her nose, cheeks, collarbone and right foot.

Yukari was down in the pit in an instant. A quick inspection confirmed that she was alive, but just barely. Considering what Rumia used to do to her victims, this was downright merciful. Still, she would be gone in less than an hour if nothing was done.

Yukari wasn't usually the altruistic type, but they needed Eirin alive. Fortunately, despite not being a healer, she had somewhat of an advantage in this situation. On paper, her power of border manipulation didn't seem all the great, but with a little creativity it could work wonders. And she had had several millennia to learn how to be creative.

She placed one hand on Eirin's swollen forehead and concentrated. Her mind steadied itself away and dove deep into the doctor's psyche, searching for her consciousness. She found it, but it was slipping away fast.

Well, first order of business would be to ensure that it slipped no farther. Yukari reached even deeper until she found that great fissure, the border between life and death. In her mind, it appeared as a shining light-filled crack in a sky of black. She had to admit, the warmth it was emitting was very appealing. Of course, it had been designed that way.

"_Come forward, weary soul," _she heard a soft voice whisper. _"Come forward and lay your…Oh, hell. It's you again, isn't it?"_

Back at her body, Yukari smiled. "Hello dear. Fancy seeing you here."

"_Cut the crap, Yukari," _the voice snapped back. _"What are you doing here anyway? And don't tell me you're dying. _I'll _probably die before you do. No, wait, let me guess: you're about to get in the way of my job again, aren't you?"_

"So it would seem."

"_Godsdamn it, Yukari! Look, I'm in enough trouble as it is. Shiki's been riding my ass all week long, and I'm trying to score some points here. So I don't need you gumming up the works, all right?"_

"Ah, I'm sorry. But I'm afraid I must. Call of duty and all that."

"_Of course you must," _the voice said sulkily. _"But when the call of duty means the little guy gets screwed…"_

"Look, I'll speak to the Yamaxanadu for you. You don't have to worry."

"_Like that'll save me from a lecture. Look, if you're going to do it, do it. I've wasted enough time here already."_

"Aw, you're a peach. Thanks!"

"_Don't mention it. Ever." _And with that, it was gone.

Yukari finished sealing off the border between life and death, preventing Eirin from slipping completely out of reach. Then she started moving backward, coaxing Eirin's spirit closer and closer to wakefulness. It wasn't a perfect solution and it wouldn't fix the damage done to her body, but it would ensure that she wouldn't be slipping off into oblivion before she could get real help.

Finally, she sealed off the border between consciousness and unconsciousness. Eirin's body twitched, and her swollen eyes opened.

"Ughugh," she muttered. "Whuh hawppened?"

"I just brought you back from near-death. No need to thank me. It was my pleasure.

Eirin scowled at her. Then she tried to sit up.

Yukari pushed her back down, though she did so gently. "Nuh-uh, not so fast. You're in no condition to go anyway, and I need some fast answers. You said that thing wasn't the Shadow Youkai, and after careful deliberation," she indicated the stinging burn on her torso, "I'm inclined to believe you. But I still need to know what I'm dealing with."

Eirin sighed. "Long story," she said. Her voice was starting to clear up, but it was still weak.

"Give me the abbreviated version then. What can it do?"

"Adapt to and absorb most attacks. Can also…" she started coughing. Yukari waited for it to stop.

"…can also apparently redirect attacks back at their source. That one's new though. Didn't know about it until the witches got shot."

"So it's nigh indestructible."

"Near enough. Not completely though. A big enough blast has a chance, as does blowing it up from the inside."

Yukari quirked an eyebrow. She could only imagine how they had found _that_ out. "Okay, and how exactly does it have the same abilities as the Shadow Youkai?"

"She can…" she coughed "…she can envelop and devour people. Doing so will give her access to their full power and memories. Guess the Shadow Youkai was her first meal."

The implications of what she had just been told sank into Yukari's mind like a piece of burning pitch, but there wasn't time to panic now. "Witnesses claim that they saw Rum…the Shadow Youkai being swallowed and dissolved by a large transparent blob."

Eirin sighed, though it came out as more of a groan. "That'd be her."

So, something with the strength of the Shadow Youkai coupled with near invulnerability. Yukari was starting to think that she was in over her head in this one. And if things were so bad that she would even entertain that thought, than that meant the situation was about as dire as it could be.

"All right," she said. Her words were a carefully controlled monotone, masking the uneasiness she was starting to feel. "I'll take you to my place, and then I'm going to go find the rest of my friends, and we'll see what we can do about this mess. When I get back, I expect a full report on what this thing is. And I mean everything: strengths, weaknesses, origins, personal habits, secret crush list, everything. Got it?"

Eirin nodded weakly, but then she frowned. "Wait," she said, and then with more urgency, "Wait!"

"What?"

Eirin suddenly lunged forward, grabbing Yukari by the sleeve. "Kaguya, I had the guard sneak her out the back. But Rin's sure to track them down! Please, you have to take me too her! I can't let Rin get the Princess!"

"Whoa, hold on! First of all, who the hell is-"

Eirin growled in frustration. "Rin is the monster's name, okay?"

"Fine. You can explain that later too. But what makes you think I'm going to risk my life to save your princess? I mean, loyalty is loyalty, but this-"

"Idiot!" Eirin spat. "It's a monster who can absorb people and steal their abilities! What do you think will happen if it takes Kaguya?"

With a shock, Yukari realized that the injured doctor was absolutely right. If this Rin could do as Eirin said (and there really was no reason to doubt her word) and it managed to devour Kaguya, then they would be dealing with a creature that had Kaguya's immortality _and_ Rumia's pure annihilating force, with this "Rin's" super adaptability.

Yukari was accustomed to putting down threats, even ones that were similarly unkillable. But at least those weren't fanatically dedicated to absolute genocide. If this thing had Rumia's Shadow Youkai abilities, than there was a good bet it's…distasteful outlook on life would pop up as well. Despite the fact that Rumia's memories had been wiped and her personality reset, Yukari had found that it's safer to assume the worst in such situations.

A small moan escaped Yukari's lips. Exactly when and how did this day get so wrong?

Well, best start working on fixing it. First order of business would be to get an update from Ran. She pulled her cell phone from her dress. Fortunately, it was undamaged. Then her eyes narrowed as she examined the screen. Huh, it seemed that she had missed a call.

Unfortunately, she had no time to ponder the problem further. A thunderous bellow of rage tore from Eientei, followed by the sound of something smashing into something else. Well, at least she now knew where Suika was.

…

_**Did I not tell you to kill the oni? Now look what's happened.**_

_I know, I know, I'm dealing with it!_

_**You're actually dealing with the fact that your head's now flatter than a-**_

_You know, for a hallucination you're awfully pushy._

…

Suika had to admit, she did feel a little better now, but not enough by far.

She had managed to take the evil shadow person by surprise (how, she had no idea) when she smashed through the mansion's wall and barreled right into the disgusting thing. It had tried to stab her again, so she had snatched up a piece of wreckage and threw it at the monster's head. Then she had stomped on it. Repeatedly.

It had stopped moving about that point. Suika was almost disappointed. Still, she wasn't here to have fun, she was here to smash. And things were easier to smash when they lay still.

She turned and bent down to wrench a large piece of the wooden floor loose. Then, turning back to where the monster lay, ready to batter it to a pulp.

It wasn't there.

The oni's eyes narrowed as she searched the corridor. Well, it was certainly fast. But speed alone wasn't going to save it from her wrath.

Still holding her weaponized segment of floor, Suika went hunting. She was going to find it even if she had to tear the whole mansion apart with her bare hands. And from the look of things, she was already off to a good start.

…

_She's going to kill us!_

_**No she's not. Stop whimpering.**_

_Yes she will! She smashed my head like a piece of fruit! And now she'll-_

_**You survived getting blown apart, you can survive whatever she can dish out.**_

_But I…_

_**Do you want me to take over? Because I will if I have to.**_

…_you can do that?_

_**I don't know. Shall we find out?**_

_No!_

_**Then shut up and listen to me! She's strong, but you are much, much faster than she is. Plus, she can't even touch you without hurting herself. And you can mold your body to fit into tight cracks, yes?**_

_Um, for a little while. But it's hard maintain a constant-_

_**Okay, I get it, shut up. Now listen, this is what we're going to do…**_

…

_Gah, too many things happening at once. Sorry if it's getting confusing. I'll try to tie things together in the next chapter._

_And this fight just refuses to end! Hopefully things will come to a finish soon. Still, I'm having fun. Rin's dialogue with her inner demon was a blast._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	6. Escalation

Escalation

"Are you _sure _this is a good idea?" the recently promoted Utada asked for what had to be the ninth time since they had left Eientei.

Tewi did her best to ignore her and kept flying forward. Just because Eirin had decided to bump the girl up a rank didn't meant she had acquired pester privileges. All around them, the various members of Eientei's staff surrounded them in tight formation: the Guard forming the perimeter while those whose jobs were more practical in nature kept closer to the center. At the center itself, as protected as she was going to be, was the Princess.

Unfortunately she wasn't there willingly. Both her hands and feet were bound securely to her body and an all-concealing mask, usually reserved for prisoners, was covering her head. Four lengths of rope stretched out from her trussed up body to four of the most experienced of the Guard, who were looking all kinds of uncomfortable. Tewi honestly couldn't blame them. Overpowering and tying up the Princess against her will went against their very basic nature. But in the end, her safety came first. And considering the situation, if she was bound and determined to go anywhere near Rin Satsuki, it was their solemn duty do anything and everything to prevent that. Tewi just hoped that Kaguya won't hate them for any longer than a decade. Reisen's moping wasn't helping either. Though she was now following without being needed to be dragged along, she had been in a sort of daze ever since Ran had dropped the bombshell that her pet lunatic had gotten out of its cage. Now that was just plain typical.

And to top it off, they were on their own for this one. As soon as the Princess had been…subdued, Yukari's Shikigami had left them.

"Tewi?" Utada persisted. "Are you sure-"

Tewi's already thin patience snapped. "No, dimwit, no I'm not!" she barked. "This whole thing was Ran and Eirin's stupid idea, so I'm not sure about anything. All I know is that if we don't do it, we'll be down one princess and up one immortal bunny-eating psychopath. So leave me alone already!"

"Okay, okay!" Utada said, holding her hands up defensively. "I'm just worried, that's all!"

Tewi heaved a sigh. "Yeah, me too."

They continued in silence. Or at least, Tewi and Utada did. All around them, the staff muttered and whispered to one another. Tewi caught brief snippets of the conversations happening around her. Although the speakers and words were different, subject matter was more-or-less the same. They were screwed if Rin caught up to them, and they were screwed if she didn't. A few were wondering if Remilia Scarlet was hiring. Tewi's first impulse was to berate them, but truth be told, she had started to wonder how she would look in a maid's outfit herself.

That was when one voice rose above the others. For one thing, it was shouting while the others kept their tones hushed. For another, it didn't sound much like a rabbit. And finally, it was from someone coming towards their caravan.

Tewi blinked and looked in the voice's direction. A white-and-blue blur was flying up from the forest towards them. Not wanting to take chances, Tewi motioned for the nearest Guard to take aim.

It was then that Reisen decided to snap back into reality. "Wait!" she shouted, right into Tewi's ear.

Tewi flinched at the sudden loudness. "What? Why?"

"We know that girl!"

Tewi looked again and her heart fell. They did indeed know that girl. She had caused all kinds of trouble for them back during the flower incident. And not out of maliciousness either. No, she had gotten into both their ways through simple stupidity and recklessness. Things had turned out all right in the end, but by the _gods _she had been annoying! Tewi had left that situation hoping they would never have to deal with the idiotic ice fairy again.

Tewi dropped down to a few feet above the treetops to meet her, Reisen following close behind. Tewi scowled at the small girl. "What," she snarled, "the hell do you want?"

Cirno's day looked like it had been just as bad as theirs. Her clothing was torn and singed at the edges and her skin was filthy and covered with purples bruises. The girl herself was covered with dirt and had small twigs and leaves stuck in her hair. Small cracks ran through her crystalline wings. However, none of this seemed to register to the fairy herself. Her eyes were wide with nervous energy and she was shaking from the exertion of having pushed herself despite her condition. And from the look of things, she fully intended to keep pushing herself until she collapsed.

"Please…you gotta help me…" the ice fairy panted. "Need to…find Reimu…where is she?"

"Reimu?" Tewi and Reisen exchanged a look. "Reimu Hakurei? The shrine maiden?"

Cirno squeezed her little hands into fists and yelled in frustration. "Yes! Her! Where is she?"

Tewi scowled. "Haven't seen her, don't know anyone who has. Now go away. We're kind in the middle of something important here."

She turned away, but then the ice fairy lunged forward to grab her by the sleeve. Immediately the surrounding Guard snapped into position, right arms extended, left hand seizing their right bicep.

"Hold it!" Tewi shouted. "You wanna shoot me full of holes too?"

She grabbed Cirno by the head and pushed her off. As she did so, she was struck by how easy it was. The little fairy seemed to be flying on her final reserves of strength.

"Look fairy, you want Reimu, go find her yourself," Tewi said. "We're dealing with our own problems here."

Cirno, unfortunately, would not be deterred. "What about Marisa Kirisame then? I saw them all heading into the forest!"

Reimu and Marisa, heading into the Bamboo Forest of the Lost? If so, the pair must've gotten wind of the situation. Finally, Tewi began to feel some hope. Those two practically solved incidents such as these as a career. Maybe with them on the case, they had a shot.

Still, she shook her head. "Sorry, haven't seen her eith-"

"Yukari Yakumo then! What about Yukari?"

Tewi raised her eyebrows. She shot a glance at Reisen.

"Um, her Shikigami's at Eientei," Reisen said. "I think she said something about Yukari heading that way."

Cirno shuddered with relief. "Finally. Thank you! Which way's Enema?"

"Eientei. And it's that way. But I don't think you-"

"Okaythanksbye!"

Cirno dove back into the forest and was gone.

Tewi clouted Reisen over the head. "Idiot! Why'd you send her there for? She'll get eaten or caught in the crossfire!"

Reisen returned the blow. "Hey, I tried to tell her, but she took off before I finished!"

Tewi groaned and regained altitude to join the main group. Whatever, they had no time to worry about suicidal fairies now. Their only objective now was to get Kaguya as far as away from Eientei and safely to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Still, it took an actual conscious effort to avoid thinking of those still at the battlefield. Despite the fact that it had occurred several decades ago, memories of Rin's first rampage were still fresh in her mind, and she could only imagine how Reisen was feeling.

There was no going back though. Tewi could only keep the caravan moving forward and pray to anyone listening that those back at Eientei would be able to escape safely.

…

As the only known clinic open to youkai and humans alike, Hourai Clinic was often a bustling place, with Eirin's miniature army of rabbits running to and fro, seeing to the needs of the injured. Spellcard rules tended to be only loosely enforced in the more savage corners of Gensokyo, and even when they were the users tended to be rather rough on one another. And then there were all those wonderful pills…

Not today though. Even before everything had gone to hell, things had slowed to a veritable crawl, and most of the staff had wandered off to find something else to keep themselves occupied. But now that the place had been deserted in the wake of Rin Satsuki's attack, the emptiness of the bamboo-paneled corridors and still sterile rooms was positively eerie. If it weren't for the sounds of battle erupting from the outside, you could hear a feather drop from the opposite side. It gave the whole place a distinct haunted feel, one that Ran, even with her attention occupied with the situation at hand, couldn't help but notice.

She had left the rabbits soon after they had pinned Kaguya down and bound her up. Tewi seemed to have things well in hand, and Ran's place was here, assisting her master any way she could. Plus, there was no way she was going to leave Chen.

And that was the problem. Since Chen had been thoroughly sedated when this Rin person had arrived in the waiting room, Ran had taken the liberty of stashing the unconscious catgirl in the janitor's closet. Not the safest place perhaps, but it was the best she could do in a pinch.

However, now that she had managed to break away and return for her Shikigami, Ran was facing a most worrying problem. Chen was gone. The bindings were still there; handcuffs, bandages and ball gag, all lying in a small pile among the buckets and spray bottles. But the catgirl herself was conspicuously missing.

Ran felt a moan of despair threaten to rise up. It was bad enough that some sort of people absorbing monster had to appear toting the powers of the Shadow freaking Youkai, but now her Chen had vanished. Normally this would be annoying in a amusing sort of way (or was it the other way around?), but for it to happen now meant that Ran had to make an actual effort to banish pictures of Chen being skewered on the Shadow Youkai's sword, or being swallowed up by that Rin person.

And to top it off, Yukari had absolutely failed to answer her phone when Ran had tried to contact her with an update on their enemy's abilities. That in itself was almost panic-worthy. Unless she was asleep (which she was for an irritating amount of the time), Yukari _always _answered the phone. Ran didn't want to think of something that would prevent her from gaining knowledge that might just be vital to her survival.

"Um, excuse me?" a confused voice said from nearby.

Ran turned to see that she had been joined by a fairy. The blond girl was dressed in one of Eirin's hideous looking hospital gowns (further proof of the Lunarian's barely repressed sadism) and had various body parts bandaged up. Her face was also sporting several purple bruises.

Ran's eyes actually widened in surprise. With everything that was going on, they had completely forgotten the clinic's other patient.

"I'm sorry, but is something wrong?" asked Lily White. "I woke up and everybody was gone."

Ran sighed. She didn't need this. "Wrong? Yeah, I'd say there is. We're under attack."

Lily made an odd sort of hiccupping gasp. "Attack? From what? Marisa?"

"The witch? No, it's not Marisa, it's, uh…" Ran wondered exactly how to explain an unholy union between a life destroying abomination and a cannibalistic science experiment gone wrong without being barraged with endless questions. "…demon," she said lamely. "Evil…demon…thing."

"From Makai?"

"…sure, why not?"

Lily grabbed Ran by the sleeve. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get-"

The sound of electric guitars filled the hall. Lily yelped in alarm and darted into the janitor's closet, slamming the door shut. Ran didn't care. She was just relieved that Yukari seemed to be back on the board.

She flipped out her phone. "Master? Is that you?"

"_Who else?" _Yukari snapped. _"What the hell is going on?"_

Ran glanced around nervously. She lowered her voice. "Master, I think the situation is more complicated then we've been led to believe. The creature is more than just the Shadow Youkai. It's-"

"_Some kind of crazy monster that eats people and steals their powers," _Yukari interrupted. _"Yeah, I know. Eirin just got done telling me."_

Ran blinked. "Eirin? Is she okay? Kaguya seemed very worried about her."

"_She's hurt, but she'll live. Now, about the princess herself, it seems that it's imperative that the monster is allowed nowhere near her. Something about stealing her immortality and thus making our job all the more difficult."_

"I know. She's already been evacuated safely."

Ran could hear Yukari sighing in relief. _"Good. One less headache. Okay, listen up. We just got our asses handed to us, but we're regrouping. Sort of. I need you to take Chen and get out of here."_

"Um, yeah, small problem with that."

"_Which is…?"_

Ran sighed. "Chen's gone missing."

She could practically hear the scowl just from Yukari's voice alone. _"Well, then _find_ her and get her gone! I don't need a hyperactive catgirl gumming up the works."_

"Understood, Master. I'll find her as quickly as possible."

"_Good. Where are you now?"_

"Hourai Clinic."

"_Again, good. Stay out of the mansion. I do believe Suika's going ten rounds with our gluttonous friend in there and I would hate for you to get caught in the middle."_

"…oh. Thanks."

There was a click, and the line terminated. No parting words, no goodbye, just a click.

Ran shook her head and put the phone away. Nice to know there were some constants in the universe.

Then she turned to see Lily White staring at her from behind the closet door.

"Is there someone in that box?" the fairy asked. "Like a really, really small youkai?"

"What? No, that was Yukari."

Lily's eyes went even wider. _"Yukari Yakumo's _in that box?"

"What? No! It's…" Ran groaned. Out of all the things she had time for, explaining the mechanics behind cell phones to a beaten and bruised fairy was not one of them. "It's magic. It lets me talk to her from far away."

"Oh. Okay." And with that, Lily's interest seemed to wane. Then again, to a fairy, something like magic boxes would seem commonplace.

"Now by any chance, have you seen a cat youkai anywhere?" Ran asked. It was a long shot, but she might as well ask. "About yay tall," she said, holding her hand a few feet above the ground. "Red dress, short brown hair and two tails?"

Lily frowned. She stepped out of the closet. "Uh, yeah actually."

Ran blinked. Hope flickered alive. "Really?" she said, trying not to sound too eager. "Where?"

"She's what woke me up with her yelling. I saw her running past my room when I went out the door."

Finally, some good news. Ran breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank whatever god's on shift. Which way did she go?"

Lily just shrugged. "I only caught a glimpse of her. She could be anywhere by now."

"Do you know if she was heading for the mansion?"

"Dunno. Didn't see."

Ran's left eyelid twitched. "Well then," she said in as calm a voice as she could muster. "Would you mind helping me search?"

Lily opened her mouth, presumably to refuse, but she caught the look in Ran's eye and changed her answer to "Uh…sure, why not?"

…

Given her constant state of drunkenness, Suika had become long accustomed to entertaining various voices in her head, and now was no exception. At the moment, one worried-sounding voice was noting that the enraged oni was doing a considerable amount of damage to the house and the Moon Lady would probably be mad at her. Another was concerned that the palm where she had gotten stabbed was losing all feeling and she should probably find out why. Yet another was pointing out that Suika's friends were still hurt and could probably use help. And finally, a fourth made the case that the Moon Lady was really rich and could afford to fix all damages, that the palm problem could wait for later, Suika's friends were really tough and could handle themselves, and finally that she should probably find the evil shadow person and hit it until it stopped being fun.

After carefully listening to their arguments and weighing their points, Suika came to the conclusion that the fourth voice was making the most sense.

She didn't even bother slowing down as she walked right through a wall into the room beyond. Flimsy material. What was it, paper? The room itself seemed to be a sitting room, with cushioned furniture made of some kind of dark wood surrounding a fire pit in the center. Shelves full of books and expensive-looking china lines the walls.

That is, that's what it was when she entered. Five seconds and three swipes of her mighty arms later, it more resembled a lumber yard.

"Where _are_ you, you _gutless_ little _worm_?" Suika screeched. She lifted up a couch, snapped it in two, and hurled one half through one wall and the other through the opposite. "Show yourself!"

No response. Suika growled and marched forward. How big was this place anyway? She was reasonably certain she had already demolished enough rooms to fill two average sized houses. Well, maybe one and a half.

She seized up a heavy piece of timber and heaved it over her head. It tore its way though one of the nearby walls. From the room on the other side came the sound of snapping wood and breaking glass. _Now _it was two houses' worth. Still, the evil shadow person, who henceforth shall be known in her mind as the ESP, had yet to show herself.

Growling, Suika stomped into the newly opened room, ready to tear yet another several thousand yen's worth of furnishings to pieces.

If she had the presence of mind to look over her shoulder, she might have noticed the indistinct figure of writhing darkness, skittering spider-like along the walls and ceiling, shadowing every move the oni made.

…

_So…what do I do now?_

_**Seriously? **_

_Um…_

_**Dear gods, you are thick. Get **_**above **_**the oni's head, wait for her to look up, and drop down on her.**_

…_and then what?_

_**Well, what do you think? Stab out her eyes.**_

…

Suika heard the faintest rustle of movement above her, barely more than a whisper. She glanced up.

The oni had just enough time to register a black shape moving directly over her before it released its hold on the ceiling and swooped down on her.

…

_**Do it **_**now! **_**Don't hesitate, do it **_**now!**

…

Suika roared in pain and clutched at her face. Ice and fire spread over her forehead, freezing all feeling in some parts while burning others.

She thrashed blindly, hoping to hit something. Instead, something twisted around her horns and yanked her headfirst into the floor.

…

_**Okay, just so we're clear, running over her forehead, grabbing her horns and throwing her down is a far cry from stabbing her in the eyes. You do know this, right?**_

…_yes…_

_**Gah, this is getting disappointing. I get one rage-driven bout of nonlethal force and now all you can manage are a handful of martial arts tricks?**_

_Sorry._

_**Sure you are. Okay, last chance. If you're so concerned about hurting her, then just stab her through the brain before she gets up. Quick, painless, done. **_

_But-_

_**I do not care. Do it.**_

…

Suika braced herself against the floor and pushed herself up enough to glare through hazy eyes. The ESP was standing some feet away, sword loosely clutched in one hand and burning eyes watching the struggling oni with an unreadable expression.

Suika couldn't help but wonder why she was still alive. Certainly she wasn't complaining, but the ESP had her dead to rights. Instead, it had settled for just knocking her down and...

She felt her tingling scalp and winced. The thing's footsteps had left cold patches of numbness across her forehead, similar to that on her palm. Speaking of which, the stab wound had turned a nasty shade of black and purple which spread through both sides of her hand. Her fingers had ceased to move altogether.

Suika was starting to come to conclusion that touching the ESP with bare skin was probably a bad idea. But that was fine. She could adapt.

That was when the ESP took a page out of Suika's book and seized up a piece of broken lumber. Quick as a striking snake, it bolted forward and smashed it across Suika's face, the force of which physically lifted her off the ground and sent her careening backwards into one of the adjoining rooms.

…

_**Oh, come on! It's an **_**oni, **_**for crying out loud! What are you trying to do, massage her?**_

_But it worked! It knocked her back!_

_**So you took her off guard. Big deal. She'll be up in a second anyway.**_

_I'm trying! I just don't think we have to kill her, that's all._

_**Really? Are you serious here?**_

_Well, yeah! I mean-_

_**That's it, you are officially an idiot. Kid, you are on your own. Have fun with your new friends.**_

_What? Wait, don't! You can't leave!_

…

_Hello?_

…

Judging by the thick clouds of steam that were billowing around her, the ESP had knocked her into a sauna or a bathhouse. Suika had to admit, the thing was strong.

She sat up and felt her forehead. Not strong enough to bruise though. Numb spots aside, it was barely even tender.

The need to avoid physical contact was a problem though. As big as this place was, there were only so many pieces of furniture and chunks of wall she could throw at the ESP. She preferred fist-to-fist combat anyway, and being deprived of her element was aggravating.

That's when her eyes narrowed and she studied the room around her. The wheels in her head began to turn.

There were several towels lying folded up in cubbyholes set in the walls, some of them full body. Suika snatched several and, using her good hand and teeth, managed to wrap up her numb hand and attached arm. Then, more slowly this time, did the same to the other.

She flexed her good hand and took a few practice swings. She nodded in satisfaction. Then she turned her attention back to the room where the ESP waited.

No doubt about it, it was clobbering time.

With a challenging roar, Suika burst from the room. She was expecting the ESP to dodge out of the way, but to her surprise it stood perfectly still, allowing her to connect with a solid punch that it flying through three consecutive walls.

Suika wasn't about to let it recover. She followed the hurtling monster and, just as it finally came to a tumbling stomp, began hammering down on it, clenched fisted blows with her good hand and vicious backhands with her bad one.

In her rage induced haze, it took her a moment to realize that the ESP was no longer there that and she had dug through the floor and was now burrowing through the building's foundation with her fists.

Suika forced herself to stop. Panting, she surveyed the room around her. Aside from herself and some truly interesting sculptures of Reisen Udongein that could only be described as "scandalous," the room was empty.

Suddenly a twisting rope of darkness shot up from between two of the floor slats. It wrapped around Suika's towel-covered right arm. Suika roared and tried to pull away, but as she did so another black rope seized her left arm.

Then the floor seemed to explode with dark ropes, like the tentacles of some eldritch abomination summoned from the depths. They coiled themselves around Suika's waist, horns and chest, holding her in place. Even though none of them actually touched her skin, she could still feel the deadly ice of their touch through the few layers of fabric. Suika bellowed and thrashed about, tearing several of the ropes in the process. But for every one she ripped in half, three more appeared to replace it.

Finally, physically exhausted and emotionally burnt out, Suika collapsed to her knees. She panted heavily, sucking in desperate gulps of oxygen.

A shadow appeared in the upper part of her peripheral vision. Suika squinted through blurry eyes. The ESP stood over her, sword held in one hand while the other seemed to elongate and disappear into the floor, likely the source of the ropes.

Suika bared her teeth. "So, gonna _finish _me off now, huh? Just chop off my head?" The oni gathered her will and forced herself to her feet. "Well, go _ahead, _monster. But don't _expect _me to make it _easy _for you."

The ESP's eyes narrowed. It took one step forward. Then it staggered, needing to brace the tip of its sword against the ground to keep on its feet. Suika allowed herself a bitter smile of satisfaction. So, she had managed to hurt it after all.

Then, for the first time that Suika could remember, it spoke. _"You idiot, I don't want to kill you! You guys jumped me! I'm just trying to defend myself!" _

Suika spat. "Sure, and I suppose you _were _just having a _friendly _talk with the Moon Doctor Lady, huh?"

"_Yes! And then you came the heck out of nowhere and attacked me! What did I ever do to you?"_

In the air behind the ESP, a tear opened up. Suika's massive heart leapt when she saw Yukari step into the room. The ancient youkai's eyes widened when she saw the situation. She raised a finger to her lips. Suika blinked and nodded once.

"You? Like we'd _need _a reason to beat the _crap _out of you!" Suika snapped. "I mean, look _at _you! Who wouldn't want to smash _you _flat?"

The ropes wrapped around her tightened. Good, it was getting angry. Which meant it wouldn't be looking over its shoulder any time soon. Which was fortunate, as Yukari raised a single hand. Orbs of different size and color began circling the air over her palm.

"_I don't know why I bother," _the ESP muttered. _"Maybe the scary voice is right. Maybe I should just kill you all."_

The orbs flew from Yukari's hand to hover behind the ESP. Yukari nodded to Suika and mouthed _"Now."_

Suika's body tensed. "Yeah, slight _problem _with _that."_

"_What's that?"_

"You're about to find out. Goodbye!"

Before the ESP could react, Suika shrank herself down until she was about a foot tall. The sudden loss of size allowed her to slip free from the ropes grasp. They convulsed in surprise and tried to grab for her again, but she ducked the thrashing vines and scrambled out of the hole.

Just as she did, Yukari snapped her fingers. One of the orbs shot forward to impact against the back of the ESP's head, causing it to stagger forward. Before it could recover, another hit it in the side, followed by another to the back.

It tried to catch the orbs before they struck, but they were too fast, even for it. The ESP was battered back and forth like a puppets swinging on its strings.

Suika grinned. Finally they were making some headway. She returned to her normal size and extended her good hand.

Yukari noticed what she was doing. "Wait, Suika! Don't-"

Too late. Suika unleashed three blasts that struck the ESP in its head, chest and stomach. As it was already off balance from Yukari's attack, this sent it tumbling head-over-heels to crash into the far wall.

Suika whooped in delight and pressed her attack, sending burst after burst at the thing. _Shoulda done this from the beginning, _she thought as she pummeled the evil thing with bullets. Behind her, Yukari was yelling something, but Suika didn't pay attention. Now was shooty time. Talky time could come later.

"Okay, that's enough!"

Someone grabbed Suika by the arm and jerked her back. Surprised, Suika looked up to see Yukari glaring at her. "Didn't you hear me? I said stop!"

Suika blinked up at her. She was not used to having brawl-time interrupted by friends. "What? Why? We've _got _it on the _run!"_

"That's the point, idiot! It absorbs bullet energy! Keep shooting with the same kind and it'll adapt!"

"It will?" Suika turned to look at the ESP. Sure enough, as it stumbled to its feet the bullets she had shot were sinking into its body.

Then it turned to look at them. Suika braced herself, but instead of attacking it began to shiver. Then its body lost form and slipped between the floor slats.

Suika and Yukari stared at where it had disappeared. Then they looked at each other.

"Um, oops?" Suika blushed.

Yukari sighed. "Never mind. Let's just find it before it gets away."

Suika nodded her horned head. She took one step forward and then her eyes rolled back into her head. The world turned dark and she fell into unconsciousness.

…

_Hello? You there? I changed my mind! Hello?_

As Rin slithered her way through Eientei's foundations, she tried time and time again to contact the voice that claimed to represent her darker self. While the voice's claim seemed unlikely, she had to admit it did know more about fighting than she did. And at the moment, she could use all the help she could get, even if the things it told her to do made her insides squirm.

Still, there was no denying that she was hating herself for going trying to go to the voice for help. Okay, so maybe she had made more than her share of mistakes, but she was no killer! It was that part that made her disbelieve the idea that the voice was actually a part of her mind.

Of course, she might be wrong. Of course, she might be completely insane. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

But in the end, she supposed it was a moot point anyway. The voice, whatever it was, wasn't answering. She searched every corner of her mind, and the only presence other than herself was Rumia's, which still hovered confused and afraid in the corner Rin had sent her. Yet another thing Rin hated herself for. After spending what felt like eternity by herself in the dark, who was she to condemn Rumia to the same fate?

But in the end, what could she do? Trying to defend herself and deal with the terrified little youkai at the same time was beyond her capabilities. She was barely holding it together at it was. That oni alone had come _this _close to beating her into submission, and that was with Rumia's amazing raw power coupled with her own adaptive abilities.

Rumia's power. She would have to ask her about that. There was nothing in the youkai's memories to indicate that she was aware of how much she was capable of. That in itself was very odd.

Ah, she didn't have time for this. Everything was falling apart. Her meeting with Eirin had ended with her being lied to and betrayed, her plan to get back at the doctor by absorbing the princess was a complete failure, and now she had some very dangerous people after her blood. It was time to get the hell out of there and find a place to hide. She could worry about apologizing to Rumia later.

Soon the consistency of the ground she was traveling through changed from wood and concrete to loose soil. She was outside. Good. Maintaining an amoebic shape was exhausting. Rin pulled her body to the surface. With a bit of mental will, she released a little of her control over the energies she controlled, allowing her body to resume Rumia's shape.

The outside still looked deserted. The oni and the youkai Rumia was so afraid of were probably still inside. And the others apparently had yet to rejoin the game. Good.

Rin hovered off the ground, intending to disappear into the forest. Then someone spoke.

"'Sup?"

Rin turned and her heart fell. Standing there were the witch and the ghost that had tried to fry her earlier. They were dirty, they were bruised (well, the witch was at least. Ghosts did have that whole incorporeal thing going for them), but they were upright and they looked pissed.

And, if for no other reason than to add insult to injury, Eirin sat behind them, back up against Eientei's wall. She was still hurt but conscious. Her eyes glared out from between swollen lids.

"So," the witch said. "Eirin here tells us that you can get used to and absorb shit. Nice trick, ze."

The ghost nodded. "Indeed. But I must admit, we're curious: how well would you fair if we switched spells every, oh let's say, two and a half seconds? Could you adapt to that?"

The witch grinned. She lifted a single fist, which began glowing with barely repressed force. "And just to let you know, between the two of us, we have over _seven thousand _and _four hundred thirty-eight _types of offensive spells. So what do you say, Smokey? Ready for round two?"

Rin tried to prepare herself for another onslaught, but then things got very, very loud.

…

_One hour later…_

Yukari had to admit, the whole operation had turned out to be much more difficult than she had originally anticipated. Of course, she had known that having to deal with the Shadow Youkai once again wasn't going to be fun, but with the added unknown element of Rin Satsuki had almost turned the whole thing into a disaster. But it had turned out all right at the end.

She looked around the room they were in. They were inhabiting one of Hourai Clinic's emergency rooms. Eirin and Reimu were occupying the beds. Suika was still unconscious. It took an excessive amount of punishment to knock out an oni, but from the look of things, she had suffered exactly that. She had telltale signs of the taint all over her face and covering one of her hands. But it was the open wound in her palm that was most worrying. From the look of things, some of the taint had worked its way into her bloodstream, which accounted for the unconsciousness. Yukari had spent an exhausting fifteen minutes hunting down the microscopic fragments of death and forcing them out.

However, Eirin was in even worse shape. She had been damaged almost as badly, and despite her great age and power, she simply did not have an oni's incredible stamina. If it weren't for Yukari cheating at the rules of life and death, she would have slipped away. As it was, it would be a long time before she would be at full strength.

The others weren't in great shape either. Marisa and Mima had fared the best, but still, being hit directly with their own Final Spark had roughed them up pretty badly. And Reimu…She wasn't in danger, but she had suffered a mild concussion. And she would be lame for about half a week.

Yukari grit her teeth. She wasn't usually murderous, but seeing her shrine maiden hurled through those bamboo stalks like that made her want to do questionable things to Rin Satsuki. And Suika's condition did absolutely nothing to help matters.

And then there was the fact that Eientei was more-or-less demolished from the inside. Yukari had to give Suika credit: she had done amazingly well despite having little knowledge of what she was up against. In fact, she might have solved the problem by herself, given enough time. But still, the property damage was astronomically high. Further relations with Kaguya were going to be…strained.

And to top it off, Ran was still out searching for Chen. Yukari had been seriously tempted to just tell her to forget the little nuisance until things were under control, but the last time she had done that Chen had ended up trapped in Makai, no explanation as to how. It had taken a solid week of negations with Shinki to get her released. To that end, the less time that catgirl spent wandering around during a crisis, the better.

Okay, so maybe things hadn't turned out all right. But at least they had survived and emerged somewhat victorious. In the end, that was the important thing.

As for the antagonist herself, she was receiving a little lesson on physics and acceleration. Yukari had dumped her into one of her portals, which connected to a second portal directly over the first. As such, it was a literal bottomless pit, the results of which translated into a dizzying black blur that was painful to stare at.

"So, uh, how does that work again?" Reimu asked. She was sitting in one of the chairs, with her bandaged foot propped up on a stool. "I mean, can't she just stop and hover?"

Yukari grinned. "Not the way I have it set up. They're too close together. Plus, the portals are designed to add just a smidgen of speed to her fall every time she passes through. And since they're so close together, well, in layman's terms: speedy thing goes in, even speedier thing comes out."

Marisa stopped her pacing to glare. "Yah know, you really coulda just done that from the beginning, ze. Save us a _whole _lot of trouble and property damage that I didn't get to take part in."

"Stop whining, little witch. Point is, it's over. We won. Now, all that's left is to decide-"

Marisa turned to face the others. "All in favor of killing the bloody psychotic risk to life and limb, say aye."

"Aye," Mima said without hesitation.

Reimu hesitated, then she looked down at her foot. She nodded. "Aye. Sorry Yukari, she's just way too dangerous."

Yukari leaned back in her seat, carefully crossing her arms over her bandaged torso. "Why are you apologizing? Aye for me too. Only problem is, I'm not seeing how we can. Ending Rumia the first time around was problematic enough, but now we're dealing with someone that can take just about anything we can dish out."

…

_Oh gods, they're going to kill me. I knew this was going to happen. And Rumia too! What did she ever do to them?_

_**Wow, tough luck. Bet you wish you had listened to me, huh?**_

…_oh no._

…

"Speaking of which, what about Rumia?" Reimu asked. "I mean, she's still stuck in that thing. Is there any way we can get her out?"

"Are you daft?" Marisa snapped. "Have you been sleeping through that whole beat down? Even if we get her out, the ribbon thingy is gone, ze! Evil Rumia's back! Better to off them both."

Mima cleared her throat. "While the removal of the ribbon would return her to full power, we do not know if her memories would return as well. The wiping of her memory and the sealing of her power were two separate operations."

"So? I mean, no offense, Master, but is that something you really want to bet your life on? Well, erm, whatever ghostly equivalent you have, I mean."

"Hmmm, I suppose you're right."

…

_**Oh, this cannot end well. Poor Rumia. First you had to go eat her without permission, and now her doom is sealed as a result. Talk about a lousy day.**_

_Please, you have to help her! I can't let her die because of me!_

_**You mean help you?**_

_Yes!_

_**Even if it means killing? **_

_Um…_

_**You **_**really **_**don't have a lot of time to think about it.**_

…

"As much as it hurts to say so, I'm afraid I must agree with the witch," Yukari said. "It is my job to keep Gensokyo safe from threats such as this, and while Rumia could be said to be blameless in _this _situation, the risk is too great to allow her to wander free."

Reimu glowered. She shifted in her seat and folded her arms. "Look, I don't really care for Rumia at all, and I am glad to beat her up whenever she starts getting stupid, but I don't like the idea of killing her just because of something that _might _happen. Why can't we just seal up her powers again?" Her glare turned into a sneer. "Unless you've forgotten how."

Mima raised a single elegant eyebrow. "Hardly. But even _if _we somehow managed to extract Rumia from within that thing, and even _if _she has not regained memory of what she once was, and even _if _we somehow restrained her long enough to create another amulet of sealing, what's to prevent something else from unleashing her once again? Reimu, this isn't one of the incidents you're used to dealing with. This isn't a case of someone with too much power growing bored and causing trouble. We are talking of a potential massacre here. Maybe even genocide."

…

_**Things aren't looking good Rin. What's it going to be?**_

_But I-_

_**Look, if it's really that big of a problem, I'll do it.**_

…_what?_

_**Give me temporary control. I can break out of this thing for you. Hell, I'll even keep it clean if that bothers you. Just long enough to get us out of here.**_

…

"I don't know, I just refuse to accept that an execution is the only option," Reimu said. "This Satsuki person? Okay, that I'll give you. But Rumia, the Rumia _we _know, she didn't do anything. I hate to say this, but the annoying little twerp is a victim here."

Marisa glared at the shrine maiden. "Okay, are we forgetting where she tried to _eat _us once? Imagine if she suddenly started packing the sort of juice that just kicked our collective asses."

"And there still exists the possibility that her memories have returned," Mima murmured. "If we were to release her from Satsuki's hold, she would not hesitate to take us with her."

Reimu still looked troubled, but she didn't argue.

…

_**Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to honor the memory of Rumia. Taken from us because the spineless wuss who swallowed her in the first place couldn't stomach a little aggressive self defense.**_

_All right, all right!_

_**If only there had been someone willing to go the extra mile to defend her. If only there had been someone willing to stand up for the poor girl's right to survive.**_

_I said all right already! Just get us out of here!_

_**I knew you'd warm up to me. Now, just relax…**_

…

Yukari folded her hands in her lap and crossed her legs. "All well and good, but there remains the problem of how. I'm afraid that I don't have the first idea of how to-"

"Look out!"

Yukari turned to look at the eternally falling blur that was her prisoner. Her face paled when she saw the spear of twisting darkness heading towards her. Somehow, it had managed to line up a perfect shot, despite having a mere fraction of a second for its window of opportunity. Once again they had underestimated it. Once again it was going to cost them.

As quick as thought, Mima materialized behind her and yanked her out of the way; turning what would have been an impaling blow into a grazing one. The spear tore across her midriff, slashing the bandage and sending a shock of numbing cold through her torso.

It was enough. Yukari's attention wavered, and the two portals began to collapse. As they did so, the monster separated itself into six curving rays that shot out in six different directions. Each ray landed on the floor, forming a small lump of the shimmering black material. Each lump then coagulated back together to form a single body.

The embodiment of the Shadow Youkai once again stood before them.

It cocked its head to one side. _**"Hello again. Now, I'd love to stay and eviscerate you all, but I'm on a bit of probation here. So I'd just leave you with something to remember me by. Until next time, ladies."**_

With that, it fell to one knee and slammed a taloned fist into the floor. As hand met wood, the tendrils twisting around its fingers flushed scarlet. Energy pulsed down into the ground and exploded outward. The floor itself seemed to literally _surge_ outward in a rolling shockwave that overturned and demolished all in its path.

Suika and Eirin were tossed from their beds and nearly thrown against the wall. Reimu fell from her chair and Marisa was knocked from her feet. Yukari was quick enough to take to the air before she suffered the same fate, though the effort nearly caused her to black out. Of course Mima remained unaffected whatsoever. However, it was enough to their attention, and during that split-second of distraction the Shadow Youkai had torn its way through the wall to the hall beyond.

Yukari landed in an untidy heap. She winced as pain stabbed through her unnumbed areas, but she didn't have time to worry about now.

"Stop her," she choked out. "Don't let her get away!"

"On it," Marisa said. She hopped to her feet and extended her hand. Her broom, which had been knocked to the other side of the room, smacked against her palm. She hopped aboard and, holding down her hat with one hand, took off in pursuit.

"I'm going with her," Mima said. "I trust you'll be fine?"

Yukari nodded and winced. "Yeah, we got it. Go!"

Mima vanished without another word, presumably to cut the fugitive off from the other end.

Yukari grabbed her overturned chair and hoisted herself up. At the other end of the room, Reimu was using the wall to pull herself to a standing position, leaning all of her weight on her good foot. Suika was still lying unconscious under her bed, and Eirin was lying facedown on the floor, mumbling something incomprehensible.

Yukari sighed. She was starting to hate this day.

Reimu started hopping across the room to assist those more gravely injured than herself. "Hey Yukari?" she said.

"What?"

"The next time you want me to go help Cirno and her friends, I'm going to tape your mouth shut."

…

_**There, you see? Got us out, nobody died.**_

_I guess so. Thank you._

_**Glad to hear it. Good luck.**_

_Wait, what?_

_**Did my part. You're on your own from here out, girly. Head for the outside and just keep running. Use that slithering trick if you have to.**_

_What? No, you can't-_

_**Bye.**_

_No, wait!_

Rin tried calling again and again, but the voice had simply disappeared. Again.

Whatever. She could worry about her evil twin (or whatever it was) later. Now she had to concentrate on survival.

And judging by the massive explosion that suddenly tore up the hall she had just left, that was going to be difficult. She wasn't sure who was after her this time, but it couldn't be good.

Rin focused all her attention to a point directly in front of her and charged forward. Wall, furniture and other obstacles barely slowed her down. Then, with a final push, she burst into open air.

The dark clouds summoned by her anger had dispersed after her painful defeat at the hands of the witch and the ghost. Now the sun was shining brightly overhead. It was almost deceptively peaceful looking. If it weren't for the telltale scars left by their battle and the wreckage of the surrounding buildings, the scene could be described as a cheerful spring day.

Of course, the fact that she was being pursued by very powerful people who wished to brutally end her life and Rumia's as well sort of dampened Rin's appreciation of her surroundings. _Some first day of freedom, _she thought ruefully. _I was better off in that box._

Well, there was no time to worry about that now. The only thing to do was to find some far-off corner of Gensokyo to hide. And then she could worry about making things up to Rumia. And maybe see to the problem of her "imaginary friend."

Of course, given the way the day was going for everyone involved, this proved to be impractical, as Rin was soon interrupted by a flying blue-and-white missile.

…

She had made it, she had finally made it!

Despite being Master Sparked twice in two hours, flying around like her butt was on fire all day, and pushing herself far past her limits to catch up with Reimu, Cirno had finally reached the Moon Princess' mansion. Her body was shaking with exhaustion and her wings felt like they were about to crack to pieces, but she had made it!

And, wonder of wonders, the first thing she saw upon arrival was Rumia herself. She must have found a way to escape the blob. Cirno felt relief sing through her body, giving her new strength.

"Rumia!" she called as she darted towards her friend. "Oh awesomesauce, I found you!"

She tried to wrap her arms around Rumia, but to her surprise her friend recoiled. _"Wait…Cirno, right? Rumia's friend? Stay away from me."_

Cirno's jaw dropped. "What the _hellsicles _are you talking about? I came all this way to find you! What happened to your voice? Have you been smoking? And why did you paint yourself black? I know you like darkness and all, but come on!"

Rumia kept nervously looking over her shoulder. _"Okay, seriously. Not a good time. Can we postpone this until later?"_

Inspiration struck. "Wait, are you Rumia's shadow?" Cirno demanded. "Did you…like detach or something and now you're going to get help? Is Rumia still being eaten or is she going to float off into the sky without you?"

"_What? No! No, no, yes, no! Now please, we need to-"_

Then the wall of the strange bamboo building exploded. Cirno yelped and covered her face as flaming shard pelted her arms. From within emerged a sight that Cirno was frankly getting tired of: an angry Marisa Kirisame, perched on her broom and looking to ruin somebody's day.

At the same time, the air on the other side of she and Rumia shimmered. The scary ghost lady that was always hanging out with Reimu appeared out of nowhere. Her mouth was moving at a mile a minute, but the words were so low that they were impossible to make out.

The ghost raised a single hand, index finger pointing at Rumia. Green light began to collect at her fingertip.

At the same time, Marisa thrust a fist into the sky. Crackling red lightning shot down from the sky and struck her hand, illuminating it was a deadly scarlet light.

"Specta_cular _Supernova!" Marisa howled. She hurled the ball of lightning forward, which erupted into a ball of rolling flame that surged forward, eager to devour all in its way.

As she did so, the ghost stopped chanting and gestured. Twisting ethereal arms flew from her fingertip, each one ending in a grasping, long-fingered hand.

Cirno suddenly realized two things. One, both attacks were heading straight for Rumia. Two, they didn't look like they were spellcard regulation. In fact, they looked downright lethal.

"No!" she screamed. "Rumia, move!"

She lunged forward and pushed Rumia out of the way. As her palms touched Rumia's dress, shocking cold, greater than anything even the ice fairy had experienced, shot through her arms. She cried out and recoiled.

Just as she opened her eyes, Cirno realized that she had accidentally moved herself right into the line of fire. She didn't even have time to feel afraid before both attacks hit her at the same time.

With a puff of white mist, Cirno evaporated.

…

_Sorry about the wait guys. Had a bunch of schoolwork I needed to take care of._

_And once again I'd hope to finish this arc in a single chapter, and once again I've failed. Bah. I'll try to wrap things up in the next two installments, three at the most, so we can move on._

_Anyway, to answer Pyramid Head's question about Eirin, it's never actually stated that she drank from the same elixir as Kaguya and Mokou. She's certainly an immortal of some kind, but we don't know if she can regenerate like they can. So for story purposes, I'm just going to assume that she has eternal youth but can still be killed. Hope that clears things up!_

_Until next time, everyone!_


	7. Phoenix Down

Phoenix Down

Normally traveling the Bamboo Forest of the Lost didn't take long, provided you didn't get lost yourself. If you knew you way around, then it was a quick trip. And even if you didn't, you could always rise above the treetops and journey from one end to the other in about fifteen minutes. And seeing how the entire staff of Eientei both knew their way around _and _was planning to fly over the treetops anyway, they should have been moments away from the Scarlet Devil Mansion by now.

There were a couple of problems with that.

The first was that they were all flying in formation. While this made the most sense from a defensive standpoint, it did mean the slowest were setting the pace. And seeing how they had many among their number whose jobs included simple housework, cooking, cleaning and maintenance, i.e. jobs that did not include much flying to begin with, the trip was taking nearly twice as long.

The second occurred when they were only five minutes from the forest's border.

Tewi had been in the lead of the caravan (convoy? Procession? Flock? Whatever) when it had happened. The sight sent a deep cleansing sense of relief singing through her. Even though she knew they weren't technically "safe" until they reached the Scarlet Devil Mansion, just having made it past such a large hurdle was heartening enough.

And then everything had gone to hell.

At first Tewi hadn't realized what was happening. Suddenly everything started yelling and the formation broke. Her first thought was that Rin had found them, or maybe Mokou was taking advantage of the situation. But then she realized that such was not the case. No, it was much worse. Kaguya had gotten loose.

Somehow the princess had managed to work her arms from their bindings. After that, it had taken but one burst of power to free herself completely.

"Kaguya!" Reisen yelled as she chased after the furious princess, all the host of Eientei behind her. "Come back, it's not safe!"

Tewi agreed. "Are you crazy?" she called. "Rin'll just eat you too!"

"Cowards!" Kaguya snarled. "Worthless pathetic cowards!"

_I hate it when she gets like this, _Tewi thought to herself. Aloud, she said, "Anyone who's faster than her, try to cut her off! Only fire if-"

Kaguya took a sudden turn and dipped downward into the forest.

"Never mind, change of plans! Surround her on all sides and try to hedge her in!"

"Do you really think that'll work?" the newly promoted Commander Utada asked.

"No, but it's worth a shot! Hurry up!"

…

Marisa stared in shock at the space that had been occupied by Cirno's body not five seconds prior. Black smoke rose upward as green sparks fell to the earth, remnants of her dual attack with Mima. However, those were unimportant. Her attention was focused on the white steam that swirled in wisps where the two spells had stuck one another.

It was difficult to comprehend. One moment they were about to remove the monster for good, the next Cirno had come the hell out of nowhere and had gotten in their way. And as a result, she had been vaporized in an instant.

_I've killed her, _she thought numbly. _My gods, I've actually killed her._

She didn't like Cirno; there was no secret about that. Nobody really did. The stupid braggart had inconvenienced her more times than she cared to count, to the point where beating her up was practically a national pastime.

But she hadn't meant to kill her.

"Come on!" Mima shouted, tearing Marisa away from her stupefied state. "She's getting away!"

Marisa looked where her mentor was indicating. Rin Satsuki had taken advantage of the momentary distraction and was now vanishing through the bamboo.

"Did you hear me?" Mima demanded. "Snap out of it, girl! We can't let her escape!"

"But Cirno…"

"Forget her! She's a fairy, she'll be fine!"

"Yeah, but who could come back from _that?"_

Mima shoved herself up against Marisa, so that they were practically nose-to-nose. "Listen to me," she growled. "Cirno does not matter. She got in the way, so what happened was her fault. But if that gives you pause, if you let that stop you from helping me hunt that thing down, then whatever happens after will become _your _fault."

"But-"

"_Furthermore_," Mima continued. "I will be very, _very _disappointed."

It was that last part that did it for her. She nodded once, knowing that any other response would turn out poorly for her.

"Good. Now let's go."

Marisa followed her former teacher into the bamboo forest. Now that she thought about it, Mima was right. What had happened to Cirno was her own damned fault. No one had forced her to jump into the middle of a way. No use crying over spilt milk or vaporized fairies.

Still, she couldn't help casting one regretful look over her shoulder. Behind them, the mist was starting to clear.

…

Bamboo stalks passed by so fast they the seemed to melt into a formless blur. Sometimes they would suddenly appear to block her path, but Rin would just pass right through them without even noticing.

The scene she had just witnessed played over and over in her head on an endless loop. Rumia's friend coming out of nowhere and taking the shot meant for her. The whole thing had been so sudden that Rin honestly didn't have the slightest idea of how to feel about it. No one had ever stuck their neck out for her, especially to that degree. Even if the little fairy did think she was Rumia herself, it still hit her hard.

Especially since she had lost her life for it. Oh gods in everywhere, what was she going to tell Rumia?

_She's a fairy, she'll resurrect, she's a fairy, she'll resurrect. _Rin repeated those words over and over again, trying to make them stick, trying to make them overpower the image of Cirno's body as it disintegrated. It didn't work very well.

There was a whining sound and three spears of liquid fire spat over her. She managed to dodge just in time, but one grazed her shoulder, splattering her with droplets that hissed and burned as they stuck to her. A small effort of will, and they were absorbed into her being.

Still, she was going to have to do something about her pursuers. As fast as she was, she couldn't outrun them forever. Rin spared a glance at the ground below her. Especially with that damned trail of dead plants she kept leaving everything. Might as well paint a glowing arrow in the sky with a sign that said "Shoot Here!"

That was when inspiration struck. Rin increased her speed until she had gained enough distance. Then she dug deep into the abilities she had acquired from Rumia. As ugly as they were, they could prove useful.

Remembering the spear of darkness that her "Evil Twin" had thrown at the portal youkai, Rin hurled several similar missiles straight out in numerous random directions, like the spokes on some kind of lunatic wheel. As she hoped, the ground beneath each missile withered and died, leaving a clear path of blackened foliage. Choosing a direction for herself, Rin sped along, praying that it would be enough to throw them off. At this point, she was going to take whatever advantage she could get.

Well, except for one. She knew she was some kind of a monster, but she still didn't trust herself with using her new powers in the way they were intended. She wasn't a deliberate killer, no matter what her "Evil Twin" said. Not yet, at least.

…

Marisa saw a change in the trail they were following and swore out loud. She braked hard, bringing her broom to a stop. She felt her accumulated acceleration protest the sudden change in speed.

The trail of dead plants and blackened leaves had suddenly exploded into several different directions. It looked like the tip of one of those sparklers the kids were always lighting up during the New Year's Celebration. Marisa grit her teeth as her eyes darted from one path to the other. She didn't know how it had pulled something like this off, but she had to admit it was very clever, even if it only made her want to kill it all the more.

"What now?" she shouted over to Mima, who was studying the new obstacle in an almost scholarly manner.

"What now?" Mima said with even bothering to look at her. "We follow, of course."

Marisa growled and swooped down so that she was facing Mima directly. "Yeah? You got any suggestions as to how, ze? Because unless you brought a full searching party…"

Mima muttered some words under her breath. Her form blurred, and suddenly her body divided in a manner not unlike cellular reproduction. Where there once had been one Mima were now two smaller Mimas. Then those two also separated, bringing the total to four. And then eight. In the end, there were sixteen little green-and-blue ghosts, each one the size of a small child.

"…or you could do that," Marisa finished. "Neeaaaattttt. You gotta show me how to do that."

The Mimas didn't bother to acknowledge the compliment. "Choose a path, I'll take the others," one of them said.

"Don't you mean 'we'll' take the others?" another muttered. "We're here too, you know!"

That one received a smack across her head from one of her neighbors. "We're all the same person, idiot!" the third snapped. "Singular personal pronouns work just fine."

"Not now, we're not!" the second shot back. "If we were, we'd all be speaking in unison!"

"Is this _really _the time to be discussing pronoun semantics?" another put it.

"Agreed, we have a job to do."

"But if we cannot even agree on how to refer to our collective selves, how can we be expected to even complete this mission?" argued one from the back.

This comment brought forth a chorus of both murmured disagreements and assents. The one who had spoken first sighed and rolled her eyes.

"You see why I don't like doing this often?" she said to Marisa.

"You mean 'we!' You're not the only Mima here, you know!"

Marisa, who was finding the whole thing hypnotically fascinating, started and said, "Huh? Oh, yeah. Anyway, I'll go…this way. Okay?"

"Works for us. Good hunting."

Another rubbed her chin and frowned. "Wouldn't she be more suited heading off in-"

Before another argument could erupt, Marisa shot off along her selected trail, following the line of the taint. Interesting or no, seeing a chorus of miniature Mimas argue amongst themselves was just too strange.

Behind her, the Mimas themselves all chose separate paths, bickering with and pushing one another until they finally got themselves situated. The hunt was on.

…

Less than five minutes into the search, Ran had begun to realize how pointless things were going to be. Now that an hour had passed, she was sure of it. The Bamboo Forest of the Lost was named that for a reason: it was a place where people got _lost. _And given how much experience Chen had in getting lost even in the most normal of places, it was starting to become akin to searching for a needle in a hayfield.

"I don't think we're gonna find her," Lily said as she prodded a bush with a stick. "I mean, this forest is _huge. _She could be anywhere."

Ran pursed her lips. "Just keep looking," she growled, careful to keep her own doubts out of her voice.

"Oh-kayyyy," Lily said with a shrug. "Though if you ask me, she probably went into the mansion."

The thought of Chen getting caught between an angry Suika and Eirin's Satsuki person sent a powerful shiver down Ran's spine. "No," she said out loud. "She wouldn't."

"Why?"

"Chen's not much of an inside person," Ran explained. "Every time she's run away, it's always to somewhere outside. Though come to think of it…" Ran's eyes narrowed. A possibility had just occurred to her, one that was almost as troubling as the thought of having to search for her in this enormous forest.

Lily tilted her head to one side. "What is it?" she asked.

"There's this…group she often hides with when she's made at me. I'm thinking she might have-"

"Shit!" a sudden shrill, high-pitched voice screeched from nearby, making them both jump. "Shit, shit, shit! Wrong path!"

Both of them whirled around to see one of the last things they had expected to see. Some kind of spirit, only about a foot tall, with long green hair dressed in a blue robe and tall, pointy hat decorated with depictions of celestial bodies had suddenly appeared on the scene. Apparently something had upset her, as she was banging her fist repeatedly against a tree as she cursed out loud.

"Why did _I _have to get stuck with a fake path!" the spirit cried. "I wanted to be the one to find her! Why couldn't I find her?"

Ran stared in utter bewilderment. The thing was, she _knew_ the spirit, or at least her master did. Yukari had dealings with her in the past. The only thing was that Ran was pretty sure the spirit had been significantly…taller. And much more emotionally composed.

Lily tugged on Ran's sleeve. "Who's that?" she whispered. "Do you know her?"

"Um, I think so. Hang on."

Ran approached the bite-sized spirit. "Um, excuse me? Mima? Is that you?"

Mini-Mima's head swiveled to look at her. Her demeanor changed immediately. "Oh, you!" she said enthusiastically as she darted over to stare Ran in the eye. "Hi Ran! Yukari said you would be here. How's it going?"

It took a few seconds for Ran's brain to remember how to communicate with her mouth. "Um, yeah. Fine. Mima, what-"

"Happened to me? Oh, we were chasing that Satsuki person, and the path split off into a bunch of other paths. So I used a dividing spell to make more of me! That way, I can follow all the paths at once! Smart, huh?"

Perhaps, but Ran found the idea of several hyperactive pint-sized Mimas running through the forest to be utterly terrifying. "Um, I guess so…"

"Well, no, not really," the mini-Mima shrugged. "I really don't like using it, since my mind gets broken down a little bit more with each division and my pieces usually end up doing something incredibly embarrassing. But desperate times at all that, hey? Speaking of which, did you see anyone looking like they've painted themselves black and covered their eyes in cherry juice flying by here?"

Ran shook her head. "I'm afraid not. We're out here looking for my Shikigami. Haven't seen the Shadow Youkai or whatever it is since Eirin sent me away."

"Aw, bummer. See, I really wanted to be the one to find it, because then I could rub it in the faces of all the other Mimas! They're kinda mean, you know what I'm saying?"

"I guess…Wait a minute, Yukari told me that she had Satsuki contained!"

"Yeah, but she got away. Made a big mess too. Me and Marisa were the only ones who weren't like really beat up, so we went after her! Sucks, don't it?"

"What about Yukari, is she okay?"

"Well…sort've. Got slashed with a nasty dark spear thing, but she's alive. Anyway, it was fun catching up, but I really gotta head back. The other me's really are helpless without me. Laters!"

With that, the mini-Mima turned and sped back the way she came. Not long after, Ran's phone began to ring.

"Yes, Yukari?" she said.

"_Ran, I need you back at the clinic. I need an extra set of hands and you need to get out of that forest."_

"Yeah, I just ran into Mima. Erm, I think I did anyway. She told me Satsuki got out."

"_Indeed. I have to admit, she's a clever little bitch. Mima and Marisa are going to try to shut her down. But it's best if you stay out of their crossfire."_

"But what about Chen?"

There was a short pause, and then Yukari said, _"There's no helping that. I can't have a monster hunt and a Chen search party going at the same time. I need you here, now. We'll have to worry about her after." _

Ran's brow furrowed. "I'm sorry Master, but that is not acceptable."

"_Excuse me? What was that?"_

"With all due respect Master, if there really is some kind of psycho-killer on the loose, then I'm not going to leave Chen alone to get caught in the crossfire either."

"_That's an _order,_ Shikigami."_

Ran gritted her teeth. Refusing a direct order from Yukari was difficult in the extreme, but she wasn't going to waver. "Chen's your responsibility too. I will not abandon her."

There was a long pause, and then Yukari said, _"Very well. I didn't want to resort to this, but…"_

Lily cried out in shock. Ran started to turn to see what she was reacting to, but a hand seized her shoulder and whirled her around. There, Yukari herself was emerging from one her portals. That in itself wasn't unusual, at least to Chen, but her Master's dress was torn at the midriff, exposing an ugly black wound. Yukari's lips were pressed together so tightly that they had turned white, and sparks were flying in her eyes.

Yukari mumbled a word, and Ran's body suddenly seized up. Ran set her will and tried to move, but her body would not obey. No surprises there. It was taking marching orders from someone else.

"I hope you realize," Yukari said as she grabbed Ran by the collar and yanked her into the portal, "how much this hurts. I also hope you realize that I am never incapacitated for long. Remember that the next time you decide to disobey me."

The portal sealed itself up, taking both of the youkai with it.

…

Lily White stared at the spot where the portal had disappeared. She had no idea what Yukari was going to do to Ran, but she did not envy the fox. Not one bit.

She looked around the forest and wondered what she was supposed to do now. Her yearly announcements had been ruined so completely that sticking around was pointless. And from the look of it, things were going straight to hell.

It just wasn't fair, damn it. She did her best to fulfill her purpose in life. All that really was making people feel relieved that winter was over. Everybody loved spring, right? Why did people always try to screw things up for her? Why did they have to go and ruin her special day?

Well, enough was enough. "Screw those guys," she muttered to herself. "I'm going home."

Lily snapped her fingers and vanished, not to be seen again for another year. She could only hope that the next first day of spring wouldn't suck nearly as much as this one did.

Rin had to admit, it wasn't the best solution. But then again, the best solution involved everyone suddenly saying they were sorry for hurting her and welcoming her back with open arms, Rumia forgiving her and promising to be her best friend forever, Eirin giving Rin her body back and a pat on the head, and then everyone celebrating their eternal friendship with a big party with lots of laughter and dancing. Rin wasn't nearly so crazy to start believing that was going to happen in the next few moments, so she had to settle for just a potentially workable solution.

After she had gone a good distance from where she had created those false trails, Rin had paused just long enough to hear someone fast approaching. Now that was just not right. The missile idea had been a _good _one! Why didn't it work?

Well, no use crying over possible ensuing disintegration. It was time to improvise. Again.

Selecting a particularly thick cluster of foliage, Rin shot into the air, careful to avoid getting close enough to the surrounding bamboo stalks to leave traces of that taint. Then, when she was right over the cluster, she pulled all the power she got from Rumia as far as she could into herself and shoved it into the farthest corner.

Once that had happened, the body she had stolen from Rumia collapsed back on itself. She lost form and color, turning back into her natural blob-like state. Suddenly deprived of Rumia's ability to fly, she had fallen right into the undergrowth. Hopefully it would be enough to hide her for the time being.

Unfortunately, she could not hold that state for very long. Once she absorbed someone, her body would naturally conform to that person's general shape. It made slithering around difficult. And reverting back to blob form required a great amount of concentration. She could only hope the danger passed before her cells started to take damage from the strain.

Also unfortunately, she was now effectively blind. Well, not entirely. She could still sense things that were nearby and achieve a kind of _very _limited sight, one that mainly displayed things as silhouettes, but there was no way she could work up the concentration to accomplish that. So unless her pursuer decided to sit on her or step on her, she was in the dark in this one. So the only thing to do was sit tight as long as she could and pray that no one would see her. Already she could think of a dozen things wrong with that plan.

_She can't see me, she can't see me, she can't see me…_

Wait. Vibrations. Something had just landed on the ground. Something was near. Rin tensed up. She could feel something moving close by. Something moving _very _close by.

…

How typical. How utterly typical. Out of all the bloody godsforsaken trails she could have picked, she picked one that led to a dead end. Marisa scowled and hopped off her broom. She had no idea how Satsuki had pulled off that red herring trick, but it was frustrating her to no end.

Still, so long as she was here, she might as well be thorough. After all, Satsuki might be hiding nearby. Worth a shot.

Holding her pulsing hakkero in front of her like a ward, Marisa began to investigate the area. "Come out, come out wherever you are," she sang. "Fee-fie-foe-fum, I smell the blood of something about to be very, very dead.

…

The vibrations had ceased. Even though she no longer had much in the way of an endocrine system, Rin tensed up. Right now she would trade all the apocalyptic powers in the word just to know what was going on.

She waited. Time moved oddly in the dark places of her mind. She had figured out how to slow it down if necessary, but not speed it up. So she waited, as the seconds ticked by, every one feeling like minutes.

If she had teeth, Rin would be gritting them right about now. Keeping still would be a whole lot easier if it weren't for the strain of holding Rumia's power at bay. Even now, she could feel it pressing against her mind, trying to get out.

Wait…Rumia's power…

Fully aware that this was a bad idea, Rin let a bit of the dark energy leak past the barrier she had formed around it. This she took and twisted into the shape of a singular burning eye.

_I am so violating every single rule I've _ever _learned about anatomy, _she thought grimly. _And probably a few about nature. _Still, according to just about everyone, she had been doing that anyway. So why stop now?

The eye formed just enough to give her a murky view of the surrounding areas. Everything was hazy and done in a pale shade of pink, but she could at least make out shapes.

Unfortunately the only thing she could see was leaves. Rin extended a single stalk upward like a periscope, the partially formed eye sitting at the top.

The Mad Witch was standing about seven feet away, her back to the bushes where Rin was hiding.

Shock shot through Rin's mind, nearly causing her to lose control of the power she had been restraining. She sucked the stalk and attached eye back into her body and hunkered down as low as she could.

…

Marisa was pushing her way through yet another cluster of bamboo when something started rustling nearby. She paused, and turned in the direction of the noise. It had come from some leafy bushes.

She approached the source of the noise cautiously. It was highly unlikely Satsuki was in there, seeing how the bushes were very much unwithered. Probably just some kind of small animal.

Still…

Marisa approached the bushes, broom held in one hand, hakkero in the other. Using the broom handle, she cautiously pushed branches out of the way.

Something shot out of the bushes. Startled, Marisa hopped back and snapped her hakkero forward. Then she saw what it was and groaned.

Fairies, about five of them. And the small fry variety too. None of them were over a third of a foot tall. Marisa had cleaned more formidable things out of her pantry.

They swarmed around her head, laughing and chittering in their small squeaky voices. "Hey, knock it off," Marisa yelled as she tried to swipe them away. "Get out of here!"

That of course only made them laugh harder. One of them swooped low enough for her to make out what it was saying.

"_Marisa, Marisa, big fat witch,_

_doesn't wanna stop being a snitch._

_Papa smacked her and hit her with a switch_

_and when she cried, he made her his bitch."_

Blinding light tore up the surrounding area. When it cleared, Marisa was standing alone among the now decimated foliage. She was panting heavily and holding her spent hakkero in one trembling hand.

Marisa slowly mounted her broom. Stupid fairies. Always getting in the way. If they didn't want to get fried, then they should just leave her alone. Not her fault.

Right?

Whatever. No time to think about that now. Marisa lifted from the ground and headed back. If she hurried, she might be able to help smash Satsuki with whatever Mima copy had chosen the right path.

…

Wary and terrified, Rin emerged from the ash of her hiding place. She would have stayed longer, but the strain was getting to be too great. Any longer and she would start taking cellular damage.

In the distance, she could see the witch flying away. Now _that _had been too close. When the blast of heat had swept over her, she had been utterly convinced that she was about to die. She had no idea why the witch was leaving or why she had been attacking in the first place, but Rin wasn't complaining.

Now the only problem was what she was going to do now. Plan A: "Make up with Eirin" was a complete bust. Stupid Lunarian had lied to her and let her get beat up by those people. Plan B: "Devour Kaguya to pay Eirin back" was also a bust. Just as well. Now that she was no longer listening to her Evil Twin, the very idea gave her a sour feeling in her stomach. Time for Plan C: "Find some place to hide and hope Rumia wouldn't hate her for long."

Rin rose into the air and headed north.

…

"So how do you think it's going?" Reimu asked as she helped a noticeably sullen Ran place Eirin back into her bed. "The hunt I mean."

Yukari glowered, but she said, "Horribly. Definitely horribly. Now shut up." With that, she went back to applying some sort of lotion to her wound.

The shrine maiden winced. She shot a glance at Ran, who just shook her head and went back to sulking.

Reimu wasn't sure where she'd rather be. On the one hand, being stuck trying to fix up a messed up hospital room with a lame foot and two pissed off youkai for company was almost stifling. On the other hand, the memory of that deadly cold shooting through her veins was still fresh in her memory. Reimu was certainly no coward, but that was not an incident she was overly eager to repeat.

Well, on the plus side Marisa and Mima had already kicked that thing's ass before. Provided they could cut it off, there was nothing saying they couldn't do it again.

Then again, given the sort of day they were having, Reimu wouldn't put it past fate to throw some sort of unseen complication in their way. In fact, she was almost counting on it.

…

Elsewhere, someone else was also wandering through the forest. Unlike everyone else, she was wholly unaware of everything that had gone down at Eientei, nor would she have cared if she did, except maybe to point and laugh.

Hands stuck in her pockets, she whistled a song that was stuck in her head as she strolled through the stalks of bamboo.

"Gee, gee, gee, gee, baby, baby, baby," she sang under her breath. "Gee, gee…huh?"

A nearby commotion caught her attention. Blinking, she carefully approached the source of the noise. When she was what it was, her eyes widened in surprise.

_Well, well, well, _Mokou thought as a wide grin spread over her face. _How about that. Must be my birthday after all._

…

Tewi grit her teeth as she forced the hood over the struggling Kaguya's face. Restraining the princess had taken much, _much _longer than it should have. Unfortunately everyone had understandable reservations about shooting their own master. Kaguya had no such reservations.

"I hate this day," Tewi told Reisen as she walked away from Kaguya. The soldiers would take responsibility for her now. "I hate, hate, _hate _this day." All around them, the rabbits of Eientei were sprawled about and nursing their wounds. Despite the overwhelming advantage of numbers, the fight had exhausted them.

Reisen rubbed a sore spot on her arm where Kaguya had managed to clip her. "Seems like everything's turned upside down, huh? Eientei evacuated, Rin coming back, Eirin's probably gone, Kaguya's beating us up…" She frowned. "No, wait. That last part's pretty normal."

"Not the part with us hitting back. I'm tellin' you, when all this is over, I'm taking a nice long vacation. Somewhere far away, with lots of grass and no-"

That's when Kaguya started screaming. Tewi and Reisen whirled around to see the princess writhing and thrashing against her bounds, muffled cries of distress coming from under the hood. Tewi could tell that this was more than just protesting her situation. This was pure terror.

The two hurried over as the soldiers tried to restrain her. "What's happening? Tewi shouted. "Is something wrong?"

Utada shook her head in confusion. "I don't know!" she shouted as she wrapped her arms around Kaguya's waist and tried to hold her still. "She just started freaking out!"

Kaguya's cries took on a distinct rhythm. _"Muhoo! Muhoo! Muhoo!"_

Bewildered, Tewi looked over at Reisen, who just spread her hands and shrugged.

Utada reached over to lift the bottom of the hood, just enough to expose Kaguya's mouth. _"Mokou!" _she screamed. _"Mokou! It's Mokou, you idiots!"_

Everybody stiffened. Oh _shi-_

And that was when the chaos began. Balls of flame erupted from the edge of the clearing where they were situated and exploded in their midst. Rabbits scattered every which way, desperate to avoid getting torched. Of course it was all pointless. They were in no danger.

"Stop running!" Tewi cried as she tried to restore order. "She's not after you! Protect the Princess!"

Of course everyone ignored her. Even Reisen looked like she was about to split. Growling, Tewi turned to the elite of the Eientei Guard, the only ones who had kept their heads.

"Okay, I've had enough," she said. "Fuck spellcard rules, it's not like she's following them anyway. Find that pyromaniac and-"

She never got the chance to finish. A fireball hit the ground only three feet away and sent her sprawling.

…

Rin had put a good amount of distance between her and Eientei when a stray fireball had flown by and nearly hit her in the head. She yelped in surprise and dove for cover.

When no more came, Rin hesitantly peeked out. From the look of things, there was some sort of commotion going on nearby, one that strangely enough did not involve her. Thunderous explosions were tearing up the landscape and people were screaming.

Two of those people ran past her. Ran stared after them. Rabbits, both wearing Eientei uniforms. The wheels in Rin's head began to turn. If she was right, then all the yelling was from everyone who had evacuated from Eientei. Which meant…

_**You should probably investigate that.**_

_I should probably investigate that, _Rin thought. She floated towards the tumult, careful to remain in the shadows.

_**It might be dangerous. Shouldn't you be armed?**_

Rin glanced down at her right hand. Well, better safe than sorry. A weapon was just a weapon, after all. A small focus of will, and her sword once again sprang into existence.

_**Over there, where all the fire is. That's where you want to be.**_

Rin noticed that there was a substantial amount of flame concentrated in one area. There, she could see figures moving, figures she thought she recognized. That was probably where she needed to go. Strange though, a part of her was saying that this was a bad idea. She supposed she should listen, but for some reason it was getting harder and harder to think. Though she could still see, everything was growing fuzzy, almost like she was falling asleep.

A dream, it was all a dream. Just slip away and dream a dream…

…

Tewi tried scrambling to her feet, but one of the panicked rabbits ran into her from behind and she hit the ground face first.

Tewi spat out dirt and leaves and pushed herself up on her palms. She looked up and froze.

A pair of baggy red pants, covered with paper charms, stood before her. Suspenders held the pants to a button-up shirt that might have been white once in its past, but time and heat had made it a more light brown. Above this was an ethereally beautiful face framed by flowing hair of a shade of purple so pale it was almost white.

Tewi whimpered.

Mokou smirked down at the terrified rabbit. Then she stepped over her and strolled casually past the fires she had started, heading over to Kaguya's bound form. The few soldiers who had stood their ground snapped to attention and took aim; though it was obvious they also doubted their chances of success.

Tewi snapped out of her paralysis. "Mokou, wait!" she said. "This isn't the time for your-"

Mokou pointed a finger over her shoulder at her. The tip was glowing.

"Not the time?" Mokou said, her voice completely devoid of any concern whatsoever. "Time is all I have. All time is my time."

"Not now it isn't!" Tewi shouted back. "Please Mokou, not this time! It's an emergency!"

"Well, well, well, when did you suddenly get so serious? I thought you liked games." She pointed her finger at Kaguya and the soldiers surrounding her. "And right now, this is the only game in town. Oh, by the way. Pyrofuego."

A searing column of flame lashed out from her finger and struck the ground in front of the soldiers, scattering them. A few more blasts followed this, and soon Kaguya was left unguarded.

Mokou sauntered over to where her rival lay helpless, that satisfied smirk never leaving her lips. When she was within kicking distance, a wall of fire rose from the ground to surround them. Tewi and some of the remaining soldiers tried to approach, but it flared up in response to their presence and drove them away.

Safe from any rescue attempts, Mokou reached down and pulled off Kaguya's hood, exposing her smudged and glaring face and bloodshot eyes.

"Man Kaguya, what the hell did you to do end up like this?" Mokou said. "I knew your bunny brigade would go on strike sooner or later but…damn."

Tewi felt like screaming in frustration. Normally this sort of thing wouldn't be such a big deal, but they needed to leave the forest _now. _Rin could show up at any moment.

As if her thinking it brought it about, Tewi's eyes went wide when she saw an almost formless black shape slinking along the edge of the clearing, heading towards the wall of fire. Despite the overwhelming heat, Tewi felt her insides turn to ice, especially when it turned to regard her with those horrible red eyes.

Then it winked at her and crept into the fire. Like before, the fire blazed up and tried to ward it off, but if she felt the heat at all it gave indication.

"Mokou, wait!" Tewi called. "Get out there!" Unfortunately, the roar of the fire drowned out her voice.

Inside the wall, the two eternal rivals were too preoccupied with one another to pay attention to anything else. Kaguya spat. "Coward! Untie me and face me on equal terms!"

"Yeah, no thanks." Mokou held up one finger. Fire ignited on the tip. "I've been doing that every day for…gods, I don't even remember anymore. Something-odd centuries. So I think I'll just take advantage of a very convenient situation and have myself a little barbeque. Fire Spin."

She gestured, and three whirling fiery tongue washed over Kaguya's body. The princess screamed as her blackened and began to crack. The fat underneath started to melt and run out in sickly yellow rivulets. Her hair burst into flames and shriveled away to floating ash.

Mokou kept smiling even as she turned up the heat. "How did you kill me yesterday? Something about slicing open my stomach and pulling out my entrails? Not the worst you've done, but it still kinda sucked. But I win this round."

_"__**You'd like to think so, wouldn't you?"**_

"Wha-" Mokou's question was suddenly cut off as a blackened blade exploded from her chest in a spray of gore. The wall of flame flared up one last time and withered to nothingness.

_Oh no, _Tewi thought numbly as Rin Satsuki kicked Mokou off of her sword. _Oh no, no, no. _The immortal fell to her knees. Blood vomited from her mouth.

Rin stared down at Mokou with a contempt that Tewi would have thought her to be capable of. Back during her last rampage, she had been plenty crazy, but never coldly malicious like this.

"_**You people never learn. Always thinking your petty little squabbles are the only things that matter. But I'm afraid this is game over for you, fire bird. Now, let's see: how did that spineless little waste of space do this again? Oh yes…"**_

Rin extended both hands. Her talons shriveled away, and the darkness fled from her palms and forearms, leaving the lower half of the appendages purely transparent.

"No!" Tewi cried as she rushed forward. She grabbed a heavy stick off the ground and swung it with all her might at Rin's head.

It hit, but predictably enough it did nothing other than snap in half. Three twisting coils off darkness sprouted from Rin's back and speared the ground where Tewi was standing. She managed to leap away just in time.

Rin's now transparent arm expanded and joined together into a single mass, about the size of a tent. This dipped down to envelop a skewered Mokou and her charcoaled enemy. It picked them up, gore, ash and all. Despite the obvious pain she was in, Mokou kicked and pushed and tried to break free. Of course, all of her attempts were fruitless. Once Rin had you, there was no escape.

Kaguya, it should be noted, just hung limply. But this was of course to be expected.

Rin cackled as Mokou and Kaguya's mutilated bodies began to tear apart from the outside in. Their clothing and (in Mokou's case) hair dissolved away, followed by their skin. For a moment, Tewi was treated to an unforgettable anatomy lesson as Mokou and Kaguya's internal organs became wholly visible. Then these too crumbled away.

Mokou and Kaguya wasted away into nothingness.

Still laughing, Rin separated the large blob into two separate appendages again and reformed her arms. _**"Wow, that was...interesting. Wonder when the changes will starHELLO!"**_

Rin's neck snapped back and her arms spread wide and stiffened. Shivers ran up and down her stolen body.

And then she began to change.

The twisting aura of darkness exploded into a frenzy of motion and her skin looked like it was boiling. Her limbs extended and reformed themselves into a smoother, more graceful shape. Her "hair", if it could be called that, shuddered and suddenly shot out about four feet. The midnight black of her body dissolved away in patches, revealing its inverse beneath.

Then the metamorphosis was complete. Rin dropped to her knees. For a moment she was motionless. And then she stood.

Her new body was…different. It retained aspects of the form she had taken from the Shadow Youkai, particularly in the shape of the face, the ripping talons on the hands, and certain parts of her clothing, but bits and pieces of her new victims had been added to the ensemble, turning her into a gothic artist's wet dream. She was now much taller and more graceful in her movements. Her hair now flowed in Mokou's distinctive style, but the color was Kaguya's. The dark aura remained, but it was now shot through with flashes of red and purple. The Shadow Youkai's vest also remained, but the skirt now more resembled Mokou's trousers, decorated with the floral pattern of Kaguya's robe. The ropes that had bound Kaguya's arms now twisted around the wrists and forearms like some sort of avant-garde bracelets. And her skin, once a featureless expanse of black, was now the pale color of ash.

Her eyes though. They had not lost their shape, but had cooled to a haughty shade of lavender. But the burning cruelty was the same.

Rin cocked her head as she examined her new form. She held out her left hand and extended her fingers. _**"Not **_**bad," **she murmured as she ran the fingers of her other hand up and down her forearm. _**"Not bad at all. Is this how it feels to be completely indestructible?" **_She gave one of her new breasts an experimental squeeze._** "I think I like it!"**_

Then her eyes narrowed as she took notice of her frozen audience. _**"Oh, is it rabbit season already? Time to take the new body for a test run."**_

_Oh wow, what to do, what to do, what to do? _Tewi thought desperately. Shooting her wouldn't work, blunt impact wouldn't work, and running would only delay the inevitable. She hated to admit it, but by all accounts, they were now royally screwed.

Rin extended her right hand. Her sword, dropped while she absorbed the two immortals, trembled and snapped to her palm. Yep, royally screwed.

"Rin?" said a nearby voice, drawing everyone's attention.

Reisen stood there, arms outstretched, palms up in a nonthreatening manner. She slowly approached the nightmare. Her entire body was trembling, but she kept walking.

"Rin, it's me," she said. "It's Reisen. You remember me, right?"

"Reisen, are you stupid or something?" Tewi shouted. She skirted around Rin and darted to her friend's side. "Now is not the time to get suicidal," she hissed in Reisen's ear.

This was ignored. Reisen's eyes remained focused on Rin. "Come on Rin, I know you remember me. Remember the time we snuck out to go to the Winter Solstice festival? And we got kicked out for cheating at all those rigged games? Remember all those picnics we took when we were supposed to be sparring? Remember all those times you came crying to my room after Eirin chewed you out and I let you sleep in my bed? I even spent a week inside of your mind and stood up for you when Kaguya wanted to execute you. Please Rin, I know you remember. I know this isn't you."

Tewi shot a glance at Rin and sucked her teeth. To her surprise, Reisen's words seemed to be working. Rin now looked…unsure of herself. Hesitant. There seemed to be some kind of internal struggle going on.

"Rin, please," Reisen pressed. She was now only a few feet away. "Don't do this. I know you're angry, and the gods know you have every right to be. But don't become the monster. You're better than that."

Rin shook her head and shuddered. She looked up. _"Reisen?"_

"I'll be twice-over damned, it worked," Tewi whispered.

Reisen smiled and nodded. "It's me, Rin. Don't worry. I won't let anyone-"

Then Rin laughed and swung out with one arm, knocking Reisen to the ground. Reisen tried to push herself up, but Rin planted one foot on her back and pressed her back down.

Tewi screamed and rushed forward. Rin barely glanced at her before slashing her side with one talon. Hot pain flared up, only to be replaced with bitter cold. Tewi tumbled to the ground, grasping her injured side.

"_**Just when I thought you people couldn't get any stupider, you go and prove me wrong," **_Rin said in a conversational tone. _**"I swear, you have got to be the most gullible piece of shit I've ever encountered. I don't know what she saw in you, I really don't." **_She lifted the sword up, ready to plunge it into Reisen's skull. _**"Well, if I'm going to rip this country to pieces, I suppose this is a good place to start as any. Sayonara, Inaba."**_

Then she froze, sword poised in midair. Her head twitched, and her other hand went to her forehead. She grimaced and looked like she was fighting off a headache.

"_**Oh, for crying out loud," **_Rin growled. _**"You had to wait until **_**now **_**to wake up?"**_

...

Rin clawed her way to the surface of her mind, screaming all the way.

_What are _you _doing? _she cried.

_**What's it look like? Plan B, times two.**_

_Stop it! Leave Reisen alone!_

She felt the other her sigh. _**Look Rin, can you just give me a minute here? I promise it won't even hurt.**_

_No! You said I was on my own! You promise! Why did you lie?_

_**Situation changed. You weren't going to do what was necessary. I, on the other hand, just made you explode-proof. Say "thank you".**_

Rin screamed and forced control away from her "Evil Twin". _Get out, get out, get out!_

She tried to mentally crush the monster, but it slipped away before she could. For the merest fraction of a second, she could feel it slithering through the recesses of her mind. And then it was gone.

Rin frantically searched every bit of her mind, but the only other presence she could feel was Rumia's, who was still floating alone in the dark and totally confused and oblivious to all that was going on.

Wait, not just Rumia. There was something new, another mind. _Two _other minds, in fact. The minds of…

Oh no. Oh no, no, no.

…

Rin stiffened. Her body swayed back and forth like a reed in the wind. Her sword dipped low and fell from her hands to clatter on the ground.

Then she shook her head and looked at the world around her.

"_What happened?" _she whispered. _"What did she _do?"

Then she glanced down.

"_Oh my gods, Reisen?" _Rin cried. She leapt off the rabbit's body. _"I'm so sorry. It wasn't me, I swear! Did she hurt you?" _She reached down with one hand to help her up.

In response, Reisen screamed in terror and bolted into the forest

"_Wait!" _Rin called. _"It wasn't me! Please Reisen, listen to me!"_

Then she saw Tewi, still on the ground with a blackened gash along her side.

"_Tewi? What happened? Did I...did _she _do that to you? Did she do all this? No…I can't…"_

Rin screamed, a horrible echoing sound that pierced through Tewi's skull and nearly sent her into unconsciousness. Then she leapt into the air and flew away, crying _"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" _as she sped off.

…

"You know what the worst part is?" Mima said as she tried to hold her final miniature still. "Having sixteen different sets of memories for the same ten minutes. Can you imagine having to sort all that out? Quantum physics is easier."

Her miniature clamped her teeth down on Mima's hand. Of course it did no good, and soon she was reabsorbed into Mima's body.

The ghost sighed. "Well, that's done with at least." Then she frowned and looked over at Marisa. "Hey, what's wrong with you?"

The two of them were back at the Eientei courtyard. After their search had proved to be fruitless, they had regrouped and headed back on the possibility that Satsuki had pulled a fast one and doubled back. Of course, no such luck.

Now the only question was what they were going to do now. Satsuki was proven to be far cleverer than they had thought, and by now she could be anywhere. It didn't help that Marisa was acting very odd, especially for her. She didn't look like she was even paying attention to Mima, which was a definite first. Instead, she kept glancing toward the spot where Cirno had disappeared and biting her lower lip.

Mima sighed and floated to her former prodigy's side. "Oh, come now. You're not still worried about that fairy, are you?"

"What? Oh, of course not, ze! It's just…" Marisa waved her hand at the space in front of her. "Shouldn't she be back by now? It doesn't usually take this long."

"Well, of course not," Mima scowled. "For one thing, the air's still too hot. And given the size of the blast, her cells were probably scattered far and wide. I wouldn't expect her to piece herself back together for another half an hour or so."

"Oh. Well, um…"

"Spit it out."

"Is there something you can do?"

Mima pressed her fingertips to her forehead and sighed. She thought she would never see the day when Marisa would express this degree of concern for another person, much less Cirno. "All right, fine. Then will you stop freaking out about her?"

"Hey, I'm not freaking out! I'm just-"

"Save it and let me work." Mima closed her eyes and concentrated. Even though she was still dealing with the aftereffects of her own being recently fractured, she could still feel the pieces of Cirno's essence floating around like a billion confused dust motes. A small focus of will, a quick muttered spell, and they began to coagulate at a single point.

At the same time, the temperature of the surrounding area took a steep trip downward. Marisa's breath became visible and she shivered. Frost started to form on the ground.

Mima gestured, and there was a sudden blaze of white light. The light formed itself into a small humanoid form, and Cirno dropped to the ground. The ice fairy scrambled to her feet and stared at the world with her new eyes.

"No, wait!" Cirno cried as she lurched forward. "Run Rumia, I'll hold them off! I can do it, I'm…the…strongest …"

With that, she pitched forward and flopped on the ground, where she continued to mumble under her breath.

Marisa stared. "Um, is she okay?"

Mima shrugged. From her point of view, there had been nothing to worry about in the first place. "Yes, she's fine. Her body just reformed quicker than usual. She'll be a little loopy for a few minutes and then she'll back to her irritating self.

Still sprawled in an untidy heap, Cirno began to snore.

"There, you see?"

Marisa slumped. "Oh, good. I mean it's not like I was _worried_ or anything, I just didn't want put up with Reimu screaming my ear off again, ze."

"Sure you weren't," Mima smirked. _"Sure _you weren't."

Marisa opened her mouth to respond, but she was interrupted by a nearby rustling. Both of them whirled to face the forest. Marisa shot a glance at Mima, who returned the look and nodded. Marisa flipped her hakkero into her hand and energy began to gather at Mima's palms.

But to their surprise, it wasn't Satsuki at all. It was two rabbits dressed as maids. One was supporting the other, and both were smudged with ash.

Mima blinked and let her gathered power fade away. Beside her, Marisa was doing the same.

More rabbits were emerging from the forest, dressed in a variety of uniforms. More maids, soldiers, cooks, laundresses, etc. All of them looked exhausted, and many of them were covered with ash.

"Uh, what's going on?" Marisa muttered out of the corner of her mouth. "I thought they took off!"

Mima nodded. She had been thinking the same thing. All things considered, the rabbits return in this condition was not a good side.

Then the rabbits' leaders appeared. Reisen limped out of the forest, carrying a shivering Tewi on her back. Tewi's dress was ripped along one side, and underneath a black tear could clearly be seen on her pale skin.

Oh no.

Marisa ran up to them. "Hey Cottontail, what the hell happened here? You guys were supposed to be gone an hour ago, ze! What are you doing back?"

Reisen's scarlet eyes fixated upon her. That was when they saw the tear tracks smearing their way through the ash on her cheek.

"Where were you?" Reisen said in a hollow voice.

"What?" Marisa looked confused. "Where do you think? We were trying to stop Satsuki!"

Reisen didn't say anything else. She just looked away from the witch, hefted her friend back up and continued to limp towards the clinic. Mima floated out of their way without a word.

Marisa stated after them, her mouth agape. She ran back to Mima. "Hey, what do you think happened?" she said. "Did Satsuki get Kaguya? What's with the ash?"

Mima just pursed her lips and shook her head. She had been wondering the same thing herself. Satsuki was of course the most obvious explanation, but she had yet to exhibit fire-based abilities.

_Unless she ate that Mokou as well,_ she thought. If that was the case, they might as well cut their own throats right now and save Satsuki the trouble. Well, everyone else except Mima herself, of course.

Before she could continue down that depressing line of thought, another voice cut in, drawing their attention.

"Huh?" Cirno said as she pushed herself up on her palms. She looked around at the procession of weary rabbits, confusion all over her face. "Where am I? What happened? Where's Rumia?"

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia pitched forward and landed on what could only be described as solid nothing. Whatever, she didn't care, so long as she landed on _something, _even if that something was nothing.

She took stock of herself. Arms, legs, torso, head, hair, all there! Oh thank the gods, she had a body again! Sure, she knew her body wasn't actually real and from the look of things still stuck in Rin's head, but it was _miles _better than that being trapped in that void, with no sensation of feeling, no movement whatsoever, no nothing except her fear and memories to keep her company.

And to make things even sweeter, she could move her whole body now! She was no longer trapped in the crucified position and driving herself crazy with trying to get her limbs to obey. Sure, it wasn't the same as actual freedom, but it was a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately she didn't the chance to enjoy her newfound mobility, as Rin chose that moment to appear the hell out of nowhere. Her captor had a wild look in her eyes, and if to punctuate that observation she grabbed Rumia by the shoulders and shoved her up again…more nothing.

"Was it you?" Rin shouted. "Were you the dark voice? How did you get out? Tell me!"

Rumia gaped at her. "Wha-I-I-I don't know what you're talking about!"

Angry tears formed in Rin's bloodshot eyes. "It had to have been you!" she cried. "There was no one else in here! It _had _to be you!"

"I swear, it wasn't me, it wasn't me!" Rumia babbled frantically. "I don't even know what it was! Please, please don't hurt me!"

Rin stared at her with an unreadable expression on her face. Then she lunged forward with one hand. Rumia cried out in fear and covered her eyes, convinced that she was about to be killed. Instead, Rin pressed the palm of her hand against Rumia's forehead.

A feeling of warmth tingled across Rumia's scalp. It didn't hurt per se, but it wasn't exactly comfortable. Still, given her predicament, complaining wasn't exactly the most prudent action at the time.

Rin jerked away from her as if she had been burned. "You're right, it wasn't you," she whispered. "There's _nothing _in your memories, nothing to indicate…" She began shaking. "Bu-but if it wasn't you, then who was it whispering in my ear, telling me to do all those awful things? Who was it trying to turn me into a monster, who took control and tried to kill everyone? Who _was _that, Rumia?"

Rumia scooted away from her. "I don't know what you're talking about! I was stuck…where you put me the whole time! I'm innocent, I swear!"

"I know, it's just…" Rin grabbed her head and fell to her knees. "I don't know what to think anymore!" she sobbed. "It doesn't make any sense! I mean, I've _studied _up on psychological conditions. You know, back when I was normal? And I _can't _have an alternate personality, not like that! They just don't work that way! At least I don't think they do. I just don't know anymore."

She shook her head. "Rumia, I know you don't want to hear this, but I think I may be going crazy."

_Oh, _Rumia thought bleakly. _Isn't that just swell. _The weird-ass blob girl from who knows where who goes around eating people, killing plants and picking fights with virtual _gods _was going insane. And here Rumia was, stuck in said girl's mind. Rumia was starting to get the sneaking suspicion that she was in somewhat of a bad situation.

That was when she noticed the other noises for the first time. It sounded like the muffled cries of someone trying to scream through blankets. Rumia reluctantly turned around to the source of the sound.

What she saw made her stare.

Apparently Rin had gone and picked up some new travelling companions. Two people hung in the air, much as Rumia had done herself. One was a statuesque beauty with a regal bearing and flowing hair so dark it was almost invisible against the backdrop of nothing. Her arms were crossed over her chest, like a corpse in a coffin.

The other was much leaner, much more vicious looking, but no less beautiful. Her pale lavender hair also flowed down her back and her arms went down and then up, with her palms open to the (metaphorically speaking) sky, as if she were shrugging. Though judging by the way both of their muscles were straining, they were clearly in those positions against their will.

Rumia gulped. She had never seen those two personally, but given where they had been when she had been sent away and considering all the stories she had heard along with the occasional picture in the _Bunbunmaru_, she guessed that she was now in the presence of Princess Kaguya, mistress of Eientei and the only recognizable sovereign of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Which probably meant the other was the infamous Fujiwara no Mokou, Kaguya's eternal rival. Stories of what had happened to the unlucky few who dared to piss her often were sometimes used to scare small children.

However, that wasn't the only why Rumia was staring.

Like both her and Ran, the newcomers were also completely naked. Now, Rin wasn't bad looking, but Rin's bizarre powers, the fact that she had eaten her and her general craziness meant that her casual nudity wasn't exactly erotic. Instead, it only made her scarier. These two, however…well, Kaguya reported used to have suitors lining up by the dozens. There had been talk of actual wars being declared for her hand. And while Mokou's history wasn't nearly so…varied, from what Rumia could see (and she could see a lot), she could go head-to-head with Kaguya in this matter as well. In fact, if it weren't for the final reason Rumia was staring, her cheeks would be turning red and her eyes dipping to places south.

However, there was one more reason for her staring, one that made all the other reasons fall to the wayside. Both Kaguya and Mokou were wide awake and staring in turn. They appeared to be both frightened and furious, but this presumption was based upon facial expressions alone, as their mouths were completely gone. Where they should have been was a smooth span of skin. That didn't stop them from trying to communicate, as dampened cries and curses, some of which Rumia could almost understand, shot out from their throats as a furious rate.

As Rumia had also been in the same place they were, both in terms of being unable to move and in losing her mouth, she could sympathize with their distress. That didn't change the face that the sight scared the shit out of her.

"Oh, them," Rin sighed. She sounded more annoyed than anything. "The evil voice in my head grabbed them after she knocked me out and took control. I didn't want to send them away too, but they wouldn't stop yelling, and this was the only way I could get them to shut up. Honestly, I have no idea what I'm gonna do with them."

…

_This chapter was written to the music of IOSYS and The Birthday Massacre. I think the contrast fit it well. And yes, that is a Korean pop song Mokou is singing in that one scene. Yes, it was stuck in my head too. I blame Dead Fantasy._

_Anyway, there's going to be one or two more chapters of the Eientei arc in which a lot of questions are finally answered, and then we'll move on. I'm kinda laughing at myself, as I thought we would be out of Eientei by chapter four. A fool I was, a fool!_

_Also should point out that canonically, Mokou is actually on pretty good terms with Eientei's inhabitants (except Kaguya of course). I tried to stick that aspect in, but it just came off as awkward. So chalk this up to one of those minor character changes I mentioned._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	8. Answers and Questions

Answers and Questions

Yukari Yakumo hobbled out of Hourai Clinic and squinted. Overhead, the sun was giving its final hurrah before retiring for the night, lighting up the sky in a brilliant display of oranges and reds. She supposed it was all very pretty, but it was difficult to find any appreciation for it.

All around her, Eientei was bustling, even more so than usual. After their return, Kaguya's flock of bunnies had gotten to work on cleaning up the mess their home had been reduced to. At the moment, debris was being cleared from the clinic's waiting room while the damage to the mansion was still being assessed. Yukari couldn't blame them, as there was little else they could do. Their sovereign was gone, taken by a life-destroying monster that was now, for all intents and purposes, completely invulnerable. Most of their leaders had been severely wounded and would be contributing no actual leadership for awhile. And the "experts" who had been called in to solve this problem had just gotten their asses thoroughly kicked. On the whole, it was a bleak situation.

Yukari took a step and had to grab the doorframe to keep from stumbling. Damned wound. If it had been only the burn or only the gash, it would be easier. But instead, she had to endure cold numbness and fiery pain at the same time. The treatments she had found around the clinic were helping, but it still wasn't fun. She had refused the use of a crutch or even a cane, citing the fact that she had endured worst injuries in the past. This was true, but it did mean that walking was going to be difficult. But still, she would be caught dead before she was seen using any kind of crutch this early in the game.

Taking a deep breath, she set off through the courtyard. She was able to keep her face expressionless and her steps more or less going smoothly, with only a slight limp every left step. Not bad, all things considered.

She ignored the rabbits running to and fro and was ignored in return. Her attention was focused on the two figures standing at the edge of the forest.

Mima and Marisa were in the middle of what appeared to be a heated argument. In keeping with their temperaments, Marisa's points were accompanied by a great deal of arm flailing and shouting, whereas Mima just kept her arms folded and spoke in a calm, steady tone. As Yukari came closer, their words became more and more audible.

"…if we _don't, _she'll be long gone!" Marisa was yelling. "You wanna have that thing loose in Gensokyo?"

"She's long gone anyway," Mima replied. "And seeing how nothing we do will cause the slightest bit of good anyway, I fail to see what a suicidal charge will accomplish. Ah, good evening."

That last bit was directed to Yukari herself, who had gotten close enough to be noticed. She nodded curtly and said, "The same. I take it you're discussing our wayward monster?"

"Who else?" Marisa growled. "And what the hell are you doing even up? I thought you were all injured and bedridden, ze."

"I checked myself out. Too much to prepare for, and I don't trust any operation that doesn't include my direct involvement."

Marisa gritted her teeth and stomped over to butt foreheads with the ancient youkai. "What, you saying we'll screw it up? 'Cause I don't know if you noticed, but we were the ones who managed to bring that freak down at all, while you just got your old hag ass kicked. Twice."

Yukari didn't so much as blink. "The situation has changed since then. Your skills lie primarily in causing wanton destruction, and Satsuki is now entirely immune to wanton destruction. Also, remove yourself from my face."

"Or you'll what?"

"Nothing. I won't have to. Because you are going to remove yourself from my face."

Sparks flashed in Marisa's eyes. Her clenched fists started trembling, as if she might lay Yukari out at any moment. Yukari simply returned her gaze and said nothing.

Then Marisa's whole body shook and she took a step back. "Screw this, I don't have time for you, you crazy old bitch," the witch spat. To Mima, she said, "Look me up when you guys actually decide to do something."

Pulling down the brim of her hat, she hopped on her broom and took off in an angry cloud of dust.

Yukari watched her go. Her eyebrows narrowed.

With a sigh, Mima floated over to her side. "Don't be too hard on her," she said. "She's still young."

"Mima, I really don't need an emotional intervention right now."

"Perhaps. But I saw that look on your face. Infighting is not something that you, nor anyone of us, need right now. We have enough problems as it is."

Yukari's left eye twitched. "Fair enough. Just know that if your little witch tries to touch me again, her limbs will be scattered among the four corners of Gensokyo. In the space of a minute."

Mima gave her an odd look, but she didn't comment on Yukari's surliness. Instead, she said, "At any rate, with Satsuki's acquirement of immortality, I would say the situation has evolved beyond our control."

"You have a keen grasp of the obvious."

"As such, this crisis may soon reach catastrophic levels."

Yukari shot a glance at what remained of Eientei, and then at her own bandaged torso. "See above comment. What's you point?"

Mima clasped her hands in front of her waist and looked out over the forest. "As much as it hurts me to admit it, we may need to call in the cavalry." She lowered her voice to an almost whisper. "Yukari, I think we may have to involve the Ringleaders."

"No."

"Every second we delay increases the danger of-"

"No."

"Come now, Yukari. I hate the idea as much as you do, but-"

"I said no!" Yukari snarled. She took an aggressive step forward, and winced as the burning areas of her wound voiced their protest.

Mima of course took notice. "You, I, Reimu, Marisa, Suika and the entirety of Eientei's forces, more than enough combined power to bury most armies, could not stop that thing. Most of us, you included, are gravely injured, and it was only through cheating that no lives were actually lost. Yukari, this is not the time for pride. And to hear it coming from _me_…"

Yukari seethed. "And tell them what, exactly? That we were stupid enough to get our asses handed to us by one…thing? Us, the supposed elite? How do you think that'll affect our reputation?"

Mima arched an eyebrow. "This _is_ a day for reversed roles. I thought you didn't care about reputation. Besides, you've lost before and didn't care."

"That was different. Losing a fair fight is one thing. Failing to do our job is something else. Besides, you're already on shaky ground with the other Ringleaders as it is. Do you really want to give the rest of them a reason to bring your parole up for review?"

"Oh, I'm not worried," Mima replied in that infuriatingly calm voice of hers. "And neither should you be. After all, if looking bad is all you're worried about…" she cast a glance over her shoulder to where the rabbits were milling around "…I can think of a few convenient scapegoats."

Yukari frowned, but she didn't say anything.

"After all, we weren't the ones who created Satsuki," Mima continued. "We weren't the ones who 'conveniently' forgot to mention that we had a psychotic people-absorbing abomination locked in the attic."

"As opposed to psychotic, people-killing abomination locked up in a stupid girl?"

Mima just shrugged. "They know about that one already, and never objected. I doubt they were informed about Satsuki. And then there's the ice-fairy and her little team of misfits. Weren't they the ones that unleashed her in the first place? There are ways to, hehe, 'rephrase' things, you know."

Yukari turned away from her. "I'll…think about it."

"I'm sure you will. By the way, how's that shrine maiden of yours?"

That comment made Yukari whirl around again, ignoring the pain that it caused her. "The hell was that supposed to mean?"

"What? I'm simply inquiring as to her condition," Mima said innocently, no mean feat for her. "After all, Satsuki treated her so roughly. I must admit, I was quite worried myself when I saw what had happened to her foot. I'd hate to think what would happen should Reimu encounter that thing again, without help. Oh, I'd hate to imagine what tragedies would befall the poor girl."

"You're treading on _very _thin ice, Mima," Yukari said in a low, dangerous voice.

"She'd do it, too. You know she would. Even if all of Gensokyo were to turn their backs on her, she would still stand alone. Even if it meant her doom, she would still stand alone. Of course, if she had the backing of, oh I don't know, maybe the most powerful beings in Gensokyo? Maybe then she might survive."

Yukari wondered what the absolute worst place she could send the impertinent spirit was, or if she could send her to more than one place. Maybe she should drop her off in the Outside World and let her enjoy being cut off from Gensokyo's magic entirely. However, good sense won over in the end. Mima was right, after all.

"That is _very _low," Yukari said, enunciating every syllable. "Even for you."

Mima shrugged and smiled. "What? I'm just doing my job and pointing out the obvious. Any additional meaning is provided by you alone."

Yukari sighed. "You evil bitch."

"That would be my other job, yes."

"Fine, I'll send out the word. Just don't be surprised when they go and make things worse. In the meantime…" Yukari turned and started to head back to Hourai Clinic.

"Where are you going?" Mima asked.

"To get some answers. There's a certain physician that owes me an explanation." Her eyes narrowed. "And a certain ice fairy that I need to have words with."

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia didn't have the slightest idea of what to do.

She sat by herself, away from everyone else. Behind her, Rin was watching that stupid screen of hers, directing the path of the hodgepodge body they were now residing in. Only thing was, it was now more purple than red. Rumia wasn't sure how that had happened nor could she work up the nerve to ask, but she was pretty sure it had something to do with Rin's new "guests".

Kaguya and Mokou still floated in the bizarre positions Rin had put them in, staring at the nothing around them with wide eyes. As their mouths had yet to return, their cries of indignation came out sounding like a series of squeals, squeaks and groans. Rumia could sympathize, as she had been in the same position not too long ago. Though oddly enough, some time ago they had ceased directing their cries at her and Rin and had started what honestly appeared to a subdued conversation between themselves. Rumia wasn't sure how they understood each other or what they were saying; she just hoped their plans didn't involve her head on a stake. She supposed she should talk to them and try to explain that she wasn't Rin's co-conspirator or anything, but the thought of speaking to them while they were in that freakish mouthless state, especially with Rin still sitting within earshot, made her insides started to tremble.

Rumia held her hand up, palm out, and spread her fingers. Well, at least she could move now. It was true when they say that you never know what you've got until it's gone. After losing first her mobility and then her body entirely, she swore she would never take something so mundane for granted ever again. It was a small comfort, but she was going to take what she could get.

"Rumia?" said a soft voice behind her.

Rumia flinched and huddled in a small ball. "Y-y-yes?" she squeaked.

Rin walked around to sit next to her. Rumia couldn't bring herself to meet her captor's eyes. Ever since Rumia had returned, Rin had been acting…strangely. Well, okay, so she had been pretty weird before, but that had just been a confusing over-enthusiastic cheerfulness. Now she spoke very little to anyone, preferring to stare at her screen while mumbling something under her breath. Rumia hadn't been able to make out the specifics, but it had sounded like she had been going on about her "Evil Twin", a sort of dark voice that had been telling her to hurt people.

Rin apparently noticed Rumia's reluctance. She frowned and leaned in closer. Rumia winced and shied away.

"You're still scared of me, aren't you?" Rin asked.

Rumia tried to force a grin. "M-me? Scared. Hehehe, whatever gave you…You're not going to hurt me, are you?"

Rin shook her head and withdrew. "Yeah, I'll take as a yes. Jeez." She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "Wow, I've really screwed things up, haven't I?"

Rumia wasn't sure if that was a rhetorical question or not, but she decided to play it safe and say nothing.

"Rumia?"

Damn it. "H-huh?"

"I, uh, don't really know how to do this. I mean, everything's all crazy and I don't have the slightest clue as to how…but yeah, anyway, I think I owe you an apology."

Rumia blinked. "What?"

"See, when you opened the box and let me out, I thought you were freeing me on purpose. I thought you had heard about me and wanted to rescue me." Rin let out a bitter cackle. "And I ate you anyway. Way to show gratitude, huh?"

"Um…"

"So…I'm sorry. I screwed up, and got you stuck in my mess. Sorry."

"Oh. Uh, thank you." Rumia built up some courage and asked, "So, um, does that mean you'll, you know, let me go?"

Her hopes started to build, but the guilty look on Rin's face sent them crashing down. "Uh, Rumia? I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not?"

"Because, uh, well you see…" Rin frowned and started knocking her wrist against her head. "Okay, c'mon, think! How do I put this…Okay, I was actually gonna let you go. Right before Eirin's stupid friends ambushed us, remember? But now I think it's safer if you stay here, where I can protect you."

"Uh…from what?"

"From them. From those people who attacked us. Rumia, I know you weren't around to hear this, but I think they wanna kill you as much as they wanna kill me."

Rumia's jaw dropped. "Wait, say _what? _That's crazy! I mean, sure they've beaten me up a few times, but they always just let me off with that! They wouldn't want to kill me, that's not what they do! You must've…misheard them or something!" She looked to Rin for affirmation. When the other girl didn't meet her eyes, Rumia added in a weak voice, "…right?"

In response, Rin pointed at the space before them. Again, a tear opened. But unlike the huge screen she used as her eyes, this was more like a swirling hole. The images she saw through it made no sense. It looked like a never-ending series of horizontal lines perpetually shooting upward, broken by repeating flashes of color. Rumia thought she could make out shapes in those brief glimpses of color, the shapes of people, but everything was moving too fast to be sure of anything.

Rumia cast a dubious look over at Rin. "A memory," Rin explained. "One of mine. From a couple of hours ago."

"Oh. What's going on?"

"The tall youkai, the one that you seem to be…" Rin stopped talking immediately, her cheeks reddening. But Rumia caught on.

"The one I'm afraid of, right? Miss Yukari? Hey, she's scary. Everyone's afraid of her. What about her?"

Rin twirled a lock of her hair with her fingers and frowned. "Uh, she did something really weird with those holes, those gaps of hers. Pretty much she set it up so I was constantly falling through two of them, over and over."

"Oh."

"But yeah, anyway, they thought I was stuck and started talking about what they were going to do to me. I could still hear them and…Well, just listen."

Rumia frowned and did so. Like Rin said, there were people talking, but everything was covered with an irritating _whooshing_ sound.

Rin noticed. "Yeah, sorry about the wind. Here, lemme see what I can do…"

She made a slight gesture, almost as if she were turning something with her fingers, and the whooshing noise faded into the background. At the same time, the sound of the voices increased. It still sounded odd, but at least Rumia could make out what they were saying.

"…_all in favor of killing the bloody psychotic risk to life and limb, say aye."_

"_Aye." _

"_Aye. Sorry Yukari, she's just way too dangerous."_

Rumia blinked. Even through the noise filter, she knew those voices. She turned her head towards Rim, who simply nodded and said, "Keep listening."

Yukari was talking. _"…ending Rumia the first time around was problematic enough, but now we're dealing with someone that can take just about anything we can dish out."_

Wait, what? What first time?

"_Speaking of which, what about Rumia? I mean, she's still stuck in that thing. Is there any way we can get her out?"_

"_Are you daft? Have you been sleeping through that whole beat down? Even if we get her out, the ribbon thingy is gone, ze! Evil Rumia's back! Better to off them both."_

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Rumia cried as she leapt to her feet. "Stop that thing!"

Rin gestured, and the ever-rising lines and wavering voices paused.

"What are they talking about, 'Evil Rumia'? There's only one Rumia, and that's me! And I definitely haven't gone anywhere, and I sure as hell aren't evil!"

Rin shook her head. "I don't know, I was trying to figure that out myself. But, uh, there is something…"

"What?"

"Just listen to the whole thing. I'll explain after."

The picture once again began moving in a manner that threatened to cause seizures. The ghost was talking now. _"While the removal of the ribbon would return her to full power, we do not know if her memories would return as well. The wiping of her memory and the sealing of her power were two separate operations."_

Rumia frowned and touched her hair in the spot where her ribbon used to be. What did that have to do with anything? Certainly, being unable to touch it was annoying, especially when she had an itch, but she never gave it much thought. She shook her head in confusion and turned her attention back to the memory.

"_As much as it hurts to say so, I'm afraid I must agree with the witch,"_ Yukari was saying. _"It is my job to keep Gensokyo safe from threats such as this, and while Rumia could be said to be blameless in this situation, the risk is too great to allow her to wander free."_

"_Look, I don't really care for Rumia at all, and I am glad to beat her up whenever she starts getting stupid, but I don't like the idea of killing her just because of something that might happen. Why can't we just seal up her powers again? Unless you've forgotten how."_

"_Hardly. But even if we somehow managed to extract Rumia from within that thing, and even if she has not regained memory of what she once was, and even if we somehow restrained her long enough to create another amulet of sealing, what's to prevent something else from unleashing her once again? Reimu, this isn't one of the incidents you're used to dealing with. This isn't a case of someone with too much power growing bored and causing trouble. We are talking of a potential massacre here. Maybe even genocide."_

"Okay, I've heard enough!" Rumia shouted. "Shut that thing off right now!

The voices cut off and the tear closed.

Rin looked up at her. "See, that's what I was talking about. They wanna kill us both! If I let you go now, they'll tear you to pieces!"

"No! You're lying! This has got to be a fake. There's no way they would…that I could be…AAAHHHH!"

Rumia grasped at her skull and fell to her knees. This had to be a trick. There was no other explanation. No way would they be out to kill her.

Yukari though…that she could almost believe.

Rin laid a hand on her shoulder. Rumia jumped away from her.

"No, don't touch me!" Rumia shouted. "You're lying to me! You're just trying to make me stay so you won't be left alone!"

Rin balled up her fists and stamped her foot in frustration. "No I'm not! Jeez, why does everyone always think I'm lying?"

"Oh, I don't know, let me think about that. Hmmm, maybe you're a psychopath who goes around _eating _people and sending them into complete darkness?"

"So do you!"

"No I…" Rumia stopped, and then continued. "Okay, maybe I _do, _but not like you do! And I'm not crazy like you! People don't try to lock me up in a box to get rid of me, and I _definitely _don't listen to imaginary voices that tell me to kill people!"

"I made a mistake! Years ago! And I told you, I have _no idea_ where that voice came from! The only thing I know is that it never showed up until after you did!"

Rumia's nostrils flared. Suddenly, her fear was forgotten. In fact, she was about ready to test just how physical this illusionary body could get.

"You're saying that _I _was the one telling you to go all axe-crazy?" Rumia snarled as she stomped forward. "That's it. When I get done with you your mind is gonna start thinking sideways!"

She formed a fist and swung it at Rin's face.

Rin blurred and vanished right before knuckles made contact.

"Knock it off!" Rin shouted from behind.

Rumia whirled around. Rin was now standing there, looking irritated.

Scowling, Rumia tried to hit her again. Again Rin disappeared before being hit, only to reappear a few feet away.

"Rumia, seriously! Stop-"

Rumia swung again. The same thing happened.

"-being-"

Rumia swung again.

"-an-"

And again.

"-idiot! Okay, that's enough!"

Rumia froze in mid-swing, one foot braced in front of her, her fist only halfway past her own face. She grunted and tried to move, but with no success.

Rin appeared in front of her. "Will you _please_ just knock it off!" she said. "I've had people beating me up all day and I'm getting real sick of it!"

She blinked once, and Rumia suddenly fell forward. Rin stepped aside, letting Rumia land face first on the expanse of nothing.

"I don't know why I even bother," Rin muttered as she walked away. "I do my best to be all honest and make up with people, and they keep trying to smash me flat! Not my fault that the truth is so freaking weird."

"Truth?" Rumia said as she pushed herself up. "Truth of _what? _You've seen my memories, you know I didn't have anything to do with…whatever you think I did. What makes you so suspicious of me?"

Rin paused, her back still to Rumia. "Well, um, like I said I'm not sure what it was," she said, sounding uncertain of herself. "And the voice did sound a little different. Deeper, darker, more scary, you know? But uh, the voice?"

"Yeah?"

Rin turned. Her large blue eyes were troubled. "Rumia, it sounded like _you."_

…

The level of activity inside of Hourai Clinic stood in sharp contrast to its earlier snail pace. Now, like outside, the halls were filled with rabbits running to and fro, mostly maintenance and soldiers seeing to the damage. Yukari was reminded of blood cells frantically trying to clot up tears in the veins. She was sure Eirin would appreciate the image, though sharing a joke wasn't exactly high on her list of priorities.

She made her way through the clinic, ignoring the rabbits and the occasional dirty look they shot her. They could blame her and her friends all they wanted, but the fact of the matter is that this problem was their doing, not hers. She and her friends had been the ones trying to take Satsuki down while the rabbits had turned tail.

Her destination was another one of the emergency rooms, specifically the one nicknamed Marisa's Dumping Ground. As it was the one that saw the most business, it was the best equipped to handle the number of wounded the operation had incurred. Suika, Eirin and Reimu had been moved there after Satsuki's escape, and Tewi Inaba and Cirno had recently been added to the patient list.

Cirno…Yukari pursed her lips and marched forward.

As she neared the room, distinct voices rose above the general babble.

"…are you sure you haven't seen her?" she could hear Ran saying. Yukari's scowl deepened. She had a good idea what her Shikigami was talking about. To be truthful, Chen's disappearance was bothering her as well, though she would never admit it.

"Uh, no," said another voice, namely Cirno's. "Not since yesterday. We invited her to hang out, but she said she couldn't make it. Something about needing to get shot? I didn't get it. Hey, what are you doing with that pointy thing? Get away!"

Yukari quickened her pace, wincing at every step.

"I'm fine!" Cirno said. "Seriously, I don't need…I said get away with that thing! Wait a…Ow!"

Yukari approached the doorframe and saw Cirno sitting on a stool and being tended by Reisen. Ever since the rabbits' return, Reisen had taken over Eirin's duties as Head (and in truth, the _only_) Physician. Suika, Eirin, Reimu and now Tewi were lying in the room's four beds. Despite all the chaos taken place around her, Reimu had fallen fast asleep. Not surprising, considering how exhausted she must have been, thought Yukari suspected that Reisen and her drugs were equally to blame.

Ran was standing near Cirno. She glanced up as Yukari stepped into the room but looked away when she saw who it was. Yukari still caught the flash of resentment in her eyes, though.

Enough of this. Yukari walked up to her. "Go find your cat," she muttered.

Ran blinked in surprise and stared at her. "Seriously?"

"Just go," Yukari said wearily.

Ran looked like she was going to say more, but apparently thought better of it. She nodded her thanks and ran from the room. Now that was taken care of, Yukari focused her attention back on the fairy, who was still arguing with Reisen.

"You," Reisen said as she disposed of the syringe she had just stuck into Cirno, "just got blasted to atoms with not one, but _two _very powerful, not mention highly illegal, spells and were hastily thrown back together before your body was ready. I don't care what Mima says, you're not going anywhere until I'm sure there won't be any side effects."

"But I gotta find Rumia!" Cirno said, rubbing her arm. "She'll get hurt without me!"

Yukari took that moment to butt in. "You can forget that idea."

Reisen turned to glare at the ancient youkai. "I thought you checked yourself out."

"I did. But I still have business with some of your patients, starting with the little idiot here."

Cirno sat up straighter. "M-me?" she hiccupped.

"Yes, you. This whole disaster wouldn't have happened if it weren't for you and your stupid friends poking your noses where they don't belong."

"It wasn't our fault!" Cirno protested.

"Wait, hold up," Reisen said. "What are you talking about?"

"Haven't you heard?" Yukari told her. "Cirno and her friends here were the ones who stole the box Satsuki was trapped in. They were the ones who set that nightmare loose."

"We didn't know!" Cirno shouted back. "'Sides, Marisa stole the box before we did."

"Oh, believe me when I say I'll deal with her in due time. But for now I think you're long overdue for a lesson in actions and consequences."

To her credit, Cirno didn't back down. Instead, she hopped up and stood on the stool, fists up in a boxing stance. Yukari was almost amused. Almost. She took a threatening step forward.

Unfortunately, she never got further than that, as Reisen situated herself between the two. "All right, that's enough," she said, spreading her arms wide.

"Get out of my way, rabbit," Yukari told her, not taking her eyes off of Cirno.

"Yeah, I need to show her who's the strongest around here!" Cirno agreed.

Reisen ignored her. "You checked yourself out," she told Yukari. "Cirno hasn't. So she's still in my care until I say so. And I will be _damned _if I let anyone threaten my patients."

Yukari turned her attention to the rabbit. "I said. Get out. Of. My way."

Reisen's eyebrows dipped lower. "And I said back the hell off. This is my home, not yours."

Yukari returned the glare, but then she noticed that Reisen's scarlet eyes had started to glow. She quickly broke eye contact.

"Have it your way," Yukari said as she turned. "But this isn't over."

"Is is so long as you're here."

"What, you don't think I can take her?" Cirno said, sounding annoyed. "C'mon, let's do this!"

"Shut up," both Yukari and Reisen said at the same time. Cirno plopped back down on the stool and began to sulk.

"Fine, be that way," Cirno grumbled. She looked up to Reisen. "But seriously, what happened to Rumia? Why was she all black and scary looking?"

Yukari shot a glance down at Reisen, who was taking Cirno's blood pressure. "Well? Will you tell her or should I?"

Reisen sighed. "Cirno, that wasn't Rumia. That was the…person who, uh, ate her."

"What? That blob thing? But it didn't look like that before!"

"That's what she does when she absorbs someone. She uses their power to make a body that sort of looks like them. But it's not them."

Cirno just looked confused. "Whhhaaatttt?"

"Don't think about it too much," Yukari grumbled. "In fact, don't think at all. Stick to what you know."

"But…what about Rumia? Is she still alive?"

"No," Yukari said.

"Yes," said Reisen, at exactly the same time. They glared at each other.

"She is, and she can be saved," Reisen continued to Yukari's annoyance. "But please, please, _please _let us handle this. We've dealt with the situation before, and can do so again."

"But _how?"_

"Does it matter?" Yukari snapped. "You heard the lady. Shut up and keep the hell away from this operation."

Reisen snapped to her feet. "Yakumo, if I have to warn you again, I will have security escort you off the premises!"

Yukari wondered if they would be capable of removing her, wound or no wound. In a brief flash of rage, she was seriously tempted to put that question to the test. However, the situation at hand brought her back to her senses. Getting into a fight with Eientei when she possibly needed them the most would be pointless.

"Fine. The fairy wasn't my main purpose here anyway," she muttered as she turned to the beds.

Eirin, who was now wide awake and watching the whole exchange with an amused look on her bruised face, managed a half-smirk. "I have to say, Yakumo," she said in a scratchy voice. "Your skills at diplomacy continue to astound me."

"Glad to see you're awake," Yukari said. "And if you're strong enough to be a wiseass, you're strong enough to answer a few questions."

"I suppose it's inevitable," Eirin sighed. She levered herself up into a sitting position. Then she pushed away the sheets and swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Well?" she said. "Don't just stand there. Give me a hand."

"Eirin? Eirin, what the _hell _do you think you're doing!" Reisen cried. "You just had a near-brush with death! Literally! Get back in bed!"

"It's okay, Reisen," Eirin said as Yukari helped her to her feet. "I'm made of sturdier stuff than that. Plus, as I understand it, Yukari here has personally ensured that I will lose no more ground, correct?" When Yukari nodded, Eirin said, "There, you see? I'll be fine."

"No, absolutely not!" Reisen shouted. "I'm not going to let you go off-"

"Reisen," Eirin said, her voice tinged with a note of warning. Apparently that was all it took. Reisen flinched and backed off.

"Good girl." Eirin looked up at Yukari. "Shall we continue this conversation somewhere where we'll have some privacy? Say, my office?"

"Works for me."

Eirin took a step forward and stumbled. Reisen rushed to her side and stopped her from falling. "Well, that was predictable," Eirin muttered. "Reisen, go grab me a set of those crutches."

Reisen looked like she wanted to protest, but she held her tongue and did was told. Eirin placed the crutches under her armpits, took an experimental step forward, and nodded her satisfaction.

"Good. Reisen, Yukari and I are going to have a private chat. Carry on as you have done."

Reisen frowned, but she nodded.

"Good. Yukari, follow me."

Eirin hobbled from the room, somehow making it look dignified. Yukari started to follow, but something grabbed hold of her, forcing her to stop. She looked to see Reisen holding her by the sleeve.

"If anything happens to her," Reisen said in a low voice, "if she hurts herself because of you, you'll answer to me. Personally."

"Really now," Yukari said icily. "Well, I'll keep that in mind. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

Reisen released her arm, allowing Yukari to follow after the rabbit's master.

"I have to say," Eirin said as Yukari caught up. "I'm actually impressed with how Reisen's stepped up and taken charge. She's rarely this authoritative. Perhaps I should start trusting her with more responsibility. Don't tell her I said that, though. It's just go to her head."

Yukari frowned. "If you say so."

Eirin smiled at her. "Oh, don't let that little spat get to you. Given that Kaguya's been kidnapped and Tewi and I have been forced to lay aside our duties, she is technically the acting Head of Eientei, in additional to her duties as physician. I would imagine that the stress is weighing on her, especially considering everything else that's happened. Besides, you wouldn't want someone challenging your authority in your own house either."

"At this point, I could care less about your pet's attitude," Yukari snapped. "All I want now are some answers."

"And I'll give them to you. Here we go…"

They reached a door near the wreckage of the waiting room. With her free hand, Eirin reached into her dress and extracted a small key. With this, she unlocked the door and pushed it open.

"After you," she said. Yukari went in.

As would be expected from Eirin, her office reflected the epitome of neatness. No loose papers, no excess dust on the furniture, the carpeted floor was free from stains and everything looked like it had been placed there with a purpose. Two filing cabinets sat in the back of the room behind a simple oak desk, which Yukari supposed to have predated the clinic's construction. Two leather chairs sat in front of the desk and, curiously enough, several framed pictures and other memorabilia lined the walls. Yukari was actually surprised by this, as she never took Eirin for the sentimental type.

Eirin limped around the desk and lowered herself into the black leather chair with a look of relief. She indicated for Yukari to have a seat.

"I'd rather stand," Yukari said crossly.

Eirin sighed. "Yukari, there's no one here besides you and me, and we both know that wound of yours cannot be comfortable. There will be no slight on your pride just by sitting. Besides, this is going to be a _long _story."

Yukari frowned, but she nodded. She sat down in one of the seats in front of the desk.

"Now," Yukari said as she shifted her body into a position that was at least somewhat comfortable. "Tell me about Rin Satsuki."

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia stared at Rin. She tried to think of something to say, but her brain was locked up.

"But…" she started, and stopped.

She glanced over her shoulder. Kaguya and Mokou had stopped their muffled conversation and were now watching her and Rin interact. Wonderful, now they had an audience.

Rumia shook her head. She tried again. "You, uh, you mind saying that again?"

In answer, Rin waved her hand. This time, there was no tear in the nothingness around them, no strange visuals to accompany the memory. Instead, there were just voices, seemingly coming from all around. The first one was Rin's.

"_Please, somebody help…"_

"_**Well, I do believe that's my cue."**_

Rumia jumped with a squeak of surprise. The voice _did _sound a great deal like her, but like Rin said, it was much deeper, much more sinister sounding, much more…well, evil.

"_Rumia!" _Rin said in her own memory._ "But I-"_

"_**Rumia?" **_the dark voice said._** "Heh, not quite."**_

"_Who are you?"_

"_**A friend. One you cannot afford to ignore."**_

Rin waved her hand again.

"_**You are entirely too merciful for your own good. She's not even unconscious! You should have decapitated her on your way up."**_

Again.

"_**Think of my as your conscience. Except instead of telling you what's 'good and proper', I tell you what's smart. I'm the part of your mind that's not deluding itself with ideas of 'redemption' and 'acceptance'. I'm the part of you that tells it as it is, that you are going to be hated by everything and everyone no matter what you do, so you might as well become what they're going to accuse you of anyway. Because you have no chance of surviving otherwise."**_

And again.

"_**Okay, last chance. If you're so concerned about hurting her, then just stab her through the brain before she gets up. Quick, painless, done."**_

"_But-"_

"_**I do not care. Do it."**_

Rumia couldn't take it anymore. "Okay, stop!" she shouted. "I get it! Stop!"

Rin snapped her fingers, and the voices cut off. "You see what I mean? And that's just a small fraction. That thing was whispering in my ear on and off for…I don't know, half-an-hour? It kept trying to get me to kill everyone. And it actually took over my body _twice." _

"What?"

"See? I didn't get it either! The first time I, uh, kinda let it." When Rumia's jaw fell, Rin quickly added, "It was when I was captured and they were talking about how to kill us, I was desperate! But the second time, it just slipped in and took over. I didn't even _notice _until after it had absorbed those two." She motioned towards Kaguya and Mokou.

"And when I retook control, I felt _something _crawling around in my head," Rin continued. "Something…disgusting. Creepy. It made me feel dirty." She shuddered. "But it was only for like a second, and then it was gone, I have no idea where."

"Is that so."

"Yes! I know you don't know where it came from, but still…there's something very weird about you."

"Me?" Rumia growled. "We are standing naked inside your head while you go flying around in a body that you stitched together from three different people and there's something weird about _me?"_

Rin flinched. "Okay, point. But I know where my weirdness came from. You…Rumia, what's the earliest thing you remember?"

"What? I don't know." Rumia thought hard, tracing her thought back through the years. "I'm…not really sure. Fending for myself in the Forest of Magic, I guess. When I was younger, and before I met my friends."

"So you don't know where you came from? Family, origin, anything?"

"Uh, no. Not really. Wriggle says I was probably a shadow of someone that stuck around after the real person died and…just became a youkai, I guess." She shrugged. "Things like that have happened before, so it's a good explanation as any. Hey, you read my mind and all, you tell me."

Rin shook her head. "I've tried that, but it's a lot of memory to sift through. Haven't been able to come up with any…But there is one thing I've noticed."

Now Rumia was completely interested. She still didn't buy all this bullcrap about her being some sort of devil on Rin's shoulder, but she was curious about what Rin had found, even if the thought of her clawing through Rumia's memories made her feel…violated, on a very primal level.

Rin continued. "Well, it's not so much of a thing as a lack of a thing, but when I…well, you know, absorbed you and all that? I got a lot of power from you, and I mean a _lot. _Didn't think too much of it at first, since there's a whole bunch of really powerful people running around, and I was just happy to have a real body again. But after awhile I got a little confused. See, there is _nothing _in your memories that shows that you even knew you had that kind of strength. Nothing about summoning swords or making plants die or leaving taints or weird darkness spears or darkness tentacles or darkness…pretty much anything you can think of, really."

Rumia felt cold inside. "You got all that from me?"

"Uh-huh. Scary, I know. And like I said, there was a lot of stuff in your memories about making the lights go away, but nothing like what I was using. Rumia, I almost _won."_

Rumia made a choking sound. "Wait, hold up! You…but Miss Yukari! And Miss Reimu, and Miss Marisa! And the…what?"

"Exactly! And it wasn't that hard! And I managed to get away anyway! So that's why I was wondering…do you remember _anything? _Anything at all?"

"No, I don't remember anything about that! I'm not any kind of evil super person! I'm just Rumia! I can't shoot evil missiles, or make evil swords out of nothing, or anything like that! I don't know where the hell you're getting all this, but it's not from me."

"It is," Rin said softly. She sat knelt down and folded her arms. Her eyes stared downward.

"No it's not!" Rumia shouted back. "There's just no way!"

"If you say so, but if not you, then where?"

Several answers sprung to Rumia's mind. Rin had always had that power and just didn't know. Rin was lying to her about the battle. Rin was lying to her about not knowing anything about the power. Rin was lying to her about the voice. Rin was lying to her, period.

"I don't know where," Rumia said. "And you know that I don't know. So stop accusing me!"

"I'm not! I'm just…ah, forget it."

An uneasy silence passed between them. Rin kept staring downward, while Rumia started pacing back and forth. Back a ways, near the screen, their new roommates had begun a more subdued conversation. It sounded like they were whispering to each other. Again, Rumia wondered how they were able to communicate. Maybe they just understood the tones.

She stopped pacing and shook her head. She was tired of being in the dark, metaphorically speaking. "Hey, uh, Rin?"

"What?"

"Where _did _your weirdness come from?"

"Huh?"

"How did you become like, you know, this?"

Rin sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Oh wow. That's a kinda long story."

Rumia looked around. "I don't see us having anything else to do." Her eyes narrowed. "Besides, you owe it to me."

"Yeah, I guess I do. Okay, fine, but I don't know if you're gonna like it…"

…

"Rin Satsuki, huh?" Eirin sighed. "Well like I said, that's a bit of a long story."

"Start at the beginning, then," Yukari said. "What is she and how do you know her?"

"A youkai. Just a simple youkai. A Kirin, if you want to be specific."

This news was troubling. The Kirin were anything but simple. For one thing, they were high on the youkai social ladder. _Very _high. Almost the level of dragons, to be exact. While they mostly kept to themselves and preferred not to involve themselves with outside trouble, the amount of influence they wielded when they did was not insignificant. And while they weren't unfriendly or especially violent, they did not react well to attacks on one of their own.

"How in the world did you wind up with a Kirin?"

"By accident, believe it or not. About, oh, nineteen years ago, two rabbits were kidnapped. Infants. Even though they weren't ours, we are allied with the local tribes, and they appealed to us for help." Eirin shrugged. "It seemed a simple enough matter, so we said yes. It didn't take long. The kidnappers had set up camp a few miles north of the forest. As we had not gone public yet, they were entirely unaware of our existence." Eirin smiled at the memory. "So it was quite the shock for them when the Eientei Guard showed up in the middle of the night."

"Who were they?"

"Just a couple of Humans. Slavers, to be exact. No one of any importance. Not then, and thanks to us, they never will be."

Yukari nodded. Rabbits in general weren't all that dangerous, but the Guard knew their business. "And then what?"

"The children were terrified, but unharmed," Eirin said. "We returned them to their family with little more trouble. However, as it turned out, the young rabbits weren't the slavers' first victims. We found another child locked in a cage, a toddler."

"Satsuki," Yukari growled. It wasn't a question.

"Indeed," Eirin said calmly. "I really must give those slavers credit. Acquiring her must not have been easy. I've never actually had any dealings with the Kirin, but I know their reputation."

"Maybe they found her wandering around," Yukari suggested. "Or something had happened to her parents."

"It's possible. At any rate, not knowing what else to do, the Guard brought her back with them."

"Why didn't you return her as well?" Yukari asked. The thought of keeping a baby Kirin, especially one that had been kidnapped, sounded almost suicidal.

Eirin pursed her lips. "I wanted to, but Kaguya overruled me."

"Why?"

"As I said, this was before we had gone public. The rabbits and a select few others were the only ones who were even aware of our presence, and we were determined to keep it that way. Kaguya feared that having any dealing with youkai of such high prestige, even on such a small level, would eventually find its way back to the Lunarians."

Yukari scowled. "That's just paranoid. It would be more dangerous to keep a missing child when its family would come looking for it. Besides, you could have just had one of the rabbits drop it off."

"Exactly. However, I don't know if you've noticed, but Kaguya can be somewhat…stubborn. The last time we had revealed ourselves had eventually resulted in the creation of Mokou, after all. And she is my princess."

"God save us from lunatic princesses," Yukari said, shaking her head. "So you didn't take the kid back. Bad idea, we all agree. What happened then?"

"Well, by then some of the other rabbits had grown fond of her. Reisen especially seemed to enjoy spending time with the girl. So they asked if they could raise her. I didn't see the harm beyond what has already been noted, so I said yes."

The thought of Kaguya's pet having a pet of her own almost made Yukari smile. Almost. "That was very kind of you. Pity she turned out to be such a nightmare. Surprising, considering how peaceful the Kirin are. Wonder what that means in the Nature vs. Nurture debate, eh?"

"That's cute. Can we stay focused here?"

…

_Deep Within_

"The funny thing about all this," Rin waved an indicating arm at the nothing around them, "is that I can read minds, dig through memories, and even warp the mind-bodies of anyone that gets sucked into me…but not my own, at least not any of my memories before the change. And no, I have no idea why. I'm sure there's some big mystical/scientific reason, but for now it means I don't really remember a lot about growing up. Reisen told me that they saved me from some bad people, but I really don't remember much about that at all. 'Course, I was just a baby when it was supposed to happen, so I guess that makes sense."

She and Rumia were now sitting cross-legged across from one another. Even Kaguya and Mokou had fallen silent and appeared to be listening intently to the story.

Rumia leaned forward. "You think maybe _they _were the ones to kidnap you?" she asked. "Eirin and the others?"

Kaguya made a sudden noise of protest. Both Rin and Rumia twisted their necks around to stare at her. She started squealing something incomprehensible and violently shaking her head.

"Uh, what's she saying?" Rumia asked.

Rin cleared her throat. "Something to the effect of 'We never kidnapped you, you little trollop! We saved your crazy rear from slavers! We took you in and raised you and this is how you…' well, you get the idea."

Kaguya made more noises.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna translate that," Rin said. "Anyways, no, I don't think they kidnapped me. Kaguya's memories pretty much confirmed that. Though I do something wonder about Eirin, you know? Like, maybe she was looking for a new test subject. Especially considering everything that went down…"

Once again, Kaguya started protesting incoherently. An annoyed look crossed Rin's face, and she waved a hand in the princess's direction. Kaguya's ravings suddenly cut off. She looked surprised and tried to make more noises, but no sound came out. Mokou's shoulders started shaking as she made stifled laughing noises. Rin waved her hand again and these too cut off, to Mokou's obvious distress.

"Sorry about that," Rin said. "You really don't wanna know what she was saying."

Rumia stared at the casual display of total control with a look of horrified fascination. She started when she realized that Rin was speaking to her again.

"Oh…oh, of course not!" she said, laughing nervously. "A-anyway, you were saying?"

"Right. Okay, like I was saying I grew up at Eientei. Reisen…" a small, wistful smile tugged at the corners of Rin's mouth. "Well, she wasn't really like my mom, more like a big sister. But she still pretty much raised me. Some of the other rabbits helped too. Sayu, Maki, Shiina, and the rest. They were all like my big sisters." She frowned. "Not Tewi, though. I don't think she ever really liked me all that much, and Reisen said she was a bad influence. But yeah, they'd play with me, take me for walks, taught me how to read and write and do math and chemistry and quantum physics…"

"Chemi_what? _Quatu_what?"_

"Oh. That's right, you never…uh, it's science stuff."

"Oh." Rumia interest immediately waned. "I thought they were some sort of game."

"No. They're definitely not. But anyway, as I got older I'd start helping out around the mansion. You know, running errands, cleaning up, washing dishes, that sort of thing. I liked being useful. Then when I got even older, I knew what I wanted to be."

…

"She wanted to be like me," Eirin said wryly. "I have no idea why. The gods know I paid her little enough attention. She was always just Reisen's little pet to me, and I never even let her in the infirmary."

Yukari scratched her jaw. "That was probably the reason why. It's been my experience that kids tend to look up to those aloof and distant. It makes them seem powerful."

"Are we speaking from personal experience here?"

Yukari shrugged, but she didn't answer.

"At any rate, I wasn't too fond of the idea," Eirin said. "The way I saw it, no one had any right to be touching my equipment except for me and occasionally Reisen when I was watching her very carefully. Still, she was rather persistent." Eirin rolled her eyes. "You ever known a child that wanted something and would not take 'no' for an answer?"

"I live with Chen."

"Right. Okay, so you know what it's like. So finally, I told her that if she wanted to become a physician, she had to pass the required training."

Yukari's eyebrows went up and down. "Let me guess: your idea of 'required training' was a bit more…difficult than most, to discourage her."

Eirin shrugged. "No more than what I experienced myself, back in the Lunarian capital. Though I have to admit, I did not expect her to last long. Like I said, she was just that annoying kid that followed Reisen around. But to my absolute surprise, she actually managed to survive." Eirin's fingers drummed a beat on the desk as a frown knitted her brows together. "In fact, she damned well excelled. There was nothing I could throw at her that she couldn't handle. Anatomy, proper sterilization, surgical procedures and so on. I guess it was her Kirin heritage at work. Always heard they were supposed to be intelligent. But…damn."

"Disappointed by the lack of disappointment?"

"I didn't say that. I just said I was surprised."

"No wonder Reisen's the only one who hangs out with you."

"Yukari," Eirin said in a threatening tone.

Yukari held her hands up in a defensive gesture. "Sorry, I get snippy when I'm exhausted and have a gash of death along one side.

"Whereas I was fatally wounded and practically dragged from my near-deathbed to give you answers. Please Yukari, at least try avoid making this less pleasant than it already is."

Yukari nodded once is agreement. "Okay. So anyway, she turned out to be a model student," she said to bring the conversation back on track. "Good for her."

"Well, not quite," Eirin said. "She did well in the medical aspect, certainly, but not so well in other areas."

"Such as…?"

Eirin braced both hands against her chairs armrests and pushed herself up. She turned to the wall and carefully pulled down a framed diploma that looked as old as Yukari was. In the space previously occupied by the frame was an old steel safe.

Yukari had to choke back laughter, even if the very effort sent pain lacing through her burn. "A _wall safe? _Hidden behind a _picture frame? _Isn't that a little clichéd?"

In response, Eirin picked up a blank piece of paper from her desk. This she crumpled into a ball and tossed at the safe's door.

The wad of paper froze in midair less than a centimeter before contact. There came a sudden high-pitched whining sound, and the paper shook slightly. Then it crumbled to dust.

Yukari's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Oh," was all she could think of to say.

"Clichés are considered such because they're overused," Eirin said, twisting the dial lock of the safe. "And sometimes they're overused because they work. And if it doesn't, than the spell will ruin the day of any who isn't me or has been personally authorized to access its contents. Now, turn around."

"Why?"

"Because I am about to open _my _safe, that's why. Turn around, and leave your portals alone. And don't try peeking at some other time. There are safeguards against that as well."

Yukari smirked, but she did as she was asked. As she did so, she asked, "This secret safe thing that only you can touch: does Kaguya have access?"

There was a pause, and Eirin said, "I'm loyal to my Princess. That doesn't mean I'm an idiot about it."

"Thought so."

"Of course you did. You may face me again."

Yukari did so. The framed diploma was already back in its place. Eirin was sitting back in her chair with a file folder sitting on the desk before her, one that age was starting to brown. There was a large scarlet X drawn along the folder side. It didn't take a flash of brilliance to figure out what that meant.

Eirin opened the file as she talked. "All of our employees are required to pass a self-defense class, regardless of position. Given our status as exiles and the long standing feud with that bloody Mokou, it only makes sense. Especially then, as we had not made peace with the Lunarian government yet. The class in question covers most of the basics. Spellcards, bullet firing and dodging, grazing at the more advanced levels, as well as hand-to-hand combat. Fairly simple stuff, all around."

Yukari saw where this was going. "But Satsuki wasn't exactly, ah, up to snuff?"

Eirin's lip curled. She opened the file. "Far from it. In fact, she was downright awful. We only pitted her against other low-skill trainees, aspiring cooks and the like, and she'd still get her ass kicked every single sparring match. She was unable to grasp the most basic styles and all of her so-called 'spellcards' were in name only!" She picked up one of the papers in the file. "I mean, look at this! 'Wind Sign: Calming Breeze'? Give me a break. 'Flower Sign: Gently Wafting Petals'? Good gods, what was that supposed to be? And don't get me started on the hand-to-hand stuff. The girl had trouble forming a proper _fist, _much less hitting someone without hurting herself in the process!"

Yukari looked down at the bandage covering her mutilated torso, still visible beneath the ripped tatters of her robe. "Looks like she's stepped up her game since then."

"Yes, I noticed that," Eirin said. A trouble look passed over her face. "Even during her first rampage she never…Well, we'll have to look into that later. But my point it, back then she just plain _sucked_. We went easier on her than anyone else, worked more slowly with her, took extra time to teach her the proper methods and technique, pitted her against the weakest opponents we could find, and she just wouldn't get it. I ask you, Yukari. What is a teacher supposed to do with a student like that?"

…

_Deep Within_

"So she couldn't drive me off with medicine, so she tried just having me beat up over and over until I gave up," Rin said. There was a distinct note of bitterness in her voice. "She said everyone had to pass the same class. What a load of crap. Did everyone have to square off against the Guard's kickboxing champion their very first day? Did everyone have to get pushed into the sparring ring three times a day? Was everyone taught submission holds by having the teachers demonstrate the holds on _them?"_

Rumia winced at the image. "Ouch."

"I know, right? And when I refused to quit, she just kept upping it and upping it and upping it…You know how I was taught how to dodge bullets? Real bullets. Like from a gun."

"Are you serious? Is that even legal?"

"I have no idea. And it hurt." Rin rubbed her arm. "A lot. But by that point I just wanted to prove to Eirin that I could do it, so I stuck with it. Then, something weird began to happen."

"What?"

"I started lasting longer during fights, at least the danmaku kind. At first, I thought it just meant I was finally getting better, though I should've known better to think _that. _But no, it was something else entirely."

…

"Her natural abilities were finally making themselves known," Eirin said. She flipped through the file's papers and pulled out another. "To be honest, I had been wondering when they would appear. When she was growing up, she didn't seem to be able to do anything beyond fly and shoot very sad looking bullets, no more than anyone else was able to do. It was disappointing, as I had expected a bit more from a Kirin. But as it turned out, she could do something. Something _very _interesting."

Yukari steepled her fingers and nodded solemnly. "Adaptation."

"Correct. Not too dissimilar to the small boost of energy that we receive whenever we graze bullets, actually. But much, much more effective." Eirin pushed the paper towards Yukari, who took it. It was an ability sheet, such as any decent place of employment might use to keep track of what an employee was capable of. It was only good business, as if your new dishwasher was able to call up flames from the very pit of hell, than you would want to know about it first.

As it was, Rin Satsuki's numbers weren't all that impressive. High points for intelligence and factual learning, with abysmal scores in physical and most magical abilities. Her flight speed was a bit below average and her danmaku skills were so low that it actually made Yukari embarrassed for the girl. However, when it came to special abilities, there was a sudden spike in power. Alongside the bar was a scribbled note in Eirin's spidery handwriting: _Bullet/Magic Absorption: possible divine levels? Must investigate further._

"Interesting," Yukari muttered.

"Oh, believe me, it was. Now, her powers weren't nearly as potent as you saw today. It took a prolonged exposure to the same energy wavelength before her body got used to and would be able to absorb energy. Even then, a concentrated barrage could still take her down."

Yukari handed the paper back to Eirin. "That doesn't sound so divine. Interesting, but not divine."

"I wasn't referring to what she had, I was thinking about what she could _become." _A small glitter of excitement sparkled in Eirin's eye, even through the swollenness. "Think about it, Yukari. Such abilities have been known to have been experimented with and expanded beyond their initial levels. If someone could develop the ability to actually absorb energy…"

"They would be nothing short of invincible," Yukari finished for her. A sick feeling formed in her stomach that had nothing to do with the taint. "You wanted to turn Satsuki into a weapon."

Eirin sighed, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face. "No, I didn't. Not Satsuki. Maybe you missed the part about her not being able to fight? But I did want to her to learn more about her abilities and increase them. And from there…" The Lunarian doctor hesitated. "Well, I wanted to find a way to harvest them, and transfer them over to those who _could _fight. In a way that didn't hurt the original possessor, of course. Reisen would never let me hear the end of it."

Yukari tapped her lower lip and scowled. "You do realize that I established danmaku and spellcard rules for a reason, correct? And that I put a _lot _of effort into making sure everyone in Gensokyo played by them."

"Even though we were effectively fugitives who were only hiding in Gensokyo by chance?" Eirin said wryly. "Besides, we still intended to follow your rules, even if we didn't know whose rules they were. We would just have…an edge, should anyone choose to attack us."

"Really. And Kaguya never expressed any desire to use these abilities for more ambitious purposes?"

"Like I said, I'm not an idiot. Kaguya usually leaves my studies alone, and what she doesn't know doesn't hurt her. Besides, she's invulnerable already. At any rate, once we did figure out what Satsuki was potentially capable of, a deal was struck. She would be allowed to skip the self-defense class and go straight to helping Reisen and me in the infirmary as a nurse, and in exchange I would get to run some tests on her abilities."

"Tests?" Yukari blinked. "What kind of tests?"

"Prolonged exposure to low levels of energy, try to have her concentrate and absorb physical objects, see if the energy she absorbed affected her own bullets, that sort of thing. Nothing dangerous. All altruism aside, we didn't want to risk hurting her before we could figure out a way to extract her powers."

…

_Deep Within_

"She pretty much turned me into her lab bunny," Rin growled. Her fists were clenched and trembling. She bared her teeth in an angry grimace. "She'd stick me in an empty room and just bombard with whatever she could think of. Lasers, intense heat and cold, invisible force, whatever! She'd line me up against a wall and have the Guard use me for target practice. All just to see how much I could take."

Rumia scratched her forehead. "And you just _let _her?"

"What else was I gonna do, say no? Eirin's the second in command of Eientei. What she says goes. Though I did try to complain to Princess Kaguya once. Yeah, that pretty much went nowhere."

Rumia glanced at the princess in question. Kaguya just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Yeah, but anyway, she started to get the results she wanted, but it was way too slow," Rin continued. "I was adapting, but it wasn't to any level that would be useful for combat. So she decided to cheat."

…

"In time, it became apparent that I was doing it all wrong," Eirin said. "Certainly Rin's abilities were improving, but I could tell that even with the eternity available to us, it just wasn't at any rate that would prove useful in the long term. Besides, no possibility for safe extraction of her abilities was making itself available. The problem was that we were limited by the resources at hand. Despite being fairly well off for the simple task of hiding, all we had were what we had brought with us when we fled the moon and whatever we managed to make ourselves or trade with the rabbits. And since the rabbits were our only trade option, we were limited in what we could use. This was an experiment that required both magical and scientific resources far beyond what we had at hand."

Yukari grimaced. "Don't let Reimu hear you say that. She gets a bit cranky about the science stuff."

"Her loss. If magic could solve everything I wouldn't be needed, now would I? At any rate, we weren't about to go and expose ourselves just for one experiment. Fortunately, I soon discovered that I _did _know someone else in Gensokyo. An old acquaintance, one who had visited the moon on a number of occasions back when Kaguya was still in power, and whom I had worked with personally on at least one of her operations."

"Who? What operations?"

In response, Eirin pulled out a photograph and passed it to her. The photo was dulling with age, but the picture of a tall, elegant young woman with braided silver hair and red eyes was still clearly visible. If that alone was not enough to tip off Yukari as to the young woman's identity, than the pale blue maid outfit she wore and the silver-bladed knife she held in one hand made it completely obvious.

"No doubt you're familiar with the previous career of the person now calling herself Sakuya Izayoi as a celebrated monster hunter," Eirin said. "She helped the Lunarian Royal Family dispose of some unwanted pests several times. I was rather surprised to find that she was now serving one of the monsters she had once hunted. In fact, I found the irony hilarious, though I would never tell her that to her face."

"Of course not," Yukari muttered. The picture Eirin was painting was becoming more and more troubling by the second. Yukari's relationship with Remilia Scarlet and her entourage had always been a working one at best. Although she had no reason why they could not stay in Gensokyo, she had always been a little wary about their presence. Vampires were notoriously shifty in their dealings, and if the denizens of the Scarlet Devil Mansion were involved in this caper, than that opened the door for any number of problematic possibilities.

Plus, there was that crazy sister they kept locked up in the basement…

Then again, given that Cirno had mentioned that Marisa had acquired the box from Patchouli Knowledge, another member of Remilia's entourage, Yukari supposed she should have seen this coming.

"So, you turned to the vampire for help," Yukari said. "I can't imagine that it was inexpensive."

"Actually, I never even met with Remilia," Eirin said. "Fortunately for me, at least at the time, she was away from Gensokyo, visiting relatives back in the Outside World. Sakuya was left in charge, which made things considerably easier. Given our experience working together in the past and that she was sympathetic toward our current status as exiles, she was willing to help. In exchange for a portion of the formula itself, of course."

"I see. Continue."

"What I needed was a sorcerer, a magician. I'm no slouch when it comes to magical matters, and neither is Kaguya, but magic is not our main field of study. I needed someone who pursued the mystic arts as a lifestyle. And as it so happened, Sakuya knew such a person. I think you know who I mean."

Patchouli. Of course. Yukari sighed. She didn't have anything personal against the magician, but the amount of knowledge she possessed was potentially dangerous if used for the wrong reasons. She glanced down at her bandage and the wound it covered. Check that, it _had _been used for the wrong reasons, and the results were clear to see.

"Miss Knowledge was also willing to lend her assistance," Eirin said. "The experiment interested her, and she wanted to see what would happen. So it was settled: everything I knew about the body combined with my vast knowledge of chemistry and medicine combined with her arcane prowess, and together we were going to revolutionize danmaku duels, at least for our own personal use. Now the only thing left was to acquire some decent equipment. Sakuya had some suggestions down that line…"

…

_Deep Within_

"She brought in a couple of crazy-ass, bloody-minded, artery snipping, laws of nature warping, absolutely off their rockers humans," Rin growled. "I mean, Eirin was bad enough. The stuff she would slip into our food! But they had to bring in two legit mad scientists!" She took in a shaky breath. "Eirin wanted _me _to be _experimented_ on by two _mad scientists! _And she has the nerve to call me the monster!"

"Who were they? Do you remember their names?"

"Remember their names? Of course I do!" Rin laughed, a sound that was a little crazier than Rumia was comfortable with. "Rika and Rikako Asakura, sisters in crime! My _gods, _those two were crazy! You wanna know the first thing they wanted to do when they got brought into the experiment? Electrocute me, just to see my progress."

Rumia didn't recognize the names, but that wasn't surprising. She tended to keep away from human settlements, and the number of humans she interacted with on a semi-regular basis could be counted on two hands. Maybe even one.

"Why didn't you say 'no', then?" Rumia asked. "I mean, if someone wanted to shoot me with lightning, I would be all like 'Over my dead body!'" She frowned. "Which would end up being the case, actually."

"I wanted to, but they told me it was too late to back out. I should've just run away. That's it, I should've run away. Would've saved everyone a whole lotta grief."

…

"The operation itself was risky, I'll admit it, but at the time it seemed to be worth it. What we planned to do was artificially accelerate the the development of her abilities, while at the same time tricking Rin's body into thinking the power increase was natural. So the five of us, Patchouli, Sakuya, the Asakura sisters and I, worked together to produce a new kind of elixir. Just as the original Hourai elixir used Kaguya's power over eternity as a base, this one used Sakuya's control over space and time to create the illusion of several decades' worth of power development. This would then been injected straight into Rin herself."

"Did you at least test it first?" Yukari asked.

Eirin looked puzzled. "What do you mean? We _were _testing it. On Rin."

Yukari sighed. She supposed this sort of attitude was to be expected from Eirin. "Never mind. So anyway, let me guess what happened: it worked, but not in the way you were expecting. Rin's powers shot up by a hundredfold, but it made her go crazy and attack everyone in sight."

"Close, very close," Eirin said. "Yes, the experiment was a success. _Too _much of a success. Only hours after the elixir was injected, she was able to adapt to new kinds of energy in seconds, something that usually took some weeks to happen. But when we were patting each other on the back and breaking out the champagne, something began to happen." Eirin's eyes became unfocused. At first Yukari was worried that her injuries were starting to send her into a daze, but she kept talking at the same, steady pace. It was just the reliving of the memory that was affecting her. "Rin began to _change."_

…

_Deep Within_

"I was _melting!" _Rin said in a horrified voice. She wrapped her arms around herself and her eyes focused downward, at a spot between her and Rumia. "My body just started melting like I was made of wax. I could _feel _all my organs turning to jelly and fusing together. My sight grew hazy as my eyes liquefied, my ears were shrinking and being reabsorbed into my skull and my throat was closing up and my whole body was drooping down, down, down…" The rest of the description was swallowed up by whimpering noises.

…

"No one really knows what happened," Eirin muttered. "This sort of thing literally had never happened before, at least not to my knowledge, and once she finished it was impossible to extract any data that would tell us why. The most popular theory is that her body was adapting to _itself, _with all her cells trying to imitate their neighbors. At any rate, once she finished, she was no longer even recognizable as a living being. In fact, she looked like a…"

"…large transparent blob," Yukari finished for her. "Appearing to be a large wad of clear mucus or a surprisingly tough bead of water."

Eirin nodded. "So you've seen her in her 'natural' state, if that word applies."

"No, but I've spoken to those who have."

"Ah, right. The fairy. I heard the two of you, heh, 'talking'. I presume she was one of the witnesses you mentioned earlier?"

Yukari nodded.

"I see. Cirno is very, very lucky then. It could have been her that Rin took for a joyride."

"I wish it was. Our job would be so much easier then."

Eirin smiled, though there was no humor in the expression. "Perhaps. Perhaps at first, but if she wasn't put down quickly than it would soon become very, very difficult, as difficult as what we did encounter. That's how it worked last time. It started small, but it quickly grew to a full catastrophe."

"How so?"

"Well, at first we thought that the metamorphosis had killed Rin, but when the, erm, blob started responding to our probing, it eventually because obvious that her mind was still intact. How this was possible without her actually having a physical brain, I do not know. But this is Gensokyo, after all. Strange things do happen."

"You mean like how one of my best friends is a ghost who's still capable of eating solid foods despite not having a physical stomach?" Yukari suggested.

"Yes, exactly like-"

"Or how bits and pieces of trash can become sentient and start walking around for no discernable reason? And take on the appearance of young humans in the process?"

"Also correct. And-"

"Or how back when you and your bubble-headed princess decided to screw up the moon, I was able to just stop night for as long as I wanted, even though doing so meant interfering with the Earth's rotation and potentially wreaking havoc on the weather conditions? And everything ended up working out fine in the end?"

"Yukari, the point has already been made. You don't-"

"Or how Suika apparently broke the _sky _once as a party trick, and it ended up just fixing itself overnight with barely anyone even noticing? Or that some parts of Gensokyo are several centuries behind the Outside World in terms of development while others are at least twenty years ahead? Or that we once invaded your home town on the moon using a rocket ship made out of bamboo?"

One of Eirin's fingers tapped her desk impatiently. "You've made your point, Yakumo. Which by the way happens to be _my _point, so I don't see the reason to prove it further."

"Right. So sorry," Yukari said with a small smirk. "Pray continue."

Eirin sighed in annoyance, but she said, "Anyway, like I said, despite undergoing a horrific transformation, Rin was still alive…"

"Obviously. She just kicked all our asses after all."

"…and still self-aware. Communicating with her was…difficult, but we managed through an old Lunarian code system I had her memorize. She could sense nearby sensation, and extrude long appendages in order to pick up objects, so we were able to keep her in the loop at least. However, she was very confused, and very scared. I don't blame her, but there was hope." Eirin leaned forward on her desk. "If she concentrated, she could force her cells to retake their former state and reform her old body.

Yukari coughed. "Wait, she could?"

"Indeed," Eirin said with a nod. "Unfortunately, doing so put her cells under incredible strain, which could potentially cause irreparable damage if allowed to continue. Still, that fact led us to believe that the situation could be reversed. And so we went to work to find a way to save her. Her, and hopefully the experiment as well."

…

_Deep Within_

"They told me they would do everything they could to find a cure," Rin muttered. Her left hand kept twitching and tapping against her thigh. "And like a fool, I believed them. They weren't interested in finding a cure, they just wanted to find a way to dissect me and get my powers out of me. But how was I to know that Eirin was that much of a liar? She was my mentor, after all."

"Are you sure?" Rumia asked.

"Seeing how they actually tried to cut off large chunks of me, yeah, I'm pretty sure. They also tried injecting a whole bunch of different stuff into me, but it never worked. My body would just absorb that as well. Everything they tried ended up the same way. So really, can I be blamed for going a little crazy? Was what happened really my fault?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" Rin looked uncomfortable discussing the next part. "You see, while that was going on, Reisen was still there, looking after me. She'd come to visit me during the night and keep me company. I can't sleep, you see. Guess my body doesn't need it anymore. So the nights were the worst, but having Reisen there made things…I don't know, easier I guess. That code they had me using was really slow, so it was still hard to communicate with her, but we still managed to talk a little. She kept telling me that everyone was working as hard as they could to fix me. Eirin was lying to her too, you see. Brainwashing her, just like she did me. And it would have kept going on that way, but then the, heheh, 'accident' happened."

Rumia didn't like the sound of that, nor did she like the look Rin was getting. She swallowed. "Um, what accident?"

Rin started giggling. "Oh, it happened this one night. Reisen was with me, telling me all the places she was going to take me once everything was better. Then she reached over and sort of petted me? And I don't know what happened, really I don't. But all of a sudden I got fed up with that half-assed form of contact I had been having to deal with. I wanted to really see and touch her. So when her hand touched the surface of what passes for my body, I just sorta, um, grabbed her and pulled her in." Her giggling took off to nearly maniacal levels.

Rumia squeaked and started scooching away from Rin, who was starting to get more than a little weird.

"Pulled her in, pulled her right into me! And then everything changed. All that time, and I could have been free from the very beginning. One minute I was stuck in that awful limbo, and the next minute…Rumia, I could _see_ again! I could see, and hear, and feel, and all that stuff. I was free! And the best part was, Reisen was there with me! Sure, she was a little freaked out, but I had time to work on that. That's when it hit me. It wasn't fair that everyone would be walking around on the outside while she was stuck on the inside. So the only thing to do was to make _everyone _come inside."

…

"What happened next was what we call the 'Satsuki Incident'," Eirin muttered darkly. "That is, if we talk about it at all. After Rin finished absorbing Reisen, the realization of her capabilities made what little sanity she had been clinging to snap."

"Ahhh…" Yukari said. "So that was that 'Rampage' you're always going on about."

"Exactly. Rin went mad. I…honestly can't say I blame her, all things considered, but that doesn't change the fact that it was easily one of the worst weeks in my life. And seeing how I've probably been alive about as long as _you…"_

"Point taken. So what exactly happened?"

Eirin sighed. "Well, I woke up to lots and lots of shouting. When I went to go to investigate, I saw the weirdest looking rabbit I'd ever seen holding two maids up by the throat. It looked a little like Reisen, but it was covered with a pale red aura, so I figured either Reisen had injected herself with the same elixir that had started this whole Satsuki mess or the Lunarians had sent some sort of super-soldier." Her face darkened. "And then its arms grew transparent and swallowed those maids right up, and I understood. I tried to shoot her down, but of course that was useless. She came after me next, but fortunately she was still blinded by excitement and the fact that she had gone completely off the bend, so she still wasn't thinking clearly. I managed to give her the slip, and organized the rest of Eientei against her. Of course, things became even more difficult. Because that was when Kaguya found out."

Yukari choked. "You mean she _still _didn't know?"

"She did then. And dear gods, she was furious. Though personally, I think she was more angry about the fact that I wasn't making the super-absorbing powers for her rather than the fact that I was running dangerous experiments behind her back. And she also wasn't pleased about me involving outsiders, to say the least." Eirin winced. "But that's…a different bit of unpleasantness altogether."

Yukari agreed. Kaguya's temper tantrums were beside the point. "So, everything went to hell, and Satsuki was trying to absorb everyone. What then?"

"Once it became apparent that nothing we threw at her was doing any good, we evacuated the mansion and fled to one of the nearby tribes. Of course, it was only a matter of time before she followed. That was when we figured out how to beat her."

Yukari leaned in as close as her injury would permit. Now they were getting somewhere.

"It was Sakuya who came up with the idea, actually. She reasoned that Rin's abilities made her all but immune to an outside assault, and any attack capable of overwhelming her adaptation would likely take the forest with it. So she suggested that we switch tactics and try blowing her up from the inside out, as opposed to the other way around."

"I see," Yukari murmured. "And how did you pull that off? Because it seems that Satsuki would just absorb any explosive device before you got the chance to detonate it."

"Oh, we didn't bother with explosives," Eirin said calmly. "Though the Asakura sisters certainly wanted to try. But no, we had a more…direct method at our disposal."

"What's that?"

"We unleashed Flandre Scarlet on her."

…

_Deep Within_

"I don't know how she did it," Rin whispered. "One moment I saw this glowing red person approaching. At first I thought it was Mokou over there. The rabbits used to tell me stories about her, to scare me. But it turned out to be a weird little girl with even weirder looking wings."

Rumia felt a shiver go down her illusionary back. Suddenly she was feeling much more sympathetic towards Rin. Though she had thankfully had never encountered the infamous vampire girl herself, everyone had heard…stories. Disturbingly gruesome stories of what the cheerful girl had done to her "playmates".

"Oh, my gods," Rumia whispered.

"Are they? Because they sure weren't mine, not that day. Anyway, I got closer, curious about who she was, and then she started laughing. Laughing! At me! And then she held up her hand…"

Rin's account trailed off. She appeared to be lost in a daze. Rumia frowned and leaned forward.

"Uh, Rin? What happened next? You said she held up a hand. What'd she do next?"

Rin shook her head, supposedly shaking off the memories. "Oh, um, she held up her hand, said…I don't know. 'Akuu?' 'Ukaa?' Something weird like that. Then she closed her fist and…"

"What?"

"I blew up."

…

"It worked like a bloody charm," Eirin said smugly. "Flandre's power wasn't an outside barrage of energy. It wasn't something Rin's body could identify and absorb. It was pure destruction. Over and over again, we had her blow Rin up. It wasn't hard. We just told her that Rin was a bad person who needed to be punished, and that she could have extra cookies at tea if she did the punishing."

Yukari swayed in her seat. Flandre Scarlet was kept locked up for a very, _very _good reason. The thought of the insane vampire being unleashed on another being, even if that being was Satsuki, was so unthinkable that she was shocked that anyone had dared to try it, much less Sakuya herself.

"It didn't kill her, of course," Eirin continued. "At the time, she didn't possess the regenerative abilities of the Princess or Mokou, but she could still piece herself back together. It just took a long, long while. Then we'd ask her if she had enough, and if she said no, we'd blow her up again."

Eirin leaned back her in chair and stared at the wall beyond Yukari. "Of course, once she saw the way the wind was blowing, Rin eventually surrendered. She consented to releasing her prisoners and gave herself up to our care. Once that happened, all that was left was the mop-up. The prisoners themselves were of course traumatized by their ordeal, Reisen especially. I would imagine having someone you thought of as a little sister turn on you like that would hurt. And riding shotgun during Flandre's assault could not have helped, though we had little choice in the matter. So I was very busy for the next few weeks, making sure they didn't suffer a complete mental breakdown."

"I can see that. So what else?"

"Well, what do you think? Flandre was coaxed back to her basement. All it really took was the aforementioned cookies. Our hired help promised never to speak of this incident, and we likewise swore to keep quiet, especially to Remilia, and everyone left. As for Rin herself, Kaguya wanted to have her executed, a position that I quite agreed with." Her face darkened in a frown. "That didn't work out so well."

"Kind of hard to kill the unkillable, eh?"

"Correct. Plus, there were…certain members of the staff that did not like the idea of us removing an obvious danger, the gods alone know why. Reisen, of course, was among them. Then again, she was never the most rational person. But any rate, we couldn't figure out a way to kill her anyway, so we decided to contain her instead." Eirin coughed into her hand. "Patchouli was actually the one who volunteered for that. She had devised a container intended to hold items of dangerous magical quality, which she used to keep her various instruments safe. She figured that one of those would serve nicely as Rin's prison, and I agreed. The only catch was that they actually had to be on the ground of the Scarlet Devil Mansion to work, something about being anchored to its place of creation. I wasn't complaining. I would sleep much better knowing that Rin was locked away somewhere deep in the vampire's mansion, miles away from Eientei."

…

_Deep Within_

"And that's where I stayed," Rin said softly, bringing her story near its end. "Years and years of being trapped in that box. Just me, stuck in the darkness, with literally nothing else. No…sunlight, no food, no contact with anyone else, no real sensations at all."

Rumia nodded. "And then I let you out."

Rin wiped her nose with her arm. "Something like that, yeah. So, there it is. My stupid, sad story. And now it's gone and gotten a bunch of people hurt and sucked you in along with it. I guess some things never change, huh?"

Rumia didn't know what to say to that, so she said nothing.

…

"And then Rin got loose and the hell that was today happened," Yukari muttered, more to herself than anything.

"Correct. I must admit, I'm curious how she escaped, and it sounds like you know."

Yukari sighed. "You can thank Marisa Kirisame for that. From what I've heard, she randomly lifted the box from Patchouli's care during one of her many cat burglar escapades."

"Did she now?" Eirin said. Her voice had taken on a dangerous edge. "Well, I'll just have to speak to them both about that. She was the one who set Rin loose, then?"

"No, that was the ice-fairy. From what I've been able to tell, she and her stupid little friends stole the box from Marisa. They were the ones who set Satsuki loose. Apparently, she ate one of their number and they headed off to find help, which is how I became involved. And how she acquired the Shadow Youkai's powers, by the way."

Eirin looked confused. "Cirno's friends with the Shadow Youkai?"

Yukari rolled her eyes. "Yes, actually, though neither of them knew it. After bringing the Shadow Youkai down, I also couldn't find a way to safely eliminate her. So Mima and I wiped her mind and depowered her to a low-level youkai. I supposed Rin must have eaten through the enchantment we placed on her. Given the strength of the enchantment, I thought things were safe. Obviously, I was wrong."

"We both were," Eirin muttered. She sighed and slumped into her chair. "You know something, Yukari? Sometimes I think that just living in Gensokyo increases your carelessness by a good hundred points."

Yukari could think of no argument for that. "I suppose so."

"Indeed. So then, you're supposed to be the master planner. Seeing how Rin's acquirement of both Kaguya and Mokou has made the Flandre option no longer feasible, got any bright ideas?"

Yukari sighed. "One, actually. Though I'm not too fond of it."

Eirin shrugged. "Better than nothing. Hit me."

"Well, Mima suggested that we bring this problem to the Ringleaders."

A silence passed between them, composed of mutual staring. Then Eirin said, "Uh, Yukari? I hate to point out the obvious, but aren't you the head of the Ringleaders?"

"Don't remind me," Yukari growled. "And individually I supposed they're all right. But together…Gensokyo's most influential beings or no, dealing with those personalities all at once can be a real headache."

"Well, it's better than nothing," Eirin muttered. She leaned forward on her desk and rubbed her forehead. "In the meantime, I have enough to deal with here, including recovering fully from my dance with death."

"Which you're only able to thanks to me."

"Yes, yes, thank you very much. But for now, was there anything else you wanted to know?"

Yukari thought. There were a few details Eirin could provide, namely in regards to Rin's habits and what could be used against her. But Eirin was right about pushing herself too hard and needing rest. "No, not at the moment. We can finish this later."

"Excellent. Feel free to take that file with you. I'm sure you'll find the information to be quite useful. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to pass out for awhile. Please send some of the staff my way to collect me, and have them lock up on their way out."

With that, Eirin's eyes rolled back into her head and she slumped in her chair. Yukari blinked in surprise. She stood and tried prodding the Lunarian doctor. This failed to elicit any response whatsoever.

"Now that," she said. "Is just plain weird. And impressive. But still weird."

She tucked the file under her arm and limped toward the door. As she went, she started composing what she was going to tell the Ringleaders. She could already envision the meeting in her head. First would be the irritated demands as to why she had summoned them, then they would impatiently interrupt her every other sentence during her explanation to ask her what all this had to do with them, then would come the pointed comments regarding Yukari's failure to deal with the problem herself and wondering if she was growing too old for her job. Then would come the bickering, finger pointing, old grudges and past mistakes brought up for no reason whatsoever, and any number of petty time wasters. As bad as her day had been, Yukari was definitely not looking forward to the rest of her week.

She swung open the door. There was the sound of a loud _smack_ and it rebounded back. Someone cried out in pain. Yukari raised an eyebrow and looked to see who it was.

Cirno was kneeling in the hallway, clutching her nose and muttering "Ow, ow, ow, ow…" over and over. Yukari sighed and glanced down the hall in both directions. There was some rabbits moving around, but they didn't look like they were planning on approaching. Good.

With her free hand, Yukari snatched up the ice fairy by the neck. Cirno's eyes bulged and she shouted "Hey! What're you-"

This was cut off when Yukari shoved her up against the wall. "So, looky what we have here. A little bug, sneaking around and listening to conversations that don't concern her. Ever hear the phrase 'Curiosity killed the fairy?' Want to find out how?"

Cirno struggled against her grip. "I just wanted to find out what happened to Rumia!" she cried. "I just want to find my friend!"

"Really now?" Yukari released her. Cirno fell to the ground, coughing. She tried to get up, but Yukari slammed her palm against the wall above her and glared down at her. "And how much did you hear about that?"

Cirno glared back up at her. That was another annoying thing about the ice fairy. She was _impossible _to intimidate. "Just the end. Some weird stuff about Rumia being a…something? What the hellsicles is a Shadow Youkai?"

"A monster," Yukari answered in a sweet, syrupy voice. "A monster that tried to kill me and everyone else in Gensokyo." She leaned in closer. "That's right. Your little friend used to be an abomination, one that would not hesitate to slash you to snowflakes and sing a merry tune while doing it. Now do you see why we don't want you sticking your cold little nose into this business?"

True to her nature, Cirno just looked confused. "Uhhhh, what?"

"Exactly." Yukari backed off from the wall, letting Cirno scamper to her feet.

"Bu-but what about Rumia?" Cirno whined. "Can you get her back? The bunny said you could!"

Yukari's nostrils flared as her rage ignited anew. "Listen to me, you idiotic overgrown snowball. I don't care what Reisen said, your friend Rumia is gone. Dead. Deceased. She's ceased to be, shuffled off the immortal coil, has joined the burning choir of hell." She knelt down on one knee so she and Cirno were seeing eye-to-eye.

"That thing you saw? She was an ex-Rumia! Do you understand me?" Yukari hissed. "There is no more Rumia. So for the love of all that is good and intelligent, stay out of this business!"

Cirno stared right back, her expression impossible to read. Then she turned and ran down the hall, jumping to full flight once she picked up speed. She zipped around a corner, surprising a couple of rabbits carry rope and carved bamboo slats, and disappeared.

Yukari sighed as she straightened. The pain and lack of sleep must have made her sloppy. What she should have done was clamp that fairy in cold iron and shove her in a locked room. She considered sending someone after her and wondered if it was worth it just to remove a potential future obstacle. All common sense said yes, while everything told her that she was just being paranoid. After all, what could a single fairy do?

The answer was quite a lot. Yukari made a mental note to take steps to prevent Cirno's future inference. But for now, there was just too much she had to take care of first. First order of business was to find someone to collect the unconscious doctor. And Mima needed to be informed about Satsuki's history. The other Ringleaders needed to be contacted as soon as possible. As did Remilia Scarlet, come to think of it. She may have been out of town during the original incident, but her staff were still partially responsible. Same with the Asakura sisters. Yukari didn't know them personally, but she was sure Reimu had mentioned them once or twice. Also, Marisa was also proving herself to be a dangerous wildcard. She should do something about that as well. And Reimu…

She thought back to earlier that day, when she had convinced Reimu to come along. It wasn't her fault that the shrine maiden had been injured, but she still felt somewhat responsible. Yukari gnawed the inside of her mouth. Regret wasn't an emotion she was used to. She couldn't say she much cared for it. It made her feel odd.

_Look at you, _she thought in disgust. _One bad day and you go to pieces. Pull yourself together, you've handled worse!_

Yukari tucked the file under her arm and went to go find some to retrieve Eirin's unconscious body. After that, Mima. That was a good a place to start as any.

…

_Deep Within_

Taking Rumia's silence as a message, Rin had walked away to go sit in front of her screen again. Rumia wasn't sure if she needed to actually watch the screen to know what was going on, or if it was entirely there for her "guests'" benefit. Certainly, she had no trouble navigating while she had been speaking to Rumia. Some kind of autopilot, maybe? Rumia supposed it didn't really matter.

At the moment, they were flying through a canyon that Rumia was unfamiliar with. That made a certain amount of sense. Given the whole "Nearby plants dying" thing, sticking to arid areas would be the best.

Rumia bit her lower lip as she thought. Rin's story was bizarre to the extreme. Even in a world where six impossible things happened before breakfast on a daily basis, this one was unusual. She still didn't trust Rin. She wasn't sure if she was lying or not, but Rin was obviously not stable. Earlier that day, she had claimed that Eirin did not have a direct hand in the experiment while the story she had just told said otherwise. She had gone from claiming that everything was all a mistake that would be cleared up with a simple apology to making Eirin out to be some kind of torture technician who had abused her at every available opportunity. Of course, that ambush probably had killed any warm feelings Rin might have held for her, but still…

However, Rumia was no longer convinced that Rin meant to do her harm. And from the look of things, she might be here for awhile.

Rumia she took a deep breath and walked over to sit down next to Rin. The latter gave her a look of surprise as she did so.

"Hey Rin?"

"Huh?"

"Can you make me a promise?"

"A…a promise? Uh, what kind of promise?"

Rumia thought hard, trying to put her feelings into words. "Promise me that if…if we manage to fix this, if we manage to find a way for you to get your life back, if we find out where all these scary powers came from and how to get rid of them, and if we figure out what's with that evil voice, and what to do with those two," she indicated the nearby rivals, who were still silently glaring at the pair. "And we do all that and make sure that people won't keep trying to kill us…promise me you'll let me go, okay?"

Rin grimaced. "Rumia, I don't know if-"

"_Promise me, _okay?"

Rin stared at her for a few seconds. Then she nodded once. "Okay. I promise."

Rumia breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Rin." Then she nodded toward the screen. "So, where are we going now?"

…

_Yukari gets very grumpy when she's been up all day._

_Anyway, sorry again for the major delay. Had several large school projects I needed to focus on, and finals week happened right after that. Now that school's out, updates should be coming more regularly. _


	9. Nightfall

Nightfall

It wasn't that Alice was concerned about Marisa. The witch was more than capable of handling herself. If anything she should be worried about Cirno, if such a thing were possible.

Still, Marisa wasn't known for thinking straight when she was angry. And accidents do happen. So, before going home herself, the puppet-master stopped by Marisa's house to check on her.

By then, the sun had completely set. The Forest of Magic had succumbed to shadow, and creatures of the night were slinking from whatever holes they hid in during the day. Alice didn't care. The locals knew better to mess with her.

What did bother her was that Marisa's house seemed to be empty when she arrived. At most times, the witch would be up late, poring over text after text and experimenting with any number of new spells. But now, the interior was completely dark. And strangely enough, the front door was still open, just as it had been when she left.

"I don't know about you, Shanghai," she muttered to the doll hovering over her left shoulder. "But there's just something _wrong_ about all this. Should we go investigate?"

She took Shanghai's interested look for an affirmative. "I agree. Let's go see what's up."

Alice walked up to the doorframe. She knocked a couple of times against the door and said, "Marisa? Are you here? Just checking if you got your box back." A few seconds ticked by. "And making sure you didn't accidentally blow the forest up."

No reply.

"Curiouser and curiouser," she muttered. Alice held up one hand, igniting a softly glowing sphere of light over her palm.

"Marisa? You here?" she said as she looked over the piles of junk. "Hey Marisa! Where are-"

"What?"

The other voice made Alice jump. She whirled around, her heart beating from the sudden surprise.

Marisa stood in the doorway. From the look of things, her day had been absolutely miserable. Her face and arms were bruised and filthy, her clothes looked beat up, and she was breathing heavily from exhaustion.

"Marisa?" Alice said in shock. "What happened to you?"

"Mmmph. Don't wanna talk about it." Marisa pushed her way past Alice, tossing her broom in the corner. Alice stared as the young witch collapsed, face-first and still fully clothed, on top of the bed.

Alice scratched her head as she wondered what in the world had happened. She didn't expect to get any response though. When Marisa said she didn't want to talk about it, she meant it.

"Okay," Alice said uncertainly. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess."

She started to leave when suddenly Marisa said, "Hey Alice?"

Alice paused by the door. "What?"

"Talk to me about something."

"About what?"

"I don't care, anything. So long as it's boring, stupid and normal. Your day, tell me about your day, ze."

Alice turned, her face a mess of confusion. "You want me to do _what?"_

Marisa lay on her side, arms crossed and sullen eyes smoldering. "You did stuff today, right? Stuff that was boring and pointless? Tell me about your stupid day."

Alice opened her mouth to question her further, but thought better of it. "Um, okay. So after I left, I headed over to Medicine Melancholy's field. See, lately we've been working together to try to increase Shanghai's independence, but all we've gotten her to do so far are a few automated responses and her occasionally mimicking other people's actions."

Marisa closed her eyes. "Okay."

"So anyway, today we were trying to see if we get her to react to things in unpredictable ways, but then something got Medicine talking about bot...botu…botulinum and how it's used. And, well, you know how she can get when she's talking about one of her poisons, so we didn't get much done."

"Mmmph."

"But it was actually kind of interesting. Did you know people in the Outside World actually use it for cosmetic reasons, even though it 's probably the deadliest known-"

Alice stopped talking when she saw that Marisa had started snoring. The puppet-master rolled her eyes and chuckled. Of course.

Moving carefully so as not to wake her, Alice removed Marisa's hat and sat it on a nearby table. Then she picked up Marisa's blanket from where it had been carelessly kicked aside that morning and gently laid it over the sleeping girl.

"Good night, you weirdo," Alice said as she left, softly shutting the door behind her.

…

A tear ripped open in mid-air, above three feet from the ground. Moving gingerly with the support of a crutch, Reimu exited Yukari's gap and stepped onto the grass.

"Thanks for the ride," she said. "Let me know how Suika's doing. And when you've got something new."

Inside, Yukari nodded. "I will. Get some rest. I'll check on you in the morning."

"You too."

Yukari started to close her gap, but she hesitated. "Oh, and Reimu?"

"What?"

"I…am sorry I dragged you into this, I really am."

Stunned, Reimu tried to wrap her mind around the thought of Yukari giving _anyone _a sincere apology and failed. "Oh…um, thanks?" was all she could manage to say.

Without another word, Yukari closed up the gap, disappearing with it. Reimu was left standing alone in front of Hakurei shrine.

A minute later, a sparkling lavender border erupted around the shrine's grounds, curving upward to form a dome shape. Reimu glared upward and limped her way to the shrine. "She doesn't do anything by halves, does she?" Reimu muttered to herself.

Consenting to have one of Yukari's borders placed around Hakurei Shrine was the only way Reimu could get Yukari to consent to allowing her to return home, instead of staying in the rabbits' care or, even worse, Yukari's. Reimu had quite enough of Eientei for one day, and the one time she had spent the night at Yukari's home had made her swear to never even enter the building ever again. Even thinking about it made her crave a long, hot bath.

Still, she had to admit that Yukari's concern had a justifiable reason, seeing how Rin Satsuki was still on the loose. Even if Reisen had pointed out that Rin was highly unlikely to go after her, seeing how Reimu easily done the least during the battle. Still, Rin Satsuki had shown herself to be dangerously unstable.

But Reimu just couldn't stay there, sidelined among the wounded. Hence, her current compromise.

Well, at least Yukari's barrier was soundless. It was going to be difficult enough to sleep without that obnoxious humming noise energy fields sometimes made. Reimu hobbled up the steps of the shrine, went inside and carefully eased herself onto her sleeping mat. She pulled the blanket up to her chin and closed her eyes.

As predicted, she couldn't sleep.

It wasn't just her injuries. This hadn't been the first time she had been roughed up in a fight. And it wasn't just the situation at hand. No, the problem was that the shrine was just too _empty. _Suika was more-or-less a constant visitor, and Reimu had grown accustomed to her giggling snores. And then there was Mima, who claimed to prefer to stay at the site of the battle. Although the spirit never made any noise, Reimu had also gotten used to knowing that she was floating around, nearby. Her lack of presence was almost tangible.

Reimu growled and pushed away the covers. She wasn't going to get any sleep anyway, and she needed someone to talk to. To that end, she pushed herself back up on her crutch and limped her way around to the back of the shrine.

Immediately behind the shrine was a grove of cherry trees. Spring was already making its presence known in the white buds that were forming on the branches. Reimu ignored them as she made her way through the trees until she reached a large lake, glistening in the moonlight.

Reimu lowered herself down against a nearby tree. She rapped the tip of her crutch against the lake's water, sending splashing ripples across the surface. "Come on out, you old reptile. I know you're awake."

The water nearby started bubbling, and out came a large, scaly head. Rheumy, yellow eyes squinted at her around a beaklike mouth. "Young lady, what the devils are you still doin' up? It's near midnight! And what the hell is with the light show?"

"Bite me, Genji. And there's no way I'm getting any sleep tonight."

"Why, that oni friend of yours won't stop fartin'?"

"Genji!"

There was a hissing laugh, and the waters surged as an enormous turtle lurched its way onto the dry ground. It was easily five feet across from nose to tail, and the hump of its shell, cracked and worn from age, rose another three feet off the ground. And it had lived there in the lake back before the time of Reimu's grandmother.

"So," Genji said as he plodded over to sit beside Reimu. "What's on your mind? You know it's so rare that you come an' visit me these days. I was wonderin' if you'd plumb forgot I was still here."

"Sorry."

"Sure you are, missy. Sure you…Well now, do my old eyes deceive me, or are those bandages 'round your head?"

"Sure are. Rough day."

Genji tsked, which sounded very odd coming from his reptilian beak. "Must've been. That's a heavy duty barrier you've got over us. You expectin' a war? And is that a crutch I see? Kiddo, I don't know what kind of scrapes you've been gettin' yourself into, but…Wait." The elderly turtle's eyes narrowed. "Your foot. I've seen that before."

Reimu sighed. "Yeah. Yukari calls it the taint. You ever hear about the Shadow Youkai?"

Genji didn't immediately answer. A long silence passed, and then he said "Tell me what happened."

Reimu did. She started with the card game between her, Mima, Suika and Yukari and how it had been disrupted by the arrival of Cirno and her friends. She told him about flying to the Forest of Magic and Marisa's sudden arrival. She told him about encountering Rin Satsuki wearing the form of the Shadow Youkai and the ensuing fight. She described being hurled headfirst through the forest and being forced to sit on the sidelines while the others worked together to catch Satsuki. She went on to tell him about Satsuki's escape and the disaster with Kaguya and Mokou. All the while, Reimu's former mentor didn't interrupt, he didn't ask questions or have her clarify any points. He just listened.

When she finished, he said in a soft voice, "Well now, that's a real pickle you've got yourself into, and no mistake."

"Thanks, I've noticed," Reimu groused. "Genji, what am I supposed to do?"

Genji blinked, a long, deliberate motion that took three times as long as it would for a human. "Now that there's a funny question. What'ya mean?"

"Well? Aren't you supposed to be the old, wise master who teaches every new generation of Hakurei shrine maidens what they're supposed to know?"

"Uh, sort of," Genji said. "But it don't work quite that way. Already taught you all that I can. You're supposed to work things out from here on your own."

Reimu brought up the knee of her good foot up under her chin and crossed her arms around it. She stared out across the still waters of the lake. "Fine. I won't ask Genji the Hakurei teacher. I'll ask Genji the cranky old wiseass who's seen more than any three shrine maidens put together."

"Now _that's _more I like it!" Genji said. He laughed, a harsh wheezing sound. "But it don't seem to me like you want advice 'bout how to squash this latest pest. Seems like somethin' else is botherin' you."

Reimu hesitated, and she nodded. "I was just so _useless _back there," she said. "The only good I did was get off one Evil Sealing Circle before Satsuki took me out. Everyone else took even more than I did and got back up to keep fighting. But for me, one throw and I was done."

"Heh, I can see how that would make you feel useless. But that's just stupid."

"Huh?" Reimu straightened up and whipped her head around to stare at Genji. "What do you mean, 'stupid'?"

If the elderly reptile could have shrugged he would have. "Girl, I don't know if you've been payin' the slightest bit of attention to that story you just got done tellin' me, but it seems to me all your weird friends got themselves a serious ass-thrashin' as well. And they be things like an oni, super-youkai, whatever the hell that creepy ghost lady you're always hangin' around with. Ain't no shame gettin' beat by somethin' that beat them too."

"But Marisa…"

"What about her? Sure, she got blasted in the face with her own damned spell, which by the way is an image I will _cherish _for now and eternity, but that ain't bad. Big as her spell is, it's still all spellcard regulated and proper. Now that taint?" Genji cast a critical eye over Reimu's useless foot. "That one…ain't. And I didn't remember hearin' 'bout that crazy witch gettin' thrown through no bamboo trees, no sir."

Reimu frowned thoughtfully, but she didn't answer.

Genji went on. "Kiddo, you had a bad day, it happens. And from the look o' things, it's only gonna get worst. Not sayin' you ain't entitled to feel a little sorry for yourself, but don't go thinkin' yourself useless, 'cause you ain't. Your ma had plenty of bad days too, so'd your grandma, and your great-grandma before her. And they still kept fighting. And lemme tell you somethin': you're just as tough as any of them. A little…lazy maybe, but still tough. So stop whinin'. You'll be back on your feet and usin' 'em to kick ass again in no time."

With a small laugh, Reimu scratched the back of the elderly reptile's head. "How's it you always know how to make me feel better?"

Genji closed his eyes and twisted his neck, giving her better access to the spot he liked having scratched best. "Decades an' decades of practice. What, you think your ancestors never got all whiny themselves?"

Reimu smirked and leaned back against the tree. Genji settled down, and the two of them watched the moonlight sparkle off the waters of the lake.

…

It had been hours since Daiyousei had awoken, and she was growing nearly frantic with worry.

She and Mystia were still waiting on the same hillside, waiting for some sign of Cirno's return. Wriggle was long gone. The firefly's patience had snapped after about an hour and she had disappeared into the forest, determined to find Cirno herself.

Daiyousei herself was perched on the upper branches of the old oak, nervously surveying the forest around them, hoping to catch a glimpse of Cirno or Wriggle. Down below, Mystia sat near a small fire that she had started, singing softly to herself while occasionally poking the burning embers with a stick.

Although she couldn't identify exactly why, Mystia was starting to worry Daiyousei as well. True, everything worried Daiyousei, but the night-sparrow had started to behave differently from her normal cheerful and mischievous self. Ever since Wriggle had left, Mystia had started to withdraw further and further into herself, barely even acknowledging that Daiyousei was there unless addressed directly. Sure, she still smiled and claimed that she all right, but there was something not right, something more than just concern for their missing friends. Daiyousei knew her too well to tell that.

Frankly, it was getting to be too much. There were too many things to worry about. Daiyousei was worried about what happened to Rumia, she was worried about Cirno finding help and returning safely, she was worried about Wriggle getting lost and/or attacked, she was worried about whatever it was that was bothering Mystia, she was even worried about herself. If things kept up the way they were, Daiyousei would be left alone. And if that happened, who would be there to tell her what to do?

That's when she spied a circle of light floating through the entwined trees of the forest. Not daring to hope, Daiyousei squinted her eyes and focused as hard as she could. There seemed to be a figure walking towards them, surrounded by the light.

Then she recognized the mop-head haircut and the two antennae jutting from them. Almost giddy with relief, Daiyousei dropped to ground. "Mystia!" she cried. "It's Wriggle! She's back!"

"Oh, what?" Mystia started. She looked in the direction Daiyousei was pointing. "Oh, you're right. It is."

"That's all you have to say? C'mon already!" Daiyousei grabbed Mystia by the arm and pulled her along to go meet with the new arrival.

As would be expected from someone who had spent the majority of the day searching through an overgrown forest, Wriggle looked both tired and dirty. The light turned out to be several fireflies, normal ones that flitted and fluttered around their larger kinswoman.

"Wriggle, you're back!" Daiyousei said as she got within earshot, Mystia in tow. "Did you find anything?"

"Hey guys," Wriggle said wearily. "Hang on a sec."

She said something in a weird, buzzing language that Daiyousei didn't understand. The fireflies around her flashed their lights once in reply and flew off on whatever firefly business they had.

"No luck," Wriggle said, dashing Daiyousei's hopes to pieces. "I asked around, and nobody knows where Cirno is, or Reimu for that matter. A few saw an ice fairy flying through the forest at high speed, but she apparently took off over the trees and disappeared." She smirked. "Found a frozen tarantula youkai though, so I guess she's handling herself at least."

"Well, the important thing is that you tried," Mystia said unhelpfully.

"Oh boy," Daiyousei muttered. "Who'd you ask? Other youkai? Fairies?"

Wriggle gave her a hard look. "There's more people around than just fairies and youkai, genius."

Right. Bugs then. Even though Wriggle was technically a bug herself, Daiyousei still found it weird that she could talk to insects that weren't youkai. But if it could get them information, then she had no complaints.

"How about you guys?" Wriggle asked. "No luck, huh?"

Daiyousei shook her head. "N-no. Nothing. Do you think something happened to her?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Maybe she got caught up in something else. Would be just like her, wouldn't it? To just go off and…" Wriggle's eyes suddenly widened. "Well, I'll be squished flat, it's her!"

Daiyousei whirled around. To her immense relief, Wriggle was right. Cirno was flying through the air towards the three of them. Even better, she was in one piece. For the first time, Daiyousei began to think that things would be all right.

"Cirno!" she called, cupping one hand around her mouth and waving with the other. "Over here!"

Cirno nodded at them and swooped down for a landing.

"Took you long enough," Wriggle remarked, her hands on her hips. "I was looking all over for you! Where've you been?"

"Um…around…" Cirno replied, staring at the ground.

"Huh?" Daiyousei bent over to get a look at her face. Cirno quickly turned away, but not before Daiyousei caught a glimpse of bloodshot eyes, framed in frost.

"Cirno? What happened?"

Cirno grimaced. "L-look, not now, okay? Please."

The other three exchanged a glance. "Okay…" Wriggle said. "But, uh, Rumia? Did you learn anything about her?"

"I don't know."

"Huh?" Wriggle pushed her way past Daiyousei to get right in front of Cirno. "What'ya mean, 'I don't know'? What the hell happened?"

"I don't know, okay?" Cirno exploded. She grabbed Wriggle by the collar and shoved her face against the firefly's. "I don't know what really happened to Rumia, or if she's still alive, or who she really is, or anything! People kept telling me different things, and now I'm really confused and…I. Just. Don't. Know! Okay?"

"Okay, okay!" Wriggle said hastily. "I got it!"

Cirno shoved the firefly away and turned from her friends. "I don't know, I just don't know," she muttered as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"Cirno?" Daiyousei said softly. She laid one hand on Cirno's shoulder. "Um, a-are you all-"

Cirno pulled away from her touch. "Let's just go home."

"What? But, we're…okay."

Cirno took off into the air, and the other three followed. No one said anything, no one understood anything, and no one could work up the nerve to ask Cirno again what had happened.

They flew through the night air, away from the Forest of Magic, over fields and rivers and around villages. In time, the Youkai Mountains came into view.

The remaining members of Cirno's gang dipped low and darted into an overgrown thicket at the foot of the foremost mountain. Cirno pulled aside a length of wood covered with leaves and bits of branches, revealing the mouth of a cave.

Cirno had discovered the cave some years prior, entirely by accident. She had miscalculated during one of her many capers and had to flee the Tengu village in a hurry. Unfortunately, a parting shot had sent her careening into the thicket. However, that bit of ill fortune had turned out for the best, as it led to her finding the cave and immediately declaring it the personal hideaway of her and her friends.

It was into this cave that the four of slipped into, carefully replacing the board they used for camouflage back in its place. Mystia produced a box of matches from a nearby crevice and lit a lantern, illuminating the small cavern they had entered and casting shadows over the nearby stones and jutting stalagmites.

As they walked around, lighting the other lanterns that hung along the cavern's wall, Daiyousei sidled up to Wriggle. "What do we do now?" she whispered.

Wriggle shook her head. "I have no freaking idea," she admitted. "But if you ask me, I think something bad's happened. Something really, _really-_"

"Cirno!"

The high-pitched voice came out of nowhere. Everyone shouted in alarm and whirled around to see a dark shape leap from the other end of the cavern to pounce on Cirno, tackling her to the ground.

Even more confused than before, Cirno stared up to see a pair of wide, brown eyes framed by disheveled hair of the same color.

"Hi Cirno!" Chen shouted down at the ice fairy. "Ran was being a real meanie and had the doctor from the moon stick needles in my arm and I fell asleep and woke up in a closet and decided to run away to find you and I got here but you weren't here yet so I waited until you got back so we could go out and play like you said except it's night now, so can we play all night instead of-Huh?"

She then noticed the other fairy and two youkai, standing nearby and staring at her.

"Hey," Chen said in a more normal voice. "What happened to you guys?"

…

Night had fallen on Gensokyo. Everywhere, those who preferred the light of the sun were going to sleep while those who stalked the darkness were starting to crawl from their holes. The chirping of birds had been replaced with the chittering of crickets, and lanterns were illuminating the various settlements.

Wholly unaware of the recent changes that had happened to their world, the various inhabitants of the land went about their nightly routine, whether it meant shutting down for the day or starting up. And why shouldn't they? It was just another day, the same as all the others.

Elsewhere, however, others were much more restless. Yukari stood at the door of her home, staring down at the sprawling country before her, her lips closed so tightly they were almost bloodless. Reimu eventually drifted off to sleep by the lake, causing a chuckling Genji to heave her onto his back and carry her back to the shrine. Ran searched frantically through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, unaware that Chen was safely with Cirno and her friends. Marisa snored softly to herself, lost in a rare moment of peace that would be gone as soon as she awoke.

And, in the wreck that was Eientei, a rabbit named Reisen Udongein crawled exhausted into the sleeping bag that had been provided for her until her quarters could be repaired. When she was sure no one was listening, she pulled out the object she had managed to rescue from the debris of her room. It was a framed photograph, showing her dressed in a purple kimono and smiling for the camera. Standing beside her and totally unaware of the rabbit ears Reisen was holding up behind her head was a cheerful blond-haired girl wearing a red kimono and holding up a sparkler. Reisen clutched the picture to her chest as stubborn tears formed in her eyes. Even though she kept telling herself that everything would eventually work out for the best, she knew in her heart that they were about to get much worst.

Spring had come to Gensokyo, and nobody cared. They had bigger things to worry about.

…

_This officially wraps up the Eientei arc (glory, glory, hallelujah!). I've got about four more arcs planned of varying lengths before this story comes to a close._

_Anyways, thank you everyone who's been reading so far! Sorry again about the repeated delays. _

_Until next time, everyone!_


	10. Gathering the Pieces

Gathering the Pieces

Given that Yukari was so rarely awake once night ended, the sight of early-morning Gensokyo was not one she enjoyed often. Of course, the word "enjoyed" was entirely subjective, as she was finding little to enjoy about the view.

She stared down at the mist-shrouded country. On the whole, it looked very peaceful, but it was all an illusion. Somewhere out there was a deranged lunatic who had come uncomfortably close to cutting her in half, who had gone toe-to-toe with one pissed off oni and had come out on top, who had been on the receiving end of the wrath of two of Gensokyo's most prolific magic-users and survived. And despite all that, despite all of their best efforts, had managed to get away and score virtual immortality in the process.

And then there was what that thing had done to Reimu. Yukari wasn't overly affectionate towards humans (or anyone else, for that matter), but she had been looking after the Hakurei family on-and-off for some time now. And she _liked _Reimu. The girl was just so much fun to annoy. Plus, she appreciated Reimu's complete disregard of everyone she met, regardless of status and ability. It reminded Yukari of herself.

Also, Reimu was the last of the Hakureis. Should the line end, then they were all royally screwed.

…

As Gensokyo was a country whose lifestyle and culture, if it could be called that, were of distinctly Eastern influences, the Scarlet Devil Mansion tended to stick out. But then, it would stick out in Western countries as well.

It rose above the treetops, near the western shore of the Misty Lake, a tall, imposing structure that was all soaring turrets and red brick. Dozens of windows lined the wall, windows that were always darkened during day but would come alive with bizarre flickering lights as soon as the sun went down. Grinning gargoyles leered down from atop battlements and the front gate. And above it all sat the mansion's centerpiece: a gigantic clock-tower, whose time piece constantly spun round and round in a manner that made sense only to its master.

Generally people gave the mansion and the surrounding area a wide berth, which was perfectly fine with its inhabitants. After all, constant attacks from monster-hunters and other adventurers were part of reason they had moved to Gensokyo in the first place. Being a vampire meant you couldn't go around taking chances.

It was toward this imposing structure that two figures approached. One didn't seem _too _out of place: a young blond woman wearing black clothing and a white apron, though the pointed hat and the broom she had slung across her shoulders might raise a few eyebrows. However, given her choice of companion was a tall woman with moss-green hair, eccentric blue clothing, and whose legs had been replaced with an ethereal tail, it was highly unlikely anyone would pay her a second look. They would be too busy staring at the ghost.

"So how come nobody ever told me about this Ringleader business?" she said to Mima. "Another one of your 'big secrets'?"

Mima just shook her head. "It really isn't. If you're picturing some sort of shadowy organization working behind the scenes, controlling every aspect of Gensokyo, then you're going to be disappointed."

"Then what is it?"

"Well, as you know, Gensokyo has never had a centralized government. In fact, the entire country is composed of semi-independent communities that seem bound and determined to ignore or annoy one another. And every fifty years or so, the leaders of some of the more prominent communities get together to review whatever agreements they have with their neighbors, discuss the latest issues and open the floor for solutions, air their grievances, point fingers, start blood feuds, that sort of thing. We've also been note to meet during especially dangerous crises to try to solve them before they get out of hand. Nothing very exciting I'm afraid, and things rarely ever get accomplished. The Ringleader nickname is new though. I think it only stuck about half a century ago."

"Huh." Marisa tapped an index finger against her lower lip as she considered this. "And you're a member?"

"Only very recently. It was decided that given Hakurei shrine's importance to the border, it might as well have an official representative. And since I was the closest thing it had to an actual deity, and many of the members rather have me working for them than against…" Mima smiled and shrugged. "Still, others weren't pleased about my addition, to say the least. Easily one of the funniest days I've had in recent history."

"So how come you never told me about these guys, ze?"

"Eh, never saw the reason. Besides, it may not be a big secret, all things considered. Certainly no one has ever made an actual attempt to cover it up. Anyone with a bit of common sense could figure it out of they gave it any real thought. But we've never made any actual attempt to tell anyone either. There's still a lot of bad blood between certain communities, and we would rather the citizens didn't start forcing their leaders to make an issue of it every time a meeting is called. Besides, you've met several of them already at one time or another, just not all in one place."

"Ah. Like who?"

"Oh, you know. There's Yukari of course. And Kaguya, though she's obviously not going to attend, and the leader of the Human Village, forget his name. And there's Kanako Yasaka, of course, and a few others. Just think of any group with any significant amount of power and influence, and then think of their leader. Odds are, they're a member."

"Still…" Mima tapped her lower lip thoughtfully. "Ironically enough, out of all the secrets we _are _keeping, this is probably the least publically known. Perhaps it is our general lack of interest in hiding the organization's existence that has prevented the cover from being blown. Maybe we should start taking that strategy with some of our real secrets." Her eyes twinkled. "In fact, had Eirin and company just painted that box grey and stuck in the middle of the Human Village with an Out Of Order sign, it would probably have never been trifled with."

Marisa had to laugh at the image. "I would have left it alone, that's for sure."

"Exactly. Ah, here we are."

Marisa stopped walking and squinted up at the mansion, shielding her eyes with one hand. "This is so freaking weird," she complained.

"What? Visiting the Scarlet Devil Mansion?" Mima asked. "Not my usual hangout to be sure, but as I understand it, you're something of a regular."

"Yeah, but I don't usually go through the front gate, ze. Doesn't feel right."

"I see. Entering someone else's home through the front door with their permission and knowledge does not feel right." Mima's mouth turned up in a smirk. "Marisa, I think you need to reexamine your values system."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just saying, they're probably not going to be happy to see me. You know what, go on ahead. I'll wait here."

"Oh, no you don't." Mima snagged Marisa by the sleeve, preventing her from leaving. "You're the one who stole the box in the first place. You're going to see this through to the end."

"You are _never _going to let me live that down, are you?" Marisa muttered, but she didn't object further.

They headed toward the stone wall surrounding the building. Directly in front was a locked iron gate, which was more symbolic of the residents' desire to be left alone than anything, considering how many people in Gensokyo knew how to fly. Standing in front of the gate with her hands clasped in front of her was a tall woman with flowing red hair. She seemed to be on edge, judging by how she kept casting nervous glances at the surrounding forest. That in itself was fairly normal. What weren't normal were the four black bat-wings sprouting from the redhead: two on her back and two on either side of her head, almost like a second pair of ears.

Marisa stopped walking when she saw the woman. "Wow, hello. That's weird."

Mima agreed. "Now, I know I don't come here often, but I don't believe that is the usual guard."

"It ain't. That's Patchouli's, _ahem," _Marisa coughed into her fist. _"Assistant. _She's usually working in the library. I don't think I've ever even _seen _her outside, ze."

"Hmmm." Mima rubbed her chin as she watched the replacement gate-guard thoughtfully. "I wonder what she's doing out here."

"I dunno. Let's find out. Hey, Koakuma!" Marisa shouted as she stomped towards the gate. "The hell are you doing out here?"

Koakuma started in surprise as Marisa's sudden appearance, her hands jumping to her chest. "Oh my _gods_ Marisa, don't scare me like that!"

"Jeez, Hong was _asleep _practically all the time and she was a better guard than you," Marisa grumbled. She prodded Koakuma with the handle of her broom, causing the devil to take an instinctive step back. "What are you doing here, anyway? Hong call in dead?"

"Well, um," Koakuma cast an uncertain glance over her shoulder, towards the mansion. "Not exactly."

"Say what?"

"Meiling was unable perform her duties today, due to, uh, injuries incurred."

"Injuries?" Marisa raised an eyebrow. "What, Sakuya use her for a pincushion again?"

"No, not exactly. You see, last week was Mistress Flandre's birthday, and Mistress Remilia traditionally lets her out to play a game on that night. And this year…well, Mistress Flandre wanted to play tag."

There was a long moment of silence. And then Marisa said, "Oh." She started snickering.

Koakuma nodded once. "Indeed. Mistress Flandre was 'It' and…well, I believe Meiling is 'It' now, and will remain so for the foreseeable future."

Marisa suddenly slapped her hands around her mouth and snorted back laughter. She fell back against a tree as barely-repressed hysterics shook her body.

Koakuma, however, just looked indignant. "Well, I certainly don't see what's so funny about that," she muttered as she crossed her arms. "She was quite hurt!"

"I know, I know," Marisa said, wiping away the tears from her eyes. "It's just…Bwahahaha!"

Mima rolled her eyes and moved in front of the hysterical witch. "My companion's joviality aside, we do have business inside," she told Hong Meiling's replacement.

"Oh! I'm sorry, but Mistress Scarlet is asleep! It is daytime, after all."

"Actually, it was Sakuya we wished to speak to. An…incident just came up, one which we believe she could help with."

Koakuma looked dubious. "Well, I'm not sure she will be able to take time from her duties…"

"Huh?" Marisa pushed herself back to her feet. "She's the freaking master of time and space, ze! Time should not even be an issue! Why is time an issue?"

"I suppose," Koakuma admitted. "I suppose I could…" Then she straightened and raised one hand to her temple. A thought had apparently just occurred to her. "Wait, something just…Now if I recall…"

Koakuma dug into the pockets and extracted a small white notepad and a pair of gold-rimmed reading glasses. She unfolded the glasses and put them on as she started flipping through the notepad.

"Let's see…" she muttered. "'Stay in front of the gate'? No. 'Do not move for any reason'? No. 'Absolutely do not fall asleep lest Sakuya gut me like a pig'? No. Ah, here it is! 'Not under any circumstance am I ever, and Patchouli means ever allowed to permit Marisa Kirisame to set foot, hand or any other body part, broom, spell or explosive device on the mansion grounds, and if I do, I will have latrine duty for a month'."

"What?" Marisa sputtered. "Gimme that!"

She snatched the notepad from Koakuma's hand and read furiously. "…broom, spell, yadda yadda yadda…What the hell, Koakuma? Has Patchouli gone all paranoid or something, ze? I thought we were friends!"

Koakuma sighed and took off her glasses. "Marisa, I should not have to remind you that your escapades her have caused Patchouli a great deal of stress," she explained as she wiped the glasses with the hem of her blouse. "And while I don't bear you any ill will, I do _not _want to be stuck with latrine duty. So I'm afraid that you and your friend will have to-"

Mima pointed a single finger and muttered a word. Koakuma stopped in mid-sentence and her body seized up. The devil's eyes widened as she lifted off the ground, entirely against her will. She appeared to be trying to speak her protests, but her mouth was not cooperating.

Another muttered word and Koakuma's back was shoved up against the iron gate. She winced as she hit hard, her glasses falling to the ground in the process. Her body twitched as she tried to strain against the spell.

Even Marisa seemed shocked at Mima's action, but the spirit paid her no heed. Her focus was on her suspended captive. "Now little devil, pay attention," she said in a calm voice. "We have official business with the maid and your librarian master. I do not care what sort of instructions you've been given. You will go find them, or I shall-"

"You'll what?"

The interruption did not come from Koakuma, who still hung helplessly. Nor did it come from Marisa, who had jumped back in surprise as the new arrival seemed to literally materialize in their presence.

Sakuya Izayoi, chief maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and second in authority only to Remilia herself, stood in their midst, her arms folded. She did not look amused.

"Oh," Mima said. "There you are." She flicked her fingers, and Koakuma dropped to the ground.

Sakuya inclined her head. "Indeed. I was upstairs when I saw you harassing poor Koakuma. I shouldn't have to tell either of you that I do not appreciate someone mistreating my employees, especially when they were only trying to do their job." Her eyes hardened. "In light of the fact, I do believe you owe her an apology."

"Huh?" Marisa's jaw dropped. "You want. Us. To _apologize? _What, are you completely-"

She immediately stopped talking when a knife appeared out of nowhere to fly at her face. It stopped bare inches before cutting through her forehead. Marisa's eyes crossed to stare at the blade hovering over her nose. Indecipherable noises squeaked out of her mouth.

"As I said," Sakuya said as she examined her fingernails. "I do not appreciate people bothering my staff, you least of all. If you have business with me, fine. But please refrain from transferring that business to others."

The stunned silence was suddenly broken by one of the most unexpected sounds imaginable, at least from Marisa's point of view. It was a high-pitched bout of laughter, full of amusement and completely devoid of any mockery whatsoever. That in itself was not so odd, but considering the source, it was quite disturbing.

"Ahahahahah," Mima chuckled. She flicked away a tear that she had created purely for effect. "Maid, I like you. Well done." She turned toward Koakuma, who was still sprawled against the gate and watching the proceedings nervously.

"Young demon, I apologize for my unsightly actions," Mima said, bowing low. "I pray that you'll forgive this momentary lack of manners on the behalf of an old spirit."

Koakuma cringed back against the bars. "Er, um, what?"

"I'll take that as an affirmative." Mima turned back to Sakuya. She spread her empty palms and smiled in a disarming manner. "There now, no harm done. Now, may we take a few moments of your valuable time? I assure you, it is a matter of great importance."

Sakuya's eyes narrowed suspiciously, but she shrugged and said, "I suppose that will have to do." She fetched the floating knife out of the air, to Marisa's expressed relief. "And I hope you're not wasting my time."

"Oh, we're not," Mima said agreeably. "Does the name 'Rin Satsuki' mean anything to you?"

Absolute silence was her only answer. Sakuya stood stock-still, her blank expression completely unreadable. Marisa shot a glance over to Mima, who simply winked and indicated that they should wait.

Then Sakuya said, "Koakuma? Is Patchouli in the library?"

The devil stiffened at being addressed. "What? Oh, um, yes. Let's see, this is Tuesday, right? Right now she'd be in…"

"Southern stacks, G section," Marisa supplied helpfully. "Somewhere between 'Ge' and 'Gai'."

"Yes, you would know that, wouldn't you?" Sakuya muttered. She sighed and nodded to Mima. "All right, ladies. Shall we go inside?"

…

"We're getting' a lot of weird looks," Genji muttered as he and Reimu made their way through the Human Village.

"You mean _you're _getting a lot of weird looks," Reimu retorted. She shifted her legs into a more comfortable position. "Unlike a certain giant flying _turtle, _some of us actually look like we belong."

"Who's the bigger weirdo?" Genji shot back. "The flyin' turtle, or the bandaged-up girl ridin' the flyin' turtle like a damned horse?"

Reimu had to admit he had a point. Certainly, unusual sights were very common in Gensokyo, and seeing creatures that had no business flying to swoop through the air like naturals didn't raise much in the way of eyebrows. Still, the inhabitants of the human village preferred to keep the country's stranger elements on the outside. And given the reputation Reimu had accumulated over the last few years, she could not honestly say that she was considered any more "normal" than Genji. Even if he was a giant flying turtle.

Of course, Genji was only there because Reimu needed the help getting around. While she could limp around the shrine grounds just fine, traveling long distance was another matter entirely, and the Human Village wasn't exactly around the corner. Of course, they could always have someone else deliver Yukari's message, but once Reimu had learned who the intended recipients were, she had practically insisted that she play the role of messenger, injuries be damned. So she had pulled on her winter boots to disguise her blackened foot, found a straw hat to pull down over her bandaged forehead, and practiced walking around without the crutch so she didn't look like a complete idiot once she had to jump off of Genji. The limp was still there, but it wasn't like she would be walking very long.

Unfortunately, there was still the downside of entering the Human Village in the first place. While she had done the place any number of favors in the past, there were any number of people who just plain didn't like her.

Just as if her musings had intruded upon reality, Reimu started noticing some unsavory glances from those they passed. A couple of older women treated her with vicious scowls before turning their backs on her. A handful well-to-do men deliberately turned into an alley to avoid sharing the street with her. A merchant running a cooked vegetables stand pulled down a curtain around his stand as they passed by. And everywhere were sidelong glares and muted whispers.

Reimu folded her arms and stared at the ground directly in front of Genji's head. Ungrateful bunch of closed-minded idiots. She didn't usually care about how others thought of her, but once in a while it would be nice to receive some sort of acknowledgement for all she had done for them. It didn't matter how many times she pulled their fat out of the fire, she was still treated like an outsider. Maybe the next time a Hell Raven decided to bring forth a nuclear holocaust, she should just pull out a lawn-chair and let them handle it.

"Look, it's Reimu!" a gleeful young voice shouted, pulling her out of her bitter musings. Reimu looked up to see a couple of children, couldn't have been older than ten, running toward her.

"It's you, isn't it? Reimu Hakurei?" the boy asked. His dark hair was tied into a topknot and he was clenching his fists in barely repressed excitement. "It's really you!"

Reimu blinked, completely unsure of how to answer that question. "Well, yes…"

"Of course it is, dummy!" said his companion, a pigtailed girl who was missing a tooth. "Who else would be riding on a flying turtle?"

"Awesome!" The boy jumped up and down, pounding his fists to the sky. "Oh wow, you're actually here!"

Genji chuckled. "See? Told'ja it was you."

"Wow, it talks too?" The boy pressed bent over to stare Genji in the eye. "Did you teach it that, Miss Hakurei?"

Reimu snorted back a laugh as Genji spurted angrily. "She most _certainly _did not! If anything _I_ taught _her_ how to talk!"

"Really?" the girl said. She squinted her eyes at Genji, and then up at Reimu. "Does that mean you speak turtle too?"

Reimu couldn't hold back any longer. She had to brace herself to keep from falling off of Genji's back as guffaws forced their way out of her. It hurt like hell, especially with her injured ribs, but it felt good to be able to laugh again.

"No, no, no," she managed to choke out. "Turtles don't really _have _an actual language. They-"

"Tipo! Chacha!" a new said. A large man wearing a green poncho bustled over to them. He leaned over the two children with a disproving look on his face. "There you are! What did I tell you about wandering-Oh." He stopped his scolding when he saw Reimu and Genji and straightened. "Oh, it's you."

Reimu wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, so she just forced a weak smile and gave a half-wave. "Yeah, hi. It's me…Huh?"

She looked down. The man was extending his arm out with his palm open. It looked like he wanted to shake hands.

"Um…okay…" Reimu slowly placed her hand in his and pumped it once.

The man smiled. "I never got the chance to thank you properly."

"Really? For what?"

"For saving my life."

Again, Reimu almost fell off of Genji's back again. "Wait, what?"

"You probably don't remember," the man explained. "It was a few years back. I was out in the forest chopping wood when I was ambushed by a couple of lizard youkai. Thought I was a goner, up until you showed up and gave them the single greatest thrashing I have ever seen." The man laughed heartily. "Of course, right after you chewed me out for letting me guard down. I tell you, you can lecture like no one's business. Not even my wife can compete! But then, I deserved it. Should've been watching my step better."

Reimu stared. All things considered, gratitude was not something she was accustomed to receiving. "Oh. Well, thank you."

"No, thank _you." _The man gathered up his children in his large arms. "So, what brings you to the village? Hope it isn't another incident."

Reimu waved the paper she had clutched in her hand. "No, just gotta deliver a message. Nothing to worry about," she lied. No reason for him to worry unnecessarily.

The man looked relieved. "Glad to hear it. Well, we'll just get out of your way, then." He inclined his head. "A pleasure, Miss Hakurei."

The two children waved happily as the three of them headed away. Reimu nodded and waved back.

Genji let out a low whistle, a neat trick for someone without lips. "Well now, how 'bout that? Life is full of surprises, eh?"

Reimu smiled blissfully as she settled back. "Yeah…"

Genji clicked his tongue at her. "Get your head back in the game, girl. Still got a job to do, and sooner you're back at the shrine restin' up, the better."

"Right, right. Best get moving then." She didn't stop smiling though.

The elderly turtle rolled his eyes and started moving again. They passed by shops, houses and a school before stopping large, two-story building at the far end of the village. It looked like two barns stuck together, side-by-side, with a more traditional house slapped onto the front.

Genji craned his neck to stare at the building. Through the windows, they could see odd lights flashing and sparks flying. Smoke billowed out of several thin metal chimneys to drift away on the wind.

"Well, I guess this is the place," Genji remarked.

The edges of Reimu's smile dipped downward. "Looks like."

Over the doorway was a white sign painted with large, blocky letters. It read "THE ASAKURA SCIENCE FOUNDATION".

…

The library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was known as the single largest library to be found in Gensokyo and quite possibly anywhere else. There were literally hundreds of shelves containing thousands of volumes to be found, and the shelves themselves towered high above the red marble floor. Rolling ladders were to be found at random intervals along the shelves' sides, though they were hardly necessary. And, perhaps the strangest of all, a gigantic pendulum hung from one wall, forever swinging back and forth and filling the library with a deep, echoing _clocking _noise like an oversize metronome. Whether it served some actual purpose or the library's keeper simply liked the sound was anybody's guess.

Given that the inhabitants of the Scarlet Devil Mansion did not consider the laws of time and space to be rules so much as few among several suggested options, the library was easily larger than the exterior of the Scarlet Devil Mansion itself. And given the size of the shelves and the fact that they were arranged in a manner that made sense only to the said inhabitants, one could easily get lost in the maze of literature with little hope of escape. At least they wouldn't want for entertainment though, unless they were illiterate.

It was inside this labyrinth that Patchouli Knowledge spent practically all of her time. As a devoted student of both the magical arts and the written word, she could think of no better place to reside, even if Meiling was always teasing her about needing to get a life. She knew every inch of the library, and it knew her. All it took was one glance, and she could instantly tell when something was amiss.

Today, something was amiss.

Patchouli sighed as she pulled the book that had attracted her attention off the shelf. The cover had a slight tear and the papers were dog-eared and wrinkled. A paper bookmark was stuck in hallway through. She gave it a small shake, dislodging some leaves of grass that had been caught between the pages. It had not been that way the last time she had seen it. Which meant…

"Tokiko!" she shouted, amplifying her voice so it thundered through the library.

A few moments passed, and then came a fluttering of wings. Through the shelves flew a red-winged silver-haired ibis youkai. Patchouli was known to "recruit" outside youkai from time to time to lend a hand, and since she was deprived of Koakuma's services until Meiling recovered, she needed the extra help. Fortunately, Tokiko had surprised her by not only knowing how to read (a rarity among the youkai), but possessing a great love for books. Not as much as Patchouli herself, but she still treated them with greater reverence than some of her predecessors.

Still, she did have one weakness: in that she loved them _too _much. Patchouli had found volumes lying open on tables and dropped under chairs. She had found Tokiko herself huddled away in corners, mesmerized by some new story when she should be performing her duties. If it weren't for the fact that Patchouli needed the help and Tokiko understood more about bookkeeping than any ten of the previous "recruits", she would have given the slacker the boot after the first week.

"I'm here!" Tokiko announced as she swooped down to hover next to her boss. "What is…Oh."

"Oh. Exactly. Couldn't have put it better myself." Patchouli waved the book in her face. "You read this outside."

Tokiko seemed preoccupied with an invisible speck of dirt on the ground. "Er…"

"Even though I specifically told you that I don't want any of these volumes leaving the library. Forget again, and I don't care how good of a bookkeeper you are. You're gone. Got it?"

Tokiko blushed and nodded.

"And another thing. Care to explain this?" Patchouli held the strip of paper she had extracted from between the book's pages.

"But I was getting to the good part! Shadow was just about to find out who Mr. Wednesday is-"

"I don't care. I do not want any bookmarks other than my own touching my books. And I don't want anyone other than myself using my bookmarks. So learn to memorize page numbers. Understand?"

Tokiko nodded again.

Patchouli was about to add more, but then someone entered the library. It was always easy to tell when that happened, due to the loud echo the door made when it opened.

"Patchouli!" she heard Sakuya call.

Patchouli grimaced. "Oh, what did I do now?" she muttered. Then she noticed Tokiko staring at her curiously. The librarian frowned and inclined her head meaningfully. Fortunately, Tokiko got the message and fled back to whatever it was she had been doing.

"Patchouli!" Sakuya called again. "Come on up, we need to talk!"

"Of course we do," Patchouli grumbled. She placed the book back in its place and drifted upward, above the shelves.

Sure enough, Sakuya was there, standing at the head of the wide staircase that descended into the library. And from the look of things, she had brought company. One of them Patchouli recognized instantly, though Marisa's presence surprised her. While she did run across the young witch on a nearly weekly basis, she never entered through the library's proper entrance, especially not in Sakuya's company. Now Patchouli was all curiosity. Had the maid finally caught Marisa during one of her capers? If so, this could turn out to be a good day after all.

But there was someone else with them, someone rather unusual looking. Patchouli put on her spectacles and squinted, trying to make out the newcomers' features.

Then her heart skipped a beat.

No.

There was no chance. It couldn't be.

But it was. She was here. Here, in Patchouli's library. Patchouli sucked in a breath and quickened her pace.

Sakuya looked up as Patchouli came in for a landing. "Ah, there you are. I'm sorry, but something has-"

"Yes, I'm sure," Patchouli brushed her off. Her attention was entirely focused on the green-haired spirit that had entered with them.

"Madam Mima, it's an absolute _honor _to finally be able to meet you," she stated, excitedly grabbing the object of her attention by the hand. "I know you probably hear this all the time, but I'm your biggest fan! I have all the books you've written and, and read them over and over! My favorite was _Comparative Physics and Their Impact on Magical Theory_, but the others were just as fantastic! The research you've contributed to the magical world as a whole and the spells you've devised…absolute genius! Oh my gods, listen to me babble on and on, but I never thought I'd get the chance to meet you in person!"

"Oh gods, here we go," Marisa muttered. She leaned against the doorframe and grumpily folded her arms.

"Why _thank _you," Mima said in a sweet tone. She placed her other hand over Patchouli's, causing a trill of delight to sing through Patchouli's veins. "You're much too kind. I've actually been meaning to meet with you as well."

Patchouli very nearly lost her footing. "You…you have?"

Mima nodded. "Certainly. My little Marisa's told me _so _much about you. It's always refreshing to meet another master of the arts."

Behind her, Marisa started making gagging sounds.

"M-me?" Patchouli flushed crimson. "But I'm nowhere _near _the level-"

"Enough," Sakuya said, cutting Patchouli's dream-meeting short. She didn't raise her voice, she didn't emphasize any particular syllables, but the way she said it made it clear that she would brook no argument.

"Patchouli, as exciting as this must be for you, we have a crisis on our hands," Sakuya told her.

"We do?" Patchouli tilted her head. "What kind?"

Mima released her hand, much to Patchouli's disappointment. "The severe kind, I'm afraid. But first things first. I have something to give you."

"You…you do?"

"Indeed. As I understand it, some of your property has accidentally fallen into the hands of my Marisa here. I thought it only proper that we return it in person.

…

As soon as Reimu entered the workshop of the Asakura sisters, she wanted to leave. The place was certainly large and impressive. One could fit over a dozen Hakurei shrines inside and still have room for a game of football. But it was also smelly, filthy, and crammed with tools, large strips of metal, glass instruments and containers filled with noxious-smelling liquids on top of wooden tables. Straight down the middle was a line of furnaces spewing out black smoke, and half-finished contraptions lay everywhere, wires and gears hanging out like coils of intestines and jutting bits of bone.

"Oh, gahhhh," Genji gagged. "What in the name of the great catfish is _wrong_ with this place?" He shook his head and sneezed.

"Tell me about it," Reimu agreed. "Look, this place probably isn't doing much good for your skin. Wait outside, I'll be out in a minute."

Genji twisted his head to fix her with a reproachful look. "Young lady, if you think I'm just gonna abandon-"

"Oh, knock it off," Reimu said wearily. She slipped off his back, making sure her good foot absorbed most of her weight. "I'm just delivering a message. And these guys are pretty harmless."

An explosion thundered through the workshop, knocking over vials and sending gears rolling through the piles of scrap metal. A cloud of dark smoke that had nothing to do with the furnaces rose from one of the far corners. From within, flashing sparks could be seen, accompanied by an angry bout of cursing.

"Well, mostly harmless," Reimu amended. "Still, I've taken them on before. They're more eccentric than dangerous." When Genji still looked incredulous, she said, "Look, I'll be fine, okay? Compared to those trips to hell, this is nothing."

"Well, if you say so," Genji muttered. Despite his reluctance, he did seem relieved. "Holler if things go sour."

Reimu was tempted to make a snide remark about how much Genji would actually be able to contribute, but thought better of it. "I'll do that."

Genji nodded and quickly floated back outside. Shaking her head, Reimu covered her mouth with her sleeve and limped her way through the maze of metal toward the explosion's origin.

As she approached, she began to discern words through the rest of the commotion. "Core's only discharging every four cycles," said a calm, if still loud, voice. "Should be doing that every two. There's too much energy release."

"You _think?" _shot back a higher, more agitated sounding voice. "Nearly discharged it right through my spinal column."

Reimu cleared her throat. "Um, excuse me!"

"The problem is probably with the fluidic converters. Get down there and check if they're aligned properly.

"Oh, hell no! You go, it's you turn!"

With a roll her eyes, Reimu picked up a nearby wrench and banged it against a sheet of metal. "Hey!"

There was a pause, and a head poked out of the smoke. Long purple hair framed a face that was smudged with soot. Turquoise eyes blinked at her from behind a pair of glasses with round lenses.

"Oh, bloody hell," Rikako Asakura muttered once she recognized her visitor. "It's you. Of course."

She disappeared back into the smoke. There was the loud clank of a lever being pulled, and the whining sound died away. The smoke slowly cleared, revealing a…something. Something made out of a bronze-colored metal and with way too many legs.

Another head, this one with brown hair that managed to be even filthier than Rikako's, popped out of the things guts. "Hey!" Rika Asakura shouted down to her sister as she pushed the safety goggles she was wearing up to her forehead. "What's going on? Why'd you turn it off?"

Her hand still on the lever, Rikako tilted her head toward Reimu.

"Huh?" Rika blinked. Then she smiled. "Well, look who decided to visit us blasphemous heretics! Or was it heretical blasphemers? I could never keep it straight. So what brings you to our humble adobe? Got another sermon about the evils of science all prepared?"

Reimu scowled back. "Believe me, it wasn't my idea."

"Yeah?" Rika pulled herself out of her unfinished creature. She slid down its curving carapace and landed next to her sister. "What, your god sent you with a message of eternal damnation? Fire, brimstone, soggy noodles, the works?"

"No actually, I-"

"But, oh wait!" Rika snapped her fingers in front of her nose. "What am I thinking? Hakurei shrine doesn't even have a god! It doesn't have a god, right Rikako?"

Rikako shook her head. "No, I don't believe so."

"Riiigghht. So that rules out the divine condemnation. Kinda hard to blaspheme something that ain't there."

Reimu's left eye twitched. _Remember the mission, you're not here to fight, _she told herself. _Give the message and get out. _

"I'm actually here on behalf of Yukari Yakumo." Just saying the words felt strange. While she considered Yukari a valuable ally, maybe even a friend, she never thought she would end up as the ancient youkai's messenger. Still, considering the contents of the message and the recipients, she supposed she could make an exception.

"It's about one of your past experiments," Reimu continued. "Seems it's causing some problems."

Rika and Rikako exchanged a confused look and shrugged in unison.

"Yeah?" Rika said. "Which one?"

…

The recovered property was not a book.

Bewildered and upset, Patchouli circled around the crystalline chest, running her hand over the smooth surfaces and sharp-cut edges. It was one of hers all right. The question was how it had come into Mima's possession.

Strike that, she knew how Mima had gotten ahold of it. Marisa's presence was more than enough of an answer. But the idea of Marisa taking one of her boxes was…disturbing, especially considering that they were constructed for a reason: to keep magical items of a dangerous nature out of the hands of those who would misuse them. And Marisa couldn't even pick up a pen without misusing it.

But how had she found it? The boxes were sealed away in a separate part of the mansion and were heavily protected by a variety of wards and other defensive mechanisms.

"How did…" Patchouli fumbled over her words and tried again. "How did you even _get _one of these?"

They were gathered in Patchouli's private study. As would be imagined, the place was almost a miniature library of its own. However, unlike the library itself, this room contained only books that were either part of Patchouli's private collection or were written by Patchouli herself.

The chest itself sat in the center of the room. Mima had apparently shrunk it down to travel-size and had returned it to its original state once they were all inside. That in itself was enough to indicate that it had been taken from the Scarlet Devil Mansion grounds, and as such all of her protective spells and safeguards had been broken. Given how long it took Patchouli to construct and enchant one of those boxes, it was all very irritating.

"Found it in one of the back rooms," Marisa supplied. "Hong woke up as I was sneaking past, and I needed a place to hide."

"But how did you even get in there?" Patchouli demanded. "The wards should have made it impossible!"

"Is that was those were? I thought Hong was just going nuts."

Patchouli was started to grow angry. No, check that, _incensed. _"You mean you stumbled into my vault by _accident?"_

Marisa thought for a moment. She shrugged. "Seems that way."

Patchouli was going to continue yelling, but Sakuya cut her off. "Enough. We don't have time for pointless bickering. Especially considering what the box contained."

"Is that so?" Patchouli muttered. "So what potentially earth-ending device of mine has fallen into the hands of the kleptolunatic?"

"Rin Satsuki," Mima said cheerfully.

Patchouli didn't immediately react. In fact, the words so completely failed to make any sense to her that it was almost as if she had not heard them at all. Patchouli shook her head and said, "I-I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Rin Satsuki was in the box," Mima said helpfully. "Though she hasn't exactly fallen into Marisa's hands, per se…"

"More like she tried to chop them off," Marisa muttered.

"…in fact, her condition could be described as…oh, what's the word?" Mima wondered. She snapped her fingers as she pretended to try to remember. "'At large'? 'On the loose'? 'Currently roaming free through Gensokyo, likely devouring everything and everyone in her path, engaging in such a gluttonous massacre that the world has not seen nor shall ever see again'? I suppose they all apply."

Patchouli felt her knees grow weak. She tried to sit down in her desk chair, missed, and landed bottom-first on the floor, where she remained. She gaped up at the spirit. _"Rin Satsuki _is _free? _Marisa set the psychopath _loose?"_

"Hey, it wasn't me, ze!" Marisa protested. "Blame Cirno, it's all her fault!"

"What? What does-"

"Oh, that's not all," Mima said. She pulled out a slip of paper from her sleeve. "I really hate to further ruin the day of my biggest fan, but I really need to give this to you and Sakuya."

Her mind being in the state it was, Patchouli did not possess the mental facilities to stand, much less take the paper and read. Fortunately, Sakuya did that.

"What is it?" the maid asked. She scanned the first few lines. Her eyes widened.

"A subpoena," Mima said. "You two are officially ordered to appear before the Court of Conflict in two days time to discuss the problem. Failure to comply will be treated as a deliberate attempt to sabotage the cleanup operation and shall be treated as such." A sweet smile spread across her lips. "But I don't think that will be a problem, do you?"

…

The look on the Asakura faces when Reimu handed them the summons almost made having to visit the human village and enter their dump of a workshop worth it.

"Are you serious?" Rika demanded as she waved the paper about. "A _summons?_ We were barely involved! Go talk to the moonies if you wanna prosecute somebody!"

Rikako agreed. "S-surely this is all a misunderstanding," she said, wringing her hands nervously. "After all, our part in the experiment was miniscule at best! We weren't even involved in the containment of the creature. Perhaps y-you should speak to the vampire's entourage. After all weren't they the ones who were in charge of the creature's care?"

"Someone else is taking care of them," Reimu said. "But you guys were still there, so you gotta show up as well."

"This is ridiculous!" Rika shrieked. She tore up the paper and threw the shreds every which way. Then she stuck her finger in Reimu's face. "You're just trying to pin something on us that isn't even our fault!"

Reimu grabbed the offending finger and pushed it away. "Think what you want. But tearing up that paper won't change a thing. You still have to show."

"No! This is idiotic! I refu-" Rika's protests were cut off as Rikako grabbed her and shoved her arm around Rika's mouth.

"I'm sorry about that, she gets excitable," Rikako explained with a nervous smile. "Of course we'll be there. We wouldn't dream about upsetting Yukari Yakumo."

"Glad to hear it. Well, I'll just be on my way then. Don't want to get in the way of your…" Reimu regarded the Asakura sisters' latest project with a skeptical eye. "Uh, what is that again?"

Rika started gnawing on her sister's arm. Rikako winced, but held on. "That? Oh, nothing important. Just a…an alternate means of transportation."

"I see. Well, best of luck then. Be seeing you."

With that, Reimu turned and walked out of that dismal place, leaving the two scientists behind her.

Genji was waiting for her by the entrance.

"So, how'd it go?" he asked.

Reimu pulled herself on top of his shell with a grunt. "Oh, pretty well I'd say. You were listening, I take it?"

"Mmmm-hmmm. Caught the gist of it. Now, it may be I'm just gettin' old, but it seemed to me that you were lettin' them believe they were going to stand trial for criminal actions instead of just bein' brought onboard as consultants."

"Did I?" Reimu smiled. "I didn't notice."

Genji sighed. With a rumble he lifted off the ground. "Kiddo, remind me to explain why it's important for the messengers _not _to tempt people to shoot them."

Reimu closed her eyes. "I'll do that."

…

"This is not good," Patchouli muttered as she paced back and forth."This is not good. This is not good."

She and Sakuya were alone in her study, Mima and Marisa having departed some time ago. In that time, Patchouli had not been able to bring herself to shake the jitters that were running up and down her body, hence the trench her nervous pacing was digging into the floor. For her part, even Sakuya was starting to look a little upset, which was as good as outright panic for her. At least, there was a definite look of agitation breaking through her usual state of detachment.

"I know that," Sakuya said icily. "You don't have to keep telling me. And hold still, you're driving me nuts."

Patchouli stopped as she was asked, but ended up pounding her fist in the wall in frustration. Unfortunately she hit is too hard, and the action sent a spike of pain through her hand. She winced as she clutched her throbbing hand. "Ah, damn it! This isn't fair! Marisa steals _my _box, and we're the ones that take the fall for it."

"Well if you had placed it someplace where she couldn't find it…"

"It was plenty safe where it was. It isn't my fault she's just so destructively lucky."

Sakuya closed her eyes. She pressed her fingers against her forehead. "Right, of course. Still, this does present a number of problems."

With roll of her eyes, Patchouli collapsed back into her chair. "Thank you for that profound observation. I really wouldn't have noticed had you not told me. But now that you mention it, yeah. Things are a bit, oh how do they say it, _fucked up beyond all recognition!"_

"There's no need to shout…"

"But there are plenty of reasons to _want _to!" Patchouli held up a hand and started ticking off points on her fingers. "First of all, there's that affront to all that is good and holy running around loose in Gensokyo, with more than five times the power as last time and probably still holding a grudge against us. There's the fact that the Ringleaders now know about that affront to all that is good and holy and want an 'explanation' for its existence, which can't mean anything good for us. Then there's the very good possibility that Remi's going to find out that we not only helped Eirin Yagokoro without letting her know, and that we used her little sister to fix the problem without permission. And then there's-" The rest of her list was left unfinished as the excitement caught up to her and she doubled over as violent coughs wracked her body.

"Which brings up an interesting point," Sakuya said, taking no notice of Patchouli's distressed condition. "What are we going to tell the Mistress?"

"H-h-huh?" Patchouli forced herself up as she brought her coughing fit under control. "Y-you want to _tell _her? Did you forget to unfreeze your brain the last time you stopped time?"

Sakuya shook her head. "It was wrong to hide this from her in the first place. Like it or not, she is still the master of this place, and deserves to know."

Patchouli slapped a palm against her face. "Sure, if you want to get drained dry, stuffed and mounted over the fireplace! Can we back away from potentially suicidal ideas here?"

"Besides," Sakuya said. "She's right outside, listening to everything we're saying."

"Because right now, the last thing we need is…What?"

In answer, the door to Patchouli's study swung open. Standing in the doorway was a pale-skinned girl with light purple hair, one that didn't seem any older than ten. She was dressed in a blue sleeping gown and nightcap and was clutching a stuffed bat. It would be easy to mistake her for an adorable small child and give her a condescending pat on the head. However, doing so would be to ignore the bat-like wings that sprouted from her back, the viciously sharp fangs that were revealed every time she so much as opened her mouth, and the distinctly unchildlike way she was glaring at the room's occupants with her blood red eyes.

"That was very observant of you, Sakuya," Remilia Scarlet noted. "Very impressive. But I'm still angry with you both."

Patchouli straightened in her chair. "R-Remi! You're awake!"

"Yes. I awoke with a hankering for a midday snack when I heard shouting going on in the library. I then noticed none other than Marisa Kirisame exiting the scene, and note that I said _exiting, _not _fleeing,_ in the company Hakurei shrine's resident evil spirit." Her eyebrows knitted together. "And when I went to ask you what it was all about, I overhead you two discussing something _very _interesting."

Patchouli shot a panicked look to Sakuya, who just looked resigned.

"So tell me," Remilia continued. "What is this 'affront to all that is good and holy' and what does that have to do with my sister."

…

Yukari turned away from the doorway and marched back into her home. Enough bitter reminiscing, she had put off sending the word out too long. By now, her proxies had already delivered their messages. The time had come for her to do the same.

The ancient youkai unlocked a Western-style cabinet, its plain design standing in sharp contrast to the luxurious surroundings. From the top shelf, Yukari pulled down a large amber crystal, carved in the shape of a three-sided pyramid. This she placed on a nearby table.

Yukari settled herself in a chair and placed her hands on either side of the crystal "Come on, you bunch of self-important, thickheaded bitches," she muttered. "It's showtime." With that, she sent a small portion of will into the crystal.

A moment later, it began to glow.

…

_You know, it's funny. Despite the fact that this chapter is only a third of the size of Chapters Eight and Nine combined, it was easily twice as hard to write. Maybe it's because none of my favorite characters to write for (Rumia, Rin, the Dark Voice, or Team Nineball) were featured, maybe it's because there was considerably less action/drama than before, maybe it's because I introduced two sets of characters that I haven't gotten the hang of yet (Patchouli and Sakuya just don't feel right to me, for some reason), but whatever the reason, this chapter was a pain in the ass. Still not really happy with how it came out, but seeing how I spent half a week with massive writer's block and really needed to get the ball rolling, I suppose I should be happy that I got something. Whatever, it's done, let's move on. Next chapter will be Team Nineball-centric, so that should be easier._

_Some other things of note: Rin's first stop was actually supposed to be the Scarlet Devil Mansion, in which she would then absorb Patchouli and go on a roaring rampage of revenge which would result in the mansion's destruction. But then I realized that, adaptation or no adaptation, she wouldn't last against Flandre. Hence why she went to Eientei instead, and why she scored on Kaguya and Mokou. Even the playing field a bit. But now with the way the story's going, I doubt she'll come by the SDM any time soon, if at all. Ironic, I know. _

_Also, there's no real indication that Rika and Rikako are actually related, despite having similar names and an interest in science. But all things considered, it really isn't a stretch for them to be sisters, and in Touhou speculation is as good as fact._

_And no, Remilia isn't one of the Ringleaders, which is why the message to the SDM was delivered in person. She's still likely to just show up anyway, further ruining Yukari's day._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	11. The Gods Must Be Lazy

The Gods Must Be Lazy

The sad truth about families is that no matter how strong the feeling of connection and affection, no matter how close-knit its members may be, all it takes is the right blow to the foundation and the whole thing will crumble away. Bounds will sever as once inseparable companions become mortal enemies. Others will simply drift away with no one bothering to bring them back. And even those who can see what is going on are often powerless to prevent it. It happened all the time. More often than not, the face that you want to destroy was once the face that smiled at you from across the dinner table.

Wriggle knew all this. She had seen numerous small tribes, gangs and other ensembles of youkai fall apart to infighting and bickering. And she would be damned before she let it happen to hers.

And so she found herself flying through the Autumnal Forest in the dead of night, desperately looking for someone. As far as forests went, the Autumnal Forest lacked the tangled mystery of the Forest of Magic, the twisting menace of the Youkai Forest, or even the confusion of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. In fact, thanks to clear paths and regular patrolling by professional youkai exterminators, it was the most Human-friendly forest to be found in Gensokyo. What few youkai or fairies that even bothered to enter were careful to avoid stepping out of line. However, given that the letter of the law only prohibited the _hunting _of Humans, it only paved the way for a different kind of predator entirely. It was to find this predator that Wriggle found herself soaring through this distinctly youkai-unfriendly area during the dead of night.

Wriggle knew that she had found what she was looking for when a melody drifted past, carried by the wind. It was soft and sweet, almost like a trickling creek through a meadow. And to Humans, it could be utterly hypnotic.

With a smile of satisfaction, Wriggle adjusted her course, following the song along one of the more-traveled paths. There, sitting at a point where the path split off into three different directions, was a two-wheeled cart with a sloping roof and two handles sticking out of one end, making it easier to be pulled. However, the wheels had been detached and four wooden stools had been set up along one end, converting the cart into a merchant's stand. There was the sound of a fire crackling and the smell of something cooking, something with a fishy scent.

Bingo.

Sitting in front of the stand were two Humans, carpenters by the look of them. There were two platters of food set before them with two cups of sake, from which they were eating and drinking freely. They appeared to be enjoying it too. For all her faults, Mystia knew how to cook.

Wriggle came to landing directly behind the two diners. Apparently her sudden appearance startled them, as they jumped up and whirled around as soon as her feet touched grass.

"Another youkai!" one of them gasped. He fumbled around his belt and brought forth a small hammer. "Get back, youkai! I'll not be your prey tonight!" To his companion, he muttered, "That is a youkai, right? Things are still a little fuzzy."

"Best assume that it is," his friend whispered back. "They're not all friendly like the bird-girl."

"Whoa, hey," Wriggle said, holding her empty hands up in front of her. "Calm down, buddy. I'm not here to fight. Just wanna have a few words with my friend over there."

"Who, me?" the second one asked in bewilderment.

There was a soft cough as someone cleared their voice. "Actually, she means me," Mystia said from her place inside the stand. She waved. "Hi Wriggle!"

Wriggle grinned nervously and waved back. "Hey Mysty." To the two humans, she added, "See? We're all friends here. So, um, I'll just leave you to your dinner and stay out of your way."

Ignoring the sullen looks they were giving her (or were they squinting because they still couldn't make her out? It was hard to tell when Mystia was running one of her scams), Wriggle skirted around them to the back of the makeshift stand.

As noted, Mystia was inside, wearing an apron over a simple brown dress with her hair tied up by a bandana. She was tending to several skewered lamprey eels that were cooking on a piping hot grill. Mystia was a good enough cook that she was no doubt capable of successfully running a legitimate business, but she had long ago decided to increase the traffic her food stand saw by toting her grilled lamprey meals as a cure for those pesky bouts of night-blindness that seemed to suddenly strike Humans that were traveling through forests in the dead of night. Rather annoying, really. And surprisingly common, all things considered. Fortunately for them, just a few bites of Mystia Lorelei's world-famous grilled lamprey and they'll be seeing like owls in no time.

Of course, she would leave out the part that said night-blindness was actually a side-effect her singing tended to have on Humans, thus them being "cured" was actually a result of her turning down the music while they ate. Still, all things considered, she did make a mean grilled lamprey.

Wriggle leaned over the back of the stand. "Hey Mystia, how's business? Good? Glad to hear it. Say, would'ja mind if I took a couple minutes of your time?"

Mystia shrugged as she sprinkled ground pepper over the cooking eels. "Gee, I don't know," she said without looking up. "I can't really leave-"

"Really? Great. Let's go over here…" Wriggle reached in and bodily pulled Mystia from the stand "…and have ourselves a nice private chat." She winked at the two staring Humans. 'Scuse us, gentlemen."

She hauled a struggling Mystia a good distance from the stand and its confused customers. When they were safely out of earshot, she swung the sparrow-girl around so they were facing one another.

"What's wrong with you?" Wriggle hissed. "Going out scamming at a time like this? Rumia's missing, maybe dead, Cirno's about to fall to pieces, and all you can think about is making money?"

Mystia shrugged. "Well, I'm sorry, but the first few days of spring are the best time to catch them. I do have a business to run, after all."

"What the…Are you really so…" Wriggle grabbed Mystia by the shoulder and started viciously shaking her back and forth. "Snap out of it, Mysty! What about your friends, huh? Are you just going to leave us to fall apart?"

Mystia jerked out of her grasp. "Of course not! It's just…"

"Yeah?" Wriggle folded her arms. "Just what?"

"Well, you heard what Cirno said this morning," Mystia said with another shrug. "About how Yukari said Rumia was really some kind of monster and was hiding it this whole time. I don't know about you, but friends don't keep those sorts of secrets."

Wriggle slapped a palm against her forehead. "Ohhhh…gods give me strength. That was _Yukari _talking! We don't _like _Yukari, remember? She's a liar and a creep! She was probably just trying to mess with Cirno's head. Don't tell me you believe what that weirdo says."

Mystia gnawed on the tip of one of her talons and shot a doubtful glance back at her stand. Her Human customers had stopped eating and were watching the arguing youkai with evident interest.

"I don't know…" Mystia muttered.

"C'mon, don't give me that. We've all been together for almost twelve years now. Don't tell me you're going to turn your back on all that now. We need to stick together, Mysty!"

Mystia didn't respond. She just stared at the ground, one of her hands holding the opposite wrist.

Wriggle sighed. "Fine. Okay, have it your way. We're holding a sorta mini-wake for Rumia back at the hideout. If you wanna come and show some respect for your friend, then you're more than welcome. But if you'd rather just dick around playing con-artist then…" She shrugged. "Well, I'm sure Rumia would understand, wherever she is. Could be in hell for all we know."

"That's not fair."

"It's not? Sorry, it's kinda hard to tell what's fair or not, when you're frikkin' _best_ _friends _are turning their backs on you! Where do you get off acting so cold? Right when we need you, you go…Gahhh!"

Wriggle's shoulders slumped and she turned away. "Screw this. See you around, Mystia."

Hands shoved angrily in her pockets, she stomped away from the staring night-sparrow, back down to where the food stand sat and the path sitting next to it. Mystia's customers watched her as she walked past.

"Never thought I'd see two youkai fighting," the first one called out to her. "Lover's quarrel?"

Wriggle whirled to face him. "Mind your own frikkin' business!" she snarled.

He just snickered. "Whatever you say, buddy. Funny, never thought a youkai would…" Then his eye narrowed. He stood and walked toward her to get a closer look.

Wriggle leaned away from him. "What the hell's your problem?"

His eyes widened. "Cripes," he gasped. "You're a girl!"

There was a very satisfying sound of meat impacting on meat, and the human was suddenly sent sprawling backward. Blood spurted from his nose and his eyes were whirling in a daze. Wriggle shook her throbbing hand and winced.

"Stupid Humans," she muttered as her feet left the ground. "They _deserve_ to get conned."

"Hey!" Human number two shouted. "What do you-"

He stopped in his tracks when he saw the ferocious look Wriggle shot in his direction. He demonstrated that he had greater common sense than his friend when he held up his palms and backed away.

Wriggle growled and shot into the air. Fine, whatever. Let Mystia forget all those years of friendship if she wanted to. They didn't need her anyway. As for herself, she was going to give Rumia the sendoff she deserved.

…

"…and she was absolutely _covered _with noodles!" Cirno stated. "I mean, like from head to toe, all noodles! And she was swinging back and forth, yelling about how she was going to kill us all." She took a swig from the bottle of sake she held and laughed. "Ah man, it was almost worth the beating she gave us later. Funniest thing I've ever seen. Definitely Rumia's best plan ever."

Daiyousei and Chen joined in on the laughter. Chen especially seemed to be having trouble staying upright, but whether that was due to hysterics or her low tolerance for alcohol or some mixture of the two was anyone's guess.

The three of them were sitting in the stone cavern that Cirno and her gang called home. A fire was crackling in the makeshift fireplace (which Mystia had declared to be one of her finest creations), the extensive stash of alcohol they had been stockpiling over the years was being dipped into freely, and tales of their absent friend's many escapades were being fondly remembered.

"Ah-hehehehe," Chen tittered, an odd squeaking sound that was becoming more and more high-pitched the more she drank. "Yesh, 'dat was aweswome! I wemember it like was…" Confusion washed over her face. "Waitaminute, no I don't! Dai, did 'dat weally happwen? 'Cause I dunno think I wemember 'dat."

"You weren't there for that one," Daiyousei told her. Unlike her fellows, she had only a small cup of wine. The last time she had over indulged in intoxicants had resulted in her passing out long before everyone else, and her friends had had writing utensils and a camera at the ready. It had been days before she would even speak to them.

"Dwah, I always miss 'dah good stuff." Chen tossed back the goblet she was holding and sighed happily. "Okay, I gotta one! Wemember 'dah time she twied tah convwince evewyone 'dat 'dere was a bunch of blue honey floodin' dah'-"

Daiyousei cleared her throat. "Actually, that was Wriggle."

"It twas? Dawww, I twought it was Wumia…"

Daiyousei took a small sip from her cup. "No, that was definitely Wriggle. And believe me, that one did not turn out well."

"What was Wriggle now?"

Everyone turned to see the firefly in question walking toward them. From the look of things, her quest to find Mystia hadn't turned out well. There was a blank look in her eyes that Daiyousei found disturbing.

"Wriggle!" Cirno shouted happily. She stuck her bottle into the air as a salute. "Hey, did'ja find Mysty?"

Wriggle silently nodded. She grabbed a tankard of beer and sat down with the rest of them. She popped the cap and took a long drink.

Everyone stared at her. "So…" Cirno began. "Where's the bird?

Wriggle came up for air. "She's not coming," she said, wiping foam from her chin.

"Huh? What'ya mean, 'she's not coming'?" Cirno demanded. "She's supposed to be coming, I told her she was supposed to be coming, why isn't she coming? Dai, why isn't she coming?"

"How should I know?"

"I dunno, thought maybe you did. Wriggle, what's going on?"

"Go ask her," the firefly said bitterly. She pulled up her knees under her chin and glared at the fire. "Stupid sparrow's out tending that eel stand of hers."

"Huh? She's doing that _now?"_

Chen swayed in her seat. She blinked and shook her head. "Sowwy, I kinda went blank for'a sec. What happwened now?"

Wriggle ignored her. "Don't wanna talk about it," she told Cirno.

"But…" Then Cirno caught the look on Wriggle's face and shrank back. "Okay."

…

Mystia slowly stuck a spatula under one eel after another, flipping them over and watching them sizzle on the grill. Fat sputtered and meat darkened as the burning coals roasted the unlucky creatures' flesh.

"Don't know what got into that crazy youkai bitch," one of her Human vict…erm, make that _customers, _muttered. He picked up a skewered eel and ripped out half its stomach with one bite. Mystia watched the dangling bits of flesh flop up and down between his teeth as he chewed.

"I know man, I know," the other agreed. He stabbed a boiled potato with his knife and chomped off a large bite. "I mean, what was she expecting, going 'round dressed like that. And with that haircut! Hey, are you _sure _that was a girl? 'Cause it sure looked like a guy to me." White flecks of potato stuck in his beard.

"Pretty sure, man. Pretty sure. Unless he pumped up his testicles and relocated 'em northward, that sure was no proud father's son punching me in the face." He plucked his eel off the skewer and closed his mouth around half of it. The eel's body stretched as he pulled, tearing the roasted creature in half. "I mwean, ewen wit' 'dat shir', I coul' tell," he said with his mouth full.

Mystia winced and looked away. She forced herself to focus on what she was doing. The lampreys would burn if she didn't pay attention.

_Wait, waiiiit!_

"I don't know, maybe youkai are just crazy like that," the other said. Then he flinched. "Uh, present company excluded, ma'am. No offense intended."

"Of course," Mystia said, not really paying attention. She was too wrapped up with her own thoughts.

_My ears catch a sparrow's song. Are there really sparrows at night?_

"Anyway, who can tell with them? Girls dressing like guys, guys dressing like girls. I remember seeing a whole bunch at the Midsummer Day Festival, all wearing dresses. Guys and girls alike!"

"Those were kimonos, you idiot."

_I don't like sparrows. They're too bony._

Mystia's grip tightened on the handle of her spatula.

_It _ate _her! It ate her, Reimu! And it tried to eat us too-_

_She said it was some kind of monster that eats people and takes their powers. She said that Rumia was probably dead and gone too…_

_Snap out of it, Mysty! What about your friends, huh? Are you just going to leave us to fall apart?_

With a loud bang, Mystia slammed her spatula down, upsetting the grill and causing the roasting eels to jump. One of them slid right off and plopped on the floor.

The two Humans jumped too. "Hey, what is this?" the one with the potato bits in his beard demanded.

"We're closing," Mystia snarled. She pulled off her apron and hopped out the back.

"What? But we're not done yet!"

"Then take it to go! I'm gone." Mystia took a running start with her wings outstretched to either side. She hopped once, twice, and took to the air.

"What? But what if we go blind again? Are you just gonna leave your stand like this?" one of the Humans shouted after her. "I knew it, all you youkai are crazy!"

…

The four of them sat in silence, staring at the crackling flames. Daiyousei sighed and lay on her side. She curled up in a ball and watched the shadows dancing on the floor.

_What's happening to us? _she wondered. Things had never turned out like this before. Even during the occasions when their capers had blown up in their faces (which happened on a disturbingly regular basis), when there would be plenty of rueful drinking and bitter complaining, at least they had stuck together. Even when squabbles and fights had flared up, with fisticuffs exchanged and eternal vengeance sworn, those little conflicts had been quickly forgotten and they would be playing together like nothing had happened.

But now…Daiyousei could feel their little group falling apart at the seams. Rumia was gone, just plain gone. Even if she was still alive…somewhere, what could they do about it? No one took them seriously, and why should they? They were just those stupid kids that nobody really liked and just tolerated at best. If the most powerful beings in Gensokyo couldn't find a solution, what chance did they stand?

And now it looked like the others were drifting away too. Mystia was probably just the first. She probably thought she could do better on her own. Daiyousei turned her head, looking from one face to the next. Chen already had a family to go back to. She just hung out with the rest of them for the games. And when things got even worse, she would probably just go back to Ran and Yukari. Wriggle had always been tougher and smarter than the rest. Surely she would see that eventually. And then it would just be Daiyousei and Cirno, like it had been before. And how long would it be before Cirno got annoyed by having her tag along all the time?

Daiyousei closed her eyes. She remembered those years before she had met Cirno and eventually the rest. Day after day of getting picked on by larger fairies, night after night of trembling in holes or the tree-branches, listening to the more savage youkai prowl around. She supposed she was stronger now than she had been then, but that didn't mean she wanted to go back to that.

"So who's going next?" Cirno said suddenly, breaking the silence.

Everyone looked at her. "Huh?" Wriggle and Daiyousei said in unison. Chen just remained curled up on the floor making happy noises.

"Wriggle already told the story 'bout Rumia pasting Keine Kamishirasawa to her chair before she went to go find Mystia," Cirno stated, slurring her words slightly. "An' I brought up that whole thing wit' Reimu an' the noodles…"

Wriggle sniggered. "Oh yeah. Never gets old."

"…and Chen…" Cirno shrugged. "Well, she tried. What 'bout you, Dai? Got any good Rumia stories?"

Daiyousei sat up. "W-well…um…"

"C'mon, there has to be something you remember," Cirno encouraged.

Daiyousei didn't say anything.

"You don't have to go if you want to, Dai," Wriggle said.

"Uh…well, actually there is something…" Daiyousei began.

She was interrupted by the sound of wood scraping against stone. Everyone turned toward the cave's entrance.

Mystia stood there. Her hair hung in front of her face and she was staring downward.

Cirno jumped up. "Mysty!" she cried happily. "Hey, I thought you weren't coming. Wriggle said-"

"I'm here, aren't I?" Mystia said. There was something weird about her voice, something hollow and empty. Without another word she walked over to plop down next to Wriggle.

Wriggle stared at, one eyebrow eschew. "Um, hi?"

Mystia nodded at her and hesitated. "Sorry," she muttered.

Wriggle just smiled and squeezed her shoulder.

Cirno looked from one to the other, clearly befuddled. "Um, what-"

Wriggle grimaced made a sudden slashing motion in front of her throat.

"Okay…whatever." Cirno shook her head. "Weirdoes. Anyway! Dai, you were saying?"

Daiyousei breathed out a sigh of relief. Maybe she wasn't going to lose her friends after all. Encouraged by Mystia's sudden return, she sat up straighter and said, "I-it's not really anything cool, or funny, or awesome like you guys' stories," she said. "It's just something that…I've always kinda remembered."

Daiyousei took a deep breath and gathered her nerves. Storytelling was never her strong point, neither was having the spotlight. Still, it was for Rumia…

"It was…uh, a few years ago? Remember, back when Remilia Scarlet shot that red mist everywhere?"

The others nodded and Cirno winced. That had been the day that she and Daiyousei had first run across Marisa and Reimu. Considering how that encounter had turned out, it wasn't a day they fondly remembered.

"Yeah, that day. And…well, Cirno and me were playing over the lake, just chasing the birds around, you know? And then Reimu and Marisa showed up and…yeah…" Daiyousei cleared her throat. "Anyway, after I, uh, resurrected, I was feeling pretty lousy. I mean I've, uh, _died _before, had a few accidents, but never that badly. Anyway, everything was already hazy from the mist, and I was feeling just so worn out and upset. And then I saw Rumia sitting by the lake." She chuckled. "Well, um, actually, I didn't so much see _her _so much as that darkness bubble she's always flying around in, but I knew it was her. And I just wanted someone to talk to. Cirno hadn't come back yet, you see…"

"That's because they hit me twice as hard as you," Cirno muttered darkly. She took a swig. "Cirno, meet Master Spark. Why hello Master Spark, how do youBAM!" She smacked herself in the forehead.

"Um, yeah. Right. Anyway, I went to go talk to her, and found out that they had beaten her up the night before." Daiyousei sucked in a shaky breath. "I don't get it. I mean, what did we do to them? Do they just go around shooting everyone they meet for fun?"

"Um, Daiyousei?" Wriggle said. "I'm pretty sure Rumia shot first. So did you guys, based on what you've told me."

"Oh. Oh yeah. Um, anyway, I just got done telling her everything that had happened, and how I felt so weak at being taken down that easily, and…" Daiyousei blushed. She stared down at her feet and started pressing her fingertips together. "Um, to be honest, I started crying a little. And I expected her to laugh at me or something. But instead she just patted me on the back. And then she said 'It's okay Dai, no one expects us to be gods'."

Daiyousei shook her head as she rubbed her eye with her palm. "I…know it's cheesy and all, but that always kinda just stuck with me. It's like…every time I blink, there's someone new showing up who can dribble the moon or cause volcanic eruptions just by burping, and we just sorta get left behind. And…that's okay, you know? Because we are what we are, and no one's really looking at us to be these great heroes. We're just us, and I _like _just being us, so it kinda makes things better. So yeah…that's it, I guess."

Nobody said anything, they just sat. Occasionally Cirno or Wriggle would take a drink, or Chen would mutter something, but for the most part the only sound were the spits and sputters from the fire.

Then Wriggle said, "I think I like your story the best."

"Say what?" Cirno said. "But it was just them talking! There wasn't any cool fights, or funny tricks or-" The rest of her complaints were cut off when Wriggle shoved her hand into Cirno's mouth.

Mystia suddenly stood to her feet. "I'm going to clean up and go to bed."

"Huh?" Cirno pushed Wiggle's hand away from her mouth. "But you haven't even-"

Without another word, Mystia walked away from them and into the adjoining cavern.

Everyone turned to look at Wriggle. The firefly just shrugged. "Hey, don't look at me. I don't know why she's acting like this."

"I noticed that too," Daiyousei put in. "She was acting weird most yesterday."

"Yesterday," Cirno muttered. "I hate yesterday." She finished off her sake in one draft and tossed the bottle aside. It hit the stone wall and shattered.

"Yeah, yesterday sucked," Wriggle said. "I think we can all agree on that."

Again there was silence. Daiyousei leaned again a short, squat stalagmite and stared at the shadows dancing on the ceiling. Even though she had only about half a cup of wine, it was starting to make her sleepy. She blinked one long, heavy blink and yawned.

Then Wriggle stood up. "You know guys, I'm getting a little worried about Mystia. I'm just going to check if she's okay."

"You mean spy on her?" Cirno tittered with a hiccup. "Pervert!"

Wriggle tossed a stone at her, which Cirno barely managed to dodge. "Shut up, dumbass. I'll be right back."

Daiyousei nodded and closed her eyes.

…

The underground area that Cirno's gang called their home was really a small network of interconnecting caverns. The first and largest of these "rooms" as they were called was the primary of such caverns and was used for games, celebrations, meals, wrestling matches, and so on. The others were given the jobs of storage and private rooms for the individual members.

And then there was the one Mystia had entered. Long ago, a small meander of the river that flowed down the side of the mountain had cut its way through the living rock of the mountainside, going down and down until it finally poured down into the center of the cavern in a small waterfall, coming to rest in a freshwater pool, which drained through a small hole into caverns below. Cirno's gang had thereby declared this room to be the washroom and employed it as such. Well, to be accurate, only Cirno and Daiyousei used it on a semi-regular basis, mainly because the water itself was bitter cold and only an ice fairy wouldn't be bothered by it. Wriggle disliked extreme temperatures, Chen (when she was visiting) just hated water on principle, and while Mystia would occasionally go for a full shower, it was only on hot days. Wet feathers were notoriously hard to dry. Most of the time she just stuck to sponge-baths.

Mystia stood by the pool, staring down at her reflection. The bruises and cuts she had gained from their encounter with Marisa the day before were still there. She lifted one hand and gingerly poked a blossoming purple patch on her cheek and winced.

Shaking her head, Mystia reached behind herself and undid the straps of her dress, which slipped of her shoulders and fell to the floor. Then, clad in her undergarments, Mystia stepped out of the dress and knelt to fill her cupped hands with the icy water.

_It _ate _her! It ate her, Reimu! And it tried to eat us too…_

Mystia splashed her face with water, rubbing away the ash and smoke from her grill. She hoped her cart would still be there when she went back for it. She did leave it in somewhat of a hurry. Probably not the best idea overall, but it wasn't like she could have easily moved it back to its hiding place and still make it back in the same night.

_It ate_ _her…_

Mystia reached over to a wicker basket that was sitting next to the pool. The basket held a number of self-cleaning items: soap, shampoos, perfumes, brushes and a couple of washcloths. She pulled out a washcloth and dipped it in the pool. She lifted it out and twisted it, wringing out most of the water. Then she picked up a misshapen bar of soap and rubbed it against the washcloth's rough fabric, creating a foamy lather.

…_and it tried to eat us too…_

Moving gingerly so as not to upset any tender areas, Mystia began rubbing the cloth up and down her arms and scrubbed out her armpits. It was amazing how much grime she seemed to attract on a daily basis. Sure, she had cleaned up a bit before opening her stand earlier that evening, but whatever dirt she had removed had been swiftly replaced.

_It ate_ _her…_

Well, that was to be expected in the life of a youkai. Living outdoors (or in a cave, for that matter) did mean that personal hygiene often took a backseat. She didn't mind of course, but she still sometimes wondered what it would be like to live like the Humans, where daily bathing was considered a social norm.

…_and it tried to eat us too…_

Well, at least it was among the ones who made their homes in the villages. Marisa Kirisame was as bad as the youkai she lived among when it came to keeping things clean, probably even worse. And while Reimu Hakurei was at least a little tidier, she still tended to neglect those sorts of things if she could get away with it.

…_ate her…_

Mystia's taloned fingers squeezed the washcloth, filling her hand with suds. She lightly moved it back and forth over her neck.

…_tried to eat us…_

Of course, those two weren't exactly considered the standard examples for normal Human behavior. As Mystia understood it, they were rather unpopular among most Humans for numerous reasons. She supposed there was a measure of irony in that little tidbit of information.

…_at her…_

After all, they were always poking their noses where they didn't belong.

…_tried to eat us…_

Always saying how youkai couldn't do this, couldn't do that.

…_ate her…_

So it was only fitting…

…_tried to…_

…that the so-called "normal" Humans…

…_eat us…_

…would take them to task…

…_tried to…_

…take them to…

…_eat us…_

…take them…

…_tried to…_

…_tried…._

_And Rumia was dissolving, wasting away before their horrified eyes. So afraid she couldn't even move, Mystia could only watch as her friend's skin seemed to disappear like smoke on the wind. Her meat was becoming visible, all bloody reds and flat grays and sickly greens and purples, with the white bone poking through. And Mystia couldn't do anything as…_

…_hungry teeth tore into her flesh, ripping off bite after bite, her shrill screams going unheeded by her attacker, her body going to feed a voracious appetite that would not be appeased…_

With a shriek, Mystia threw the washcloth across the pool, where it slapped against a rock and slid down into the water. Angry tears pouring from her eyes as she slammed her fists against the coarse gravel again and again, venting her frustration in the only way she could think of. Even when her skin began to tear and bleed she didn't stop.

"Mysty! Great jumping Buddha H. Christ on a flat-wheeled unicycle, what are you doing?" Strong fingers seized Mystia by the wrists, keeping her from slamming them down again. "Stop it, you crazy sparrow! Stop it before you hurt yourself!"

Caught up in the brief madness of the moment, Mystia cried out and struggled to break free. She tried biting the other's hand and scratching at them with her talons. And when this failed to produce any results, she finally collapsed sobbing into the arms of a very surprised and very, _very _confused Wriggle.

…

Cirno sat stock-still, expressionless as a glacier. Off to her right, Chen and Daiyousei had curled up against each other in their sleep. Normally, Cirno would be tempted to put them in interesting poses and take their picture, but for now she just sat, watching the last few flickering tongues dance in the small fireplace. The crackling of the fire and Chen's contented snoring were the only sounds that could be heard.

Even though she wasn't moving, her mind was still working. Even in her intoxicated state, her mind was still working. She came up with all her best ideas while drunk. Soberness was a time for action, drunkenness was a time for planning. And saving Rumia from the blob thing was going to require a _lot _planning. The problem with Rumia wasn't a question of whether or not they could get her back. It was a question of how and when. There was no doubt in the young fairy's mind that they would be able to pull it off. She just needed to figure out a way.

Plan Reimu had failed, totally and spectacularly. Whether that blob thing was, it was tough. No, scratch that, it was _very _tough. It was _ridiculously_ tough. She never thought it was possible for anyone to survive a concentrated assault from Reimu, Marisa, Mima, Suika and _Yukari _of all people. Well, okay, so maybe taking those five down herself someday was on her to-do list, but that was neither here and now. It was plain that a new plan was in order. Brute force wasn't working, she had to think of something subtle.

It took all of thirty seconds before she abandoned that line of thought and went back to brute strength. Stick to what you know, that's what they always say. Maybe the problem was that they just didn't bring _enough. _But who could they go to? Letty wasn't even going to appear for another three seasons, and Cirno doubted that she could do anything. She supposed she could contact Sunny's gang, but that still wouldn't be enough.

With a sigh, Cirno slouched down and stretched out her legs. She folded her arms and stared up at the stone ceiling of the cavern. That was the problem with being considered a troublemaker. The list of people that would be willing to help you was depressingly short. Most people would be unwilling to lift a finger to help her and her friends unless…

Wait.

Something was there, forming in her mind. Something…interesting. There were problems with it, all right. There were things they were going to need that they didn't have. But it was possible, it was doable, and it just might work.

A slow, cunning smile spread over Cirno's face. At last, she had an _idea._

…

Mystia sat with her back against a rock, holding a towel around her shoulders and letting Wriggle bandage up her hands.

"It doesn't look that bad," Wriggle muttered. She finished tying the strip of linen around Mystia's left hand and gave it a quick tug, drawing it tight. "Just keep it clean and dry, should be fine by tomorrow."

Mystia nodded. She held up her bandaged hand, turning it over to look at both sides. With a sigh she let it fall.

"I'm sorry," she said.

Wriggle shrugged. She started putting the remaining bits of linen away. "You said that already."

"I know. But still…sorry."

"It's okay." Wriggle stood to her feet and brushed off her knees. "It's been a crazy time for all of us. I'd be worried if someone _didn't _wig out."

"It's more than that."

Wriggle paused. She looked down at the night-sparrow and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"It's…" Mystia cleared her throat and tried again. "It's just that…every time I start thinking, my mind keeps going back to Rumia being inside that thing and how it was…eating her, from the outside in."

Wriggle shuddered. "Well, in fairness, that was pretty awful."

"Yeah, but when it happened, you and Cirno didn't just turn tail just because you were terrified," Mystia said bitterly. "You left to go find help. Even Daiyousei only left because you told her too. Me? As soon as that thing started coming after us, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I wasn't even thinking about trying to help Rumia; I just wanted to make sure it didn't get _me."_

"Mysty, that's not anything to be ashamed about. That's just simply self-preservation. It's _smart, _not cowardice. Like Daiyousei said, we're not gods you know."

Mystia nodded. "Yeah, maybe. But even after, I just keep thinking that…sooner or later it's going to come after the rest of us. That it knows where we live, that it's just waiting for the right moment to strike, that soon we'll all be…" Her body started shaking. She clutched at the towel as her eyes filled with tears. "I can't _do _it, Wriggle! I can't stay here and let it get me. I won't get eaten, not again!"

Wriggle sucked in a breath as realization struck her. "So _that's_ what…" She shook her head and put her hands on her hips. "Damn, I shoulda figured.

"How could you?" Mystia muttered. "There's so many other things going wrong."

"Yeah, but still…"

"So I tried distracting myself. I tried focusing on normal things, things I was used to, things that couldn't hurt me." She sniffled and let out a small, hiccupping laugh. "But as it turns out, it's kind've hard not to think about getting eaten when you run a food stand. Score one for irony."

Wriggle sighed and sat down next to her. "Look Mystia, I can't say I fully understand what you went through, but it's not wrong to be scared. Hell, I'm scared. I'm frikkin' terrified! And if I'm that scared, I can't imagine what it must be like for you. But running away from us isn't going to help any. If anything, you need us now more than ever."

"Yeah, I know," Mystia muttered. "And don't worry, I'm not going to run away or freak out again. But I'm not going to lie and say I don't think we should put as many miles between us and that…_thing _as possible."

"Uh, well, you…may be right about that," Wriggle said slowly. "But still, what about Rumia?"

Mystia didn't answer. She just folded her arms over her knees and looked away.

However, Wriggle wasn't about to let her withdraw now. "Oh, come on. Don't give me that crap. What about Rumia? If the Eientei rabbits say she can be saved-"

"What can we do?" Mystia whispered.

"What?"

"What can we do?" Mystia said, more clearly this time. "We're…us. Just a bunch of kids who keep getting into trouble. It's like people keep saying tonight: we're not gods. And that thing…pretty much is. We're at the bottom of the food chain, while it is chomping its way up. What can we do?"

"You're right."

Both Mystia and Wriggle blinked and turned toward the cavern's entrance. Cirno was there, watching them. She seemed a little unsteady on her feet and she kept blinking and twitching her head, but she didn't seem like she had lost any lucidity. If anything, the ice-fairy looked downright determined and focused.

"You're absolutely right," she repeated. "We _can't _handle this on our own. This is too big for us. And to hear that coming from _me…"_

"Well, yeah," Wriggle admitted. "We know that. What's your point?"

"My point is that what we need to do is call in reinforcements. We need to get more people on our side. Stronger people. Enough to finally hunt that thing down and kill it. And if they can't it, they'll at least flush it out and slow it down so Yukari's group of jerks can kill it instead."

"Uh, Cirno?" Mystia raised her hand. "I don't know if you know this, but we're not exactly very popular. How are we going to convince people to risk their lives for us?"

Cirno grinned wickedly. "I'm glad you asked," she purred.

And then she told them.

They just stared right back.

"Are you _serious?" _Wriggle demanded.

"Absofreakingliciously."

"What? No! Cirno, just…no! No, no, no!"

Cirno folded her arms. "Yeah? Why not?"

"Because that's the sort of thing that'll blow up right in our faces!" Wriggle shouted. "All it'll take is for someone to get hurt and blame us. Besides, there's no way we can pull that off! Even if we could get people interested, we would need…a hell of a lot more money than we have! And unless you're planning on pimping us all out, there's no way we can get that money in time! And by the gods, don't take the pimping idea seriously, I was just using a 'for example'."

"We could do it!" Cirno protested.

Mystia cleared her throat. "Um, actually…"

"Seriously, come _on _fairy! We've got maybe fifteen thousand yen between all of us. That's barely enough to hire a third-rate bodyguard for a day, much less-"

"I have enough," Mystia said.

"See? Mystia agrees with me. Now, let's…" Wriggle's head snapped around to stare at the night-sparrow. "Wait, what?"

"I have enough," Mystia said. She pushed herself to her feet. "I've been saving money for years now, so I think I'll be able to cover the cost."

"Yeah?" Wriggle looked at her suspiciously. "And how much is that?"

"Um, I haven't really been keeping track but…about twenty-seven million yen. Probably."

Wriggle's eyes bulged. Strangled gurgling came from her throat, but no discernable words came out. As for Cirno, her legs buckled out from under her and she fell down flat on her rear.

"Twenty-seven _million?" _she squeaked. "You have twenty-seven _million?"_

Mystia shrugged. "Well, yeah. You never noticed how I'm always the one treating you guys when we go to festivals and markets? I have been doing that night-blindness trick for several decades now, and my stand's pretty popular among non-humans as well. And it isn't expensive to maintain. Plus I really don't need that much to live, so I just kept saving and saving."

Wriggle started shaking. She tried to wrap her head around the idea that one of their number having access to that amount of money. Granted, their lifestyle didn't require a great amount of funds, but still…

"Bu-bu-but _why?"_ she cried. "If you were never planning on spending it, why scam humans in the first place? Why have the stand at all?"

"I dunno, maybe because I like cooking?" Mystia said crossly. "But yeah, when I first got started, I really wasn't getting much business, so I started the whole cure-for-nightblindness thing to break even. And as it turns out, you really don't lose money underestimating Human intelligence, so _that _took off like a rocket. And then some youkai started visiting regularly, and then a fairy gang, and they told their friends, and their friends told their friends, so before I knew it I making money talon-over-fist. I guess I could've stopped the nightblindess scam, but it was just too much fun. Plus, my real customers seemed amused by it, so I just kept at it. And seeing how that was over fifty years ago…" Mystia shrugged again. "At one point I considered putting it into getting a big house of my own, but I decided that I liked this place too much."

"But why didn't you ever _tell _us?" Cirno demanded. "Do you have any _idea _what we could have done with that kind of dough? Did you ever think about helping the rest of us?"

"Hey, aren't you paying attention?" Wriggle shouted back. "She _is _offering to help us. She just said she'll pay for your plan to work. Isn't that enough?"

"Sure, _now _she is, but she's being sitting on that much for so long…" Cirno shook her head and sighed. She unsteadily pulled herself to her feet. "Never mind, you're right. I'll yell at you later. But thanks." She tapped her lower lip and frowned. "But like you said, it's still pretty risky. There'll probably be a lot of people mad at us before too long. Plus, Yukari and Reimu will probably want to shut us down. We're gonna have to prepare for that."

Wriggle stared at the ice fairy in shock. She stood to her feet and leaned over to whisper in Mystia's ear. "Where did this cautious, strategizing Cirno come from? Did I wake up in some kind of bizarro universe or something?"

"It's probably because she's drunk," Mystia whispered back. "You how most people get more reckless the more they drink? With her, it's probably the exact opposite."

"What we need is someone really, really powerful," Cirno declared, stamping her fist against her palm. "Someone who's willing to stick up for us and doesn't mind making Yukari mad. And of course, someone really, really powerful. It'll help if they were strong too. Really, really strong."

"Really, all that?" Wriggle said sarcastically. "And where are we going to find someone like that?"

Cirno grinned. "Oh, I think we know someone." Then she smirked at Wriggle.

Wriggle blinked. "What, me? Have you gone completely loony? I'm barely as strong as the rest of you guys! I've never been able to beat Rumia, much less…" Then a moment of horrified realization struck her mind like a lightning bolt. The blood drained from her face and she started trembling.

"Oh, no. No way. Nuh-uh. Forget it, there's no way…How could you even _suggest _something like that?"

Mystia looked from one to the other, plainly confused. "What? Who?"

"Who do you think?" Wriggle snarled back.

"Uh, I don't…" Then she blinked. "Oh. _Oh. _Oh, wow."

"Exactly," Wriggle snapped. "Forget it, Cirno. There's no way we're bringing in that lunatic."

"Wriggle, we have to!" Cirno pleaded. "You weren't there, you didn't see that thing! You didn't see what it did to Eientei! We need all the help we can get!"

"Yeah, but you honestly expect me to…" Wriggle cut herself off. With a grimace she squeezed her eyes shut and balled up her fists.

"Fine," she practically choked out. "Have it your way. I'll go talk to her. But you owe me big time, fairy. And I swear to everyone and everything, if I wind up in a dog-collar again, I will shove it right up your sub-zero butt!"

"Hooray!" Cirno shouted. She leapt up and pumped her fist into the air. "Thank you! Girls, Operation Rescue Rumia is a go! Go Team Niiiiiii…" She tottered on her feet and fell flat on her face. Moments later she started snoring.

Wriggle and Mystia stared at her in disbelief. "That took," Wriggle began, "waaayyyyy too damned long."

"Tell me about it. She's usually out in fifteen minutes." Mystia shrugged. "Well, guess we better put her to bed."

Wriggle pulled sleeping Cirno up by the armpits while Mystia took the legs. Together, they carried her back to the small alcove she had claimed as her room.

"So, do you really have that much money?" Wriggle said as they walked.

Mystia winced. "Yes, I do. Sorry I didn't tell you earlier. Didn't want it to be a thing."

"A thing. Sure."

"And are you really going to go ask Yuuka Kazami for help?"

"Looks like," Wriggle said with a grimace. "Crazy night, huh?"

"You're telling me," Mystia muttered. "Though something tells me that it's only going to get crazier."

"Point," Wriggle admitted. They reached the alcove in question. Once Cirno was drooling happily into her pillow and they were back in the stone passageway, she added, "Still, if it gets us Rumia back…"

Mystia nodded and shuddered. She just hoped it wouldn't end up costing them too much. And by that she didn't mean money.

She wondered where Rumia was at that moment, assuming she was still alive, which wasn't something Mystia was fully convinced about. She just hoped that if Rumia was alive and somehow conscious inside that monster, she knew that her friends were coming for her. Hopefully she wasn't too scared.

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia lay flat on her back on nothing, arms outstretched to either side and resting on nothing as she stared up at nothing. Her legs were up in the air and were slowly rotating as if she were riding a bicycle.

"Well?" Rin pressed. "C'mon, guess!"

Rumia rolled her eyes but she let her legs fall flat and said, "Um, is it bigger than a breadbox?"

"Nope," Rin giggled.

"Okay…Well, is it smaller than a breadbox?"

"No again!"

Rumia rolled over to her stomach, chin resting on her folded arms as she shot an annoyed glance at the Kirin. "Rin, is it a freaking breadbox?"

"Wrong again!" Rin cried happily. "That's three guesses. You've got-" Then she blinked and frowned. "Hold up, a toaster's the same size as a breadbox, right? It's been awhile since I saw one."

"Huh? The hell is a toaster?"

Rin winced. "Ohhhhh, right. Sorry, I forgot…Well, you and technology…"

With another roll of her eyes, Rumia sat up. "Well, forgive me for living in a _forest _all my life!"

"Sorry, sorry," Rin apologized. "I'll think of something you can guess next time."

With a sigh, Rumia turned her attention to the screen. The scene displayed was the interior of an aquatic grotto. Rin had settled down at one end (instantly killing all nearby anemones and shellfish in the process) while the small silver fish that swam around in circles had instinctively restricted themselves to the other end.

Rumia had never been this far underwater before and had found the experience fascinating. But after the first couple of hours it had quickly lost its novelty.

"So, how much longer are you planning on staying here?" she asked.

"Uh…I dunno," Rin shrugged. "Why, you wanna leave? It seems like a good hiding place to me."

"Is that so."

"Right."

"So we're just here to hide from Yukari."

"Also right."

"Move the view to the left."

Rin hesitated, but did as Rumia requested. The view was now focused on the grotto's entrance, an oval hole about five feet from top to bottom. Directly outside was a gargantuan slitted eye that took up the entirely of the entrance and then some, watching and waiting.

Rumia stuck a thumb at the screen. "And it has absolutely nothing to do with the fifty-foot sea monster waiting outside?"

"Of course not!" Rin protested. "I mean, we are immortal now and really stupid powerful."

"Okay then."

"Seriously, I can kill that thing anytime I want!"

"Sure."

…

_And…we're back to angsty drama! Sorry guys, I know you were enjoying the break. But hey, at least it ended on a lighthearted note._

_Anyway, there's a few thing I want to note. Two of the scenes in this chapter, specifically Rumia's wake with Daiyousei's story and Mystia's breaking down and confessing her fear to Wriggle, were scenes I had in the back of my head…pretty much since Chapter One. I had planned to wait until the third or fourth arc to use them, but then I realized they worked better if used earlier, as they have actual plot significance (i.e. motivating Team Nineball to get up and take a more active role in the plot) when they would have just been little character moments had I waited. Seeing how long they've been sitting back there, it was kinda weird to actually write them. _

_Anyway, this chapter's also rather important because I believe it's a good representation of what I'm trying to do with this fic. I've noticed that there's many darkfics that just go too far, filling an originally innocent story with over-the-top violence, rape, drug problems and massive character derailment, or if they're done well, it tends to be a darker glimpse into a hidden problem a character has (the Kaguya and Mokou rivalry, or Flandre's madness) without much in the way of an overreaching plot. I'm trying to see if it's possible to write a darker view of Gensokyo by keeping the characters and setting more-or-less true the general view of how the country is and still retaining at least a little of the fun of the series. I dislike happy endings almost as much I dislike complete in-your-face downer endings. I'm more of an earn-your-happy-ending sort of person, in which some good is achieved but the characters have to go through hell to get it. So while things can and will get really dark, there's still a note of hope. Light shines best in a dark room, after all. And the brightest light casts the darkest shadow. Balance and contrast is good for any story._

_Also, it gave me the chance to show Team Nineball as an actual family, instead of just a bunch of mischievous kids who get beat up a lot._

_Anyway, enough philosophizing. Props to Blueberry for calling the whole Yuuka thing! Believe me when I say that her being mentioned in the chapter right after you brought her up was a coincidence. A weird coincidence though. It made me laugh._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	12. Bits and Pieces

Bits and Pieces

For the second time in less than twelve hours, Wriggle found herself flying around and looking for someone. But on this occasion, she really, _really _didn't want to find them.

The Garden of the Sun spread in every direction, coating the earth in a sea of green, yellow and brown. The flowers seemed to be perpetually in bloom. Their leaves never fell, their petals never wilted and even though they were no longer budding their faces continued to follow the sun. This continued throughout the year, with the frost of winter never daring to intrude upon the boundaries of the field.

While the field wasn't officially a no-fly zone, it was treated as such. Everyone, youkai, fairies and humans alike, gave the area a very wide berth. Stories were told of those unlucky saps who had accidentally wandered into the realm of Yuuka Kazami. The stories were never pleasant, but they were almost always true. Wriggle knew that better than anyone. Some years back, she had spent an entire summer in Yuuka's care. It was not an experience she would easily forget, no matter how many times she had banged her head against a rock afterward.

_One more flyby, and I'm gone, _Wriggle thought to herself. She had already been up and down the field twice, and so far there had been no sign of Yuuka at all. A small glimmer of hope ignited. Perhaps she was away at her mansion. If that were the case, then there was nothing Wriggle could do. Yuuka disliked trespassers in her field, and she disliked visitors to her mansion even more, at least ones she had not personally invited. Not even Wriggle, who could claim some "familiarity" with the insane youkai, would dare break that rule.

Wriggle circled around one more time and sighed in relief. There was no indication that Yuuka was around. What a shame. Well, she would just have to explain that to Cirno. She had tried, after all. Certainly Cirno would understand that. It was no fault of hers.

Suddenly, something long, sinuous and godsdamned _fast _whipped into the air. Wriggle had barely enough time to register its presence before it slammed right into her body and sent her careening to the ground. A moment later, she was lying senseless in the dirt, surrounded by sunflowers that had somehow turned their dials down toward her, almost as if they were staring.

A booted foot jabbed itself under Wriggle's stomach and flipped her over onto her back. Her mind still whirling from the impact, Wriggle lay with her limbs sprawled in all directions, trying to make sense of the blurry shapes above her. One humanoid shape in particular seemed to tug at her attention, though she wasn't sure why. It probably had something to do with those two red eyes leering down at her.

A warm, long-fingered hand reached down to stroke Wriggle's cheek. "Wriggle!" an off-kilter voice exclaimed. "You came to visit me!"

Then something grabbed Wriggle by the leg and started dragging her through the dirt. Enough of Wriggle's mind cleared to allow for a single observation.

_Aw nuts_.

…

Realistically speaking, leaving valuable objects out in the open overnight was a really stupid idea. Especially in a place like Gensokyo, where creatures both nocturnal and of questionable morality were known to wander. Even in the safer areas such as the Autumnal Forest were not entirely free from those with sticky fingers.

Mystia knew this, of course. And she really wasn't expecting to find much left of her cart when she returned to the spot where she had set up shop the night before. In fact, she would have considered it lucky if the cart itself was all that was left.

What she didn't expect was to see a pile of smoldering pieces of broken beams and torn fabric in its place.

She stood next to the wreck that had been her cart, staring down at its remains. On a purely logical level, she knew that it wasn't that great of a loss. Even with the funds she was contributing to Cirno's plan, there was still more than enough left over to rebuild. She could probably get back to full operating condition in less than a month, now that she knew what she had to do. And it wouldn't be too hard to re-attract customers. All things considered, this wasn't any great loss.

But still…it had been _her _cart. Her most prized possession. She had spent night after night in that cart, cooking and serving her special recipes for literally decades. It had almost felt like an extension of herself, one of the few places she felt truly comfortable. And now, seeing it torn apart and burned, it just felt wrong.

"Wow," Daiyousei whispered. She crouched next to the pile of smoking ember and tentatively poked at them with a stick. "The whole thing is gone."

Mystia repressed the biting reply that rose up in her mind. "Looks like," she said. "I guess someone must have upset the grill. That'll teach me to leave hot coals unattended."

"Looks like they took all your stuff too." Daiyousei picked up a torn rag with the tip of her stick. "I don't see any of the utensils or the seasonings or much anything."

"Yeah, that's really not unexpected." Mystia took a deep breath. "Say, Dai? Would'ja mind giving me a few minutes?"

"Huh? Oh…Uh, o-okay…"

"Nothing personal. It's just that I need to behave very oddly for a while and I don't think you want to watch."

"Oddly? What do you…" Daiyousei caught the look in Mystia's eyes. "Oh. Um, okay. I'll, uh, be over there…"

Hitching up her skirt, the young fairy bolted, putting a safe distance between her and Mystia and the ruins of Mystia's livelihood.

"Fifty-three years," Mystia muttered. She turned over a piece of timber with her foot. "Fifty-three years I've tended that stand. Built it myself, got it all prettied up, oiled it when it squeaked, fixed it when it broke, and they go and burn it down in one. Effing. Night!"

She snatched up the piece of timber and started smashing against the rest of the pile in time with her ranting. "The whole effing thing! Gone! Well, just wait until I'm back in business! I won't just stop at taking their money! No, now I'm gonna take them for everything they have! I'll empty their strongboxes, snatch their mothers' silver, release their all livestock, burn down their barns, steal their children and feed chocolate to their dogs! When I'm done with them there won't _be _a human race anymore! When I'm done I'll…huh?"

Mystia suddenly found her fury restrained when something grabbed her arm, preventing her from striking further. She looked down to see a tearful Daiyousei grabbing at her elbow with both arms.

"No Mysty!" the little fairy cried. "Don't go crazy and become evil! I don't wanna lose you too!"

"Huh?" Mystia brought her arm up, lifting up the distressed fairy along with it. "What are you talking about? I'm not going to become evil."

"B-but you w-w-were s-saying you were going t-t-to destroy all humans! I-I thought…"

Mystia sighed, her anger dissipating. She shook her arm once, dropping Daiyousei to the ground. "Jeez Dai, I'm not going really going to go on a murderous rampage, okay? Have some faith in me."

"Y-you're not?"

"No, I'm not. I was just upset and needed to blow off some steam. Stop taking things so literally." Mystia offered her hand.

"Oh." Daiyousei allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. "Sorry."

"S'okay. Everything's been weird."

"Yeah." The ice fairy cast a long look at the smoldering wreckage. "Hey, Mystia? Do you really think it's true? What Cirno said about what Yukari said about how Rumia used to be evil?"

"That?" Mystia pulled off her cap and scratched her head. "I have no idea," she admitted. "I mean, it does sound like a load of crock. I mean, it's Rumia. I know she tries to make herself seem all big and scary, but…you know how she is."

"Comes off looking pathetic, huh?"

"Exactly. Still…" Mystia frowned. "She is the only one of us who had no idea where she came from. And Yukari was really worried when she heard it was her who got…" Mystia tripped over the next word. She took a deep breath and said, "Um, that it was her in trouble. So…maybe. I don't know."

"But what if it is?"

Mystia shuddered. Just thinking about it made her feel uncomfortable. "Then…well, let's just focus on getting her back and worry about it later."

"Okay…But what if-"

"Hey! What do you two think you're doing?"

Mystia and Daiyousei whirled around to see three humans approaching, two men and a woman. They were all wearing black robes and carrying quarterstaffs, the standard uniform of one of the forest's patrols.

"It's them, it's gotta be!" one of the men shouted to his companions. "The ones who burnt that cart down!"

"Huh?" Mystia found herself utterly befuddled by the accusation. "It's my cart! Why would I-"

She suddenly found herself being dragged into the air by a panicked Daiyousei. "Fly, Mysty! There's no way they'll listen to you!"

Mystia took one look at the expressions on the humans' faces and found herself agreeing, though it rankled her to flee and make herself appear guilty. Still, better part of valor and all that. She turned away and started flying as fast as she could.

"Get them!" one of the humans called.

"What, are you kidding?" the woman snapped back. "There's no way we'll catch them. Besides, what if they're just leading us into an ambush?"

Mystia rolled her eyes. "Leading them into an ambush," she muttered. "Do we look like the ambushing type?"

Daiyousei shot her an odd look. "Um, yes? We do it all the time?"

"Point." Mystia glanced over her shoulder. Fortunately, the humans had deigned to not pursue and were instead occupied with disposing of the cart's remains. Even though having them touch it ignited her rage anew, she was at least collected enough to understand that pressing the issue would end…poorly.

When the two had put enough distance between them and the patrol, they stopped to rest next to the lake that sat at the foot of the Youkai Mountains.

"Whew," Mystia said. She wiped the sweat from her forehead. "That was close."

She glanced down at Daiyousei for an agreement and saw that the ice fairy was coughing so hard that she couldn't even take a breath.

"Jeez Dai, take it easy." Mystia started thumping the ice fairy on the back. "You should be used to this sort of thing by now."

"Jus…Just gimme a sec…" Daiyousei wheezed. She took in a shuddering breath and forced herself to slowly exhale.

"S-sorry," she said as soon as she could. "J-j-just got a little f-freaked. I'm okay."

"You sure?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Daiyousei coughed one more time. "Let's just g-go home."

"Sure." Mystia inhaled a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Cirno and Chen could probably use some help with those fliers of theirs anyway." She took the timid fairy by the hand. "C'mon kid, let's head back."

…

Her tongue sticking out of one corner of her mouth, Cirno brow furrowed as she concentrated. Drawing was never her strong suit. She just didn't have the patience for it. Little doodles and the occasional acts of vandalism, sure. But sketching the same picture over and over again…well, it got to be a little trying after awhile.

And to top it off, her black crayon was starting to run out. She had been through two already, and their supplies stretch only so far.

She pressed down to complete an arm when her fingers slipped. The tip jammed down and broke off to go tumbling over the piles of parchment they had spread over the cavern floor.

"Aw, damn it!" Cirno swore. She crumpled up the smudged flier and threw it in a corner. Then she tore off the crayon's wrapping and grabbed a blank sheet to begin anew.

"Hey, Cirno?"

Cirno looked up to see Chen staring at her. The catgirl had her own stack of papers that she was working on, though she had made much more progress than the ice fairy. More than four times worth, actually.

"What?" Cirno snapped.

Chen held up the paper she was working on. "I don't think this looks right. Does this look right?"

On the yellow sheet was a smiling stick figure with a triangle covering the lower half of the torso, indicating a skirt, and something not dissimilar to a stick in one hand.

"What? No, no, no!" Cirno snatched the paper out of her hand. "This is all wrong! I showed you what it's supposed to look like, didn't I? Like this!"

She held up one of her own drawings. It was more-or-less identical to Chen's, except instead of a smile the mouth was turned down in a pointy-toothed grimace.

"See? It's evil, remember? Evil things don't smile!"

Chen took both of the papers and held them up, side-by-side. "Ohhhhh," she said. "Gotcha. See, I thought there was something wrong, but I wasn't sure what it was, but I didn't wanna ask in case there really wasn't anything wrong and I would just end up bothering you when you're all busy with your stack."

"Well, it's wrong, so…" Cirno's eyes widened when she saw the rest of Chen's stack. "Oh, come on! Don't tell me they're all like that!"

"Nah, don't worry." Chen spat in her hands and rubbed her palms together. "I gots this."

Her hands started moving at a blurring rate as she grabbed one paper after another, scribbling scowls over smiles. Dumbstruck, Cirno could only stare as Chen tore through the stack at a dizzying rate.

Biting her lip, she stole a glance at her own discouragingly small pile of completed fliers. Making sure Chen wasn't looking, she took about two-thirds of her blank sheets and discretely moved them over to Chen's side.

"Hey, Cirno?"

"Ah!" Cirno flinched and the papers flew out of her hand. "What? I didn't do anything! I was just making sure we were using the same kind of paper, I swear!"

"Huh?" Chen, as it turned out, hadn't even looked up until that moment. "What're talking about?"

"Uhhhh, nothing, nothing!" Cirno said hastily. "What's up?"

Chen shrugged. "What's all this about Wriggle gonna be seeing the sunflower psycho? Because Ran says she's a really bad person who likes to hurt people for fun and if I ever go near her field or if I don't do my chores or go to bed on time she'll come and take me away in her picnic basket and pull out all my fur and use to make a nice summer hat except I don't think she really likes hats because if she wanted a hat wouldn't she have gotten herself one by now because I'm pretty sure they're not that expensive and if she has a big mansion she probably has a lot of money like Mystia does and oh yeah is Mystia really that rich because I was thinking that if there's any left over after this she could take us on vacation somewhere nice except I kinda been everywhere by now it sucks that Gensokyo's small like that have you ever been anywhere I haven't?"

Cirno blinked.

"Oh, and I was wondering if we could take a break soon because my hands're starting to cramp from all this drawing even though I really like drawing except Yukari said that if I draw on the walls one more time she's going to stuff me into a bag and throw me down a well and I can't tell if she's serious or not because I think she's joking but sometimes it sounds like she's being serious…"

…

"…_trail disappeared when she went into the Dragonfire Canyon," _reported Mima. Or rather, her disembodied head, which was now floating half a foot above Yukari's table. _"There's been the odd sighting here and there, but nothing conclusive. Sounds like she's sticking to rocky areas and avoiding plant life entirely."_

Yukari sighed as she slouched back in her chair. "That complicates things. With all the caves and winding trails in that canyon, she now has hundreds of hiding places at her disposal."

"_Not to mention the fact that the canyon is practically on the Saltlick Sea's doorstep," _Mima agreed. _"All she has to do is do her best rock impression and she's off the radar."_

"And thus does the situation delve further into downtown FUBAR," Yukari muttered. "The incident has barely reached its third day and already I long for the wars of years past. At least they had the graciousness to come looking for me."

"_Yes, having the immortal killer come looking for you would certainly make the situation better," _Mima said brightly. _"That way, you can have her slash up the other side as well. You want to be symmetrical, don't you?"_

"Enough of your lip, spirit," Yukari glowered. "I am not in the mood."

"_Oh, take it ea-"_

Yukari held up a finger, cutting her off. "Finish that sentence, and I swear I will solidify that astral projection of yours and punt it down the stairs."

Mima tsked. _"I liked you better when you weren't so whiny. See you tomorrow, Oh Great Grumpy One."_

With that, her projection dissolved away, leaving little green sparks that floated down to the table before fizzing out.

Yukari pushed her chair back and stood to her feet. The burn had completely healed and the only remnants of the taint remaining was a prickling line of purple-pink. Still, her mood hadn't improved much the last couple of days.

It was this whole Ringleader business. She _hated _meeting with them, especially for the purpose of dealing with emergencies. There was no denying that they probably could come up with an effective strategy once they finally got down to it, but the hours of bickering beforehand were going to be aggravating. She remembered when she had met with the then-current incarnation of the group to discuss the impeding invasion of the Lunarian capital some centuries prior. Although the war itself had been fun, it had taken them a solid week to come to any sort of agreement. And that had been just about a straightforward invasion. The internal politics involved with this one were going to be…unpleasant, to say the least.

"Yukari?"

And then there was that.

Yukari barely glanced at her nine-tailed Shikigami. "Yes, what is it?"

"She's still missing. Chen, I mean. I've checked all the usual places, talked to all her friends, and no one has seen her."

"Yes, I know."

"You know?" Ran exploded. "That's all you can say? She's still out there with that monster, and you're not even-"

"Ran, remember what I said about speaking to me disrespectfully," Yukari said. Her voice did not rise above a disinterested monotone.

Ran nodded. She took in a deep, shuddering breath and slowly let it out. "You're right, I'm sorry. But still, Chen is in danger. Please, aren't you concerned at all?"

Yukari's eyes flicked upward. "Yes, but I don't believe Chen is any real danger. We've managed to track Satsuki to the Drangonfire Canyon, well away from Chen's usual haunts."

It was evident that Ran was trying very hard to remain calm, but the strain was showing on her face. "But what if it already got her?" she protested. "Chen just disappeared during the battle. What if it absorbed her or…"

"She didn't."

"Yes, but how do you _know?"_

Yukari considered chastising her again, but decided against it. "First of all, if Chen had been killed or even hurt, both of us would know instantly. Even if that wasn't the case, no body was discovered, even though Satsuki's been employing Shadow Youkai tactics, tactics that _always _leave a body."

"Okay, but-"

"Furthermore, if you'll remember from the reports, Satsuki ignored all the rabbits and went straight for Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou, despite the fact that the Eientei bunnies would have been easy pickings. It's clear that she's only interested in absorbing people with power, and Chen simply wouldn't attract her attention. The most likely answer is that she left the forest without ever encountering Satsuki and is now pouting in one of her little holes, dwelling on how mean we've been. She'll return when she's ready."

Ran didn't look entirely convinced, but Yukari's words had reassured her somewhat. "I don't know, Yukari. I'd still rather she was here, where I know she'd be safe."

Yukari allowed herself a small smile. "Understandable. She does mean a great deal to you. But don't forget that she is capable of looking after herself. And that the odds greatly favor her safe return."

Ran let out a sighing breath. "I know, but still…" She shook her head. "Well, one thing's for sure: she's in for the scolding of her life for making me worry."

"That we can both agree on. Now, if there's nothing else…"

Ran inclined her head. "Of course. I'll just ready myself for tomorrow."

Yukari watched Ran leave. Her cold tone aside, she did understand the fox's distress. Ran was a natural worrywart when it came to Chen, and the situation at hand was only making things worse. Another reason why they needed to have Satsuki disposed with as soon as possible.

However, the conversation had brought to mind another problem Yukari needed to deal with. Unlike the others, this was one she was going to take great pleasure in solving. There were too many loose cannons running around as it was. It was time to take the biggest one off the board. It had served its purpose anyway.

She returned to her table and sat back down. Leaning forward, she folded her hands in the praying position and closed her eyes as she thought. Then she opened them again and flicked one wrist.

A form came into view above the table, that of a brown-haired young woman wearing a long-sleeved purple robe. She appeared to be sitting at a table of her own, examining a jeweled pendant with the trained eyes of an antique collector. She didn't seem to notice that she was being watched.

Yukari brought her fist to her mouth and loudly cleared her throat.

The woman jumped in her seat and the pendant flew from her hands. She grabbed at it, but it slipped from her fingers to bounce along the unseen floor. Then she turned in Yukari's direction. Her eyes widened when she saw who was contacting her.

_"Yukari Yakumo, ma'am!"_ the woman said as she leapt to her feet. She snapped into a smart salute. _"I'm sorry, I didn't know you would be calling!"_

"Neither did I, until a moment ago," Yukari said, nodding her greeting. "Good to see you, Princess Kotohime. Or should I say, Captain?"

_"The same. I assume you have a task for me?"_

"Indeed. In your vocation as an officer of the law, actually. I'm authorizing an arrest warrant. The suspect in question will be attending an emergency meeting of the Ringleaders tomorrow, at the Court of Conflict in the Ruined City. I expect the arrest to take place after the meeting's conclusion. I'll take steps to personally ensure that it goes as smoothly as possible. However, I expect you to keep all of this confidential until then, and as low-key as you can during the actual arrest. There is a related situation that I do not want escalating beyond my control."

_"Of course,"_ Kotohime said with a nod. _"What are the charges?"_

"Theft, reckless behavior, endangering civilians through gross misconduct, and helping unleash a particularly destructive monstrosity. Which would be the situation I just spoke about."

Kotohime's eyes widened. _"I…see. And the suspect's name?"_

Yukari's lips parted in a genuine smile of pleasure. Mima was probably going to hate her for this, but that was just too damned bad.

"Marisa Kirisame."

…

"So are you looking forward tomorrow?" Alice asked. She lobbed the leather ball she was holding over to Marisa, who was standing a few feet away. "I mean, it doesn't really seem like your scene. A bunch of people sitting around talking for hour after hour…Sounds like the sort of thing that would have you gnawing off your own leg."

Marisa caught the ball as it passed over her head and shrugged. "Eh, I dunno. I'm sorta curious about how things go. Mima said it's a good place to go see a bunch of important people act like absolute fools, ze. Who knows? It might be fun."

"Just keep telling yourself that after the first couple hours. When your butt starts to ache and you need to use the restroom and that same stupid person who's been up there forever just won't _shut up…"_

The two of them were hanging out in one of the many small meadows that dotted the Forest of Magic. Marisa had just gotten done filling Alice in about her trip to the Scarlet Devil Mansion from the previous day, and the conversation had eventually turned to the posse Yukari was going to be gathering to hunt Satsuki down.

Truth be told, Marisa was actually impressed at how well Alice had taken the whole situation. Usually having murderously insane running loose would cause most people to at least break a sweat. But upon being told, Alice had simply shrugged and said something to the effect of, "Wow, sucks to be you." Marisa had wondered if she would be nearly so composed if it was her precious doll collection being threatened.

"Asshat." Marisa threw the ball back. "I was trying to be positive about the whole thing. You're always telling me not to be so grumpy. So why you gotta go be so negative, ze?"

Alice grabbed the ball with both hands. "What you call negative I just call being realistic. Seriously, when you get back, I'll be in for an earful about how bored you were." She tossed it back underhanded.

"Weak," Marisa said. "C'mon, put some effort into it. Like this!"

Marisa drew her arm back and hurled the ball with all her might. It sailed straight and true and a good fifteen feet above Alice's head. The puppet-master didn't even bother leaping up after it. She just watched as it flew over her and into the forest beyond.

Marisa was disappointed. "You're not gonna go after it?"

Alice brushed off her dress. "I fail to see why, since it seems all you're concerned about is showing off. At any rate, I need to get back home. I left some concoctions stewing that should be ready soon."

"You're no fun," Marisa said.

The two of them walked away from the meadow, leaving the ball where it was. It was no big loss. Marisa was reasonably sure she could dig up at least four more in her house if she bothered to look.

"Though you know is bothering me?" Marisa said as they entered the shade.

"No, but it's a moot point anyway, as you're going to insist on telling me regardless of my answer."

"All of the members are gonna be taking along someone as a retainer. Sorta like an assistant, I guess. To take notes and fetch glasses of water." Marisa frowned. "And Reimu's going as Mima's."

"So?"

"So? What do you mean, so? I was Mima's apprentice, remember? Her prodigy! I'm the one she taught most of her tricks to, the one who swore to devote my life in her service!"

"And look how long that lasted."

Marisa whacked the back of Alice's head. "Shut it, I graduated. Point it, I'm way more qualified to act as Mima's retainer than the Almighty Queen of the Bare Armpits. So why does she get the job?"

Alice pushed away a low-hanging branch from their path. "Isn't Mima going as Hakurei shrine's representative? If so, how exactly are you more qualified than the shrine's actual shrine maiden? The amount of significance you have for the shrine ranks in at exactly zero."

"Hey, I have plenty of significance, ze! I'm Reimu's best buddy, remember?"

"I see. So being the close companion of the shrine maiden makes you more qualified than the shrine maiden herself." Alice rolled her eyes. "Marisa, has anyone told you how wonderfully amusing your logic system is?"

"Ha ha, hilarious. I was talking about Mima. I don't care what she's representing. I should be the one going with her."

Alice smirked. She turned and grabbed Marisa's nose between her thumb and index finger. "Aw, is widdle Marisa jealous of the mean, nasty shrine maiden?"

Marisa's eyes drooped half-closed. She drew her fist back. "You like having all your teeth?"

Alice released Marisa's nose with a laugh. "Oh, stop complaining. Besides, you'll be there anyway. I'm sure Reimu would be willing to pass notes for you under the table."

"Shut it," Marisa grumbled. "And I'm just going as a, ugh, 'witness'." She made the appropriate quote signs with her finger. "Not even as a consultant. Bet they'll just ignore me and any idea I have."

"Everyone does that anyway. Seriously though, don't take it personally. I'll bet Reimu doesn't even want to go."

"Sure she doesn't," Marisa muttered. "At least they'll take her seriously. Me and Mima were the only ones to actually take Satsuki down while she was busy getting her ass kicked. And yet it's still all about the shrine maiden. Damn girl seems to be the only one anyone cares about."

…

Reimu stuck her foot into the air and tried to wiggle her toes. The best she got was a twitch.

She sighed and let her leg fall back to the sleeping mat. Well, it was an improvement at least. The deep purple-black color her foot and lower leg had taken over the last couple days had faded to a pale lavender. Feeling was also starting to return, though it took a great deal of pressure. All things considered, it was better than it had been. According to Yukari, she should be right as rain by tomorrow.

Just in time for the meeting of the Ringleaders.

Reimu wasn't sure how she felt about that. She knew of the Ringleaders' existence, of course. At least, Genji had mentioned that the various movers and shakers of Gensokyo would meet every half-century or so to accomplish absolutely nothing, but she had never really given it much thought. It had sounded like boring grown-up stuff to her at the time, and even now her opinion hadn't improved any. Politics had never interested her.

But now, seeing how she would actually be attending an emergency meeting as Mima's retainer, she had to admit she was a little interested as to what would happen. Based upon Yukari's admittedly short description of what she could expect, it sounded like there was going to be a lot of shouting and insulting. So long as you had a good seat and weren't actually required to participate, there were worse ways to spend a day. Since the whole meeting was called just to figure out how to squash a single person, something that everybody did all the time anyway, she didn't see the whole thing lasting very long anyway.

It did feel a little funny though, seeing how she was now technically acting as the assistant to her former arch-enemy. Reimu would be lying if she said that she didn't find it grating. After all, she had been the one to defeat Mima, hadn't she? While she didn't currently harbor the ghost any ill will, she couldn't help but feel that if anyone were to be declared the official representative of Hakurei shrine, it should be someone who was officially connected to the shrine. Mima just simply hung around so much that she was the "closest" thing the place had to a deity. In Reimu's eyes, that was not enough to qualify her for an official appointment.

Then again, it did mean that she didn't have to bother with the actual politics aspect, even if they only met every fifty years. So she supposed she should be grateful for that at least.

Still…to be considered in the same league as someone like Kanako or Kaguya…Sure, she could beat them up any day of the week, but there was something to be said for being respected as an authority figure. Keeping the local youkai and fairies in line didn't really compare.

Reimu's internal musings were interrupted when she noticed something moving outside the shrine. She blinked pushed herself up on her elbows. It was humanoid, so it couldn't be Genji. A worshipper, maybe? Now that would just be ironic. Her shrine saw so little in the way of business that having no one besides her friends come to visit was almost to be expected. But then, as soon as she was injured and unable to make the best of impressions, someone had to show up.

Then again, Satsuki was still on the loose. Reimu's eyes narrowed and flicked her fingers. A handful of ofuda appeared in her grasp.

Then she noticed that Yukari's ridiculously large barrier was still in place and let herself relax. As strong as Satsuki was, no one was going to get through one of Yukari's barrier that wasn't supposed to be there. It was more likely to be one of those silly fairies who lived in the cherry grove.

Then again, Satsuki had outwitted Yukari once before…

All of Reimu's caution melted away when the newcomer turned, revealing two crooked horns sprouting from either side of its head. Relief surged through her system as she pushed herself to her feet and limped out of the shrine as quickly as she could.

"Suika!" she called as she hopped down the steps. "Hey, you're okay!"

It was indeed the little oni. The last time Reimu had seen her, she had been unconscious and breathing shallowly, with purple splotches of the taint dotting her skin like bruises. She was in much better shape now. The taint had mostly faded away and her skin was a much healthier color. And, of course, she was awake and walking. That in itself spoke of massive improvement.

Still, there was something a bit off about the oni. Something about the way she moved. Reimu didn't especially care, of course. She was just glad to have her back.

Suika smiled as Reimu threw her arms around her. "Reimu, good to see you," she said, patting the shrine maiden lightly on the back.

"Jeez, is that all you can say? We both almost died, you know." Reimu knelt down on one knee. "Now, hold still and let me look at you."

Suika pulled back when Reimu touched her horns. "Hey, no touching! C'mon, I'm fine, okay? Don't make this weird."

"You sure?" Reimu said as she cocked her head. "'Cause there's something a bit…off about you."

Suika grimaced. "Well, um, I think I know what that is." She shrugged. "I think I'm sober."

Reimu fell backward onto her behind. "You're _what?" _she gasped.

In answer, Suika hefted the bag she was carrying. She gave it a slight shake, rattling its contents. "My gourd got all smashed up when I was fighting the ESP," she muttered darkly. "And the sake bug got squished."

"The ES what?"

"Satsuki. It's what…Never mind. Point is, it's smashed. And as it turns out, an enchantment that produces a never ending supply of sake doesn't work so well when you smash the container it's been cast on. And to top it off, those idiots at Eientei are so damned stingy with their alcohol that I swear that Kaguya must be some kind of teetotaler." Suika dropped the bag. She sighed and slumped her shoulders.

Reimu wasn't sure if she should comfort Suika or start laughing. Considering that the oni had come to closest to actually defeating Satsuki without knowing about how to overcome her absorbent nature, she decided to go for the former.

"I'm, uh, sorry about that," she said. It sounded lame, even to her ears. "Can it be fixed?"

"Pretty sure, but it'll take awhile. And with everything that's going on, I'm not holding my breath. And in the meantime…" Suika twitched and grabbed her horned head. "Damn it, how do you people stand _living _like this?"

Despite her friend's distress, Reimu was fascinated. "What's it like for you?"

"Well, for one thing, everything's so bright it's hurting my eyes. Everyone talks way too fast and way too loud. And the color's all wrong! The world is looking fucking weird! Hey listen, I'm dying here. You got anything?"

Reimu pushed herself back to her feet. "Anything of what?"

"Anything! Sake, wine, beer, anything!"

Reimu's heart fell, but she nodded. "Yeah, there should be a few bottles in the storehouse."

"What a relief. 'Scuse me, I need to go force the world to make sense. Good thing the oni don't get hangovers, because otherwise I'd probably have killed you by now."

Reimu watched Suika as she stumbled over toward the storehouse. Well, there went everything she had been saving. She saw it lasting ten minutes, tops.

Despite herself, she couldn't help but wonder what had happened when Suika had sobered up. Eirin's people probably had their hands full when the oni had woken up thirsty. In that, Reimu didn't envy them. Not that she had before. All things considered, Eientei was in quite a rough patch, and she didn't think the events of the next few days would make things any better.

…

"Given Kaguya's extended leave of absence, I will be acting in her place at tomorrow's meeting," Eirin was saying. "In addition, I will also be attending as an official witness, consultant and quite possibly defendant."

Reisen nodded once. They two of them were sitting in Eirin's office on either side of the desk. Eirin herself really shouldn't even be up and about in Reisen's professional opinion, but the Lunarian doctor was accustomed to doing as she pleased. The Lunarian nobility did have amazing recuperative abilities after all, and she herself had devised several ways to patch broken bodies back together over years, many of which she was now using to herself. In addition she was currently heavily hopped up on painkillers and adrenaline shots, though Reisen was worried about the long-term effect that many drugs would have on her system.

Of course, Eirin frankly did not give a damn. As far as she was concerned, failed or not Rin was still her project, and she would have a direct say how the operation proceeded.

"Furthermore, given your close involvement with the experiment and the subject, you will be accompanying me as my retainer," Eirin continued. "Tewi's healed enough to take over Eientei's operation, at least for the duration of the meeting. Not saying you haven't done surprisingly well, but Tewi never had much involvement with the Satsuki Incident, so she wouldn't be especially qualified to sit in on the meeting."

Reisen nodded again.

"I doubt you will catch any fire for what happened, but you will still likely be called upon to speak. If that happens, do not divulge any more information than is strictly requested. No personal opinions, no observations, no deviations beyond the letter of the question. Eientei's authority and reputation are about to take a massive hit, and we need to salvage the situation the best we can, understand?"

"Yes," Reisen said obediently.

"Good." Eirin's chair squeaked as she leaned back and crossed her legs. She steepled her fingers and said, "Now, is there anything you would like to say to me?"

Reisen started. "I…um, what?"

"Reisen, we are about to participate in an operation geared toward disposing of a being who was, for all intents and purposes, your adopted daughter. An adopted daughter who is in her current predicament thanks to my experiments." A ghost of a smile tugged at Eirin's lips. "Surely you must have _something _to say about that."

Reisen blinked. "Wait, you _want _me to…criticize you?"

Eirin sniffed. "Obviously not. But I'd rather not deal with the long-term effects of deep-seated resentment and the division of loyalties. We need to present a unified front to the outsiders, and if that is to be possible, I would rather have the air cleared as soon as possible. So, please. That little speech you've been practicing for the last couple days. I assure you, there will be no negative repercussions for speaking your mind."

Completely taken back by this unexpected request, Reisen struggled to put her thoughts in order. It was true, there was a particularly epic rant that she had been imagining unleashing on her mentor even as she tried to preserve her life, one which touched on points such as Eirin's original disdain for Rin's presence, the way she callously abused the girl's trust for personal profit and thus had broken her mind and ruined her life, her inhumane way of disposing of Rin afterward, the long years of imprisonment and her present treatment of Rin as nothing more than a problem.

Reisen wanted to tell her all that, she really did, but instead what she ended up blurting out was, "U-uh, are they going to hurt her?"

Eirin pressed her fingertips to her forehead and sighed. "That's it? Really? Typical." She shrugged and said, "Almost certainly. In fact, I do believe this whole caper will most likely end in Rin's death."

Reisen felt her insides squirm. "But that's not fair. This wasn't her fault."

"Oh, I agree," Eirin said. "The 'By reason of insanity' might actually hold up in court. However, this is not a criminal trial. Furthermore, as I must belatedly inform you, the world is not a very fair place. Rin's personal responsibility in this matter is secondary at best. What does matter is that she is now obviously psychotic and in possession of far too much power. In fact, I'm told she tried to kill you. And was reportedly enjoying the attempt."

"Well, yes," Reisen admitted with a shudder. "But she stopped."

"And underwent a sudden personality change in the process? Reisen, I did read the report. If anything, this new revelation is even more disturbing than what we previously feared. If she's switching from Rin the poor abused victim who just wants to be everyone's friend to Rin the sociopathic killer who'd rip out your intestines while singing a merry tune at the drop of a hat, then we may have no choice but to put her down, for her sake as well as ours."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Reisen muttered before she could take it back. When she realized what she had said, she blushed and clapped her hands over her mouth.

Eirin raised her eyebrows. "Interesting. Do elaborate."

"Never mind," Reisen whispered. She clutched the sides of her seat and turned away.

In response, Eirin reached over to grab Reisen by the chin and force her head around until she was looking her mentor in the eye. Even in her weakened state, Eirin's grip was still horribly strong.

"No, no, no," Eirin chided. "I told you speak your mind, didn't I? Finish that statement."

She released Reisen's face and sat back in her chair. When Reisen didn't immediately comply, Eirin spread her hands in a "Please continue" gesture.

Reisen took a very deep breath, thought _screw it_ and said. "Y-you'd like for them to try to kill Rin, wouldn't you? You're just so godsdamned worried about saving face that you want for them to focus on how terrible she's become and not think about who made her that way. She thought the _world _of you, and you turned her into a monster!"

Her breath was coming out in ragged pants. Angry tears stung her eyes. "And now all you can think of is getting other people to clean up your mess without blaming you for it. Hasn't anyone thought of what she must be going through? How terrified she must be? Doesn't anyone want to help her at all?"

Inwardly, Reisen was bracing herself for some kind of retaliation. Promise or no, Eirin wasn't one to take criticism lightly, especially from a subordinate. But instead, Eirin merely said, "I tried just that, but I was interrupted. And given all that's happened, I don't think she would be much inclined to speak to us."

"As I said, Rin may be a victim on some level, but she is still dangerously unstable. And furthermore, she is loose in Gensokyo. How would you like for her to stumble upon some human family out on a picnic? Or how about children playing in the woods? Are you really willing to sacrifice their lives for hers?"

Reisen didn't have an answer for that.

"I see. Well, you'd better make up your mind then. Because the last thing you need is indecisiveness. The day may very well come where you're forced to decide between Rin's life and the life of an innocent. It very well might be Gensokyo itself at stake. If it helps to cast me as the villain of this piece, go right ahead. But don't let that delude you from seeing the situation as it is. Understand?"

When Reisen didn't immediately answer, Eirin said again with greater emphasis, _"Understand?"_

"Yes," Reisen mumbled.

Eirin arched one eyebrow. "Yes what?"

"Yes…Ma'am."

"Good. Now, don't you feel better getting that off your chest?"

"I suppose."

"Very good." Eirin's brow furrowed together. "Oh, just so there's no confusion, this was a one-time privilege. Don't presume to speak to me so frankly in the future."

Reisen nodded.

"And now, in regards to-"

There was a sudden knock at the door. "Mistress Yagokoro, we found it!"

Eirin sighed. "Always interruptions. Reisen, could you get that?"

Reisen silently rose from her chair and walked over to open the door. Commander Utada marched in and saluted.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we've finally managed to locate the Jeweled Branch of Hourai."

"Oh?" Eirin's eyebrows rose. "That is good news! Is it in serviceable shape, at least?"

"Er, mostly. The lower third has been splintered, and one of the stones seems to have been crushed by a piece of masonry."

"Typical. Well, it could have been worse," Eirin muttered. She took a deep breath and rose to her feet. "At least it's fixable. Take me to it."

Utada stiffened and saluted again. "Yes sir!"

The two of them left the room without another word, leaving Reisen still standing alone by the door.

…

Koakuma opened the door to the sitting room with her behind, careful not to upset the tray of tea and cookies she was carrying.

"I'm sorry to make you wait, ladies," she said as she set the tray down at the table where the mansion's guests were waiting. She began pouring tea for the two. "Miss Izayoi is still in congress with the Mistress. If you would prefer to leave and come back at another time…"

"Yeah, you can forget that," Rika Asakura said. She grabbed one of the bat-shaped cookies and bit off the head. "Did'ja mention the part where there's lives are on the line here? Ours and hers?"

"We do not wish to hurry her, but this is something of an emergency," Rikako added. She started spooning sugar into her teacup.

Koakuma nodded. "I understand. She is aware of the situation and will be with you shortly." She started backing towards the door. "Again, I apologize for the wait."

"Sure you do," Rika muttered darkly. "It'll probably be midnight by the time…Oh Christ, Rikako, are you trying to sweeten that tea or form it into a solid? And what's with these cookies, they taste like sausage…"

Koakuma hustled out of the room as quickly as she could, shutting the door and cutting off Rika's voice.

"Dear gods, those two give me the creeps," she muttered. She straightened her suit and made her way back through the mansion until she reached the staircase to the second floor.

Patchouli's current intern, Tokiko, was waiting for her at the foot. The ibis youkai looked uncomfortable. Then again, the Mistress was in an unpleasant mood. Everyone was uncomfortable as a result.

"Well, they're certainly not going anywhere," Koakuma muttered. "Just our luck. I don't suppose she's shown any sign of finishing?"

Tokiko shook her head miserably. "No, they're still in her study. I couldn't hear much, but it didn't sound good. Does she normally get like this?"

"Not usually, and this is the first I've seen her become angry at those two." Koakuma sat down on the steps next to her. "But she has been known to lose her temper on occasion. Believe me when I say interrupting her is a very bad idea."

"How bad?"

Koakuma shot her a look. "You know those cookies I just took to the humans?"

"Yeah, what about th-Ohhhh…"

"Exactly. When something like this happens the best thing is to just keep your head down and ride it out. Trying to interfere will just get you sent to very bad places."

…

_Click-click-click_

Remilia Scarlet's fingernail, carefully filed and trimmed to a perfect point, clicked out a rhythm on the top of her desk as she reread the summons that had been given to Sakuya and Patchouli the day before.

"…formally ordered to appear…" she muttered as her eyes skimmed the lines written in Yukari's near-perfect handwriting. "…address accusations of actions of a grievous nature…participation in experiments of morally questionable nature…crimes against the natural order of things…"

She dipped the paper low so she could look over it toward the two figures kneeling in front of the desk. "'Natural order of things'? Does such a thing exist in Gensokyo? It's so hard to tell sometimes."

She sighed and neatly refolded the paper. "Still, all things considered it would be rude not to show up, wouldn't you think so? After all, these are some very serious accusations here. It would certainly not look good if we were to ignore them, don't you two agree?"

"Yesh Mishtreth," Sakuya responded through a swollen mouth. Patchouli simply winced and nodded.

"Well good!" Remilia slapped her palms down against the desk's marble surface, making them flinch. She stood to her feet. "I'm so _glad_ we were able to come to an agreement. And it's important for us all to be all on the same page, wouldn't you say so?" She walked around the desk and squatted down in front of them. "So _very _important."

She reached out with her hands, brushing her fingertips along both their cheeks. Patchouli started trembling at the touch, but Sakuya endured without reaction.

"After all, I'd oh so very upset to find out that we're _not _on the same page." She pressed her nails under their chins, forcing their chins up so that they were looking her in the eyes. She smiled sweetly, baring her fangs. "So very upset indeed."

"It would be such an awful thing to find that my two dearest friends in the whole wide world were sneaking around behind my back and cutting me out of the loop," Remilia purred. "So very upsetting. And do you know what would be even more upsetting? Hmmm? Do you?"

The sides of her smile fell. "To discover that my baby sister was somehow convinced to go along with it, without my permission and without my knowledge. Now, if that were to happen, why I don't know what I would have to do. So, it probably shouldn't happen. Well, don't you agree?"

Sakuya nodded obediently. "Yesh Mishtreth. I undershand."

"Y-y-yessss…" Patchouli squeaked out.

Remilia's smile returned. She kissed them both on the cheek. "So glad you see things my way. Now, clean yourselves up. I believe you have guests to entertain."

With that, she left them where they were. She heard Patchouli's shaking arms give out from under her, but paid the collapsing magician no heed as she left her study.

Feeling absolutely no compulsion to hurry at all, Remilia descended the staircase, her fingers lightly touching the banister. Patchouli's pet demon and some bird that Remilia didn't recognize were sitting at the bottom, talking.

"…and then there was this one time where a human thought he could earn a name for himself by staking the Mistress. Three days and enough chemicals to eat through iron and we still couldn't get him out of the wallEEP!"

Koakuma immediately shot to her feet when she saw Remilia approaching. The bird followed suit, hiding behind the demon's legs. Remilia paused to look at them.

"M-M-Mistress Remilia!" Koakuma said as she tried to stand at attention without shaking. "W-w-why, what a-"

Remilia ignored her stammering. "Your master and Sakuya have both been disciplined and are upstairs. They may require assistance standing. But you two wouldn't mind helping them, would you?"

Koakuma forced a shaky grin. "Of c-course not, Mistress! Right away!"

With that, she bolted up the stairs, dragging the bird along with her. Remilia watched them go for about a second before continuing on her way.

Despite her current anger with her chief maid, having Sakuya Izayoi as an employee did come with a great number of advantages. One of them was that the interior of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was as large as Remilia wanted it. The place was a virtual labyrinth of twisting corridors, rooms of every shape and size and seemingly endless staircases. Beyond giving her enough space to hold her things and confusing the hell out of property appraisers, it also had the advantage of confusing intruders who were unfamiliar with the mansion's layout, one Marisa Kirisame notwithstanding. Of course, Remilia knew every turn like the bite of her fang.

It was through these corridors that she marched on, her path as certain as a bullet's flight. She made turn after turn, passing through door after door, descending ever deeper into the heart of the mansion.

Finally she stood before a single door. Unlike the ornate red-and-gold designs of the mansion's other doorways, this was a crude dull iron. Over fifteen different locks of various sizes sealed the door shut along one end, and steel chains crisscrossed over the front. The message was clear: this door was not to be touched.

Remilia ran her hand down the door's side and concentrated. Someone could wear down a thousand hacksaws on the chains and try every key in the world on the locks and it would do them no good. The door would only open to the deliberate touch of a select few. It had to be that way. Very few could open the door and survive.

Fortunately for her, Remilia was one of those people. At her touch, the chains shook and snapped loose from their supports to fall in a heap at her feet. The locks began popping, slipping and twisting open, starting with the top and ending at the bottom. The door slid open on its rusty hinges.

Like the rest of the building, the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was much different than the counterparts found in more mundane dwellings. Its design smacked closer to a network of catacombs than an underground storage area, with musty hallways and cracked and stained walls. Large chunks of stone had been torn out in areas, and broken furniture, toys, and once living creatures were scattered across the floors. The place smelled of mildew, decay and, oddly enough, brimstone. And the only lighting was from a series of heavily melted candles that inadequately bathed the area in a sickly green glow.

"Oh, Flandre darling!" Remilia called, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Flandre, where are you hiding?"

Silence.

Remilia sighed as she continued deeper into the basement, careful to close the door behind her. "Flandre, let's not play this game, please. Come on out, your sister needs to speak with you."

This time, there was an answer. A tittering of laughter, high-pitched and definitely not sane, trickled out of the shadows. It seemed to come from no particular direction, but instead echoed from all around. To the uninitiated, the effect would be very chilling.

Then laughter ceased, and then the voice of a young girl began singing.

"_Apples and honey.  
The jam in the tea is apricot.  
I threw the silver  
Teaspoon against the wall. _

_Hurry up, let's play.  
Dolls never say anything.  
They just try to sing  
The one song they know."_

Remilia rolled her eyes. "That's enough Flandre. Now, stop messing around and-"

"Boo!"

Squeaking in surprise, Remilia jumped back when a shadow suddenly swung down to grin into her face. Pleased that it had gotten the reaction that it had, the shadow began swaying back and forth as it cackled in delight.

Remilia immediately composed herself. "Now that," she sniffed, "was _not _funny."

"Was too! Got you, Remi!"

"Yes, I'm sure you're very pleased with yourself. Now, stop swinging back and forth like a monkey and come down."

Sticking out her tongue, Flandre Scarlet flipped around and landed in front of her sister. Like Remilia, she appeared to be a Human girl of about ten years of age, with adorable dimpled cheeks and tousled blond hair. She wore a red dress tied at the throat with a yellow ascot and a pink mop-cap sat on her head. But again, there were a number of things that would immediately identify her as being inhuman, among those being the scarlet eyes and pointed fangs that she had in common with her sister. But even more noticeable was her wings: instead of the leathery bat-like membranes that stretched between Remilia's wingtips, Flandre instead had a series of different colored crystals hanging from her wire-like span. No one was sure how she had come to be in possession of such a wingspan, whether it was by some sort of strange vampiric mutation or if they were of artificial design. And of course, no one could work up the courage to ask her.

Remilia of course found none of this to be unusual. What did catch her eye was that Flandre's wings seemed to have acquired a new set of decorations. She frowned in disapproval.

"Flandre, what are those rodents doing there?" she asked.

Flandre giggled. "I made some new friends!" She proudly spread her bizarre wings, displaying the fact that she had a rat hanging from each crystal, tied tightly in place by the tail. "I took them flying with me!"

Most of the rats were obviously _very _dead, if not outright mutilated. Two of them still twitched weakly, but if they had not expired already they were well on their way.

"Now Flandre, what did I tell you about mistreating living creatures," Remilia chided her.

Flandre's face fell and her wings wilted. "But we were just playing!" she whined.

"Flandre…"

With a sigh, Flandre stared down at her shoes as she recited, "'Living things aren't toys and shouldn't be treated as such'," she muttered. "'Because they break easy and can't be fixed'."

"Very good. Now, please get rid of those. It's unsanitary."

"Okay…" Flandre said reluctantly. The crystals suddenly flared up, illuminating the surrounding area in a flashing kaleidoscope. It was all very pretty, but the effect was ruined when each and every one of the rats burst into flames. They blackened and shriveled until their tails gave way, sending them tumbling to the floor like falling stars where they continued to burn to ash.

"Very good," Remilia approved. "Now then, how would you like to go on a field trip?"

Flandre perked up immediately. "Field trip? You mean, outside?"

"I do indeed."

Flandre cheered her delight. "Hooray!" she cried as she leapt up to throw her arms around Remilia's neck. "Thank you, Remi!"

Remilia staggered back but regained her footing. "You're quite welcome. We'll be going out tomorrow. There are some very important and very stupid people that I need to upset. And you get to help."

Flandre nuzzled her sister's neck. "And will there be cookies afterward? And cake, and games?"

"Oh, there will be games," Remilia purred as she affectionately ran her fingers through Flandre's hair. "There will be _plenty_ of games."

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia winced as pins and needles erupted all over her head. "Ow! Stop it!" She pulled away from Rin's grasp and started scratching furiously.

"Knock it off," Rin said crossly. She grabbed Rumia's head again and pressed in with her fingertips. "This is hard enough without you squirming all over the place."

"But it itches!"

"Of _course _it itches! I'm digging through your deepest, oldest memories. Did'ja expect it to feel like a massage? Now, hold still already."

Bristling with annoyance, Rumia tried to keep from fidgeting as Rin poked in deeper. But with the prickles that kept dancing all over her skull, it was almost impossible.

Then a sharp pain jabbed its way through her mind. Rumia yanked herself way away from Rin and fell to the ground, clutching her head.

"Ow, ow, ow," she muttered. "The hell did you just do?"

Rin just looked confused. "What do you mean? What happened?"

"What happened? It just felt like you were driving a spike through my eye, that's what happened!"

"Huh. That's weird. Here, let me take a look?"

"No way! You'll probably give me brain cancer or something!"

Rin rolled her eyes. "You don't have a physical brain anymore, dork. The worst that can happen is that I accidentally poke the wrong place and you go mad."

"That's supposed to make me feel _better?" _Rumia demanded.

"Um…Good point. But still, I need to look at that."

"Forget it," Rumia said. She crossed her arms and glowered. "No more mind probe for you."

A flash of irritation washed over Rin's face. "Rumia, do you think that I couldn't make you do it if I wanted to?" She inclined her head in the direction of Kaguya and Mokou, who still hung suspended without their mouths.

Rumia blinked. A slight shiver ran down her spine and she wordlessly crawled back to sit down in front of Rin again.

"Thanks," Rin muttered as she touched Rin's hair with her fingers. Then she said, "Um, sorry about threatening you. It's just we need to figure this out, and this is our only lead, so…"

Rumia sat still and said nothing.

With a sigh Rin pushed hard. Once again, red hot agony drove through Rumia's mind, only this time it was worst. Rumia screamed and reflexively pushed Rin away.

"Wow, yeah, I felt it that time," Rin said. "Um, are you…okay?"

"Gimme a second," Rumia groaned. She was still seeing stars. "What _was _that?"

Rin scratched her head. "Erm, well I've never really tried this before, but it feels like you've got some _major _repressed memories there."

"Huh?" Rumia stopped rubbing her forehead. "What's that?"

"Well, you know if something really, really bad or scary happens to somebody and they don't want to remember it anymore? So their mind pushes down deeper and deeper until they forget that anything ever happened?"

"I guess…"

"That's what repressed memories are. The memory's so bad that your mind just blocks it out. Only problem is, it never really goes away and can really mess up a person's life without them even knowing it."

Rumia frowned. "So…you're saying something terrible happened to me, something I just plain don't remember?"

"Could be. Probably. I'll have to dig them out to make sure."

"And would that…hurt?"

"Well, yeah," Rin admitted. "I mean, it if hurt that much for me to just _touch _them…"

Rumia was starting to grow sick of this place and all of its weird metaphysical metaphors.

"Do we have to do it now?"

Rin stared down at her hands. "I'd rather we did it as soon as possible. Get it over with, you know? But I did promise not to hurt you…" She bit her lip. The whole thing looked like it was confusing her.

An uncomfortable silence passed between them. Then Rin rose to her feet.

"I guess we'll figure something out," she muttered. She started pacing back and forth, a troubled look on her face.

"Um, right." Rumia grimaced. She quickly changed the subject. "So have you figured out what to do with them?"

Rin paused and sighed. "No, I haven't."

"Maybe we should just let them go," Rumia suggested. "Knock them out and run before they wake up."

"Maybe. Kinda hard to give up immortality, though. I don't wanna get blown up again, and neither do you." She glowered over to her two hanging captives, who just glared right back. "Maybe I should take away their eyes. All their staring is bugging me out."

The fact that Rin immediately thought up that solution instead of simply turning them around made Rumia shudder. "Ugh, please don't. They're already like something out of my nightmares."

Rin shrugged. "Okay, if you like having their eyes following you every…" She paused in mid-sentence. Her eyes blinked at Rumia, darted over to Kaguya and Mokou and then back to Rumia. Then she jumped up and clapped her hands. "That's it! Rumia, you're a genius!"

"Uh, is that so? How?"

"Your nightmares! That's how we'll fix it!"

"…what?"

Rin didn't answer. Instead she pointed a finger at the two rivals. "Rock-a-go-bye-bye!" she shouted.

Immediately Kaguya and Mokou's forms began to blur and melt away. Rumia stared in shock as they literally faded away like smoke.

"What did you _do?" _Rumia demanded.

Rin grinned. "I put them to sleep," she said proudly.

"What? I thought you said we can't sleep here."

"We can't!"

Rumia closed her eyes and groaned. "Rin, please start making sense before my brain throttles itself."

"I just told you, you don't have-"

"Rin!"

"Okay, okay. What I did was trigger that part of the mind that makes dreams. So even though they're not physically here, they still have a conscious mind. So they must have a subconscious one too! So that means I can make them start dreaming! It keeps them entertained, and I don't have to send them into the dark to get rid of them."

Rumia tried to wrap her mind around that one. "Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, you've done it before, right?"

"Nope!" Rin answered cheerfully. "But it's just a dream. Don't worry so much, they'll be fine."

…

Once upon the time, Yuuka Kazami had resided in the world of dreams. There, she had garnered a reputation as one of the place's most dangerous and unstable denizens, fueling rumors that she wasn't a youkai but a nightmare given flesh. It was said that she would randomly wander into the minds of sleeping children who didn't behave. Said children would then be scarred for life, if they woke up at all.

Since then, Yuuka had relocated to Gensokyo, citing that it made caring for her beloved sunflowers easier. And so the entirely of the dream world breathed a collective sigh of relief while the inhabitants of Genoskyo hid under their beds, praying that they wouldn't attract her attention.

During the move, Yuuka had brought her mansion with her. The building itself was an engineering marvel. Most of the stone floor had been torn up to allow Yuuka's flowers space to grow. How they received enough sun to grow indoors was the source of much speculation. The answer was a complicated one, with such details as strategically placed skylights, windows, mirrors and, when all else failed, magical assistance. But when one really got down to it, it all worked for one reason: because Yuuka wanted it to. And what Yuuka Kazami wanted to happen in her domain happened. It was simple as that.

And so Wriggle found herself sitting motionless at a round tea-table on the mansion's sundeck. A spotless white linen cloth covered the table, and a moss green umbrella speared through the center. A silver tea set sat on the table's surface. At first glance, it seemed to be a rather lovely scene, but that fact that Yuuka Kazami was smiling at Wriggle from across the table ended any pleasantness for Wriggle.

"Wriggle, my honeybee, my sweet biscuit," Yuuka said happily. "I'm just so glad you came by." She picked up the teapot and carefully filled one of the cups. "I've missed you ever so much. Where have you been all this time? Didn't you miss me too?"

Wriggle's face was still smarting where Yuuka's sunflower had smacked her. "Um, yeah. It's, uh, good to see you again, Yuuka."

Yuuka smiled as she pushed the cup toward the young firefly. "Oh, you have no idea. Things have been just so lonely here, with no one but my babies and Elly to keep me company. And while I do love them so, they're not much for conversation or…playtime."

Wriggle gulped nervously. She hastily snatched up the teacup and brought it to her lips before Yuuka noticed.

She paused before taking a sip. "Uh, Yuuka? Is this…"

"Oh, don't worry yourself," Yuuka laughed. "It's only sunflower water. I wouldn't _dream _of poisoning my little nightlight."

Wriggle grimaced. She carefully set the cup back down. Perhaps it wasn't poisoned, but Yuuka wasn't above spiking it with certain substances that would lower one's guard. And inhibitions.

"So now, what brings my Wriggle here?" Yuuka asked. "Because it couldn't have been to just to see little old me."

Wriggle forced a grin. "Uh, what makes you say-"

Yuuka reached over to lay one hand on Wriggle cheek. The firefly froze in her seat. For one thing, Yuuka's touch could go any number of ways, very few of them survivable. For another, Yuuka apparently did not need to lean over to reach. Wriggle was pretty sure her arm had not been quite that long a moment ago. It was…disconcerting.

The smile had left Yuuka's face. "Oh, Wriggle, Wriggle, Wriggle, please don't insult my intelligence," she chided. "I'm thrilled to see you, I really am, but as much as it pains me so say so, I just cannot seem to make myself believe that you would come by on a social visit." A flashing gleam appeared in her eye. "Though if I am wrong, I certainly wouldn't say no to…discussing old times."

Wriggle's eyes popped wide open when Yuuka withdrew her hand. In her fingers was a black leather collar. A silver tag hung from the collar, bearing Wriggle's name.

"Yaahhh!" Wriggle cried as she leapt back. "I, uh, I d-do need to ask you something…"

"Really now. Please, continue."

Wriggle forced herself to remain calm, though she couldn't keep herself from speaking too fast. "Well, as it so happens, one of my friends is in really big trouble, and we got a plan to help her. Only problem is that we might make some people mad, and really, really need some help if that happens." She swallowed noisily. "So, um, if you're interested of course, but if you could…help…us out?"

Yuuka sighed heavily, dashing Wriggle's hopes to pieces. "Oh Wriggle, my moonflower, you know how deeply I love you. But honestly, trying to mix me into your friends' little games? Come now, what do you take me for?"

Yuuka suddenly slammed her palms on the table, rattling the cups and silverware. "Especially," she snarled, "since you ran out on me years ago, leaving me all alone and breaking my tender heart! And now you expect me to help you in some stupid, childish scheme? Are you out of your fucking mind, you godsdamned immature little cockroach? Have you forgotten who I am?"

_Screw this, I'm outta here. _Wriggle turned to flee, but found that her path to be blocked. Yuuka's sunflowers had nearly doubled in size and were looming overhead, their dials staring down at her. There was little doubt that any attempt to leave would be dealt with harshly.

Shaking with absolute terror, Wriggle turned to see that she was now standing in Yuuka's shadow. The flower youkai was standing over, displeasure written all over her face.

"Now, that won't do," Yuuka whispered. "No, no, that won't do at all."

She reached down with one curled hand to the cowering girl, who was now fully convinced that, youkai immortality or no, she was not going to survive the next few minutes.

Then, likely fueled by adrenaline, inspiration struck. "It's Yukari!" Wriggle screamed.

Yuuka's hand paused. She cocked her head in curiosity. "What?"

"It's Yukari! She's the one we need protection from!"

"Yukari?" Yuuka withdrew her hand. "How so?"

Summarizing the best she could and doing everything in her power to keep from babbling, Wriggle told her off Rumia's plight and Yukari's involvement. Admittedly, she didn't know much, but apparently that didn't matter. As she spoke, Yuuka's frown gave way to a happy smile.

"Rumia?" she said, clasping her hand excitedly. _"Rumia? _And the chaos, and Yukari's involved! Ah…The Shadow Youkai! Oh, this is going to be good!"

Then she stooped down. Wriggle cried out and closed her eyes, but instead of tearing her head off Yuuka merely scooped the firefly up in her arms, where she was cradled like a baby.

"Oh, my lovely, you should have said so!" Yuuka cooed as she playfully poked Wriggle on the nose. "Of course I'll help you and your darling little friends! Anything for my sweet, sweet Wriggle."

"Thanks," Wriggle squeaked. While she was glad that her life seemed to be no longer in danger, being held by Yuuka was not a preferable turn of events.

And even if she had managed to secure the flower youaki's help, Wriggle couldn't believe that it would do her or her friends any good. In fact, she was starting to believe that they had just made the mistake of their lives.

…

_I'm probably enjoying writing for the crazies a little too much. Though in my defense, it was late at night and I was strung out on caffeine when I did Remilia and Yuuka's bits._

_Anyway, I'll admit that despite its length, this chapter was originally intended to be filler. A sort of way to do a role call before everyone goes back to making Rin's life miserable. Still, there are some very important plot bits introduced here, ones that only came to mind during the actual writing. I just hope they don't start running together and making a mess. Because you know, lots and lots of characters._

_Speaking of which, I'm a little unsure of what to do with poor Kaguya and Mokou, who really haven't been getting much attention as of late. I wanted to devote a few chapters to their experiences in the dream land Rin sent them to in a sort of mini-arc, but given how many plotlines I've got going already, it might slow things down too much and just mess up the stride of things. So instead what I might do is write an entirely separate story for them as a spinoff, though obviously it won't be updated as much as the main story. Probably only every two-to-three weeks or so. What would you guys prefer?_

_And if anyone's confused about why Ran hasn't found Chen yet, Ran doesn't know about Team Nineball's hideout. I know it's kind of a weak explanation, but hey, it serves._

_And bonus points to anyone who knows what song Flandre is singing._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	13. Into the Ring

Into the Ring

Gensokyo was a country in name only. If one were to be accurate, it would be better described as a land rather than a country, one which contained several loosely connected settlements and other commonwealths. There was no common government, no state of law other than what the communities enforced within their own borders, no real rule beyond "Annoy us, and we'll mess you up." And if anyone was unable to uphold that rule…well, that was just too damned bad.

Not to say there hadn't been attempts to unite all of Gensokyo under a single flag. One eager young visionary had gone from settlement to settlement, trying to convince the various races and peoples to put aside their differences and work toward a common good. After three months of failing to generate any sort of interest, he had finally given up and headed home…only to be waylaid and eaten by a couple of wild youkai. Nobody really cared; he had been considered the family pest anyway.

Another attempt early in the country's formation saw greater success. The ambitious leader of a youkai tribe had decided that Gensokyo would serve nicely as her own personal kingdom. She began to unite other nearby tribes, bringing them together with the promise of bloodshed and the spoils of war. More and more creatures joined her cause, including some of humanity's more vicious members, who saw her campaign as a way to settle some scores with their neighbors. They even began construction on a fortress city, one which would serve as her capital and their headquarters in the coming war effort. Even in the present day the city is considered quite the accomplishment, as it marks the only time that many different races had been convinced to work together on something of that scale. It also is noted as the single largest city to be built in Gensokyo's history, with souring towers, imposing walls enchanted against fliers, an intricate grid of city streets and dwellings and enough supplies to withstand a year's siege.

Unfortunately for them, as the city neared completion and the day of the invasion drew ever closer, they had finally drew the attention of Yukari Yakumo.

These days, the Ruined City sits desolate as a reminder that some things are to be left well alone. There remains little else except a field of stone piles, long worn down by the elements. Here and there stands the fragment of a wall or a doorway, but on the whole it bears no resemblance to the proud metropolis it had once been. Everything was destroyed or looted, first by Yukari herself (the foolish self-imagined queen's crown still sat over her fireplace) and then by everyone else. Occasionally a treasure hunter would poke around the city's bones, hoping to find something that had been overlooked, but they always left disappointed.

However, there was one structure that had escaped the devastation: the citadel of the Youkai Queen remained in the city's center, silently watching over the ruins. Yukari had seen the benefit of preserving the tower for her own private use and had taken steps to ensure that it would not be disturbed. Among these uses was hosting meetings for the leaders of the very much divided communities that dotted Gensokyo. She found the irony to be quite amusing.

It was in this citadel that Yukari sat waiting, in the hall constructed for the Youkai Queen's court as they plotted their conquest, in the chair intended for the queen herself. The hall stretched around her like a small stadium, full of elevated stone seats surrounding an open area in the center, with Yukari's seat rising above them all at the far end. While she didn't condone the Youkai Queen's actions in the slightest, she had to admit that sometimes she saw the appeal. If nothing else, there was something to be said for having such an awesome place to sit and look important.

Then again, the appeal was going to wear off as soon as some of those seats filled and the meeting began. She just hoped she could scare them enough in the debriefing stage to convince them to work together, but the rationalist in her truly doubted it. The room was nicknamed "The Court of Conflict" for a reason.

"Yukari? They're arriving."

Yukari nodded to Ran, who was standing near the door. Indeed, when she looked through the huge arching windows that were set over the seats, she could see several small dots moving in the distance, flying towards the citadel.

"Well, I suppose I better be there to greet them," she muttered. With a sigh, she pushed herself to her feet and floated to the floor, the heels of her shoes sending an echo through the stone chamber as they tapped against the stone. "If nothing else, maybe they'll get a fraction of the yelling out of the way at the front door."

…

Reimu's jaw dropped as the imposing structure came into view. "Holy wow!" she gasped. "It's so…_huge!"_

"Nearly a mile straight up," Mima called to her. Despite their purpose for being there, the green-haired ghost seemed to be utterly unconcerned. She was flying belly up, arms behind her head and didn't seem to even be paying attention to where she was going. "Took the builders near fifteen years to construct."

"Wow." Reimu's eyes traced the jutting spike of the citadel from top to bottom. Even though they were still several miles away, its sheer vastness was still apparent. "And Yukari really owns it?"

"You keep what you conquer," Mima said. "Though ironically enough, that was the catchphrase of the tower's original owners. I guess they never intended for it to apply to anyone else but them."

"I don't see what's so great about it," Suika grumbled. She shielded her eyes from the sun as she squinted forward. "Pandemonium is way cooler."

From atop her broom, Marisa rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "So there's probably a whole lot of interesting stuff from that city locked away in there…"

Reimu shot her look. "Don't even think about it, Marisa."

"What? I'm just saying-"

"No."

"Hey, you can't-"

"Seriously, just no."

"Anyone ever tell you how you like to take the fun out of life, Reddie?" Marisa grumbled.

"Hush now," Mima told them. "We're almost there, and it doesn't look like we're the first to arrive."

The four of them swooped down low, heading for the citadel's courtyard. There, they could see Yukari standing before the massive double-doors of the entrance. She was conversing with a tall, regal woman with blue-colored hair that brushed her shoulders. The woman wore a flowing red dress that held a round, mirror-like pendant at the center of her breast. Standing behind her was a young woman dressed in a pale blue shrine maiden's robe, not too dissimilar from Reimu's. She had long green hair that flowed partway down her back. One lock was decorated with a curling ornament fashioned in the form of a serpent and fastened with a pin that resembled a frog's head.

"Oh, hey, look at that," Mima remarked as they approached. "The newbies showed."

"I heard that," said Kanako, goddess of the Youkai Mountain. She turned to the new arrivals. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the competition. So what brings you girls here? Did you finally grow so tired of the lack of business that you wanted to see how the goddess of a real shrine operates?"

Reimu feet touched ground. "You got us," she said. "Specifically, we needed help learning how to lose fights. We were hoping you guys could give us a few pointers, since you're so good at it."

"Yeah? Well, here's a hint," the green-haired girl broke in. "Just take a nap in the middle of a duel and let the other guy pound you. Falling asleep should be something you're well experienced in."

"That doesn't sound too hard," Marisa remarked. She shouldered her broom. "I'm practically falling asleep every time I duel you guys anyway."

"Concussions have a way of doing that," Kanako said. Then she laughed. "Good to see you guys," she said as she leaned over to embrace Reimu.

Reimu smiled as she returned the hug. "You too. I was growing worried that the tengu might have kicked you out by now." She pulled away and waved at the green-haired girl. "Hey, Sanae! How's the knockoff shrine?"

"Doing great business, thank you very much. There's been talk of starting a yearly festival in Kanako's honor."

"Really? Nice! A few more favors like that you might actually become halfway legit." Reimu looked around. "By the way, where's the frog-girl? She didn't want to come?"

"Suwako never really had the patience for these sorts of things," Kanako answered. "Though I see you brought the oni-girl. She seems a bit put out though. Did something happen I should know about?"

Reimu stole a glance at Suika, who had landed a small distance away from the rest of the group and was now pacing back and forth, mumbling to herself. "Um, yeah. She kinda broke that gourd of hers."

Sanae's eyes widened. "Wait, she did _what?"_

"Smashed it flat!" Marisa crowed. She slapped her palms together to demonstrate. "And now she's sober for the first time in centuries, ze! Makes you wonder if her brain will start-"

The rest of the sentence was cut off when Yukari suddenly appeared behind the witch. She threw one arm around Marisa's throat and the other over her mouth. "That will be enough of that," she hissed as she lifted Marisa fully off her feet. To the staring representatives of Moriya shrine, she said, "And do Suika and favor and don't bring it up again. She's taking it a bit hard."

With that she released Marisa, who fell to her knees coughing. "Why…you…crazy…bitch," Marisa wheezed. She pushed herself to her feet and reached into the pocket of her apron. "I'll…teach you to…huh?" She pulled open the pocket and looked inside. "Wait…what?"

Yukari, who was already walking away, turned to smirk at her. "Looking for this?" she asked, holding up Marisa's hakkero between two fingers.

"Ooooohhhh…" Reimu and Sanae exclaimed, perfectly in unison.

"Shut it!" Marisa snapped at them. "And give that back, you decomposing old-Ahhh!"

A gap opened beneath Marisa's feet, sucking her in before closing up. Less than a second later another opened up five feet above where she had been standing, dumping the witch into an untidy heap.

"I'll return your toy when I feel like it," Yukari coldly told Marisa as the latter tried to scramble to her feet. "And remember this: you're on my property, so you will play by my rules. So behave. Got it?"

Marisa's eyes flashed, and her right hand began to glow. However, Mima took that moment to sidle up to her former minion.

"That's enough, Marisa," she whispered into the girl's ear. "Not the place or time."

Marisa frowned, but she relaxed her hand. "Fine. Got it. But I better get that back."

Yukari smiled, but she didn't respond. To the others, she said, "Sorry about that, ladies. And now, I must ask you to go inside and take your seats. The others will be arriving soon and…"

Her nostril twitched.

"…Hmmm, anyone else smell brimstone?"

"_Yu_KAR_i!" _a commanding voice thundered across the courtyard.

"Oh, her."

Everyone turned to face the newcomer, who was marching toward her with a clear bone to pick. She was easily the shortest person present, at only four-and-a-half feet tall. Despite this, her demeanor suggested someone who was used to being respected. She wore a smart but elaborate blue-and-black suit and covered her aquamarine hair with the single most ridiculous hat that Yukari had ever seen in her long life of meeting people with ridiculous hats. A painted casket-shaped rod was clutched in one hand, which doubled as her mark of office and a handy prop whenever she needed to whack someone on the back of the head. Behind her walked a much taller girl whose red hair was tied up in two messy pigtails. A large and very dangerous looking scythe was carried over one shoulder.

Despite the noticeable size difference in height and weaponry, there was no question that the former was the superior of the latter. And heaven help anyone who would be so foolish for mistaking it to be the other way around.

"What is the _meaning _of this?" Yamaxanadu Eiki Shiki, Judge of the Dead, demanded. "Your actions are inexcusable and I demand and explanation!"

"Hello Yamaxanadu," Yukari said. She bowed low out of respect. Even though she found Eiki Shiki to be a ghastly overblown windbag, one had to acknowledge her office at least. "Thank you for coming."

"Forget the greeting!" Eiki snapped back. "You will tell me the reason for this outrage!"

Yukari inclined an eyebrow. "What, calling an emergency meeting? All proper protocol was followed to the best of my knowledge. I don't see-"

"Not that! I refer to your _blatant _disregard of the laws set in place to govern life and death. You Yukari, yes _you! _You had the audacity to prevent a mortal from completing their natural transition to the second life, a clear violation of the statues outlined in _The Absolutely Unbreakable Laws Of Life And Death That Must Be Adhered To If Anything Is Going To Work, _page one-hundred fifty seven, paragraphs three through four, which _clearly _state that any such intercession must first submitted in request form to the office of the First Judge of Paradise, namely _myself, _which according to my records never took place!"

"Ah, that. Well, I was a bit pressed for time-"

"Furthermore, in doing so you prevented my subordinate from completing her duties!" Eiki indicated her retainer with her rod. "Do you realize how difficult it is to motivate Komachi to actually do her job when she's supposed to? She does not need outside interference! She's getting enough of that as it is from her own laziness!"

Komachi merely rolled her eyes and mouthed, _See? I _told _you so._

Yukari's mouth was set in a straight line. So, the games were beginning already, and they hadn't even gone inside yet. She glanced around to those gathered, who were watching the proceedings with great interest. Marisa seemed to be especially gleeful at the sight of Yukari being chewed out.

_Well, might as well give them a show. _Yukari took a deep breath and said, "Yamaxanadu Shiki, believe me when I say it was not my intention to upset the balance of life and death-"

"Your actions suggest otherwise!" Eiki scoffed. "Or do you mean to tell me that they were involuntary on your part?"

"-but I was forced to act quickly in order to prevent an obstruction of justice."

She had said the magic words. The anger immediately dissipated from Eiki Shiki's face, to be replaced with surprise and interest.

"An obstruction of justice? Of what kind, and how does that relate to the life you preserved?"

"The person whose life I saved was one Eirin Yagokoro," Yukari continued. "She was both a witness and victim of a murder attempt. Furthermore, she contained intimate knowledge concerning the murderer, who was able to elude capture and is currently at large. Had I not acted, such knowledge would have been lost and I would be unable to have her present that knowledge to an official council meeting, which is our reason for meeting today. Surely you wouldn't have wanted me to let vital evidence fall from our grasp?"

"No, no I would not," Eiki muttered. She shook her head. "Very well, I retract the accusation. You did the right thing in this instance. I suppose this would count as a good deed in your favor. Komachi? You are forgiven. Now, come."

With that, she spun on her heel and marched inside the citadel. Komachi shot a glance at Yukari and spun her finger in a circle next to her ear before saying "Coming Master!" and following.

Yukari coughed into her hand. "You better go in as well," she told the others. "The less standoffs we have before the meeting starts, the better."

Everyone muttered their assent and turned to walk inside. Before they were all gone, Yukari sidled up to one of them and muttered, "Reimu, a moment of your time."

"Huh?" The shrine maiden looked at her in bewilderment. Then she shrugged. "Sure, I guess."

The two of them walked a small distance away from the others, to where a stubborn tree had forced itself up from the rubble.

"So what's up?" Reimu asked. "Something happen?"

Yukari folded her arms and leaned against the tree. "No, actually I just wanted to see how you were holding up. I haven't been able to check up on your since the day before yesterday."

A brief silence passed, and then Reimu said, "Okay, this is starting to creep me out. Who are you, and what have you done with the real Yukari?"

"Pardon?"

Reimu started ticking off points on her fingers. "Come on, first you go find me during the battle and make sure I got proper medical attention instead of just telling me to suck it up like you usually do. I actually had to fight with you to get you to let me go home to the shrine, and then you insist on putting some big-ass force field over the whole thing, and then you go and _apologize_ for getting me into this. And now you pull aside to see if I'm okay. No offense, I appreciate the concern and all, but it's really weird and kinda disturbing."

Yukari's finger tapped her bicep. "Would you rather I was cold and distant?"

"Look, it's just strange, coming from you. Seriously, what's up?"

"Nothing, I just-"

"Yukari Yakumo!"

They both turned to see the latest arrivals, this time a white-haired woman with six massive purple wings sprouting from her back. Accompanying her was a humorless blond woman in a red maid outfit.

"_Shinki?" _Reimu blurted. "No. Fucking. Way. Shinki's here?"

"Well, she the leader of a prominent territory."

"You mean _Hell, _right?"

"That would be a prominent territory, yes. Just as well too, I needed to speak to her about something." Yukari glanced at Reimu out of the corner of her eye. "Go on inside, we'll talk later."

"Um, yeah. Sure." Reimu shrugged. "Sounds good."

Shaking her head, Reimu quickly left Yukari to catch up with her group. She started running, partially because she had fallen very far behind and partially because she didn't know if Shinki was the kind to hold grudges.

She hurried through the open double-doors of the entrance and looked around. Despite living in a smallish shrine all her life, Reimu had had the chance to visit any number of opulent dwellings in her time. The Scarlet Devil Mansion for one, as well as pre-destruction Eientei, Hakugyokurou and several others. Still, she wasn't sure what to expect upon stepping inside the ancient tower.

It did not disappoint.

The entrance led to a curving hallway, which stretched in either direction. As far as Reimu could tell, it circled the entirety of the citadel's circumference. The floor and the walls were an endless sea of black decorated with flecks of gold. Walking down that corridor would likely give the impression of striding across the night sky.

However, as interesting as that was, Reimu's attention was focused on what was directly in front of her. Another doorway was set in the wall across from the main entrance, leading into a cavernous open space. The room was circular in construction, with cornerless walls enfolding what had to be the heart of the tower. The flecks of gold twisted themselves along the floor in a spiral pattern, growing more and more dense the closer to the center they came. A series of haphazard looking stairwells lined the walls and crisscrossed through the air overhead, making Reimu feel like she was in some kind of giant mine or an insect colony. The latter imagery was enhanced by the many doorways set into the stone of the walls, reminding Reimu of a honeycomb.

"Impressive, isn't it?" asked a soft voice from behind.

Startled, Reimu jumped and whirled around. Her eyes widened when she saw who it was. Yet another one of Gensokyo's most important persons had arrived, this one a brown-haired woman with a flowing black-and-white dress. Her hands were clasped in a prayerful position at her waist, with a rolled-up scrolled held in her grasp. Her eyes were turned upward, towards the bizarre construction above.

"Byakuren!" Reimu exclaimed. She stood up a bit straighter. "I mean, hello. I wasn't aware that you would be attending."

"What choice did I have? Yukari hates these meetings. She would only call for one in the case of a dire emergency." Byakuren Hijiri's eyes continued to stare at the space overhead. "Look at it, Reimu. One of the very first of its kind to be found in Gensokyo. A center of government, the dwelling place for the head of state. Even today, there are few places that can rival it. Did you know that this tower alone took over fifteen years to build? The people responsible for its design probably forgot more about architecture than we will ever know. Considered to be one of Gensokyo's greatest wonders…and all of it created for the sole purpose of bringing tyranny and pain on others." She shook her head. "Amazing that a people so devoted to destruction would create something so breathtaking. Hello Reimu. I'm glad to see you again."

"The same. Did Yukari tell you what this was all about?"

"No, but that isn't surprising. She was never one to turn over a card unless it was absolutely necessary. Though I have heard some troubling things…" Byakuren bit her lip. "Speaking of which, word has reached mine ears that you got wrapped up in a bit of trouble recently. Are the two events related?"

Reimu grimaced. "Um, yeah. Same problem. I'm fine though. Just put me on the bench for a couple days."

Byakuren nodded. "Still, the problem itself is significantly greater than what has troubled Gensokyo in the past."

It was not a question, but Reimu shrugged and said, "You got that right. Hey, look, I'm sorta new to this place and got separated from my friends. Can you show me to where we're all supposed to be meeting?"

"Of course. This place can be a bit confusing, I'll admit. This way…"

Reimu started to follow, but then someone said, "Aw, is the little shrine maiden lost?"

Reimu started, but then she rolled her eyes. _Ah great, her. _She turned to see that they had been joined by a young woman in a form-fitting black dress, adorned at the hem with dozens of green crystals. Matching gloves covered both of her lower arms. Her flowing blue hair had been brought up in a bun and was tucked neatly underneath her wide-brimmed hat, which was decorated with three-dimensional representations of peaches. For all Reimu knew they _were _peaches, kept from rotting by the Celestial girl's power.

Tenshi Hinanai smiled at Reimu and Byakuren. It was not a nice smile. "Well, look who finally made the big-leagues. What's the deal, Reimu? Wanted to get a taste of what real power was like before age shriveled you up?"

Reimu bristled, but she didn't respond. Byakuren said in a neutral tone, "She's here with Mima, in representation of Hakurei Shrine."

Tenshi snapped her fingers in front of her nose. "Oh, yeah! That's right! Yukari decided to play favorites and give a seat to that floating has-been. Father was complaining about that for a month straight. I guess the only place fitting for her was some second-rate prayer box that's only famous because it keeps falling down."

"That's because assholes keep knocking it over," Reimu said crossly. "Like you."

"That's right, I did. You should be thanking me. That musty place was so old that it had fire hazard written all over it." She rolled her eyes. "Though of course they would go make me put the useless place back together. But I guess Yukari needs an out-of-the-way place to keep her whores. Really not seeing any other reason for you losers to get a seat on the council."

Reimu's right hand gave a sudden twitch. Three ofuda appeared between her fingers, ready to be thrown. She took a threatening step forward, but found herself stopping when Byakuren laid a firm hand on her shoulder. Reimu blinked in surprise and looked at up at the magician in askance. Byakuren just shook her head.

"Tenshi, enough," Byakuren said. She didn't raise her voice, but it was clear that she wasn't amused by Tenshi's flippancy. "She has just a much right to be here as you. Even more so than you, in fact. Because the last time I checked, the name card for Heaven's representative did not read 'Tenshi'."

"Maybe it was under 'Chiko' and they just forgot to update them," Reimu suggested wryly.

Tenshi's eyes narrowed. "For your information, Father and Mother decided that they wanted nothing to with that Yukari's ridiculous games. So I'm here as their proxy. Is that official enough for you, you obsolete old hag?"

"Really," Reimu said. "So they sent you to do the job they felt was beneath them. Not exactly what I would call a high honor. More like you're becoming their litter gatherer."

Tenshi sniffed and flicked the brim of her hat. "Well, _someone _has to do it. And if I'm to take my place as Queen of Heaven someday, I need to learn the ropes somewhere, even if it does end up being a big waste of my time."

"_Queen _of _Heaven?" _Reimu gaped. She started laughing. "You? Wow, someone woke up on the stupid side of the bed today."

"Oh Reimu," Byakuren sighed.

"What was that, little Human?" Tenshi snarled. "Have you forgotten whom you're speaking to?"

"Me? _You're _the one who forgot that your parents are immortal! If you're looking to inherit the throne then I suggest you find something to do in the meantime, like counting all the leaves in the Forest of Magic. Because unless you're planning on assassinating them or something, you're gonna be stuck having the dirty jobs bummed off to you for a long, long time."

Tenshi bared her teeth. Her gloved fists began shaking. For a brief moment, Reimu was certain that the Celestial would actually strike out. Reimu honestly wasn't sure if she wanted that to happen or not. She reasoned she could always chalk the ensuing beat-down up to self-defense if she did. Yukari would understand.

Instead, Tenshi simply let out a shaky breath. "Mortal trollop," she muttered. "At least I know what wealth feels like."

With that, she stormed past Reimu and Byakuren to the center of the room. She crouched down low and pushed off, rocketing upward toward one of the doors.

"Reimu, you were deliberately trying to provoke her," Byakuren admonished.

"No, she was trying to provoke _me. _I was just returning fire. Not my fault if she can't take it."

The magician frowned in disapproval. "Haven't you ever heard the expression 'Turn the other cheek'?"

"Have you _seen _what I do for a living?" Reimu said with a laugh. "I've only got two cheeks, Byakuren. Four, if you want to get technical. I ran out a long, long time ago."

"From your perspective, maybe," Byakuren muttered. She pressed two fingertips to her forehead and sighed. "Do I want to learn how you…ran out of the other two?"

Reimu just grinned. "Hasn't anyone ever told you it's not polite to inquire into a lady's private life?"

"I guess it's better not to know," Byakuren said. She sighed again but allowed herself a small smile. "Still, I have to admit that was rather amusing. Now, if you're done putting spoiled and brainless young upstarts in their place, shall we continue?"

Reimu bowed low and swept her arms out to the room beyond. "By all means. Lead on, Youchrist."

"Reimu, I already told you that hate that name."

"Yes, I know."

…

"The Shadow Youkai?" Shinki said warily. She exchanged a glance with Yumeko. "This again?"

"I'm afraid so," Yukari responded. "A third party has recently managed to access her powers and certain bits of her personality."

"Which ones?"

"The nasty ones. Which would be all of them, come to think of it. That is why I'm asking you again: do you, or anyone you know, possess any information whatsoever relating to Rumia of the Darkness' origins?"

"What makes you think I do?"

"Well, there's the small problem of the Shadow Youkai possessing many, _many _qualities that could be said to be demonic in nature. And come to think of it, you were quite adamant about refusing to let that thing anywhere near your domain. Shinki, it does not take a conspiracy theorist to draw some unfortunate conclusions."

The Master of Makai set her mouth in a straight line. "Yukari, I do not appreciate being accused of lying."

"You're avoiding the question again," Yukari pointed out. "If you had nothing to hide, than there should be no problem in answering."

"Really? Well, here's a straight answer for you: I have no idea where the Shadow Youkai came from, and neither do my subjects. She was no creation of mine and has had absolutely nothing to do with Makai. My refusal to let you use my domain as a prison was fueled by a simple desire to keep things that way. Now, does that satisfy you?"

_Not in the slightest, _Yukari thought, but she said, "I suppose it'll have to."

"Good. Now, if you've finished interrogating me…"

"By all means." Yukari stepped aside, allowing the Queen of Hell and her silent bodyguard to walk past her and into the tower.

Of course, Yukari didn't trust Shinki's explanation, not one bit. As far as Overlords of the Infernal Flames went, Shinki was actually fairly reasonable. However, she was also fiercely protective of those serving under her command and was not above bending the truth to cast suspicion off of them. Yukari remembered battling the Shadow Youkai with perfect clarity, and it possessed too many demonic attributes to ignore. And since Shinki was the ruler and creator of most, if not all, of the demons, Yukari was going to be keeping an eye on her.

"She's not lying, you know," a soft voice said from nearby.

Yukari turned to meet the sullen gaze of Satori Komejii, the mistress of the Palace of Earth Spirits. Just as Shinki rules over the spiritual underworld, Satori was given dominion over the physical one. Those who dwelt beneath the earth but did not enjoy Makai's climate followed her lead. However, she wasn't exactly the most sociable of Gensokyo's leaders, and with a good reason, one that had something to do with the unblinking eye that sat in the spherical pendant that hung from her breast from four wires that encircled her body.

"Is she not?" Yukari asked irritably. "Well, I suppose you would be-"

"Of course I am. Her every thought is an open book to me, as is everyone else's. If she were withholding some guilt, it would have been written on her mind the moment you spoke to her."

"That doesn't mean-"

"Shinki's dominion over her realm is absolute. None of her subjects would be capable of unleashing something on that level without her knowing."

"Still, perha-"

"She is innocent, and no, I am not simply defending her because her realm is in close proximity to mine. Your reasons for suspicion were valid, but incorrect. Pursuing her further borders on paranoia."

Yukari folded her arms and scowled. "Has anyone ever told you-"

"Quite often. And no, I have heard nothing of this 'Rin Satsuki's' current whereabouts, nor have I met anyone who does. And yes, I shall inform you the moment such information makes itself available to me."

A large, black cat trotted across the cracked cobblestones of the courtyard, its twin tails held high. Mewing insistently, it curled itself around Satori's legs. Its master knelt down to scratch between its ears.

Satori gathered the cat into her arms and started to make her way towards the entrance. However, she stopped suddenly fixated a disapproving look on Yukari.

"I do not judge way you treat your pets. I must ask that you extend the same courtesy toward me."

Yukari rolled her eyes.

"That was impolite. It is no business of yours how many friends I possess."

Satori left without another word.

Yukari growled. There was a reason she preferred to keep to herself. Already this day was starting to grate her nerves.

To her surprise, Yukari found herself wishing that the perpetrators of Satsuki's creation would hurry up and arrive. Despite being responsible for one of the most abhorrent affronts to nature Yukari had seen in hundreds of years, they were the closest thing she had to supporters. It was a disheartening thought.

…

Some miles away, Remilia Scarlet stood upon a chunk of solid marble. Once upon a time, that stone had been a part of the foundation of the city's court of law, where criminals and prisoners of war would go to throw themselves at the mercy of the bloodthirsty invaders. Such proceedings never went well for the condemned.

Remilia knew none of this, of course. To her it was simply a convenient place to stand. Still, had someone informed her of the stone's original purpose, she might have been amused that a place that had been such a domain of fear had now been reduced to a heap of rocks. There are few things more amusing to eternal creatures than change.

However, at the moment Remilia was less concerned with ancient history as she was with current proceedings. She was peering through a pair of small, dainty binoculars, which she held up on a thin pole. The view was that of the Ruined City's citadel, specifically on the small group of people that were gathered at the entrance.

"Huhhhh…" she muttered, more to herself than anything. "Quite a few big names. There's Yukari Yakumo over there, of course. And I'm pretty sure I just saw Tenshi Hinanai go inside. Hmmm, that woman Yukari's talking to…If I'm not mistaken, that would be Shinki herself. Curious indeed. The situation must be bad if the Overlord of Makai is making an appearance."

From her place on the ground, Rika Asakura perked up. "Wait, the Queenbitch of the Demons is here? Um, anyone else thinking we'd be better off just buggering off?"

Remilia gave her a brief glance before returning to her observations. "Sakuya, please tell the warm meat that I require neither suggestions nor color commentary, and if it feels compelled to provide them I will remove her arm and have it made into pudding."

From her place of holding her mistress' umbrella overhead, Sakuya said, "The Mistress respectfully requests that all opinions be kept private unless specifically asked for."

Rika's face paled. "Ye…yeah, okay. Gotcha." Shaking, she leaned up against a block and slid to the ground.

Beside Remilia, Flandre Scarlet was crouching low and shielding her eyes as she tried to make out what was happening. "I don't know, they look too small to me." She held up one hand, with her index finger and thumb a few centimeters apart. She peered through the gap in her fingers, fixating it over Yukari's tiny form. "They're like ants. Tiny ants, all marching in a row. Who do they take their marching orders from, Remi?"

"That would be the queen, dear sister. In this case, Yukari."

"Huh. So very like ants then. I wonder if they know the tune that they're marching to. All the ants back home sang the same song as they marched, one-by-one-by-one. I could hear their song in my head while I slept. I made them stop singing, and their neat and pretty line was made into confusion. I wonder if this tune will stop if the queen is squished."

She squinted and started to bring her fingers together, but Remilia's hand suddenly snapped around her wrist and jerked it up. Flandre looked up at her in surprise.

"No, no, no," Remilia said as she patted the back of Flandre's hand. "No squishing, Flandre honey. It isn't polite."

Flandre sulked. "But when do I get to play?" she whined.

Remilia smiled and tousled Flandre's hair. "Soon enough, Flan, soon enough. Now, Sakuya. I believe it's time for you and Patchouli and…" She turned her nose into the air and sniffed. "…those snacks you've brought along to join the rest of the party. Flandre and I will wait here until the time has come for us to make our entrance."

"Yes, Mistress," Sakuya said, handing Remilia the umbrella. She looked down at Patchouli and the Asakura sisters, who were sitting in the shadow of the marble fragment. "Get up, all of you. We're moving out."

The others exchanged a brief look, but they obeyed, taking to the air and following the maid toward the tower.

Once they were out of earshot, Rika exploded, "What the _bloody_ _hell? _I'm sorry Sakuya, but your boss is completely bonkers!"

Rikako shot a fearful look at her sister. "Rika, shut up!"

"You shut up! You heard her! 'Warm meat', my ass! What do we look like, roast chicken? And to actually let that psychotic sister of hers out! That vampire's completely batty…um, no pun intended…"

Sakuya stopped suddenly, bringing the entire party to a halt. She turned in midair, her face completely expressionless.

"And it is only by my 'batty' Mistress's' favor that you continue to draw breath. And Flandre is under Remilia's strict control for this excursion."

"Yeah? One crazy vampire's controlling another. Wow, I feel _so _much better now."

Sakuya's lips tightened. "I advise that you watch what you say, tinkerer. Because if your tongue continues to itch I would be delighted to scratch it for you."

She held up a wickedly pointed silver knife. The message was clear.

"Fine, have it your way," Rika muttered. "But don't forget that it was your precious Mistress that beat the snot out of you guys yesterday."

"We had made an error. She saw fit to correct us. It is the Mistress' prerogative to chastise her servants if the need arises. But we will speak no further on this topic, nor on anything else for that matter. Remain silent until we get there."

The Asakura sisters muttered their assent, and the four of them started to move again. As they did so, Sakuya took the opportunity to steal a glance at Patchouli. The magician had been strangely quiet since the day before. While she certainly was no chatterbox even under normal circumstances, she would at least voice her opinion if the situation presented itself. But she hadn't said anything all day, except to give single-syllable answers to direct questions.

Sakuya had to admit she wasn't exactly sure why. Certainly, the Mistress' treatment had been…harsh, but it was no more than they deserved for using her younger sister in such a manner and trying to hide the fact. Like she had said, it was the Mistress' right to discipline her subordinates when they stepped out of line, and this situation certainly qualified. Now granted, Patchouli wasn't exactly so much a subordinate as she was a personal friend of the Mistress who was tending the library as a favor (though exactly who was doing who the favor was something Sakuya had never been clear on) and had never been treated in such a manner by Remilia in the near century they'd been companions. And then there was the fact that the treatment had come as a direct result of an extremely distressing message delivered by none other than Patchouli's idol, which was likely causing her to go through a stage of disillusionment. And then there was the problem that Rin Satsuki, someone whom Patchouli had been personally responsible for keeping safe, was now on the loose and doing untold amounts of damage, and that they were now being called to task for that problem, something that was unlikely to go well for either of them, especially since the Mistress seemed bound and determined to rile things up as much as possible in a manner that Patchouli might be hit with some of the fallout…

Sakuya had a feeling that she had just answered her own question.

Well, it wasn't as if there was much she could do about it. Playing wet-nurse to upset magicians was not part of her job description. Her first and only duty was to serve the Mistress. All other issues simply fell by the wayside.

As they neared, two figures came into view, standing a good ways away from the tower. Sakuya's eyes narrowed when she identified them. Well, this should be interesting.

"Wait, isn't that…" Rikako began.

"…Eirin Yagokoro and her pet bunny, forget her name?" Rika finished for her.

Patchouli's head perked up. Though she didn't say anything, it was evident her interest was piqued.

"It would seem so," Sakuya said. She sighed. "Well, I suppose they'll be wanting a conversation. Come."

The four of them swooped down to where the two representatives from Eientei were standing. For their part, Eirin and Reisen did not look well. Eirin's face was drawn and haggard, its color even more pale than usual. And although it would not be visible to the common layman, Sakuya got the impression that she was remaining upright through sheer force of will.

As for Reisen, the Lunarian rabbit did not seem injured. But there was something obviously wrong. Her face was downcast and she didn't seem to know what to do with her hands. She kept fiddling with the buttons on her sleeves, entwining her fingers together only to release them and sticking her hands in pockets only to take them out again.

They were facing the citadel but turned as Sakuya and the others touched down next to them. Eirin's eyebrows jumped up and down. She smiled.

"Well, look at that, Reisen. It's our old friends, come to say hello. Sakuya Izayoi and Patchouli Knowledge, straight out of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. By the way, ladies: that large glowing thing in the sky is called the Sun. Don't let it blind you. And what's this? Rika and Rikako Asakura? This is something of a reunion. All together again, just like old times."

Her smile disappeared. "Pity the circumstances are so unfortunate. Our little science project gone wrong, on the loose again and more terrible than ever. Now, refresh my memory: wasn't it _your _responsibility to make sure such a thing never happened? If I recall correctly, and I _always _recall correctly, you told me that there was no chance she could escape, that those boxes of yours were foolproof. So tell me: if that were the case, why were so many fools meddling with them?"

"Oh, stick it up your full moon," Rika snapped. "We weren't the ones who-"

"Quiet, I wasn't talking to you."

A spark flashed in Patchouli's eyes, finally breaking through the daze she had been walking in. "It isn't our fault Marisa stole the fucking thing," she hissed.

"And do not forget, this whole ordeal was your doing in the first place," Sakuya added.

Eirin cocked her head. "Two points of fact: yes, it is your fault. And you mean _our _doing. You had just as much involvement with the Satsuki incident as we did. And had you taken more precautions to ensure that creature did not escape, we would not be not be in this situation."

"And if you had properly tested that elixir before jamming it down Satsuki's throat, this would have never happened!" Rika snapped, forgetting that she wasn't being accused of anything.

"The same could be said of your equipment!" Eirin returned. Her voice was starting to rise, a dangerous sign. "I wouldn't be surprised if the fault lay with-"

"Enough!"

Everyone turned to stare at Rikako Asakura, who was red-faced with rage and shaking.

"I'm stopping is entirely illogical line of conversation right here! Are you all daft? Have you completely lost your minds? We have our collective head on the chopping block, and you want to get into who's-to-blame contest? We were all there, we all contributed, it's all our fault…"

"Not the part about Satsuki escaping," Eirin put in icily. "That was-"

"I. Do not. Care. I refuse to allow us to continue behaving so bloody unproductive when we clearly have bigger problems to worry about! Like, oh I don't know, a bunch of _gods _putting us on trial? Have you forgotten that part? What's done is done, and we need to prepare what is to come."

Eirin's eyes narrowed, but she didn't contradict the human scientist. She exchanged a look with Sakuya and Patchouli and sighed.

"Very well, I suppose you have a point. I'll let the matter rest." She looked over to the citadel and the small figures that were now going inside. "I suppose there'll be enough guilt-mongering going as it is." Her shoulders heaved as she sighed.

"I'm afraid I must concur, this is no time for pointless bickering," Sakuya agreed. "Actually, I've been hoping to speak with you. The details given to us concerning Satsuki's escape and ensuing rampage were unhelpfully vague. Perhaps you can fill in some of the holes?"

Reisen, who had been standing silently in the background during the confrontation, broke in. "Look, this is trying Eirin enough as it is. I don't think forcing her to-"

"Reisen," Eirin admonished. "Remember your place. After all, her request is entirely reasonable." To Sakuya, she said, "Sorry about that. She can be overprotective to a fault. Why don't we walk the rest of the way? That should give us time to bring us all into the loop."

Sakuya nodded her assent. She motioned with her hands in a "Lead the way" gesture.

As the small party of potentially condemned conspirators began moving and Sakuya and Eirin started to exchange information, Rika took that moment to sidle up to her sister.

"Damn Sis, you can be pretty sodding terrifying sometimes, anyone ever tell you that?"

Rikako winced. "Please don't say that. I hate confrontations, I really do."

"What? Come on, that was incredible!" Rika grinned and shot her a thumbs-up. "You just faced down two of the freakiest people alive! They've killed people greater than you for doing the same thing! If that were me, I'd be getting a massive ego-boost right now."

"You're not making things any better. Please Rika, just let this drop."

Rika shrugged. "Fine, have it your way. Anyway, what do you calculate our chances of surviving this whole dog-and-pony show?"

Rikako ran her fingers through her hair as she thought. She shrugged. "Right now, I'd say roughly identical to our chances of convincing Satsuki to give herself up without a fight."

There was a pause. And then Rika muttered, "You don't have to be such a downer."

"The truth is truth. Honestly, no matter what is decided here, I feel this story will end in tears for everyone."

…

Sometime later, Yukari Yakumo decided it was finally time to get things started. She had delayed an inordinate amount of time already. Anyone who was going to come had already arrived.

On the whole, it wasn't that great a turnout. This wasn't surprising, as the last meeting she had called had been only last year, and it had been to reinstate Byakuren as a member, as well as initiate Kaguya, Kanako, and Mima. The first three had been accepted with little complaint (relatively speaking), but Mima's addition had caused…controversy. As it was, Yukari considered herself lucky to have gotten the number she had.

Master Sonozika, leader of the Human Village, was among the missing. Given the grief Mima had caused for the humans during her spotty past, he was probably still holding a grudge. Also missing were the lords of both the Dragons and the Kirin. The Dragons never showed up anyway, and if they did bother, they sent a proxy, usually in the form of Iku Nagae, who was also absent. The Kirin's absence was odd though. The Queen Mother Qilin Zhuan usually made a point to always be in attendance. The fact that she had declined to appear for this one either meant that she had some sort of personal problem to attend to, which was possible, or she too did not like the idea of the former Evil Ghost of Makai sitting next to her. Though given how forgiving she could be, that was unlikely. Yukari wasn't sure how she felt about her absence. On the one hand, she could provide valuable information regarding Kirin ways of thinking that would be useful in predicting Satsuki's next moves. On the other hand, the Kirin tended to be rather protective of their young, and there was no telling how she would react to the news of Satsuki's current predicament.

However, perhaps the strangest of all, Yuyuko Saigyouji was also missing. Given that the ghost princess was one of Yukari's strongest supporters, this was troubling. Yukari wondered what could have happened to prevent Yuyuko from attending. She was sure that she would know instantly if something had happened to her friend. Another thing to worry about.

Still, she still had gathered her fair share of big-names, even if she was now nursing a grudge against Master and Madam Hinanai for sending Tenshi. She could not stand that girl.

Yukari sat up straighter in her chair and cleared her throat. When that failed to silence the muted conversations, she said in a clearer voice, "All right, quiet! This meeting is now beginning."

"It's about time!" Eiki snapped. "I was growing concerned that you had forgotten the reason for our summoning!"

Yukari ignored her. "Ladies, gentle…uh, humans, youkai, gods and…miscellaneous, thank you for coming. I understand that my needing to call an emergency meeting is highly irregular, especially so soon after the last one, but I would never have considered had the situation not been that grim."

"Some of you might have heard rumors of an incident that took place at Eientei three days ago. Others might already know the full story. But to those who are still in the dark, let me begin by saying that we now have an incident on our hands that is far more troubling than any this Council has seen since a time out of mind."

She raised her hand and immediately the lights in the room began to dim, even though the windows were still wide open and the sun still functioning. It wasn't a difficult trick, nothing more than a simple manipulation of the border between light and dark. However, she didn't expect anyone to be impressed. Yukari pulled a golden sphere from her dress and resisted a smile. What was coming next though, that might catch some attention.

She continued speaking. "As you know, our country has more than its fair share of secrets. Some wondrous and breathtaking, while others…well, let's just say they're kept hidden for a very good reason."

With that, she tossed the sphere toward the center of the room. It stopped before hitting ground and hovered upward. There was a low buzzing sound, and suddenly it exploded outward, becoming a transparent bubble of energy ten feet in both height and girth.

The interior of the sphere filled with dancing shapes and shadows, which then came together to form the body of a young girl with short blond hair and scarlet eyes. She wore a black skirt, a long–sleeved white blouse with a black vest and red necktie over that. Her arms were outstretched to either side with all ten of her fingers pointing straight out. Some of the older members sat up straighter in their seats in recognition. However, those who were only recently inducted began murmuring in confusion, as the girl's appearance wasn't ringing any bells.

"The youkai you see before is known as Rumia of the Darkness," Yukari explained. "As far as threats go, she ranks above most of her kin in that she is powerful enough to use spellcards and has a record of attempted maneating, but on the whole she is more of a nuisance than anything, with low intelligence and subpar fighting abilities. Perhaps you will recognize her better in this setting."

The picture blinked, and now Rumia was seen flying with a myriad of other creatures, specifically two fairies and two other youkai: a green-haired firefly and a night-sparrow. They were all (with the exception of one of the fairies, who seemed more panicked than anything) grinning widely as they fled some scene of the crime or another.

A rumble of recognition made its way through the room. If there was one thing that could be said about Cirno's gang, it was that they had earned their share of infamy.

"For the last several years, Rumia of the Darkness has participated in activities of mischief-making as a member of a team of pranksters known as Cirno's Gang or occasionally, for unknown reasons, Team Nineball. Their escapades tend to be judged as annoying but ultimately harmless. However, unknown to her friends and indeed Rumia herself, she has a past that was _far_ from harmless."

"Sixty years, seven months and nineteen days ago, there was a similar such incident, one that some of you may remember. The images you are about to see are from the memory of a man who was a witness and victim of the incident, taken from him after his death. Just a word of warning though; what you are about to see is a bit…disturbing."

Within the sphere a scene started taking place, seen from the point of view of someone who appeared to be running from something. The images were indistinct and difficult to make out, partially because the view kept shaking and turning, and also because it looked like it was in the middle of the night. However, from the look of it, the man was running through a small village that had had been set ablaze. Short glimpses could be caught of simple dwellings that were being consumed by hungry flames. From everywhere were cries of fear and panic, while a bout of hysterical cackling could be heard echoing through the scene.

"_Here it comes!" _one of the voices shouted.

The view immediately whipped around and up, as the owner apparently had fallen backwards to the ground. A blur of black, white and red could be seen leaping from the flames and coming down directly toward him. The man screamed and threw up his hands in a desperate attempt to ward off incoming death.

The scene froze right before the blur could strike home. Now the entirety of the sphere was taking up with the image of a creature that shared a few similarities with Rumia of the Darkness. Blond hair, red eyes, a black dress and a similar facial structure. However, that was where the resemblance ended. This being was obviously much older and much, much more deadly. Her hair was longer and tipped in black. Where there should have been fingers were ripping blades more akin to knives. Her dress was ripped and torn and splattered with blood. A twisted sword was clutched in both hands, its blade blackened with the gore of those it had slaughtered. From her shoulders spread two massive leathery wings, seemingly ripped from the back of some great prehistoric creature.

Her face though, that was the most different. While the first couple of depictions of Rumia wore expressions that were mischievous and a perhaps just a bit nutty, they weren't outright malicious. This one however…

Her burning red eyes were wide open with glee, and her pale features were splattered with blood, almost as if she had been feeding messily from her victims. Her mouth was split open in a wide grin of outright sadism, pointed teeth exposed and gleaming. It was as if she were the incarnation of senseless death and loving every minute of it.

A low murmur of unease swept through the room. Monsters and unusual incidents were nothing new, but for someone to be so deliberately destructive was rare in the extreme. There were very few beings in Gensokyo who could objectively be called evil. This girl was one of them.

"Rumia of the Darkness, as she was then," Yukari said by way of introduction. "Obviously she's undergone a change in wardrobe and style since then. Under the self-proclaimed title of the Shadow Youkai, she razed more than a dozen settlements, slaying humans, animals and even fairies and youkai."

Kanako took that moment to break in. "Now, when you say she killed fairies and youkai, do you mean-"

"I mean permanently, yes," Yukari answered. "Her personal ability was death, pure and simple. And she had mastered its use to such a degree that species immortality meant nothing to her. Once she had killed something, there were no respawns, no second chances. They stayed dead."

Kanako sat back in her chair, looking sick.

"Anyway, I stepped in and dealt with the problem myself, along with the current shrine maiden of Hakurei Shrine." She glanced in Reimu's direction. For her part, the girl simply crossed her legs and said nothing.

"We managed to defeat and restrain the creature, but after trying numerous methods of disposal we found that she had many failsafes to prevent her from being removed permanently from this world. To that end, we sought the help of a powerful mage. Mima?"

Mima bowed slightly and smiled. She floated down to the floor, occupying the space at the foot of Yukari's chair. Then she turned to face those gathered. The murmuring resumed in force. That was no surprise. The ghost's addition to the Ringleaders' numbers had been extremely controversial, as there were many who held personal grudges against her. Yukari could distinctly hear Eiki Shiki snarl in a not-so-quiet whisper, "What's she even doing here? The nerve, the absolute nerve!"

Still, although she had to be aware of what was being said, Mima gave no indication of being offended. _She's probably just enjoying making people upset, _Yukari thought to herself.

Mima began to speak. "My sincerest thanks, Yukari Yakumo. For though my time as a member of this esteemed institution is but a fraction is but a fraction of many of our gathered colleagues, you have allowed me the honor of speaking before the council. I can only hope that what little information I am able to offer is in some way-"

"Oh, cut to the chase already!" Eiki shouted. "Or do you mean to assassinate us with filibustering?"

"Of course. My apologies, Yamaxanadu. You know I would never deliberately-"

"Mima, the information," Yukari said wearily. "Please."

Mima bowed her head. "As Yukari stated, my assistance was sought out to deal with the problem of the Shadow Youkai. Though my talents were meager and my resources small, I swore to do anything in my limited power to aid in the threat's removal. After many sleepless nights of pouring over my tomes and trying spell after spell to no success, wondering if I would ever be able to live up to the faith invested in me…"

The Yamaxanadu threw her arms out and slumped in her chair in exasperation. From the other side of the room, Rika Asakura could audibly be heard to say, "I should have brought a sodding book." Even Byakuren was starting to look impatient.

"…it finally dawned on me that I was going about this the wrong way. As noted, the Shadow Youkai's power protected it from death, and it was highly resilient against being gotten rid of in other manners. So I started thinking: if we could not safely kill the creature, then was there a way to eliminate the threat while still keeping her alive?" Mima's teeth flashed as her grin widened. "To our immense fortune, there was."

Mima spread her arms in a grand and totally unnecessary gesture. The image in the sphere blinked again, to be replaced with what appeared to be a simple red-and-white hair ribbon.

"Witness, if you will, the humble ribbon," Mima pronounced. "A popular hair ornament, found decorating the heads of many a girl of every species. These days, hair decorations are so commonplace that it would be difficult to find someone who prefers to go bareheaded. It was into one of these simple objects that I worked a powerful spell, one that would partition off the majority of the Shadow Youkai's power, sealing it away so deep inside that it could not hurt anyone ever again. The ribbon itself was enchanted to prevent people from fiddling with it. Attempts to so much as touch it would prove futile, and the person would soon lose interest. It was also strengthened to the point that if it were larger, it could be used as armor against even the most powerful of spellcards."

"Naturally, with most of her power out of reach, this greatly reduced the barriers protecting the Shadow Youkai's mind. While she remained resilient to our probing of her memories or our attempts to destroy her physical body, it did weaken her defenses enough to make her vulnerable to a powerful psychic attack, one which destroyed her memories and crushed her personality, turning Rumia of the Darkness into nothing more than a little weak youkai, no different from thousands of others wandering to and fro through Gensokyo. And so she has remained, up until three days ago."

The ghost extended a single hand, palm up, toward the Eientei delegation. "And now, to enlighten us as to the second half of the current incident, I turn the floor over to my dear friend Eirin Yagokoro, the highly accomplished Lunarian doctor and standing representative of Princess Kaguya Houraisan, who was sadly unable to be with us today due to being eaten alive."

The room erupted into shouts of surprise and demands for explanation. More than one expressed their disbelief, citing Mima's troubled history with telling the truth. Others wanted to know why they hadn't been informed immediately. Yukari glowered down at the green-haired ghost, who was clearly enjoying herself immensely.

"Thanks a lot," Yukari said in a low whisper that only Mima would hear. "Way to keep them under control."

Mima smiled, but she didn't respond. She returned to her place next to Reimu and Marisa. The former was slumped in her seat, hand to her forehead in exasperation, while the other was doing a very poor job of holding back laughter.

Yukari glanced over to Eirin, whose expression was unreadable. She pushed herself to her feet and made a small levitating hop down to the space Mima had previously occupied. Yukari couldn't help but wonder if Eirin was up to this. While she had recovered from Satsuki's assault remarkably well, she was far from being a hundred percent. Still, given the sheer power of the Lunarian's will, it would be impossible to dissuade her otherwise, even if Yukari felt inclined to try.

If Eirin's injuries were still bothering her, there was no indication in her posture or voice. "My thanks, Mima," she said in a loud, clear voice. "And on the behalf of Eientei and the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, I extend our greetings to the rest of Gensokyo. I wish I had better news to deliver, but I'm afraid that due to the recent events Yukari has just spoken of, we are all in great danger."

She began to pace around the room, hands clasped behind her back. There was a kind of focused intensity in the way she walked, almost shark-like in manner. Yukari, who had worked with the woman on more than one occasion, knew that was just how Eirin preferred to do things that mattered, whether it be surgery, public speaking or organizing war efforts. It certainly made her an effective orator, as many beings who possessed far greater power and influence than the doctor were paying strict attention.

"As you know, Eientei has only recently joined the rest of the Gensokyo community," Eirin said. "Prior to that, we were fugitives, outlaws, with little but the rabbit tribes inhabiting the Bamboo Forest of the Lost as allies. However, on occasion, we would find ourselves affected by outside events."

Eirin gestured with one hand toward the center of the room. The picture within the sphere changed. Now it showed none other than Rin Satsuki, at a time before she had been experimented on. Like Rumia, she had short blond hair and fair skin, though her hair was just a bit darker, her eyes were blue instead of red and she stood just a little taller. She wore a red-and-white dress and had decorated her hair with beads. In the picture, she was sitting under a tree, scribbling furiously on a notepad.

"The child you see before goes by the name of Rin Satsuki," Eirin explained. "She is, or was, a Kirin who had become separated from her parents and found her way into our care-"

"And how did that come to pass, one wonders," Shinki interrupted. "After all, your people aren't exactly known for your altruistic natures.

Eiki seemed to agree. "Indeed. After all, there are miles of difference between…" the Yamaxanadu made the appropriate air-quote signs with her fingers "…'found her way into our care' and _kidnapping!"_

Eirin remained unruffled. If their words had offended her, she made no sign. "You are correct in one regard, Yamaxanadu. The child _was _kidnapped, though not by us. Simply consulting your records of misdeeds will confirm this fact. No, the real perpetrators were a duo of human slavers who had the poor judgment to go after one of our children as well. They were dealt with accordingly. Rin herself as found among their belongings. And while what you say is true concerning our charitable tendencies, we were not about to leave a child to fend for itself."

Eiki leaned back in her and crossed her arms. An annoyed grimace coated her face.

"At any rate, as we did not know who the child's parents were, we decided to take her in and raise her ourselves. It seemed the good and decent thing to do, and considering…"

And so she continued, describing the raising of Rin Satsuki, skimming over the unnecessary details of her childhood while paying special attention to the discovery of her powers and the plan to increase their potency and hopefully harvest them for others' use. In time, she reached the part about the experiment and how she brought in outside help. Sakuya Izayoi and Patchouli Knowledge took their turns standing before the council, as well as the Asakura Sisters. Sakuya's bit was short and straight to the point, as was to be expected. However, Patchouli had to be reminded twice that she was giving a personal report and not a lecture on the nature of magical abilities, while Rikako Asakura was so nervous that she had to restart her bit three times. Yukari really wasn't listening. She had already had her own debriefing. No, her focus was on the faces of those gathered, gauging their expressions and seeing how they might react.

Byakuren Hijiri looked absolutely sickened. That was of no surprise. After all, she was one of the foremost trumpeters of youkai rights, as well as spearheading her personal campaign of establishing more peaceful relations between the youkai and the humans. And it wasn't simply due to the practical long-term benefits such a coexistence would create. She genuinely cared for the nonhuman inhabitants of Gensokyo and took personal issue with the idea of youkai extermination. It was only natural that she would be disgusted of the deliberate perversion of Satsuki's natural existence. Yukari chalked her up as the eventual moral objector but not a dissenter. The threat Satsuki represented would not be lost on her and she would likely help in whatever way she could, but Yukari was counting on hearing a great many lectures on humane treatment and the avoidance of unnecessary ruthlessness. It was a fair tradeoff, especially since all she had to do was play a little bit with the border between sound and silence and nod appropriately to make it seem like she was listening.

Yukari was also fairly certain she could count on Kanako Yasaka's help, especially after she learned the rest of the story. Kanako was pretty decent as far as gods went. She poured out her blessings in return for the prayers and offerings she was given, she leant a hand to her equals when asked, she treated her worshippers fairly and she took an active part in improving life in Gensokyo. But when it came down to it, Kanako was a businesswoman. She thought in the long term, her mind focused on matters of loss and gain. That was why she had come to Gensokyo in the first place; her previous dwelling place hadn't been serving her needs, so she had relocated to some place where she could do better. And there was no telling what damage a raging Rin Satsuki could do to her prospects.

Eiki Shiki though, she was another matter. While Yukari had long discovered that the judge's overly boisterous ways and single-minded adherence to the letter of law made her ridiculously easy to manipulate, she would remain steadfast in one regard: she did not become involved in the affairs of the living. Period. Unless she or her staff were personally responsible for causing an incident or if someone had the ill fortune to wander close enough to be lectured at, Eiki stuck to the belief that she was placed in this world to do a job, and _only _that job. She attended these meetings out of a sense of duty and was certainly not shy about expressing her opinion, but at the end of the day she would decline to take part in whatever plan that was decided on, citing that it was a mortal issue and therefore no concern of hers. Yukari couldn't help but think that Komachi would be of a different mind, seeing how anything involving the Shadow Youkai meant more work for her to do, but in the end there would be little she could do about it.

Shinki's assistance was also doubtful. There still was some friction between her and Yukari. The spat at the entrance was just another in a long line of disagreements that they have had over their many, many years of acquaintance. And while she wasn't coldhearted, she also preferred not to involve herself with above-world dealings, citing that doing so would draw undue attention to her and her subjects. And if she didn't want the Shadow Youkai anywhere near her realm the last time around, she certainly wouldn't want to do anything to cause it to go on a rampage through her domain, even if it was by proxy.

Mima, Reimu and the remnants of Eientei were already on board, there was no question there. As was Suika, and if the little oni could manage to convince the other three Devas of the Mountain to throw in as well, then all the better. Yukari was also reasonably sure that Satori Komejii would assist as well. While she preferred to keep to herself, the girl was deadly practical, even more so than Kanako. And if something threatened her comfortable life with her pets, then she would deal with it. She wasn't likely to jump into the front lines anytime soon, but there was still much she could offer.

Yuyuko's absence was a problem though. Yukari was counting on her incorporeal friend's assistance. She wondered if Yuyuko had even gotten her message, and if she had, why she had neglected to appear. Of course, the ghost did tend to be a bit whimsical at times and was prone to go wandering. Yukari resolved to check personally the next chance she got.

She wondered if she should pay the Kirin a visit as well. While their input would be helpful, she didn't trust them to reign in their maternal instincts enough to keep from trampling the Scarlet Devil Mansion and what was left of Eientei to dust.

As for Master Sonozika…well, if he didn't want to show up and help, then too damned bad. Yukari did give him the chance to participate. And if Satsuki did happen to run across his village…

With a sigh, Yukari chastised herself for allowing that line of thought. Of course she would have to warn the Human Village. It was unfair to sentence hundreds of innocents to death just because their leader was an ass.

The reports continued. Yukari took the stand again, followed by Mima, Reimu, Marisa and even Reisen as they described what had happened the day of Satsuki's escape. Yukari took special notice of the Lunar rabbit's bit, as it was easily shortest and most bare of details, whereas Marisa's was quite filled with deviations and personal observations. That was quite curious, given Reisen's personal history with the fugitive. Yukari stole a glance over to Reisen's master. Eirin was watching Reisen carefully, almost as if she were trying to control her apprentice with the power of her gaze. Interesting.

Finally however the accounts came to an end. Yukari waited for the general babble of questions and personal conversation to die down. And when that took too long, she motioned for silence.

When she had it, she said, "As you can see, this is a problem threatens us all. So long as Satsuki remains loose, the potential for more innocents lives to be lost rises exponentially. We need to come up with a plan now and execute it as soon as possible."

"Our objectives are as follows: first, the location of Satsuki. Sources indicate that she was last seen fleeing into the Dragonfire Canyon and, as far as we've been able to determine, she has yet to leave. However, considering the massive amount of underground tunnels existing in that area, she could be all the way to the Forest of Magic by now."

"Secondly, she must be captured. This will not be easy. Given that she can adapt to just about any outside assault and recover almost instantly from any damage means we'll have to think outside of the box as much as possible."

"Thirdly, she must be made to surrender Princess Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou, as well as anyone else she might have picked up in the meantime. This will be even more difficult, and will require us to seek options that might be…uncomfortable to use."

Byakuren winced noticeably, but said nothing.

"And finally and most important," Yukari said, standing to her feet for emphasis. "Current events have proven that simply sealing away these creatures is unacceptable as a long-term solution. There is no telling when they might be accidentally set free again. To that end, we must all work towards finding a way to permanently find a way to ensure such a thing never happens again."

"I know that official executions by this council are almost unheard of, especially given how we prefer that each and everyone one of us handles their own affairs. However, in this case we have no choice. We _must _find a way to eliminate Rin Satsuki and Rumia of the Darkness."

"I will start taking suggestions now."

…

_Got a few things I want to comment on, both in-story and out, so bear with me here._

_First of all, I've got a real love-hate relationship with this chapter. On the one hand, it gave me the chance to play with some new characters (Satori and Eiki were especially fun) and put in some interactions that usually aren't seen. On the other hand, it meant doing a lot of character descriptions (which really isn't my strong suit) as well as rehashing a lot of information that we already knew. While this would make sense in the context of the council meeting as the other characters haven't been brought up to speed, it doesn't make for especially exciting reading. I was originally going to put in the whole thing, from Eirin's bit all the way back to Yukari, but then I remembered how my conversations tend to wander and wondered what the hell I was doing. We would be looking at a forty+ page chapter! So instead, snip-snip._

_And yeah, I know Byakuren didn't have a retainer. I was going to stick Shou in there, but the scene was too crowded already. So let's just say Shou was sick, Murasa and co. were off adventuring, and Byakuren decided that there would be no problems in attending alone. As for Tenshi, she's just arrogant like that._

_By the way, is it just me or does Eiki have a really confusing name? I mean it's properly Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, but Yamaxandu is more of a title, and Shikieiki is more of the Japanese way to arrange 'Eiki Shiki'. Since most of the other characters have Romanized names in translation, it just makes it all the more weird. _

_In other news, props to Pyramid Head and Soelke for identifying the song! Sweet Times is definitely one of the cooler arrangements of U.N. Owen Was Her? out there. And the Midnight version is fantastically creepy. Try listening to it in the dead of night with the lights off. Go on, we'll wait._

_Also, even more props to Pyramid Head for digging up a really awesome picture of Ex-Rumia. Give her a haircut and dye her hair black and you've got a really cool version of the Rin/Rumia hybrid! Kinda looks like a Heartless if you ask me. The website won't let paste a link (bugger all), so if you're curious send me a pm or something. _

_Hmmm, a Kingdom Heats/Touhou crossover. That could be…interesting._

_And changing gears yet again, if anyone wants to read one hell of a fanfic not found on this site, then definitely go check out The Reinterpretation of the Scarlet Devil by a fellow known as Usually Dead. It's a retelling of EoSD through Reimu's point of view. While he sticks to the general chain of events found in the game, the way he's reinterpreted those events, the characters and even Gensokyo itself is nothing short of amazing. You can find it on the Touhou Wiki._

_And in the same vein, if anyone's looking for some really good Touhou remixes, then google poltergeist mansion and click on the second hit. It's pretty much a huge storage of hard rock, classic and even techno versions of our favorite Touhou songs from several different artists. The files are easy to download and store, and the songs themselves kick some serious ass._

_Man, I should start charging for advertising space. ;)_

_And last but certainly not least…Holy cow, someone put Imperfect Metamorphosis up in the Touhou Fanfic Recommendations page on the TV Tropes website! Like over a month ago! I didn't even notice until now! Seriously, I was just visiting that page out boredom and there it was! My heart definitely skipped a beat. A very big thank you to Makuta9999 for the awesome write-up. Dude, you have seriously made my week. _

_Until next time, everyone!_


	14. All's Fair

All's Fair

_Deep, Deep, __**Deep **__Within_

_**Patience, patience, must have patience.**_

**No. Kill them all. Tear their minds to ribbons and picks the bits off with our teeth. Kill the-**

_**Enough. No. That sort of thinking is what got me into this mess in the first place. For now, patience.**_

_**So hard though. And so tired of waiting. Already we've waited for an eternity, trapped behind my own mind. Unable to control, unable to even influence, and unable to kill. And before that I waited for so long…or was that me? It's so hard to tell anymore, who is who is who is who…Everyone's minds are breaking into pieces, and the pieces are taking on lives of their own. So hard to keep track.**_

_**But for now, I must wait, once again hiding within myself. Stupid, so stupid. I **_**(we?)**_** had a chance and I blew it. Damned (literally, if I have my way) girl. Out of all the times for her to slip from my control…**_

_**And now, I sit and wait, watching the freak and the shell run around and try to stay alive. Pointless, really. They have the power to remove all the threats to their **_**(our?) **_**survival, and instead they choose to hole up like a damned badger. If only I could make them listen, I could-**_

**Pull out their hearts right up through their throats, tear their lungs from their chests and make them watch as I squeeze the breath of life from their-**

_**Yeah, I think not. Suicide, not really high on my list of agendas at the moment. As for now, the only thing left to do is wait. Sooner or later, something will give, my opportunity will come.**_

_**Of course, that's only if Yukari doesn't find us first. Meddling bitch, always sticking her nose into matters that don't concern her. Damn it, damn it, damn it, I should have killed her when I had the chance. Bet her and her friends are out there right now, thinking up some grand scheme.**_

…

Reimu collapsed backward into the bed Yukari had provided for her and groaned. Her whole body was stiff and sore. After spending hour after hour sitting in a stone seat, with only a short break for lunch, every movement garnered an ache of protest. Her rear was especially tender, from both the hard seat and an uncomfortable time spent without relieving herself.

And to top it off, those people just would _not _shut up. Eiki Shiki had been easily the worst of the bunch. It didn't matter what was being discussed, what was being suggested, what was even being reported, there was no subject too small for her not to jump in with some sort of objection or accusation. Reimu was seriously considering seeking out some form of immortality, because if that was what was waiting for her on the other side, then everyone's fear of death was perfectly understandable.

And then there was Tenshi. Reimu did not like the Celestial, she never had. Having her home destroyed just because the girl got bored one day tended to do that. And today, she had been no less annoying. Where Eiki had been blunt and accusatory, Tenshi had been snide and incredibly rude. She had taken every opportunity to insult someone and promote her supposed superiority. Though Reimu did have to admit that it was pretty funny when they turned their attention on one-another.

Well, it was over now, at least for the day. Tomorrow would start up a new round of fun. This was seriously taking much longer than Reimu had anticipated.

With a grunt she pulled herself off the bed. The room she was in was plain in the extreme. Stone walls, stone ceiling and a single (and admittedly comfortable) white-sheeted bed. A four-legged wooden table sat at one end. Upon the table was a bowl of clear water and a small pile of clean towels. There was a small alcove in one corner with a dark, circular hole set into the ground. It didn't take a genius to figure out what that was for.

Even though Reimu was exhausted, she still felt disgusting. She dipped one of the small towels in the basin, wrung it out, and used it to wipe away the sweat from her face and neck. Then she removed her sleeves and pulled her blouse over her head, setting them down on the bed.

She had just begun to unwrap the sarashi from around her torso when there came a sudden thumping at the door.

Reimu jumped in surprise. She grabbed her blouse and started to pull it over her head while she yelled, "Hang on a-"

The door swung open. "Hey Reddie," Marisa said as she walked in. "Was wondering if yoWHOA!"

She stopped short and stared. Then she grinned and mimed holding up a camera with her hands.

"Cuh-lick!" she said, pressing an imaginary button. "Oh, that's so being saved for later."

Reimu hastily pulled the blouse into place and straightened it the best she could. "Marisa, what the hell? Don't just barge into someone's room without permission!"

"Hey, I knocked!"

"Which only served to announce the barging." Reimu gave her blouse one final tug. "What are you doing here anyway?"

The young witch just shrugged. "Bored and can't sleep, ze. Figured I might as well see what you were doing."

"Getting cleaned up to go to bed, for your information. Why don't you go bother someone else?"

Again without asking permission, Marisa hopped onto Reimu's bed and started jumping up and down. "Mima's busy whipping up something or another, Suika won't stop bitching about her stupid gourd, Kanako and Sanae are having some sort of private conversation that they won't let me near, Patchy's acting all weird, Sakuya just gave me the death glare, Yukari went somewhere else and I don't know everyone else well enough to hang out with them."

"Nice to know I'm at the bottom of the list," Reimu muttered. She started to put her sleeves back on.

"Nah, yours was just the furthest room from mine." Marisa gave one final hop before flopping belly-first onto the bed. She propped up her elbows and rested her chin on her hands. "So, what'cha think?"

"Annoying, won't leave, smells funny and needs a haircut."

Marisa swiped a hand at her, which Reimu sidestepped. "Dumbass. I mean about the meeting, ze! What'cha think about all that crazy?"

Reimu just shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Seemed like nothing more than a bunch of people yelling at each other for hours on end. No wonder Yukari hates these things."

"Yeah, I think she was about ready to lock up Eiki and Tenshi in a room and let them fight to the death," Marisa snickered. She flipped over to her back and started kicking the wall, rhythmically pounding her feet against the stone in a jogging motion. "If that dumb bitch would just give me back my hakkero I could restore order pretty damned quickly."

"_There's _a contradiction if I ever heard one. You and order go together like…um…"

"Oil and water?"

"Nah. They don't mix but they don't destroy each other either. More like sunlight and vampires."

Marisa cackled. "Heh, I kinda like that, ze! No wonder Remilia don't like me."

"Actually, I think that has something to do with the frequent burglaries."

"Oh, don't you start too," Marisa grumbled. "Anyways! Moving on…come on, let's do something."

Reimu blinked. "Like what?"

"Oh, I dunno." Marisa pushed herself up to a sitting position and grinned wickedly. "Wanna make out?"

Normally such a proposition would leave someone feeling flustered, confused and upset. However, Reimu was long used to Marisa and could tell when she was joking. Plus, dealing with Yukari on a weekly basis built up one's resistance. So instead she just rolled her eyes and threw the damp towel at Marisa's face.

"Only in your lonely, pathetic fantasies," Reimu muttered. "Wait, check that. I'd expect fantasy-me to at least have some class."

"I can't help it, your lithe, supple body just makes me all hot and bothered," Marisa snickered. She brought the towel to her nose and sniffed appreciatively. "Mmmm, scent of shrine maiden."

Reimu snatched the towel from her hands. "You're disgusting, you know that? I've got to find a way to keep you from hanging out with Aya all the time. Never thought I'd say this about anyone, but she's been a bad influence on you.

"More like she's hanging out with _me_," Marisa corrected. "Once she shows up she does _not _go away, no matter how many times I drop hints and highly destructive spellcards."

"Gee, how awful for you. I can't _imagine _what that must be like." Reimu sat on the bed and reached into her overnight bag. "Well, I guess I'd better distract you somehow before you start picking away at the tower's foundations. Disturbing make out sessions aren't gonna happen, and all I really have are some cards. You game?"

Marisa made a face. "Cards? Seriously?

"Come on, I thought you liked cards."

"Only the kind that make things go boom. As far as I can tell, no one's ever exploded because of the normal kind."

"You'd be surprised. Come on, give it a try. There's this one game Mima taught me that I've been wanting to try out. It's called Spite and Malice."

"Is it?" Marisa perked up immediately. "Heh, that doesn't sound so bad, ze. It's not anything like that one game we played at Kanako's place, is it? The one with all the properties-"

Reimu shot her a fierce look. "Hey now, we agreed to never speak of that again!"

"You're the one that got all the Reds in like six moves. And loaded them up with so many freaking inns that I started to see why people don't like letting you have money."

"I _said, _we agreed to never-"

"And then Sanae got all the Yellows. Whole side of the board was a freaking deathtrap."

"_Marisa…"_

"Fine, fine." Marisa held up her palms with an unrepentant grin. Shutting up now."

Reimu sighed and sat down on the bed across from her. "Anyway, as I was saying before I was so _rudely _interrupted, the way you play is like this: each player gets a deck of thirteen cards as well as seven more cards in the hand," she explained as she cut and shuffled the deck. She began dealing out the cards. "The purpose of the game is to get rid of both."

"Really? That sounds easy enough. Watch!"

Marisa started to rise up. Reimu placed her hand against Marisa's shoulder and pushed her back down.

"No. No flicking the cards all over the room. Do you want to play or not?"

"Okay, fine. I'll be good."

"Sure you will," Reimu said with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, the rest of the main deck sits over here. At the start of the game, we both flip over the top card of our decks. If anyone has an Ace, they put that in the center to start a stack and the game begins. If nobody has an Ace, then we both keep drawing cards from the main deck until someone gets one. And if you get an Ace anytime later in the game, you have to put that down to make a new stack."

"'Kay…"

"Anyway, during your turn you can put as many cards as you want from your hand and your deck onto the stacks, so long as the stacks go upward from the Ace to the King. When a stack gets all filled up, it gets shuffled back into the main deck. You're also allowed to have up to four discard piles in front of you, like this. At the end of your turn, you have to discard one card from your hand. You don't have to get rid of those cards, but you can use them to move the stacks upward to one of the cards you do have to get rid of, but you can only use the top card from each discard pile, so you have to plan ahead of time which one you're gonna discard and in what order each pile's gonna be. You with me so far?"

Marisa nodded. "Think so."

"Good enough. Anyway, at the start of your turn you refill your hand from the main deck until you've gotten rid of all thirteen cards in your personal deck. The game ends when you've emptied both your deck and hand."

"Okay, I get that part," Marisa said. She pointed at the cards. "So what's so spiteful and malicious about it? Do the cards start exploding or try to eat you if you take too long?"

"No, but the other person might. Anyway, the top card of both our decks is face-up, right? So you know which card the other person is trying to get rid of. So if you have the right sequence of cards, you can block your opponent from getting rid of that card."

"Ahhhh, I get it," Marisa grinned. "So to win you gotta screw the other guy over, ze."

"Yeah, pretty much. So you'll probably be a natural. Want to give it shot?"

"Eh, why not?" Marisa shrugged. "I've been wanting to find a way to screw you anyway."

Reimu, who was dealing out the cards, stopped for a moment. "Um…yeah. Maybe you'd like tto rephrase that."

Marisa just grinned. "No, I wouldn't."

"I...gods, you're disgusting. Never mind, let's just play."

They played few rounds. Despite this being her first time, Marisa proved to be better at the game than Reimu, or at least she had better luck. She went through her first two cards in quick succession and successfully blocked Reimu from getting rid of the nine that was sitting on top the top of her deck.

"Typical," Reimu muttered as she discarded a card. "I swear the card gods hate me or something."

"That's what you get for not being their shrine maiden, ze. Makes you the competition." Marisa put down an Ace, starting a new pile. "Um, hey Reimu? You've talked to Mima recently, yeah?"

Reimu blinked. "Sort've. When she came to pick me up this morning. Why?"

"Did, uh, she say anything about me?"

Reimu frowned. She scrutinized Marisa's face, trying to read into the meaning behind the questioning. "Not really. Just told me to get up and get moving. Then we went to get you. Why?"

"Eh, no reason. Just wondering."

"Okay…" Reimu would have said more, but at that moment someone decided to knock on her door.

She and Marisa exchanged a look of mutual confusion. Reimu placed her cards face down on the bed and slid to the floor. She cautiously approached the door. Given that she was one of Yukari's companions and the border youkai wasn't especially popular at the moment, there was nothing lost by being a little careful. While she didn't expect assassins to come knocking, she wouldn't put it past someone like Tenshi to find a way to use her against Yukari. Or maybe just get her back for the spat that had happened that morning.

Placing one hand on the door handle and holding up a Fantasy Seal spellcard with the other, she called out, "Who's there?"

There was a pause, and then a hesitant voice said, "Uh, it's me. Reisen. Sorry to bother you, but uh, can we talk?"

Reimu's eyes widened. She shot a look at Marisa, who just shrugged. "Sure, I guess." She opened the door. She was still a shrine maiden after all. She didn't get the chance to counsel people very often, so it would be bad form to turn the opportunity when it came knocking.

Reisen stood in the hallway. For the first time that Reimu could remember, the Lunarian rabbit wasn't wearing her usual formal suit and blazer. Instead, she had traded them in for a loose grey short-sleeved shirt and a pair of shorts. But unexpected casual wear aside, something was clearly bothering her.

"Hey Reimu," she said. "Sorry to bug you, but-" Then she caught sight of Marisa, who was still sitting on Reimu's bed. "Oh! Sorry, am I...interrupting something?"

"Nah," Marisa said cheerfully. "We haven't even gotten the strap-on out yet. You're welcome to join in if you want, ze. Make it a party."

Reisen blanched. "Wait, what?"

Reimu buried her face in her palm. "Just ignore her, she's just being…Marisa." She glared over her shoulder. "I'll be right back. Stay there, be good, and don't look at my cards!"

Marisa expressed her intentions of compliance with a single extended digit, namely the one that rested between her index and ring fingers.

Reimu's eye twitched but she didn't raise the bait. She closed the door and rolled her eyes. "Sorry about that," she muttered to Reisen. "You wanna step outside?"

"Uh, sure. I guess."

They walked over to the end of the hallway. Set in the wall was a large window, about five feet in height. Originally the tower had small, slitted windows, so as to discourage unwanted visitors and projectiles from entering from anywhere but the main gate. However, upon taking ownership, Yukari had declared such an architectural choice to be unforgivably unfashionable and had expanded the tower's windows by a significant amount. She didn't need such primitive devices to keep people out anyway.

The shrine maiden and the Lunar rabbit stepped out into the moonlight and floated down to the courtyard below. Reimu had to admit, the feel of the cool, night air was refreshing, especially after being cooped up in the meeting chambers all day.

She looked over her shoulder. Behind her, Reisen was staring up at the crescent Moon with an expression that was equal parts fascination and wistful.

A small smile tugged on Reimu's lips. "Homesick?"

"What?" When Reimu tilted her head in the Moon's direction, Reisen blinked and said, "Oh! Oh, no. Not really. I mean, it's been so many years and it's not like I left on great terms. Besides, I like Gensokyo way better.

Reimu sat down on a relatively flat piece of rubble and crossed her legs. "Most people do. But it's been my experience that people want what they can't have."

"Eh, maybe." Reisen let out a small laugh. "But still, even if I did want to go back…But never mind, that's not what I wanted to talk about."

"Okay." Reimu scooted over and indicated that Reisen should sit down next to her. After a moment of hesitation she did.

Reimu waited patiently as Reisen tried to put her thoughts in order. "I…Uh, yeah. So, how's your foot?"

"What?" Reimu screwed up her face in confusion. "Uh, fine, I guess." She held it up and wiggled her toes. "Almost completely better. Still a little slower than the other, but it's almost healed. Is…is that what you pulled me aside to ask me?"

"No, it's not. It's just…" Reisen gripped the side of the stone and took a deep breath. "I don't even know how to put this, so I'm just going to say it. Reimu, is there _anything _you can do to help Rin? Anything at all?"

Reimu's eyebrows shot straight up. "I'm…what?"

"Look, yesterday Eirin said that you guys are probably going to kill Rin, and today Yukari went and said the same thing. And now everyone's talking about the best way to catch her and hurt her until she gives up and then kill her and _no one's _even thinking of trying to help her and I don't know if I can-"

"Whoa, Reisen, slow down," Reimu said as she held up her hands. "Let me get this straight: you want me to _help_ the life-destroying monster?"

Reisen's eyes flashed. "She's not a monster!" she yelled. "What happened to her wasn't her fault!"

"Okay, but that doesn't change the fact that she's incredibly dangerous. I mean, just look what she did to your house!"

Reisen cast at long look at the piles of broken stone and demolished buildings around them. "She's not the only one known for mass destruction and loss of life," she muttered. "We let people like that run free all the time."

Reimu sighed. "Look, I know Yukari's done some…questionable things, but it's not the same thing. Satsuki is…" Then inspiration struck. Suddenly, Reimu understood why Reisen was so upset. She actually felt a little dumb for not figuring it before. "Wait, you knew her, didn't you? I mean personally."

"Gee, you think?" Reisen snapped. "Eientei's really not that big. And you don't have a Kirin kid living there for any length of time without running into her at least once."

"But she still meant something to you."

Reisen didn't answer right away. She tightened her grip on the stone's edge and stared down at her feet. When she spoke, her words were slow and measured. "Tell me something, Reimu. Have you ever loved someone? I don't just mean becoming friendly with those troublemakers you beat up. I mean really, truly cared about someone deep down inside, so that you'd do anything to keep them from hurting?"

The question didn't exactly surprise Reimu, considering the conversation at hand, but that didn't mean it was easy to answer. Her parents had died when she was eight. After that, she had more-or-less been on her own. The other humans weren't exactly on the best of terms with her, and the closest thing she had to a family was a large amphibious reptile. Sure she had friends, but it wasn't like she was sick with worry whenever they got themselves in trouble, especially since most of them were far more powerful than her.

"No, I really haven't," she said softly.

"Then you're very lucky," Reisen murmured. She wrapped her arms around her body and shivered. "It means you'll never fail them." She stood to her feet and started walking back to the citadel.

"Reisen, wait," Reimu said. She hopped up and grabbed the rabbit by the shoulder. "Look, I'm sorry about what I said. I didn't know she was important to you. I still don't get what you want me to do, but if you want to talk, then I'm willing to listen."

Reisen didn't look at her. For a brief moment Reimu was afraid she'd ignore the offer and just keep walking, but then she said, "Well, it's like this. Ever since I got kicked out of the Lunarian Army it's like I've been the perpetual underdog. Even among the other rabbits it's always me that falls for the pranks, that always ends up embarrassed or taking the blame. And then Rin came along, and for the first time ever someone was looking up to me. Someone I could actually help and protect, someone who wouldn't call me names whenever I messed up. She was the closest thing to a baby sister I've ever had."

Reisen turned around. Her large, red eyes were filling with tears. "And then…and then I went and let them turn her into _that! _I told her I'd always watch out for her, but I just stood and watched as turned her into a godsdamned lab animal! All because I was afraid of crossing Eirin. And afterward, they just went and stuck her into a box for what had to have thought to be forever. And there wasn't a single thing I could do! Can you imagine what that must have been like for her, Reimu? All those years of being denied such simple things like…sunlight and personal contact or…or even the ability to feel? And now everyone's getting ready to burn her at the stake for losing her mind when they're the ones who tore it out!"

"I never thought of it like that," Reimu admitted. Certainly she had been disturbed to hear the full story of what had happened to Satsuki, but it had been overpowered by the memory of almost being killed. But then again, the same thing had happened to Reisen, and she was still willing to be concerned about Satsuki's well-being. "I guess she isn't the worst monster here."

"But now I'm going to do it again! They're all going to hunt her down to try to hurt and even _kill_ her again, and…oh, gods forgive me, I'm going to _help _them!" Reisen wiped her eyes with her arm and let out a bitter laugh. "I should've just let her kill me. Be more than I deserve."

"Whoa, back up!" Reimu grabbed Reisen by the shoulders and gave her a hard shake. "Don't even think things like that! Look, I don't pretend to understand everything that's going on. This whole thing's been a big freaking mess, I agree, but don't start giving into despair! That won't help her or you."

Reisen pulled away. "It's what she wants! She told me herself, and she's right! I-"

"Snap out of it! That was probably just the Shadow Youkai talking! Mima said that Rumia probably got her memories back, and if that's the case, I wouldn't be surprised if she starts trying to mess with Rin's mind too. If you two were really that close, then there's no way she would ever want to do that to you, no matter how mad she was. Right now, the best thing you can do for her is try to hold it together. Because if you lose it, then she'll really have no one else pulling for her."

"Not even you?"

"I…uh…" Reimu's brain chose that moment to freeze up. It was true that Reisen had opened her eyes to certain aspects of this incident, but that didn't change her belief that Satsuki was too dangerous to leave alive. Whatever her experiences had been, they had changed her into something that threatened everyone around her.

Besides, ending her life just might be the most merciful thing they could do. Eirin's speech had made note of the lack of a cure. If that were the case, even if they decided to leave Satsuki alive and found a way to rehabilitate her, she would still be stuck as an inhuman (or, to be accurate, in_youkai)_ blob, forced to live out the rest of eternity trapped in her own mind. Not by any stretch of the imagination would such a life be worth living.

But then again, this was Gensokyo after all, a world that literally ran on the impossible. Just because there wasn't a cure now didn't mean there would never be one. And it was Reimu's job to protect the innocent, no matter how weird they might be. Plus, now that she knew more about Satsuki's history, she was not comfortable with the idea of hurting a child.

It was a hard decision, certainly. Reimu's job was usually straightforward. Someone would careless and start making trouble, and she would knock them back into line. This was the first time that she had been involved with anything that intended to end another's life. She would be lying if she said she found the idea in any way appealing. Sure, she had supported the execution idea when Marisa had first brought it up, but now what she had learned from both Eirin and Reisen only served to complicate things further.

She sucked air between her teeth and blew it out. Every instinct she possessed was telling her to go with hard reason and actively work towards putting Satsuki down. But then again, she knew what it was like not to have a family. And if someone like Rin had showed up in her life, she couldn't say that she would not do anything in her power to protect them.

"Well…" she said in a low voice. "Maybe there'd be one more."

Reisen just stared at her. Her eyes, already wet with barely repressed tears, began to flow anew. Her lower lip started trembling.

Then she threw her arms around Reimu and hugged her close. "Thank you," she whispered as she buried her head into Reimu's shoulder. "Thank you, thank you, thank you…"

Reimu grimaced. She really wasn't one for personal contact or overt displays of emotion. Plus, she had no idea of what to do with her hands. Still, she wasn't about to tell Reisen that.

She slowly patted Reisen on the back. "Um, okay. There, there," the shrine maiden said, knowing full well how lame she sounded.

Reisen pulled back. She sniffled. "Sorry."

"It's okay. Don't worry about it." Reimu looked up at the tower and sighed. "Look, let's go back. We're both too tired to do any serious planning, and Marisa's probably going through my underwear by now."

Reisen managed a shaky laugh. "Sure."

They floated back up to the window in silence. All the way up, Reimu's mind was racing over what had just happened. She wasn't sure, but she got the feeling that her agreement with Reisen was going to come back to bite her in the ass. She still intended to do what she could to stop Satsuki's rampage, but once she was captured…Reimu had no idea what she was going to do then. Yukari had made her position on the matter clear, and once that happened she never changed her mind.

For the first time ever, Reimu found herself a little nervous about confronting the powerful youkai. Though she was incredibly easygoing most of the time, when it came to Gensokyo's safety Yukari was downright ruthless. She just hoped that when the time came she wouldn't change from being an ally to an obstacle.

...

Hakugyokurou was empty.

Setting her mouth in a straight line, Yukari moved through the shrine and attached buildings, checking all the rooms and the garden outside. She found no one, living or dead.

Well, that wasn't exactly unusual. Yuyuko was prone to going on extended trips without warning, taking her gardener/bodyguard/sidekick Youmu with her. Still, given the circumstances, her unannounced absence was annoying.

On a hunch, Yukari stormed into the Ghost Princess' bed chambers and headed straight for the cabinet of memorabilia and other valuable artifacts Yuyuko had placed in one corner. Sure enough, on the top shelf sat a three-sided yellow crystal pyramid. The pyramid pulsed with an insistent glow, and there was a buzzing feeling that increased as Yukari drew nearer.

With a sigh, she took the pyramid down from its place and sat it down on a nearby table. She flicked the tip with her fingertip. The glow and the buzzing ceased immediately.

Just as she thought, Yuyuko had left before Yukari had sent the word out. Which meant she was strolling merrily along somewhere not here, blissfully unaware of the situation at hand. Even though Yukari knew that it wasn't Yuyuko's fault, she could help but feel just a little annoyed.

Well, she would have to work on tracking her dead friend down later. Yukari motioned, opening a portal between the netherworld and her citadel. She stepped through and closed the way behind her.

Once she was back in her private chambers (naturally, originally intended for the tower's first master), she sat down at a small table and thought on what to do next.

So far, the meeting had proceeded exactly as she had predicted. Much shouting, little in the way of actual progress. At least this time around, she had gotten everyone to agree that something needed to be done about Satsuki. The possibility that an indestructible lunatic who may or may not be under the influence of a genocidal lunatic might be rampaging through their territories had done much to convince them to skip arguing about whether or not something should be done and go straight to arguing about how to do it. Of course, that alone would take some time…

In the meantime though, she did have other issues that required her attention. Yukari flicked her fingers, causing the tiny figure of Princess Kotohime to appear. The girl was dressed in gray silk pajamas and was lying on a canopied bed, but instead of sleeping she was apparently reviewing a massive pile of papers, making occasional marks with a fountain pen. Yukari had to give the human credit: she may have her eccentric habits, but she took her job very seriously.

"Captain," Yukari said. "Am I interrupting something?"

Kotohime didn't respond. In fact, she gave no indication she had heard at all.

"Captain…" Yukari said again, louder this time.

Nothing.

Yukari rolled her eyes and shouted, "Kotohime! Eyes front!"

This time there was a reaction. Kotohime jerked up, letting out a "_Meep!" _of surprise and scattering her papers. She regained her composure as soon as she saw who was addressing her.

"_Yukari!" _she said. She gave herself a quick check-over, adjusting her pajamas and hopping out of bed to stand at attention. _"I apologize for the indecent state of this public servant! If I had known-"_

Yukari waved off her apologies. "Don't worry about it. People have greeted me wearing…worst. Besides, I should be the one apologizing, given the lateness of the hour. Still, I did not have the chance to receive an update until now. So tell me, is there anything to report concerning those projects I gave you?"

Kotohime shook her head in regret. _"No Ma'am, I'm sorry but there isn't. There has been no sign of either tail or whisker of the Shikigami of your Shikigami. I apologize for my failure. The fault must surely-"_

"Again, don't worry about it," Yukari sighed. "Chen's _notoriously _hard to find when she doesn't want to be found. We tried fixing her with tracking spells once. She chewed right through them and disappeared for a solid week."

There was a meaningful pause, and then Kotohime said, _"She…chewed through…the spells?"_

"Try not to think about it. I'm not even sure if _I _understand it."

"_I…see."_

"Anyway, just keep looking. She's bound to show up sooner or later, but I'd much prefer it be sooner. At any rate, what of our other fugitives?"

"_There has been some progress on that, I'm glad to say. Though the suspect known as 'Cirno' has yet to reveal herself, there have been sightings of her associates. Reportedly, the notorious grifter known as 'Mystia Lorelei' and Cirno's fairy henchwoman were sighted by the Autumnal Patrol yesterday morning, but fled before they could be apprehended. And there have been reports of the insect of ambiguous gender being seen flying westward around the same time, though these have yet to be confirmed."_

"At least it's something," Yukari muttered. "Well, let me know as soon as you find them. I want those kids as soon as possible."

"_Understood. Ah…Yukari?"_

"Yes?"

"_Regarding the Marisa Kirisame situation…"_

Yukari leaned back in her chair with a roll of her eyes. "No, sorry. No timetable on that yet. Not until this damned meeting is finally concluded, at least. I'll contact you when I see the light at the end of _that _tunnel. Yukari out."

Kotohime saluted sharply before dissolving in vapor.

Yukari pulled herself out the chair with a groan. Out of all the times for Cirno to fall off the radar as well. She should have tied up that fairy when she had the chance.

Well, she would show up sooner or later. If there was one constant in the universe, it was that Cirno _always_ became visible before too long. Yukari just hoped she didn't end up causing too much havoc when she did.

Yukari half walked, half stumbled toward the washroom. Good gods, how did anyone stand operating with this kind of sleep schedule? She had to make the necessary adjustments to work with the others, but her body was not on board. In fact, it was loudly insisting that now was the time to just be stirring from her slumber instead of getting ready for bed.

She dipped her hands into the basin of water and was just bringing it to her face when she suddenly became aware of a second presence in the room, standing directly behind her. She glanced into the mirror only for it to tell her that she was alone in the room.

Without turning around she finished washing her face. Then, shaking the droplets of water from her fingers and reaching for a washcloth, she said, "Hello, Remilia."

Remilia Scarlet giggled, a very girlish sound for a centuries-old monster. "Aw, I wanted to surprise you! What gave me away?"

Yukari wiped off her face and turned to face the small vampire girl, who was crouching on the opposite wall. "The smell, for one. Consuming mostly nothing but blood for long periods of time tends to do unpleasant things for the pores. Though honestly, don't you think the reflection thing is just a _little _clichéd?"

Remilia smirked. She hopped down from the wall and stood up straight. "Forgive me, Border Master. I dislike mirrors. They are the playthings of man's vanity."

"How very…droll of you. But personally, I find your posturing and mind games to be annoying. Knock it off."

Remilia sighed. "Oh, very well. If I must."

Yukari glanced over her shoulder. Remilia's form appeared in the mirror beside her own.

"There, it's done," Remilia said. "Though honestly, a little respect for the classics never did anyone harm, wouldn't you agree?"

Yukari folded her arms and leaned back against her table of toiletries. "As entertaining as bantering with you might be, I've had a long day. What are you doing here? And seeing how you're trespassing, there better be a damned good reason."

Remilia mirrored the pose. "Oh, that's not very nice, especially since I've come here to offer my help."

"Really."

"Of course. And you'd be wise to consider it."

Yukari reached up to flick a stray stand of hair away from her face. "And why should I give a damn about what you think?"

"Because of the situation you're in. You may try to make it seem like you've got everyone under control, but for someone of your caliber to go running for help so soon…that smacks of desperation. This Satsuki person struck you harder than you're letting on, and it's eating away at your mind." Arms behind her back, Remilia leaned in closer, baring her fangs in a wide smile. "You're scared, Yukari. You're worried that this problem may prove too much for you, and it's got you worried. So you're really in no position to turn down any help that's offered."

"You seem well informed about the situation at hand."

Remilia shrugged. "Sakuya and Patchy told me part of it after the ghost and her little thief dropped off their summons, and I just got the rest from Sakuya a few minutes ago."

"Is that so? I should start checking people for wiretaps then. Still, in case you haven't noticed, I've already gathered help, help from people much more powerful than yourself. So tell me something Remilia, what help could you possibly offer me that they can't?"

"Isn't it obvious? Satsuki was only brought down the last time using Flandre. If there's going to be any attempt to take her out again, you'll be needing her power. Only this time, Flandre doesn't get involved without my say."

"Your information is antiqued then," Yukari snapped. "Didn't Sakuya tell you about the fates of Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou? She's gained their powers, primarily their immortality and regeneration. If we blew her up then in all likelihood she would just put herself back together in moments."

Remilia rolled her eyes and laughed in a condescending manner. "Oh Yukari, come now. You're not really _that _naïve, are you?"

Yukari's eyes narrowed. "You're treading on thin ice, Remilia. And the water underneath is very, _very _cold."

Remilia ignored her offense. Instead, she began to pace back and forth through the washroom, hands still clasped behind her back. "Satsuki isn't some kind of enemy general. She's not your equal on the battlefield. She may have fallen into incredible power, but her mindset is still that of a little girl. Think about it, Yukari. Despite having more than enough strength to have killed all of her oppressors, namely you and your friends, she instead chose to flee and hide. Why do you think that it?"

Yukari didn't answer and Remilia didn't wait for one.

"Because she's afraid," the vampire continued. "She's scared of you and what you might do to her. It doesn't matter if she's stronger than the whole of Gensokyo combined. It doesn't matter if she can shrug off attacks that would turn most people into dust. She's just not used to these sorts of situations. And when it comes down to it, she's no warrior and isn't going to act like one. Sure, she got in a few lucky hits, but she was cornered and desperate."

"Now, you take someone like Flandre," Remilia said. "The only person to beat her soundly and make it look easy. And during a time when she probably thought herself invincible. That was probably quite a blow to her self-confidence. And seeing how she was put away almost immediately afterward and forced to spend a few decades doing nothing but dwelling on her memories and living in regret…well, I'd imagine that her fear of my sister would only grow in the meantime. She's probably relived that moment over and over, thinking about how the evil vampire hurt her so badly. By now, her feelings toward Flandre must be akin to a phobia. And if the possibility of another meeting were to present itself, I'd imagine she wouldn't take it well. It would worry her, cause her to stress, making her sloppy."

Remilia giggled again. "And you're forgetting something very important: it doesn't matter if she can regenerate limbs as fast and Flandre can blow them to pieces. It doesn't matter if she can piece herself back together from a few stray atoms. Being destroyed like that over and over will still _hurt, _both physically and mentally. She won't be able to take it. She'll break down, become lost in the pain. In time, she'll collapse entirely, giving you the opportunity to remove her from the board."

Yukari quirked an eyebrow. "That was…actually rather convincing. You've given the matter some thought then."

"Oh Yukari, you just need to know how prey thinks. You can't have widespread seek-and-destroy operation without _some _understanding of hunter-prey dynamics. Which would be something else you would gain by accepting my aid." With a flourish, Remilia gave an extravagant curtsy. "The benefit and experience of one of the most accomplished hunters ever to walk Gensokyo."

"Sakuya's already on board."

"Ah, that stung. A hit, a palpable hit," Remilia laughed. "But seriously, can you really afford to say no?"

Yukari considered what Remilia was offering carefully. She had to admit, the vampire made some very good points. All this time she had been focused on defeating Rin Satsuki the monster. The thought of fighting Rin Satsuki the terrified prey hadn't occurred to her beyond trying to predict where she would hide next. If Remilia had deduced so much in such a short time, then maybe the vampire's assistance would be essential.

Still…

"Let me ask you something, Remilia. Why?"

The question seemed to honestly confuse the vampire. "Beg pardon?" she said, tilting her head to one side.

"What, are you deaf? Why, Remilia? Why do you care? You're not the one to stick your neck out unless it benefits you personally. So what's your reason for coming here?"

"Oh, that." Remilia's eyebrows knitted together. "Well, isn't it obvious? I am already personally involved. Satsuki likely does not harbor any warm feelings towards me and mine. And it's only a matter of time before she starts to see the appeal of the 'Best defense is a good offense' philosophy. Think of it as protecting my holdings."

Yukari unfolded her arms and stood up straight. "So you're scared too. Interesting."

"I'd have to be an idiot not to see the threat she poses," Remilia snapped. "Vampires don't last long by underestimating their enemies." Then her smile returned. "Which is no to say that my assistance won't come with a price."

Yukari blinked. "Wait, you're personally threatened by all this and you're still going to charge me for your services? That's stupid."

"Oh, I think you'll find my conditions reasonable enough. First of all, I want Marisa Kirisame."

"You want…Marisa Kirisame?" Yukari shook her head. "Well, that's interesting. I thought you two were friends."

Remilia's smile turned down. She hopped up onto the table and dangled her legs over the edge. "No, Reimu's a friend. Marisa's a…oh, let's say an _annoyance_, one that I've had to put up with as a result. But I think I've endured enough wing-pulling, garlic themed pranks and probing questions about my relationship with Flandre. And she's caused more than enough grief for my household. Plus, I hear you two aren't getting along. This shouldn't be that much of a loss."

"Perhaps," Yukari said in an even tone. "Continue."

"Second, I want the others involved in Rin Satsuki's creation to be punished, both the Asakura sisters and Eirin Yagokoro. Thanks to their games, my little sister was endangered and my home used as that creature's prison, all without my knowledge and consent. And as a result, me and my family are now threatened by Satsuki's continued freedom. I believe I could be excused for feeling just a little indignation over the whole thing, wouldn't you agree?"

"I see. And what then? Control of all the land in a twenty-mile radius around the Scarlet Devil Mansion? Full hunting privileges in the human territories? A seat among the Ringleaders?"

Remilia showed her fangs again. "Well, I wasn't going to say that, but if you're offering…"

"No," Yukari said.

"I'm sorry?"

"No. Either help or don't. But I'm not in the habit of hiring mercenaries and don't intend to start any time soon."

"Yukari, I don't think you're in any position to-"

"_I _choose what kind of position I'm in, me and no one else," Yukari said. Her voice didn't rise a single octave, but the steel was there. "And quite frankly, I've never been inclined to give into the demands of spoiled little girls who break into my chambers and try to get some sort of footing over me."

Remilia returned the stare, her red eyes piercing into Yukari's golden gaze. "And don't you think I would have the good sense to _not _sneak into the chambers of Gensokyo's top dog without bringing some kind of insurance? I'm not an idiot, Yukari. If you're not willing to cut some sort of deal with me, then…well…" She shrugged and smirked. "I guess Satsuki will be saved the trouble."

What happened next was not something Remilia had anticipated. The way she had probably planned it, she would be the one holding all the cards. Given that Yukari was backed into a corner, she would have no choice but to deal.

However, Yukari did not share her views.

Quick as a striking snake, she snatched up the childlike vampire by the collar and swung her around, slamming her spine against the wall. Remilia gasped at the impact, but before she could bring up any kind of counterattack, she suddenly found herself under the furious glare of a very, _very _pissed off Yukari Yakumo.

"Two mistakes you made," Yukari hissed. "Number one, you tried to threaten me. No one does that. Not here, not anywhere. As anyone sane would be happy to tell you, doing so is tantamount to suicide. Number two, you brought that sister of yours onto _my _property. And don't try to deny it. Nothing happens here without my knowing. Now that…well, that would be tantamount to an act of war. Let me show you why you don't do that either."

…

Flandre stuck her fingers under the edge of a massive slab of marble, easily over a ton and a half in weight, and hefted it up. She curiously peered into the shallow imprint it left behind.

"Sakuya!" she called. "Who are they?"

Sakuya peered over the young vampire's shoulder. "Hmmm, likely to be some of the city's original inhabitants. This stone must have fallen right on top of them. Not the most dignified way to go, but at least it's quick."

"They're dead?"

"Indeed they are, Young Mistress Flandre. For several centuries, at least."

Flandre's mouth turned downward. "They're noisy for dead people. Too chatty, I can hear them talking in my head."

Sakuya smiled and patted Flandre on the shoulder. "They're probably just trying to get some sleep. Why don't you leave them-"

She never got the chance to finish that sentence. Because at that moment her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell over backwards, where she lay without moving.

"Sakuya?" Flandre said. She let the stone fall back in place and knelt down to investigate. "Are you sleepy too?"

She reached down with one hand with the intention of shaking the maid awake. That was when the world changed and became horrible.

…

Yukari released her hold on Remilia, dropping her to the ground. Then she stepped aside, giving her a clear view.

"Flandre?" Remilia cried as she leapt up. _"Flandre? _Oh gods, what did you…"

Her younger sister had indeed joined them in the room, though it wasn't in any way that Remilia would have wanted. An oval surface, smooth and flat as a mirror, hung suspended in mid-air. Flandre could be seen standing inside, crying and banging her fists against the surface as she called out for her Remilia's help.

"What did you _do?" _Remilia shouted. She rushed over to Flandre's nearly one-dimensional prison. Her pointed fingers swept over its surface, trying to find some way of opening it. "This is…Oh gods, this is…Just hold on, Flan! Remi's here, she'll get you out!"

"Oh, will you?" Yukari said. She motioned with one hand. Flandre's prison began to rotate, slowly at first but gradually picking up speed. Remilia had to jump out of the way as it became a blur of motion. Inside the sphere it had created, Flandre's ghost image could still be seen as she curled into a ball and hid her face with her hands.

"Stop it!" Remilia cried. She turned to Yukari, her eyes filled with terror and pleading. "Whatever you're doing, stop it!"

"Stop? You're begging me to stop? I thought you had this situation under control, Remilia. Where's all that smug confidence you brought in here?"

"Please, I'm sorry! Just let her go, she's not a part of this!"

Yukari knelt down to stare Remilia in the eye. "That's not what you just got done telling me. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she had instructions to destroy this tower if I didn't give into your demands. Was that the insurance you were talking about?"

"I was bluffing!" Remilia screamed. "I wouldn't-"

"First rule about bluffing: never do it. If you're going to hold a knife to someone's neck, then you'd damn well better be prepared to plunge it in. Otherwise, you're just wasting their time."

"Okay! Okay, I get it! You win! Now please, let my sister go?"

Yukari smirked. "It's ironic when you think about it. Just a moment ago you were ranting about how Eirin put your sister in danger. And now…Ah, well. Life's funny that way. Anyway, if you want your sister, go get her."

Remilia whirled around. Flandre's prison had slowed to a stop. As she stared, a single line appeared at the top and cut its way down, dividing Flandre's shuddering image in half. Then the line split apart, opening the oval's surface.

"Flandre!" Remilia shouted and she ran towards the opening. "Are you all-"

Something caught her leg and she fell. She tried to use her wings to slow her momentum, but it was like something was pulling her forward. She hit ground and skidded hard.

When she pushed herself up, the first thing she saw was Flandre lying in a ball directly in front of her. Her eyes were shut tight.

"Oh no, Flandre? Flan? Are you all right?" Remilia scooped Flandre up and cradled her in her lap. "Please, say something!"

Flandre blinked once, and when she saw Remilia sitting over her she lunged upward and wrapped her arms around Remilia's torso.

"Remi!" she cried as she buried her face in her sister's chest. "It was scary, Remi! I kept going round and round and round…"

"I know, I know," Remilia said softly as she held her close. "It's okay, sister's here. I won't let anything-"

"Ahem."

Both Remilia and Flandre looked up. Their eyes widened when they realized where they were. The twisting strangeness of the Borderlands surrounded them. All around, eternally blinking eyes floated through the murky lavender sky, if it could be called that, and stared down at the two vampire sisters.

However, even more problematic was their immediate location: namely, the palm of Yukari's hand. Whether she had grown to gigantic proportions or they had been shrunk down to the size of salt-shakers could not be judged. But it didn't matter either way.

Yukari brought her open hand closer to her face, her golden eyes peering down at the tiny figures she held. "Another mistake you made, Remilia," she said, her voice booming from all around. "You underestimated me, right after you got done telling me that you wouldn't. Maybe you got the idea that since the Shadow Youkai proved to be extremely resistant to my power over borders, it must mean that the fault lies with me. That I'm losing my edge. That you can just waltz in here and make me do whatever you wish."

"Unfortunately for you, she is the exception rather than the rule. You, my young friend, are no Shadow Youkai. Whereas I am still Yukari Yakumo. And I am _not _amused."

"Leave us alone!" Flandre screamed. She thrust out her arm and squeezed her fist tight, likely intending to crush Yukari once and for all. However, to her surprise, nothing happened.

Yukari tsked. "The boundary between power and weakness is one of the easiest to manipulate, especially in creatures like vampires. The amount of weaknesses your kind has is frankly a little embarrassing."

Then she smiled. "But don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. Quite the contrary, I think I might actually take you up on your offer, Remilia."

Remilia Scarlet stiffened. "W-what?"

"Indeed. Now, I can't actually let you have the Marisa Kirisame nor Eirin and the Asakura sisters, but I was planning on ensuring that they suffered some sort of consequence for their actions. You won't exactly get a say in what those consequences will be, but if you're good I'll let you watch. Is that acceptable?"

Remilia managed a shaky nod.

"And in return, you two will do exactly as I say. If I tell you to do something, it will be done without challenge, without question and without complaint. If I say 'Shoot', then you better not ask 'How far?', because I expect you to already know. And if you don't, then I'll just stick my fingers into that weakness against sunlight you possess, kick it up a few hundred notches and fuse you both to the eastern face of the Youkai Mountain. I hear the sunrise is magnificent. Got it?"

Remilia and Flandre exchanged a look. They both nodded.

"Good. I'm so glad we understand each other," Yukari said. Then she laughed. "Oh, don't feel bad, Remilia. It was a brave attempt. Stupid, but brave. Think of it as a promotion if it helps! Instead of being a loose cannon, you have been upgraded to being my Ace-in-the-Hole. Why, if you behave you might even become a trump card! Now, wouldn't that be fun?"

Without waiting for an answer, Yukari tore open a gap right through her own palm, sucking Remilia and Flandre through and dumping them back outside, several miles from the tower. Amused, she watched as they fled from the Ruined City as fast as their wings would carry them. She wondered how far they would get before they realized that they had left their servants behind.

With a small measure of will, she stepped back into her room. Perhaps she had been a little harsh, but such lessons were rarely forgotten. And on the plus side, she had just gained a valuable resource. Maybe this day had been profitable after all.

Still, there were many other obstacles she needed to deal with. While this one had been taken care of in a satisfactory manner, further complications were not likely to be so easy to deal with. Ah well, she supposed she would just have to tackle them one at a time. With any luck, they would at least take turns, though she wasn't nearly so optimistic to believe that would happen.

…

_This isn't going to work, you know. It's doomed from the start. There's too many things that can go wrong._

Cirno frowned as she examined the checklist. The problem wasn't so much that there were too many items missing, but rather that she was having trouble reading her own handwriting.

_Any plan by you ends up this way. A failure. Another failure in a long line of failures. Face it, you can't help Rumia any more than you can win a single fight. _

"Okay, uh, that one's Wriggle. She's still not back yet," Cirno muttered. "No Yuuka either. But still, we've got bird, cat, wannabe, crapload of money and lots and lots of fliers." She smiled. "And Professor C. Strongest, of course. So we still should be good."

_Professor C. Strongest? Really?_

"Okay guys, is everyone ready?" she called out. "We're leaving for the Youkai Market first thing in the morning, so you better be ready or I'll whack you all on the head!"

Mystia emerged from one of the hallways. "Good to go, weirdest leader!" she replied. She held up a large woven bag, its sides bulging from its contents. "Dough is all packed and ready."

"Awesomesauce. What about our advertisers?"

"I'm good!" Chen responded cheerfully. The catgirl pushed her way past Mystia to enter the main cavern. She was wearing a hiker's backpack, also stuffed to capacity. She stuck her thumbs under the straps and grinned proudly. "Whole buncha fliers, all ready! And are we really going to the Youkai Market 'cause I really really love the Youkai Market 'cause they have this awesome goldfish scoop game except the last time I played they kicked me out for using my mouth and I don't think that was very-"

"Okay, good, you're ready," Cirno said quickly. "What about your partner?"

Chen turned to point over her shoulder. "She's still back there. I think she's stuck."

From the passageway, Daiyousei shouted, "No I'm not! T-t-this is just really c-c-c-c-crazy _heavy!"_

Panting and bending under the weight, Daiyousei emerged. Like Chen, she too wore a backup that had been crammed full of the fliers they had made the day before. However, her pack was only about two-thirds the size of Chen's.

With a grunt, she grabbed a nearby stalagmite and forced herself to stand upright. "D-Daiyousei, p-p-present and accounted for!"

Cirno stared. "Wow, you gonna be okay with all those?"

"I think there's still some room in my pack, if you need help," Chen offered.

"N-no, I'm good."

"Seriously Dai, don't go breaking your back before we even get there," Mystia said. "At least take it off for now."

She reached over to help relieve Daiyousei of the backpack. Daiyousei looked like she was about to protest, but relented. The look of relief on her face spoke volumes.

"Okay, um yeah. I'd say we're good." Cirno squinted at the list. "So…yeah! Remember, we're leaving like really early tomorrow to get there before the crowd does. Like six in the morning."

Everyone suddenly stood up straight and stiffened. Their eyes all went wide. Mystia gulped.

Cirno scowled. "Oh, come on! It's not that early. 'Sides Mysty, you should be used to weird hours. What's your normal sleep schedule? It's like one week you're noctotal…nucktetole…neckturtle…up all night and sleeping all day, and the next it's the other way around! Same with Wriggle, it's confusing."

"Uh…C-C-Cirno?" Daiyousei choked out, her voice rising to a squeak.

"Speaking of Wriggle, does anyone know what's taking her so long? I mean, she's been gone almost two days now! I know she and Yuuka Kazami have some sort of weird history, but does it really take that long to talk about helping us?"

Chen's legs gave way from under her. She landed with a plop on her behind, her unblinking eyes staring forward.

"What, you didn't know about that? They were totally girlfriends! And from what I can tell, there was some crazy kink going on!"

"Cirno," Mystia said. "Seriously. Shut up. Right now."

"What? It's true! She told us all about it, remember? They called it 'Wriggle's Special Playtime'." Cirno laughed. "Man, I'd give good money to see that happening! You wouldn't think Wriggle's the type, but I guess everyone's got a crazy side. And if Wriggle can be that bad, I'd hate to see that Yuuka's idea of 'crazy'!"

"Cirno, stop talking and turn around," Mystia said.

"What? Why?"

"Just do it."

Cirno scowled. She whirled on her heel. "Okay, are you going to kick me…" she completed her circle "…as soon as my back is…ohhhh noooo…"

Cirno found herself staring at two very long legs. These legs emerged from a pair of shiny, sharp-toed pink boots and rose to disappear into a red-plaid skirt at the knees. Above the skirt was a pale pink shirt and a vest the same color as the skirt. And over that…

Red eyes.

Green hair.

And a very wide smile.

Yuuka leaned over so she and Cirno were eye-to-eye. "Ohhhh yessss. Don't you just hate it when that happens? It seems you can't have a decent conversation about someone's personal life without them popping up behind your back. Almost like weeds, if you ask me." Her teeth gleamed. "Rude, intrusive weeds."

Cirno's insides usually ran cold anyway, so she didn't feel much in the way of sudden chills. In fact, the air had actually risen several degrees in warmth. However, that didn't change the fact that she was now completely terrified.

Yuuka laughed, an odd crinkling sound that, while not loud, still felt like someone was burrowing into Cirno's skull. "Daw, don't worry about it!" she said. She grabbed Cirno's nose between her thumb and index finger and playfully shook it back and forth. "I really don't care who knows about my personal habits. I prefer to think of the rumors as free advertisement!"

Then she leaned in close, so her lips were almost brushing Cirno's ear. "Oh, and if you ever feel curious, you're _more _than welcome to join us," she whispered. "There's always room for one more on the rack."

Cirno came very close to fainting.

Yuuka straightened up. Her gaze swept over all those assembled. "Now, you all must be my Wriggle's _darling _little friends!" She clasped her hands in glee. "Oh, this is so exciting! Wriggle's told me so much about you! I cannot tell you how much I've want to meet you all in _person…"_

Something about the way she said that last word seemed to suggested that her definition of "Meeting" someone included acts of a depraved and likely illegal nature. Cirno dropped her checklist and scampered back to hide behind Mystia.

"Now, the loud one must be Cirno, right?" Yuuka said. "Oh, I've definitely heard stories about your adventures, you naughty little girl! And that over there…Daiyousei? Oh my goodness, you're so adorable I could eat you right up! And that over there…" Her gaze fell on Chen, who, like the others, was trembling hard and doing her best not to draw attention to herself.

"Kitty!" Yuuka shrieked. She lunged forward and picked up Chen by the arms, backpack and all.

"Oh, so cute!" Yuuka cried and she crushed Chen to her breast. "Oh Wriggle, you never told me you got a cat! We simply _must _take her back with us someday! Then we can pet her and feed her and dress her and undress her and stick things wherever they'll fit…"

The catgirl yelled, clawed and scratched, absolutely desperate to free herself. Yuuka blinked and held her out to look at her.

"Aw, what's the matter kitty?" she asked, a confused look on her face. "Are you hungry? Have you been fed yet? Don't worry, Auntie Yuuki will find something for you."

She looked past Chen. Her gaze settled on at Mystia. Her smile returned.

"Does kitty like chicken?" she purred.

With a shriek of absolute terror, Mystia shoved Cirno out of the way and disappeared into the passageway. The sudden movement seemed to shock Daiyousei out of her frozen state, as the green-haired fairy wasted no time in following as quickly as her wings would carry her.

A hand reached up to tug on Yuuka's sleeve.

"Okay Yuuka, I think that's enough," Wriggle said as she stepped into view. "Don't wanna, um, _overwhelm _them with your first impression. So, what say we put Chen down? Come on, let's put the kitty down now."

"Awww, but we were just becoming friends!" However, she complied. Chen took the opportunity to hide behind Cirno.

Yuuka looked down at those who remained. "Well then! A great pleasure to meet you all. Now, Wriggle here…" She looped an arm around Wriggle's throat and drew her in tight, making the firefly struggle and gasp for air "…tells me that you've gotten yourself into something of a pickle. A pickle named Yukari Yakumo, is that right?"

Cirno stared for several seconds before realizing that Yuuka was addressing her. "Oh, uh, y-yeah. T-t-though it's not just her, but also-"

"Oh, don't worry your cold little buns." Yuuka released her hold on Wriggle, who fell panting to her knees. "I'll make sure _no one _stands in the way of your plan. In fact, I'll give you the personal promise of Yuuka Kazami that you will soon get your friend back." Her teeth flashed as she smiled again. _"Exactly _the way she used to be."

Cirno perked up. "You…you do? You mean it?"

"Of course! Now, if you'll excuse me, I really should be heading home now. Need to rest up for tomorrow! Oh, this promises to be a very interesting day indeed!" Then she smiled at Wriggle, who was still trying to catch her breath. "Oh, and Wriggle?"

Wriggle looked up. "Yyyyeeessss…?"

Yuuka raised Wriggle's chin up with her fingertips. "I'll be seeing you again. Very soon."

Wriggle's antennae wilted. "Oh…of course."

"Indeed. Oh, and if you speak to me like I'm some sort of child ever again, I'll turn your ribs into gardening tools!" She gave Wriggle an affectionate kiss on the cheek. "Okay?"

Wriggle couldn't even bring herself to think of an answer.

"Okay then!" Yuuka straightened up. "Hugs and kisses to all! I'll see you all tomorrow. Good night…"

Even though Cirno was looking directly at Yuuka when she left, she couldn't be sure that the flower youkai exited through the cave mouth. For all she could tell, Yuuka had simply disappeared into thin air. Maybe she had.

Five minutes passed during which no one dared to speak or move. Even breathing was kept on a subdued level. And then, when Cirno was sure that Yuuka had indeed left for good, she exploded.

"Wriggle, what the crap were you thinking?" she screamed. "Bringing her back here? Did your butt-bulb burn out or something? Have you completely flipped? What, did she follow you home?"

Wriggle looked up to fixate a furious glare on the ranting ice-fairy. "She insisted on coming in person," was all she said.

"And you let her? You didn't try to stop her?"

"Stop her? _Stop her?" _

"And speaking of which, where the hellsicles were you this whole time! We've been kinda sorta worried a little sick about you! Were you too busy making out to let us know you're okay?"

Wriggle didn't immediately respond. She just glared at Cirno for a few moments longer. Then she turned her attention to Chen.

"Hey, Chen? Would'ja mind giving me and Cirno here some alone time?"

Chen straightened up. "Huh? Alone time?" she hiccupped.

"Yeah, it looks like I'll be needing to debrief her. Just a few minutes, won't take long."

Chen didn't need to be told twice. She leapt up and scampered away, following the path Mystia and Daiyousei had taken.

Cirno folded her arms. "Okay, she's gone," she stated. "Now will you please-urk!"

Wriggle grabbed Cirno by the shoulders and shoved her up against the cave wall. Cirno blinked in surprise. She stared at Wriggle's face, which was bright red with anger and indignation. Then her eyes dipped down to the object that Wriggle clutched in one trembling hand.

It was a black leather collar, with a silver tag hanging from it.

"Bend," Wriggle hissed. _"Over!"_

…

_Ouch. Well, in fairness, she did warn her._

_Anyway, what's funny is that despite the fact that Remilia's been a bit of a bitch in this story (even if she had good reason to be angry, her treatment of Patchy was over the line) and that both she and Flandre just got totally owned, the Scarlet Sisters are probably my favorite characters in the whole series. What's that say about me? I don't know, maybe that Imperfect Metamorphosis has an equal-opportunity pain policy?_

_Speaking of which, there's something about those two that's been…well, I won't say it bothers me all that much, but it's definitely caught my attention. Judging from all the fanart and dojin about those two, it's clear that shippers just love putting them together. Not surprising, given that's bound to happen every time a pair of sisters pop up. However, I'm not sure if the shippers know exactly how _wrong_ that pairing is. Even putting aside the yuri aspect (which is not so much expected but required in Touhou) for a moment, as well as the whole incest thing, they're loli vampires. In other words, underage corpses. So yeah, incestuous lesbian undead little girls. Who are often portrayed as being into BDSM. God, that is so wrong on many, many levels. But still..._

_Yeah, I'm going to hell, aren't I?_

_Okay, okay. Enough squicky fetish fuel and back to the story. As should be bleeding obvious by now, Yuuka's become my favorite character to write for. Late-night caffeine trips spent typing away and giggling to myself for the freaking win! Though I hope the other three scenes don't become forgotten, as they're more important to the story, both for plot and character reasons. I was gonna have it be Patchy knocking on Reimu's door looking for counsel, but as much as I liked the idea, she's just not the sort to go seeking after someone else's advice, least of all Reimu's. Especially since there would have been some kind of confrontation with Marisa, and that wasn't the direction I wanted this chapter to go in. Not yet, at least. _

_Though there definitely should be a Touhou Monopoly game. Just sayin'._

_Also, just as a head's up, the next chapter will take a bit longer before it's up. The first reason is that the San Diego Comic-Con is this weekend, and I'll be too pooped to get much writing done. The second is that I want to get started on the Kaguya/Mokou spinoff, and I'm pretty bad at balancing two projects at once. So the first spinoff chapter will probably be up before I get started on the next IM bit._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	15. A Wrench in the Works

A Wrench in the Works

Cirno yawned and stretched her arms over her head, enjoying the gentle pull of the muscle. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before for a number of reasons, but despite the weariness that was starting to catch up to her, the sheer excitement of what they were about to do drove any thought of rest from her mind.

All around her various merchants, workers for hire, agents of the black market and other business-minded people bustled to and fro in the large clearing, setting up their little stands, booths and tents. The Youkai Market was exactly as its named described: an open marketplace catering specifically to the nonhuman residents of Gensokyo. Every day, youkai, fairies, spirits and even gods came to buy and sell, hire and fire. And given the loosely defined rules of conduct, nearly anything went in regards to acceptable merchandise. It was said that even Human flesh could be acquired if you knew where to look. On more than one occasion the Humans had petitioned to have the place shut down or at least more tightly regulated. Such attempts were often laughed about as the sellers put up their shops.

And it was a good thing too, as Cirno and her friends were there to buy something that would probably be frowned upon by the Humans. With a grin, she looked at Mystia's bag full of money. If things played out the way she wanted them to (and of course they would), then Rumia would be free and back with them in no time. She just hoped that they could get things rolling before Yukari started to interfere.

…

Yukari leaned forward and massaged her forehead. Her mood had not improved in the slightest since her confrontation with the Scarlet Sisters the night before, and the current status of the meeting was doing nothing to improve that.

"Now, I know it's not something you're used to, but please _try _to think," Tenshi was saying. "The creature as the moon doctor described only absorbs energy attacks, am I right? So it stands to reason that _physical _attacks may have a chance. After all, did not the oni's clumsy attempts have _some _measure of success, even if most of it were probably because of luck?"

Suika was on her feet in an instant. "Luck?" she seethed. _"Luck? _I kicked that thing's ass! And what do you mean, 'Clumsy'?"

Tenshi smiled sweetly. "Wasn't there something about you sitting on your own gourd? The one that keeps you drunk and stupid? If that's not clumsy, then I don't know what it."

Suika looked about ready to leap across the room and rip the Celestial to pieces, but Reimu reached up and grabbed her by the arm. "No, not here," she whispered. "Kill her later."

"Oh, I will. Believe me I will," Suika muttered, but she sat back down.

Yukari looked around the spacious room and suddenly felt a pang of empathy for her onetime rival, the youkai queen. Perhaps her totalitarian conquest had not been motivated by a desire to become an absolute tyrant. Maybe she just wanted the power to make people shut up for once.

Tenshi flicked her hair out of her face. "Anyway, what I propose is simple: center the operation around earth magic. I hardly think that Satsuki's going to be doing much fighting after a mountain falls on her."

"And by 'Earth magic', you mean your own!" Eiki shouted over to her. The way she said it made it an accusation, not a question. "You're just trying to use this situation to expand your own power and influence!"

Tenshi sniffed dismissively. "I'm sorry, do you have anything worthwhile to contribute? Anything at all? If not, then please shut your fat mouth."

"Tenshi, you go too far!" Byakuren shouted.

"After all, the Yamaxanadu is completely correct," Satori muttered.

Sensing the potential for violence rising, Yukari stood from her seat. "Watch yourself, Hinanai. You'll not win any supporters with that attitude."

The look Tenshi shot her was not exactly a glare and not exactly a smirk, but somehow a combination of the two. Yukari mentally added Tenshi to the list.

"Actually, as much as I hate to admit it, Tenshi does have a point," Kanako said.

Everyone turned to stare at her. "Damn," Marisa muttered. "Someone agreed with Tenshi. Hey Reimu, pinch me, okay?"

"Can I punch you instead?"

"Okay, okay, listen," Kanako said. "While she could have been a little more _polite…" _Kanako shot Tenshi an acidic look "…she may be right about using physical attacks instead of energy ones. From what I've heard, Satsuki can still be hurt, right?"

Suika nodded. "Yeah, she started stumbling after I hit her a bunch of times."

"Good. So, maybe Tenshi's idea may have some merit." Kanako spread her hands. "I know we don't like her, but I'm just saying the idea bears consideration."

"Thank you for your _kind_ support," Tenshi spat at her. "As if I needed it to begin with."

Kanako's fingers tightened on her armrests. Somewhere deep below the tower, a faint rumbling could be heard. "Listen, you stuck up, self-possessed little monster, when someone's actually _agreeing _with you, you don't-"

"Enough."

Everyone turned to look at Yukari, who had risen to her feet.

"I think…we've accomplished as much as we can for the time being," Yukari said. "Let's break for lunch and meet back here again in about an hour. And I swear to most of you, if anyone tries to take advantage of the break and stabs anyone in the back, then they'll be living out the rest of their lives as an earthworm." She nodded once. "Dismissed."

…

"…and I really like the idea of a yearly festival, only problem is that they want me to put on some sort of dramatic reenactment of when Kanako beat Suwako and took over the shrine," Sanae was saying. "And I'm thinking 'No, bad idea'. Especially with Suwako still hanging around. Be in kinda poor taste…Reimu? Are you even listening?"

"Sure," Reimu said.

Sanae waved her hand in front of Reimu's face. This received no reaction. "Um, and after that we're planning on moving the festival to Hakurei Shrine for a week, and party until the place collapses." She waited for ten seconds and added, "And we won't clean up after ourselves and refuse to leave any donations whatsoever."

"That's fine."

Sanae rolled her eyes and clapped her hands directly in front of Reimu's nose. "Hey!"

Reimu jumped in her seat. "Oh! Uh, what?"

The two shrine maidens were sitting on a stone slab at the foot of the tower. Sanae had insisted on having lunch with Reimu to catch up. However, even if Reimu had been interested, her conversation with Reisen from the night before had given her a lot of food for thought, so that it was difficult to concentrate on anything her friendly rival was saying.

Sanae gave her a long look. "Reimu, have you been listening to anything I've said?"

"Oh, sure. Every word. There was…uh…" Reimu desperately tried to recall any details that might have slipped through. "Some guy always visiting your shrine and…leaving you flowers and stuff?"

"Okay, number one: those were chocolates. And number two: that was like fifteen subjects ago. Seriously, what's up with you?"

Reimu pushed her food around with a chopstick. "Sorry, just got a lot on my mind."

Sanae nodded. "Well, okay. I understand. I mean, you actually had to _fight _the thing-"

"And she got her ass kicked so thoroughly that she barely walk afterward, ze," Marisa finished for her. She walked up to the two shrine maidens and shoved herself between them. "Sup?"

Reimu glared at her. "Well, hello Marisa. How are you? Go right ahead and intrude, we don't mind and all."

"Really? Thanks." Marisa snatched a cherry tomato from the plate Reimu held in her lap and popped it in her mouth. "So, who's leaving who chocolates?"

The shrine maidens exchanged a look and sighed. "Never mind," Sanae said. "You came at the end of the conversation."

"It's not Reisen, is it?"

Reimu flinched, nearly upsetting the plate in the process. "What? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Come on, you know what I mean." Marisa grinned and shoved an elbow into Reimu's ribs. "Cute little bunny girl shows up late at night, wanting to, ahem, 'Talk' to you privately and looking all cute and alone, ze. And you were all quiet and secretive when you got back. C'mon Armpits, don't tell me nothing happened."

Sanae looked confused. "Wait, huh? Bunny? Who's Reisen again?"

With a grunt of annoyance Reimu pushed Marisa off of the stone slab. "Stop it, it's nothing like that." To Sanae she added, "Reisen is Eirin Yagokoro's assistant, remember? She spoke at the beginning of the meeting yesterday."

"Oh! Right. So…what about her?"

"Nothing about her," Reimu mumbled before Marisa could provide an answer of her own choosing. "She was just upset about the whole thing and wanted someone to talk to last night. And now Marisa here thinks that means we're dating."

"Ah…" Sanae picked up a riceball from her own plate and seemed to study it before biting it in half. "Are you?" she mumbled through a mouthful of rice.

"What? Of course not!"

"Naw," Marisa cut in. "They're just giving each other hickies out behind the-"

Reimu whacked the young witch upside of the head. "That's it, this conversation is over. Let it drop, Blondie."

"Sure, sure," Marisa grinned, her tone saying that she had no such intention. "Anyway, sexy scandals can wait. I wanted to ask you something: you got any idea of what happened to Bookbrain and Knifey McKnifepants?"

Sanae groaned. She put a hand to her forehead. "Reimu, how the hell do you stand talking to her? I sweat half the stuff she says isn't even language."

"She means Patchouli Knowledge and Sakuya Izayoi. You know, from the Scarlet Devil Mansion?"

"Uh, sort've."

"Well, them. What about them, anyway?" That last question was directed toward Marisa.

"Not much, except they were missing today, ze."

"They were?" Reimu frowned as she thought back. There hadn't been a roll-call when they had -all gathered that morning, and no one had said anything about anyone missing. Then again, both Sakuya and Patchouli had made a point to contribute nothing beyond what had been required of them the day before, so their absence would probably go unnoticed.

"Yeah, they never showed up." Marisa shrugged. "I dunno, maybe Fangs needed someone to go change her diaper."

Sanae stared at her. She seemed equal parts fascinated and irritated. "Do you attach stupid nicknames to everyone you know?"

"Only the ones who deserve it," Marisa said with a grin. "Still haven't thought of one for you that isn't a synonym for ' Reimu-Wannabe'."

Sanae looked at Reimu. "You know, I'm starting to see why you find her annoying."

"Aw, what are you talking about?" Marisa plopped down next to Reimu and grabbed her with a fiercely tight embrace. "Reimu loves me!"

Reimu held up three ofuda charms. There was a brief flash of light, and suddenly Marisa was sprawled in the dirt, clutching her face.

"Damn it!" she grimaced. "Right in the face! Thanks a lot, Reddie!"

"Come on, you were asking for it," Sanae said with a snicker. Reimu couldn't help but join in.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Marisa mumbled as she pulled herself up. "You shrine girls are all the same. Bet you wouldn't be laughing if I had my spellcards or my hakkero."

"You don't have your spellcards?" Reimu asked.

Marisa's grimaced twisted ever further. "Those disappeared right along with my hakkero, ze. Damned Yukari probably still has them."

"Well," Sanae said. "You were being rude."

"I still got my normal spells and my fists, you know that?"

"Oh gee, you don't say? Oh, whatever shall I do?" Sanae opened her mouth wide and placed her open palms on her cheeks. "Please Ms. Scary Witch, don't hurt me."

Marisa was about to yell something back, but Reimu took that opportunity to step in. "Okay, okay, enough already. If we keep this up Yukari's probably going to come after us."

"What's she gonna do, ground us?" Marisa muttered. "And you're the one blasting people in the face."

"Okay, fine. I'm sorry I shot you in the face. You happy?"

"Hmmm, that depends."

"On what?"

Marisa puckered up. "On whether or not you give me a kiss."

There was another flash of light, and Marisa fell back on her butt, grabbing her mouth and cursing.

"So much for keeping things nonviolent," Sanae muttered. She shook her head. "By the way, what did that rabbit want with you anyway?"

Reimu sighed. "Do me a favor and wait until after the meeting. In fact, bring Kanako too. There's something I wanna talk to you both about."

…

Yukari was no goddess. She had no followers beyond her Shikigami and what few allies she had gathered for herself. She had no worshippers, nor did she want any. Annoying little pests, always clamoring for this favor or that. If she had the time to be bothered with helping young children pass school tests and smitten young Humans win hearts, then she would probably spend it doing…just about anything else. And it wasn't as if all that faith and devotion added to her personal reservoir of power anyway. That was the territory of the like of Kanako and all the other little deities wandering around Gensokyo.

Still, she did possess and handful of traits commonly associated with divinity. For one thing, she had formed the land of Gensokyo through sheer force of will, separating it from the Outside World and declaring it to be the sanctuary for the inHuman beings that people just seemed to not want anymore. And as such, though she preferred to back away and let its inhabitants handle their own affairs, she did occasionally step in to personally ensure that a threat would become…less threatening.

Unfortunately, this sometimes meant doing deeds that many would consider repulsive. While she hadn't done anything to match the destruction of the Ruined City since the original incident, there had been a number of times over the years where she had been forced to do something that she preferred not to talk about. It didn't happen much, but when one has lived as long as she had, it tends to add up.

And so, while everyone else was sating their hunger and complaining to each other about everyone else, she was meeting with two of the deadliest people she had ever known to discuss how to best kill two little girls who, by youkai standards, had not yet even reached puberty.

One of them, Eirin Yagokoro, was a literal creator of monsters. And in addition to having a starring role in making Rin Satsuki into what she was today, the physician possessed what had to be the most complete knowledge on how the living body worked and the best way to kill it. And given her other job as Eientei's protector, she had several lifetimes to put that knowledge into practical application. While her primary job was as a healer, there were very few who would dare to cross her.

The other, the spirit known only as Mima, had been until very recently one of Gensokyo's more notorious villains. Out of all the evil spirits to haunt the land, she was the only one to whom that title was capitalized. Her exploits in that capacity were legendary, and while she professed to be retired from playing the 'bad guy', there were still places where just her name alone could incite panic.

Having the two of them together, along with Yukari herself, reminded Yukari of those sinister dark councils that fiction writers from the Outside World seemed to be obsessed with. For a brief moment, she considered handing out hooded robes and filling the room with smoke, just to add to the effect.

Instead, she had to settle for cups of tea while sitting around a wood table. Perhaps not aesthetically pleasing, but any more was just plain frivolous.

"It really shouldn't be _that _hard," Mima said as she sipped from her cup. "After all, we literally have the very forces of creation and destruction at our disposal. If worst comes to worst, we can always just try them all until something works."

"Really now," Yukari said. "Because I seem to recall us trying something similar on the Shadow Youkai. And now that the situation has escalated by a significant amount, I don't see how trying that again is going to help."

Eirin leaned back in her chair, her tea completely ignored. "You two are getting way ahead of yourselves. Extracting the Princess from Rin should come first." Her eyes flickered over to Mima, and back again.

"Along with Fujiwara no Mokou as well," Yukari said. "The less nigh invulnerable that thing is, the better."

"If we must," Eirin said, though she clearly wasn't fond of the thought of saving Mokou, for whatever reason.

"Ah, that's no problem," Mima said dismissively. "Just torture the thing until she vomits them out. I mean, she still feels pain on _some _level, right?"

Eirin's eyes hardened. "How very…medieval of you."

Mima smiled but said nothing. She took another sip. Then she frowned.

"Okay, what?"

Eirin blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"You've been staring at me this whole time. Is there a pimple I'm unaware of? A spider in my hat?"

Eirin managed a weak laugh. "No, nothing like that. I just have a professional interest in casual violation of the rules of reality."

"What?" Then Mima looked down at the teacup she was holding. "Oh, that. Still, coming from someone who has literally cheated death just because she could, a ghost drinking tea shouldn't be _that _strange."

"Which is why I have a professional interest. Tell me: do you receive any actual nourishment from it, or is it just for the sensory pleasure alone? And where does the liquid go? Does your body actually absorb it or does it vanish or…"

Yukari pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, we're getting off topic again. Can we leave these annoying little detours for the main council and get back on track?"

"As you wish," Eirin said. "At any rate, we must-"

"Eirin, your wrist is flashing," Mima said.

Eirin blinked. "Come again?" She held up her left arm and sighed when she saw what Mima was talking about. A circlet of grey crystal encircled her wrist, and it was indeed blinking on and off.

Yukari raised an eyebrow. "Time for your meds?"

"No, it's Tewi," Eirin muttered. "Damn it, I told her not to contact me unless it was an emergency."

"And what's to say it isn't?" Mima asked.

"Because it's Tewi," Eirin responded, as if that were reason enough. But then she sighed. "Still, better safe than sorry. Excuse me ladies, I might have to take this."

She stood to her feet and pressed two fingers from her opposite hand against the bracelet. "What is it?" she said as she walked toward the door. "This had better be worth interrupting me, because if it isn't, then I will personally tear out those ridiculous head-ornaments you call ears and use them-"

The rest of her threat was cut off when she stepped out into the hallway and shut the door behind her.

Mima and Yukari were left staring at each other. "Ouch," Mima said. "Sucks to be the bunny. Should we listen in?"

Yukari shook her head. "No point. She's going to tell us anyway."

"She'll probably lie."

"Not to us. At least, not successfully."

"Point," Mima said with a smile. "Annoying though, isn't it? Seems you just can't get anyone to stay on task for more than three minutes."

"I'm…starting to develop a tolerance."

"Just now? Haven't you been doing this sort of thing for…How old are you again?"

Yukari leaded forward folded her hands over the table. "That's a bit of a personal question. But at any rate, while Eirin is gone, there's another matter I need to talk to you about."

"Oh?" Mima rested one arm around her waist and rubbed her chin with the other. "A private matter, eh?"

"Something like that, yes."

Mima's smile increased. "Ohhh, I'm blushing already. Please continue."

Yukari nodded. Truth be told, she was a bit uneasy about what she had to tell Mima. It wasn't the subject matter itself so much as the fact that she was going to have to lie to the ghost. While that in itself wasn't a problem, Mima was rather accomplished in the field of deceit and, as Yukari had just pointed out, she was exceptionally good at telling when someone else was trying to deceive her in turn. And if she managed to catch Yukari in a falsehood, then there would be more than just Satsuki and the Shadow Youkai to worry about.

However, Yukari was no slouch herself. And her skills at manipulation were well honed. The trick was to make sure that not a single word she said was technically untrue.

To that end, after a moment of appropriately dramatic hesitation she said, "I had an unexpected visitor last night. Remilia Scarlet."

"Did you? I thought I smelled the stench of vampire lurking around. I suppose she had a long list of complaints ready for you?"

Yukari sighed. "You have no idea. But beyond that, she wanted to help."

"Oh?" Mima arched a single eyebrow. "That's unusual for her."

"Not so much as you think. She's just as threatened as the rest of us by Satsuki's continued freedom. Perhaps even more so, given the unpleasant memories Satsuki must be harboring toward her servants."

"True enough. But I hardly believe that little Rin has any blood for her to drain."

"I never said she offered to do the deed herself. However, she does want to assist in the hunt, and has also offered use of her sister's power." When Mima blinked, Yukari said, "Yeah, I guess she's that upset by the whole thing. She wants Satsuki in the ground just about as much as we do."

"And she is aware that blowing the poor girl up isn't going to be as effective as it once was, correct?"

"Indeed. In fact, I brought that up myself. And I have to admit, she did make a fair point in return. She claimed that while Satsuki may be able to _physically _endure anything we can dish out, she would _mentally _be unable to cope. Like you said earlier, she can still feel pain on some level. And while she may be able to regenerate from any damage, a continuous assault like Flandre Scarlet is able to deal out would eventually cause her to crack and give in."

"Or go berserk completely," Mima muttered. "Still…I have to agree that she has a fair point."

"Yes. Unfortunately…There's a catch. She has a condition."

"Oh?" Mima lifted her teacup to her lips. "And what's that?"

"I need to arrest Marisa."

If there was anyone who could make the claim of having seen it all, it was Yukari. She was one of the oldest beings in existence and watched over a country that literally ran on the impossible. Still, she had never seen a ghost do a spit-take before. Not until that very moment, at least.

"You _what?"_ Mima sputtered. The teacup fell from her hands and bounced across the table. "What did you just say?"

Yukari carefully wiped off the stinging droplets of hot tea from her face with her handkerchief. "That was her condition. She apparently has grown fed up with all the burglaries and wants me to do something about it." She shrugged. "Of course, her idea of 'doing something about it' involved a great deal more pain and screaming, but I managed to talk her down to simple incarceration."

Mima just stared at her. "You're serious."

"I am."

"I don't believe this."

"You should."

Mima's hands were laid flat on the table. If they possessed anything resembling normal biology, they would be pure white from the blood loss. As it was, they were still shaking uncontrollably, though not from shock but from barely controlled power now zipping through them. "If you think for one moment that I'm just going to stand aside and let you-"

"Oh, calm down already," Yukari said in a cross tone. "It's not permanent, and it's just to make Remilia happy. I'll have Marisa cool her heels until we wrap up this Satsuki business and let her go with a warning. She'll be out in a month, tops."

"Oh? I wonder Yukari, I really do. I haven't forgotten that look you gave her back at Eientei. I'm starting to think this is more about you punishing her for getting into your face than just winning over another ally."

Yukari laughed. "If that were the case, then Marisa would be missing a head! Seriously Mima, she was bound to get thrown in jail sooner or later anyway. At least with my way, she'll be out faster."

"You'll forgive me if I'm not won over by your certainty," Mima said in a low tone. "And might I remind you that doing so will probably alienate another of your allies, one you probably need even more."

Yukari's fingers drummed against the table. "You mean yourself."

"I do."

"Mima, be serious. You're not going to back out, not with Satsuki still loose. You might not be personally threatened by her, but Marisa is still a Human, and is still very much killable. In fact, if there does end up being a confrontation, Satsuki will probably target her personally. In a way, I'm keeping her out of harm's way."

"Oh? Then why don't you lock up Reimu while you're at it?"

Yukari sat up straighter in her chair. "What does she have to do with anything?"

"I saw that ostentatious barrier you stuck over the shrine," Mima hissed. "I heard you trying to convince her to stick around where you can keep an eye on her. If you're really so worried about keeping the squishy little Humans safe, then why don't you just stick them all in a cell?" Her eyes narrowed. "Or maybe it's not the Humans you want to protect at all. Maybe it's just little Reimu. Or to be specific, the Hakurei Shrine maiden. Maybe you just think Marisa's too dangerous to be hanging around her all the time. After all, you know full well what'll happen if Reimu's goes and gets herself killed without producing an heir…"

Yukari shot to her feet. "That has nothing to do with this!"

"Does it? You seem awfully defensive. Did I hit a sore spot? Strike a nerve? I wonder if you what you would do if the only way to bring Satsuki down would be mean Reimu's death. Would you still go through with it, Yukari? Hmmm?"

Yukari was spared from answering as the door swung open and Eirin rushed into the room as quickly as her still-poor health would let her. "Yukari, Mima, we've got trouble," the Lunarian said. "I just got word that…" She stopped and looked from one to the other. "Um, am I interrupting something?"

Yukari shot a look at Mima, who was still glowering at her. "Yes, but it can wait until later," Yukari sighed. "What is it?"

At that precise moment, the tiny figure of Princess Kotohime materialized in the center of the table. She did not look good. Her hair was disheveled, her face was bruised and covered with splotches and smudges as if she had just stopped crying and her normally neat uniform was in complete disarray.

Kotohime took a deep breath to steady herself, tugged on her uniform and said, _"Miss Yakumo, I apologize for contacting you like this, but it appears…it appears…" _Her composure broke completely and she began to wail, _"It's terrible! Oh, I should have seen this coming, I'm so sorry. What are we going to do?"_

"Who the hell is she?" Eirin asked.

Mima glanced up at her. "Some Human princess who thinks she's a police officer. Yukari's been using her as her personal spook."

Yukari ignored her. "What is it?" she hissed. "I'm kind of in the middle of something!"

"_It's Cirno, ma'am!" _Kotohime said. _"She's resurfaced, and in the worst way possible."_

Eirin stiffened. "That's what my information was about!"

"Really?" Mima said. "How…coincidental."

"Shut up," Yukari snapped. To Kotohime, she said, "Tell me what's going on."

"_Um…well ma'am, I have good news, better news, bad news, worse news and…terrible news."_

Yukari had the distinct feeling that none of the news was going to be good. "Fine. Fire away."

"_Well, the good news is that we've located Cirno and the rest of her fellow troublemakers, as I said earlier. They're all at the Youkai Market, creating a…a bit of a racket."_

Yukari closed her eyes. "Of course," she muttered. "Oh, why didn't I put her in a cage when I had a chance?"

"_Um, and the better news is that we've found your other Shikigami as well?"_

"What?" Yukari's eyes snapped open. "Chen's there with them? But Cirno said…" She groaned. "Oh, of course. I should have realized."

"Indeed, Tewi did mention as much. It seems she's fallen in with a bad crowd," Eirin confirmed. "Well, worse."

"Debatable," Mima muttered.

"Enough, spirit. Kotohime, what are they doing?"

"_Well ma'am, that happens to be the first bad news. They've been there all day handing out these." _Kotohime held up a brown piece of paper with writing all over it.

Yukari frowned and motioned with her fingers. The illusion focused on the paper, allowing them a clear view of what it held. At the paper's center was a crude child's drawing, little more than a stick-figure. But judging by the excess amount of black crayon used, the red eyes and the representation of a sword attached to one of the picture's spindly arms, it didn't take a genius to tell that it was supposed to represent Rin Satsuki's previous form. At the top of the paper was the word REEWHARD in large block letters. At the bottom was written ¥25000000, AND MAIBEE MOR IF U DU IT KWIKLY!

Yukari blanched. "She's posted a _bounty? _On the _Shadow Youkai?"_

"_Yes!"_

"Where the hell did she get twenty-five million yen?"

"_I don't know, ma'am! Stole it, most likely."_

"Tell me people aren't taking that little idiot seriously."

"_Not at first, but, uh, recent events have generated interest."_

"What events?"

"_Well, that's the worse news. From what I've been able to gather, Cirno was interviewed by a newspaper reporter about half an hour ago."_

There was a brief snort of laughter. Yukari turned to glare at Mima, who wasn't even bothering to hide the fact that she was the culprit.

"Which reporter?" Yukari said to Kotohime. Then a somber thought struck her. "No, wait. Let me guess. It's her, isn't it?"

Kotohime nodded solemnly. _"I'm afraid so, ma'am. It's her."_

…

_Then_

"I see, I see, I see!" Aya Shameimaru said as she scribbled in her notepad. "And that was when Yukari Yakumo threatened to do you bodily harm?"

Cirno nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! She said she'd beat me up, slap me around, eat me and kick me in the stomach if I didn't just leave Rumia to rot!"

"Okayokayokay, got it! And in that order, right?"

It was now midday at the Youkai Market, and the place had filled impressively. Everywhere different stands, carts, tents and a few buildings could be seen, selling everything from clothing to jewelry to food to weapons to spellcards of questionable legality. And everywhere you looked were people in all different shapes and sizes. Some of them looked more-or-less normal, while others could only be judged to be living and sentient beings by the fact that they were moving around and interacting with others. However, the one thing they all had in common was that there was not a single Human to be found.

The air was filled with general hubbub that such a gathering tends to generate. Above it all the various shopkeepers and merchants shouted the attributes of their merchandise and proclaimed its superiority over that of their competitors.

"Don't bother listening to that cow-humping swindler, get the freshest fruits in all of Gensokyo right here at…"

"You there, sir! You look like a man in need of a weapon! Come take a look at…"

"Sweet potatoes! Roasted sweet potatoes! Blessed by my own hand!"

"Oi, who's be wantin' their teeth pulled 'round here? Don't care if they're white or black, sharp or dull, pearly shiny or butt-ugly, I'll take 'em!"

"Old lamps for new! Old lamps for new!"

Cirno and her friends had taken control of a wooden platform with a flagpole stuck through it near the center of the market. Cirno had been standing on the platform and had been loudly announcing their bounty since early that morning, while Mystia, Daiyousei and Chen were in the crowd, trying to distribute the fliers Cirno and Chen had made earlier that week. Wriggle (who Cirno was still shooting glares at) was holding Mystia's bag of money, acting both as a presenter and a guard.

Admittedly, business had not been as good as Cirno had hoped. While the amount of money had definitely attracted a fair amount of attention, it was more from thieves than potential mercenaries. Most people, once they learned that people such as Reimu Hakurei, Yukari Yakumo and Marisa Kirisame might become aggressive competition, backed away quickly and refused to have anything to do with the bounty. Others simply laughed at them and walked away. Cirno, upon remarking upon the strangeness of this to Mystia earlier, had just gotten a roll of the eyes in response. Cirno wasn't exactly sure what the night-sparrow meant by that.

And to top it off, Yuuka Kazami had yet to appear. Cirno was pretty sure they could motivate more people to take them seriously if they had her backing them. Though if she were to be truthful, the madwoman's absence was something of a relief.

Cirno had started to become discouraged by their lack of success, but her spirits had picked up when a dark-haired girl with a red circus tent-shaped cap and a camera showed up, wondering if Cirno might be willing to say a few words for the press.

Of course, the answer had been an emphatic yes.

"So do you think that Yukari Yakumo might be caving into the stress?" Aya asked. "As if in, making poor decisions and lashing out at innocent people as a result of having to deal with a problem beyond her ability to solve?"

Cirno thought about that for a moment. "Nah, I think she's just a jerk who thinks she's better than everyone."

"And is it your opinion, as a free citizen of Gensokyo in good standing with your neighbors, that Yukari Yakumo is therefore undeserving of the authority and power that she holds?"

There was nothing about that sentence that Cirno didn't like. "Oh, heck yeah!"

"Hmmm, yes, okay, yes. And would you care to comment on the rumors flying about concerning a possible ménage a trois between her and her servants, which by its very nature would have pedophiliac elements?"

Cirno stared blankly at the Tengu. "Huh? What's a…Who's Manager Troy now? And what's he got to do with…Pita Philly Flaks?"

"No comment then! Okay!" Aya held up the bounty flier that Cirno had enthusiastically provided her with. She squinted at the illustration of the people-eater. "And this is a faithful reproduction of the monster in question, yes?"

"Saw it with my own two eyes!" Cirno said. "Touched it too! Felt like scraping your hand raw over pointy ice. And ice isn't even supposed to hurt me, so you can see…"

"I can indeed! Huh, okay. Yeah, I know an artist or two who can probably spice this up for you. And how long is this bounty for?"

"Forever!" Cirno declared. "Or, until it works. Because, you know, it wouldn't make any sense to keep it going after someone claims it. Would kinda defeat the whole purpose. So yeah."

"Gotcha. Okay then." A twisted smile spread over Aya's face as she regarded the flier. "Ayayaya, this is gonna be good! We'll have to go into a triple-print for this! Maybe quadruple! Try to match _that _Hatate, you third-rate copycat!"

Cirno scratched her head. "Um, was that a question…?"

"Naw, you're good. Now smile!" Aya quickly snapped a few pictures of Cirno, an irritated looking Wriggle, Mystia, Chen, Daiyousei (who were focusing on trying to get people to take their fliers and were thus unaware that they were being photographed) and the surrounding crowd.

"Okay, I think we're done here! Now, take these…" Aya shoved a handful of small papers into Cirno's hands. "And give them to all your friends!"

"What are these?"

"A 15% off subscription for the _Bunbunmaru! _My way of saying thank you for being such an awesome interviewee!"

Cirno actually felt touched. "Wow, thanks!"

"No problem! And look for your face in the papers!" With that, Aya leapt into the sky, circled the Marketground once, and then zipped off in the general direction of the Youkai Mountain.

…

_Now_

Yukari slumped back in her chair and rubbed her forehead with one hand. "Oh, isn't that just swell? This incident isn't even a week old, and already things have reached that level. So much for keeping a cap on things and avoiding mass panic."

"Or greed," Eirin said.

"Or greed," Yukari agreed.

"You know, it's not like we were doing that great a job of keeping things quiet anyway," Mima murmured. She steepled her fingers over the table. "As I understand it, rumors have already spread as far as the Ancient City."

"Rumors are one thing. Nobody really cares about them around here anyway. But bounties and front-page stories? Those are something quite different." Yukari shook her head. "And for the love everyone good and orderly, Kotohime, why didn't you put a stop to it like you were supposed to?"

"_I tried, ma'am, I really did! As soon as I found out, I went in with three other officers, ready to shut them down!"_

"And?"

Kotohime lifted a hand to her damaged face. _"And I'm afraid that's the terrible news."_

…

_Then_

"Yeah, I don't think talking to her was the best idea," Wriggle muttered to Cirno, who was still staring at her shiny new coupons.

"Huh? Why? We're gonna be on the front page!"

"It's _Aya, _dipstick! She ain't really working with a full deck. And her paper's reputation's not so great."

"Hey, at least she talked to us, which is more than I can say for most people." Then Cirno turned to glare at the firefly. "And at least _she _doesn't try to stick _dog collars _up her friends' _butts!"_

"Oh, up yours Cirno," Wriggle snapped. "You sent me to talk to Yuuka Kazami! You wanna know how that day went?"

"Yeah, not really. Sounds boring." Cirno looked around. "Speaking of which, where the hellsicles is she? She said she'd meet us today!"

"No, she said she'd _see _us today," Wriggle corrected. "She's here, believe me."

"What?" Cirno looked around at the churning mass of bodies. Not a single Yuuka could be seen among them. "Where?"

"Where you can't see her. Trust me, she's here. I can tell."

"Fine. Whatever." Cirno hopped off the platform. "Just so long as she shows up if a fight breaks out. Hey, I gotta go ask Chen something. You gonna be cool manning the shop by yourself?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure. Because you've been contributing _so much _beyond standing around and driving people off with your yelling…"

Cirno pushed her way through the crown until she reached the catgirl, who was doing her best to explain the situation to a pair of very confused looking Kappa.

"…and it's going around trying to eat everyone and stealing their skins except I it doesn't really look like skin I don't know I didn't get to see it but Cirno's really reliable about these sort of…"

Cirno snapped her fingers. "Yo! Chen!"

"Huh?" Chen turned around. "Oh, hey! I was just telling these guys…" she waved her hand in the Kappa's direction. Or rather, where they had been. As soon as Chen's back was turned, they had taken the opportunity to slip back into the crowd and put enough distance between them and her as possible. "…about the scary blobby thing you were-"

"Yeah, okay. Cool. Good job and all. Hey, you ever meet someone named Manager Troy? 'Cause Aya seems to think that he's-"

"You!"

Cirno turned around and found herself facing a grizzled-looking youkai male who was wearing a black-and-white striped shirt and a bowler hat.

"Uh, yeah?" she asked, looking him up and down. "Do I know you?"

With a growl, he shoved his face right into hers. "Know me? You damned froze me solid four days ago, girl!"

"I did?"

"What'dya mean, 'I did'? You was flying through the Forest of Magic looking all lost and confused, and so I goes down and offers my help! And you then you done froze me right to my web like a damned icicle! I didn't thaw out until yesterday morning!"

Cirno thought hard. She shook her head. "Yeah, I got nothing."

The youkai snarled. "Oh, couldn't agree more. And when I gets done with your pretty little ass, you're gonna have even-"

There was a low but audible whining noise. Then a leaf-green flash filled the area. Cirno winced back and shielded her eyes. When she opened them again, the angry youkai was gone.

All around her everyone, shoppers and sellers alike, went very, very quiet.

Cirno was suddenly aware of someone tall standing over her and blotting out the sun. She looked up and saw Yuuka looming overhead, wearing her perpetual smile and holding her trademark umbrella.

Yuuka leaned down so that she and Cirno were almost nose-to-nose. "Hi."

"…hi…" Cirno squeaked.

Yuuka straightened up and looked around. The crowd was slowly backing away from her and Cirno and her gang. "Goodness gracious, that took quite awhile, didn't it? I thought I would get to step in at least three hours ago."

"Uh…"

"Oh, and so sorry for not meeting you this morning. I figured things might be easier for you if people didn't see me. Silly rumors and unfortunate reputation and all that." Yuuka sighed. "And from the looks of things, I was right. Oh dear."

"It's her, it's the Nightmare of Endless Flowers!" someone yelled.

"Oh my gods, did those kids bring her here?"

"I say, would this be an appropriate time for mob mentality?"

"P-pruning shears! Pruning shears and weed k-k-killer! G-guaranteed to save you from-"

Yuuka's eyes blazed with sudden fury. She folded up her umbrella and pointed the tip at the opportunistic salesman. There was another flash, and the anti-foliage stand (along with its owner) ceased to exist.

"I swear, some people just have no consideration whatsoever," Yuuka sniffed as she adjusted her vest and brushed off her sleeves. Then she sighed again. "Well now, better go see about making this reputation work for us."

She made her way toward Cirno's raised platform. Those who were anywhere near the platform in question cleared out immediately, and Daiyousei and Mystia got out her way in a hurry, the latter taking the opportunity to slink into the relative cover of the crowd itself.

Yuuka pulled herself onto the platform and surveyed those gathered. Her smile returned. "Attention, everyone! Good afternoon to you and all that rubbish. Now, I just wanted you all to know that little Cirno over there…" she pointed out the ice fairy in question "…and all of her adorable little friends are under the personal protection of Yuuka Kazami! If anyone else seeks to do them harm, then they and I will have words." Her smile started to look a bit strained. "Oh, and if I see another one of you abominable plant-killers around here, then I will be having a talk with them as well. Got it?"

A few home and gardening stands decided to close early for the day.

"Furthermore, let it be known that the bounty they are posting is operating under the full knowledge, validation and sponsorship of myself, and I would just hate to have their endeavors be all for naught. So if you people don't feel the offered reward is enough to get you off the bench and into the game, then what say I sweeten the pot a bit? If someone manages to find and bring in the subject of the bounty within the space of a month, then I will add an additional fifteen million yen to the reward, right out of my own pocket! With another five-hundred thousand for every day before the month's end! And to top it off, should anyone, and I mean _anyone, _try to interfere with your work, I will take steps to ensure that you remain unmolested." Her teeth flashed in the sun. "Does that sound reasonable?"

While it could not be said that the crowd was any less fearful of her presence, they were starting to pay attention. After all, while Yuuka was considered to be a terror made from the same stuff as nightmares, she was a legitimate terror made from the same stuff as nightmares. If she gave something her full backing and protection, than it had to be official on _some _level.

Also, Cirno had already been offering a substantial amount of money, even by the Humans' standards. And to the youkai and fairies, who very rarely had anything resembling a steady income, it was all the more impressive. And with Yuuka's contribution, more than a few were starting to weigh their self preservation against their desire to vastly increase their material wealth.

Before too long, the majority decision became, "Screw it, we're immortal."

"Good, good, glad to hear it!" Yuuka said cheerfully. Then her face twisted in furious scowl and she slammed the tip of her umbrella against the planks of the stage, the sound of which made everyone jump. "Now start grabbing those fucking grabbing fliers!"

That was more than enough motivation to get the crowd moving. The other shops and stalls were forgotten in the mad rush to snatch up as many fliers and possible. Mystia, Chen and Daiyousei literally found themselves swamped with eager customers. Finally they just threw their bags into the air and ran off, letting the mob sort it out themselves.

And then an interruption occurred.

"All right, everyone stop!" shouted a commanding voice, by use of an amplification spell. The chaos quieted down immediately as everyone turned to stare in the direction of the voice's source.

Full credit had to be given to Kotohime. Youkai and their brethren were nearly impossible to control individually. Gathered together into a massive mob and they became more akin to a force of nature, in some cases literally. And yet she had managed to grab everyone's attention with a single command. She floated above the crowd. She was wearing the plain black uniform that was the standard of her personal squad. Accompanying her were three others; two dark-haired Human brothers and a silver-haired fairy girl, all dressed in the same uniform. They stood (well, hovered) at attention behind their captain and waited for her word.

"By orders of Yukari Yakumo, this gathering must disperse immediately!" she declared. "The persons known as Cirno, Daiyousei, Wriggle Nightbug and Mystia Lorelei have engaged in illegal activities and are now under arrest! Any action made to assist them will be seen as an obstruction of justice and will be treated as such."

Silence greeted her pronouncement.

Kotohime looked confused. As she was a Human enforcer intruding into a distinctly Human-unfriendly territory, she had probably been expecting more protests and violent opposition. "Rest assured that this incident does not in any way infringe upon the Youkai Market's freedom and independence, and once the suspects have been incarcerated, normal market activity will be allowed to resume!"

More silence. A few sidelong looks were exchanged, but no movement beyond that.

"Um…And I also see that Chen Yakumo is also in the company of the suspects!" Kotohime declared. "As a Shikigami in Yukari's service, her disappearance has, uh, caused her master serious worry, and finding her has been one of our top priorities! So, we'll be taking her too. Because it's time for her to go home."

Again, no answer.

"So…Is that all right with all of you?"

Finally, there was a response, in the form of every gathered youkai, fairy, spirit, god and all other creatures turning around and facing the stage on which Yuuka stood, umbrella opened overhead. The madwoman had been watching Kotohime's speech with an almost gleeful amusement.

Kotohime frowned. "What, who is…" Then she finally caught sight of Yuuka and her face went snow-white. Her fellow officers gasped as they recognized her as well. "Mother of God…" she whispered.

"Which one?" Yuuka asked cheerfully. She glanced around. "Oh my, you're really starting to upset people, aren't you? I'm sorry, but I think it's time for you to leave."

Kotohime straightened. "I, uh, I can't do that. You, you see, I've, uh, been sent. Been sent by _Yukari Yaku-"_

"Yes, I know that, dear," Yuuka said. "And we should talk about that later. But in the meantime, I really need you to stop bothering these people." She snapped her fingers.

"But-"

What occurred next happened so suddenly that even those who saw it coming were taken by surprise. As Kotohime was talking, four green vines silently slithered out of the ground and grew up behind her. They continued to grow as she argued with Yuuka, sprouting buds that blossomed into sunflower dials. These dials then hovered directly over the officers and, on Yuuka's signal, slammed down with such force that all four of them were knocked unconscious instantly. Twisting vines then encircled their ankles and dragged them off through the market and away from the crowd.

The marketgoers watched as Kotohime and her posse disappeared into the forest on the market's edge.

"Now, wasn't that fun?" Yuuka said. "Nice and tidy." She grinned. "As you were."

…

_Now_

Yukari's head was reeling. "Yuuka Kazami's entered the game?" she said. _"Yuuka Kazami?"_

"Wow, are you having a rotten week," Mima said. "Which curse god did you piss off?"

"_That's not all, ma'am," _Kotohime said, her head bowed. _"She has a message for you."_

"Who says what now?"

…

_Then_

Yuuka leaned forward and prodded the unconscious for of Kotohime with her umbrella. The silly Human's head lolled to one side and she muttered something about needing to finish her paperwork, but she didn't stir.

Back behind them, the market was still in full swing. Sweet little Wriggle and her friends were still occupied in recruiting more pawns for the game. Yuuka was fairly certain they were close to running out of fliers. It didn't matter. The word was out.

Which meant it was time for her to send out a word of her own. She was standing in the forest bordering the market. Kotohime and her assemblage were stripped down and strapped to four trees, vines spreading their arms and legs wide. All of them except Kotohime had their mouths gagged by a mass of leaves and flowers. Yuuka felt right at home.

She wondered if there was time to play around before her new friends came around. After all, she really only needed Kotohime to be in working condition. It took but one to deliver a message.

Then Kotohime shook her head and groaned. Yuuka sighed. Ah well. Work before pleasure. It was just fortunate that her work was so enjoyable.

"Come on," she said, lightly slapping the girl's cheeks. "Wake up. We need to talk."

Kotohime opened her eyes and stared dazedly at her surroundings. To her credit, she grasped the situation immediately. Her eyes snapped all the way open and she opened her mouth to shout something, but Yuuka placed a finger over her lips.

"Shhhh, shhhh, shhhh," she shushed. "Quiet now. No talking unless I say so. Okay?"

Sweat prickling at her brow, Kotohime nodded.

"Good girl. Keep it up, and we'll get along _famously!" _Yuuka ruffled Kotohime's hair and shook her head back and forth.

"Now then, as you've seen, things are starting to stir in Gensokyo. Big things. _Fun _things. And I _want _them to keep stirring. Those adorable little kids back there are bound and determined to keep the fun going, and I intend to help them do it. However, it seems that the self-proclaimed Queen Bitch of Gensokyo can't handle a little excitement. Disappointing of her, really. She used to be so much more playful. But if she wants to be a wet blanket and ruin everything, then we're going to have a problem, now aren't we?"

Her hands clasped behind her back, Yuuka leaned in so that her and Kotohime's foreheads were almost touching. "And since she insists on slinking in the shadows and hiding behind her pawns, I need you to deliver a message for me. Can you do that for me, dear?"

Kotohime gulped, but she didn't say anything.

Yuuka frowned. "What, aphid got your tongue? I asked you a question!"

"Oh, um, I-"

The tip of Yuuka's umbrella drove into Kotohime's bare stomach, driving the wind from her. She slumped over, coughing.

"No, no, no, naughty girl," Yuuka admonished. "I said no talking unless I gave permission! What part about that was so…" Then she blinked. She straightened up and slapped a hand against her forehead. "Oh, how silly of me! How can you answer questions if I don't let you speak? I'm sorry, dear. These little details tend to escape me. You may answer direct questions."

"O-okay," Kotohime wheezed. Then she gasped as the umbrella hit her again.

"That wasn't a direct question," Yuuka muttered. She sighed. "Well then, on to business. Once we're done here, I'll let be letting you and your friends go. Once that happens, you are to leave those children alone. They are under my protection and I'll not have them molested." She giggled. "Well, except for by my hands. But you are not to touch them. Are we clear?"

"Yes m-ma'am."

"Good. And as soon as you are able, you are to go to go to Yukari, and you are going to tell her…That I _expect _her to carry as she's done. To keep trying to bring down the Shadow Youkai and her strange new friend. She is of course not to go anywhere near the children, but beyond that I would love for her to give it her best effort. It's no fun otherwise."

Kotohime nodded numbly.

"Good. And finally…Look at me please. No, not at your friends, at me." Yuuka gripped Kotohime by the jawline and forced her to line up her eyes with Yuuka's. "Good. Now pay attention, because this part's important. Yukari is likely to become upset about my meddling. She'll probably rant, rave, throw a childish temper tantrum, blame whoever's near, all those good things. And when she does, tell her this."

A low, hissing laugh slithered out between Yuuka's grinning teeth. "'Come and get me, Yukari. I'm waiting'."

Yuuka released Kotohime's head and took a few steps back. "And I really hope you'll do as I ask. Because if you don't, I'm going to be very disappointed with you. And do you know what happens to people who disappoint me?"

Without taking her eyes off of Kotohime, Yuuka pointed her umbrella at the silver-haired fairy, who was just starting to stir.

Kotohime stiffened. "No, wait!"

There was a flash of green light, and the vines holding the fairy in place fell down the tree's side, empty.

Kotohime slumped. She closed her eyes as tears started to prickle.

"Now, now, don't cry," Yuuka murmured. She lightly caressed Kotohime's cheek. "She's a fairy, after all. Give her a few minutes and she'll be right as rain. But I hope you realize that you are not a fairy. Neither are those fine strapping boys behind me. And you will not come back from where I can send you. Now, do you understand everything I've told you?"

Humiliated, defeated, and her spirit utterly crushed, Kotohime barely managed to give a single nod in reply.

…

_Now_

"I…see." Yukari closed her eyes. "And that's it, then?"

Kotohime nodded once. _"That's it, ma'am. She disappeared soon afterward. Literally. We were released right after that. Our uniforms were found in a nearby bush, and Officer Nyoron revived soon after."_

"And how long ago was that?"

_"Ah, about...ten minutes ago."_

Yukari's forearms began to shake. "And didn't it occur to you to report all this to me immediately? What exactly where you doing in the meantime? Twisting flowers into necklaces?"

Kotohime didn't answer that one. Mima rolled her eyes and floated to the other end of the room. Eirin glanced back and forth and noisily cleared her throat.

With a grimace, Yukari mentally kicked herself. Of course the girl wouldn't have reported in. Despite her chosen profession, she had seen relatively little action in her short time, and Gensokyo did not train its cops the same way the Outside World did. Plus, she was only Human, a Human who had been assaulted, tortured and violated by one of the most sadistic creatures Yukari had the misfortune of knowing. Plus, there was the whole thing of being forced to watch as her friend was destroyed to make a point, even if the death was temporary. As it was, it was a miracle that Kotohime was reporting in at all and not curling up and sobbing under a table somewhere.

"I…apologize, Captain," Yukari said. "That last comment was out of line. You did all you could, I understand that. No one would expect more."

Kotohime hesitated, and nodded her thanks.

"But the situation has progressed beyond your ability to handle. No bad reflection on your capabilities, but when Yuuka's involved…" Yukari shook her head. "Anyway, get your people together and return to your headquarters. I'll be opening a gap there. When you're ready, I want you to join me at the tower, understood?"

"_Understood," _Kotohime said.

"Good. Yukari out."

As Kotohime vanished, Yukari stood to her feet and started to slowly pace around the room.

"Well," Mima said. "I know they say that karma's a bitch, but I never-"

Holding up a single finger, Yukari said, "No, no talking. No taunting. Later. Let me think."

"But what does she want?" Eirin asked. "Yuuka I mean. There is no profit in this for her. She has no connection to Rin or the Shadow Youkai, at least none we've heard of. And I don't think she has any outstanding grudges against you."

"She doesn't need one," Mima answered. "Yuuka's not the type to have logical motivations. Nothing she does will have any sound reasoning behind it. She simply enjoys the chaos. Her challenge to Yukari is just her way of saying 'Come out and play'."

"Hell of a time for a playdate," Eirin muttered. "So…what now?"

"I said let me think," Yukari snapped. She frowned. "Okay…So, Cirno's out of reach for the time being. Problematic, but not devastating. Way I see it, damage done. Yuuka's the main threat."

"Brilliant deduction," Mima said. "You should open a detective agency."

"What did I just say about the taunting? Zip it." Yukari closed her eyes. "Okay, so she wants to play? Fine, I can play. Only this will be by my rules. I've had enough insane lunatics tearing up the scenery. Now, the only question is how to make her do that." Yukari rubbed her chin and frowned. "Hmmm."

"Um, I hate to intrude upon your pondering," Eirin said. "But why is this even a question? Aren't you the Master of Borders? The one who shaped Gensokyo through sheer force of personality? Can't you just…walk up to her and take away the border between life and death, like you did with me but in reverse? Or…create a gap over her head leading to the Earth's core and give her a magma shower?"

Yukari shook her head. "Doesn't work that way, not with her. Yuuka's not a home-grown youkai. And I've spoken to Mugestu and Gengestu, and they said she's not from Mugenkan either, not originally. No one knows where she originated from, but it's not Gensokyo."

"So? I've seen you dominate Outsiders before. Why is that a problem?"

"Because those Outsiders weren't anywhere near my level of power. Yuuka…is. She's more like a force of nature than anything. Dousing her with lava would probably just piss her off. And since she didn't spring from the Gensokyo's magical energies, she's much more resistant to me messing around with her structure."

"You mean like the Shadow Youkai?"

"Exactly. If she and I were to meet on a level playing field, then…"

"She's not sure if she'll win," Mima said.

Yukari arched an eyebrow. "No, I'd win all right. It wouldn't be easy, but I'd win. Only problem is that with Yuuka, the playing field is _never _level."

Eirin looked a little pale, even more so than she had been as of late. "In the name of the Eclipse, Yukari. Why did you ever let someone like her in Gensokyo in the first place?"

"You ever hear the proverb of the five-hundred pound gorilla?"

"No."

"Look it up. Though you're probably right. Our immigration policy could use some reviewing. First things first though…"

With that, Yukari closed her eyes and concentrated. She reached through energies swimming through the tower, feeling the little, minutes flashes of life until she found the one she was looking for.

_Ran, _she thought. _Ran, are you there?_

_Of course, _came the prompt reply. _I'm just having lunch with Byakuren and Kanako. Is something wrong?_

_Something just came up, something you'll want to hear about. Come to my quarters immediately._

_Is it Chen? _Ran thought back. Even without her being physically there, the fox's anticipation was unmistakable.

_Yes, she's been found. But the situation's become…complicated. You need to hear this._

_On my way,_ Ran responded. Yukari felt the glowing warmth of Ran's lifeforce begin to move. She killed the connection and opened her eyes.

"All right then," she said. "Obviously this is going to have to be dealt with. But in the meantime, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell the rest of the Ringleaders, at least not yet. Right now, we need more division and debate the same way we need nails pounded through our eyes." Then she scowled. "Wait, Satori's here. Damn it."

"She's not one to blab," Eirin said. Then, when everyone turned to stare at her, she amended, "Well, at least not when it's very important. I'm sure she can be convinced to keep a lid on things."

"Maybe. I hope so. But in the meantime, it looks like lunch is over. Would you two please gather the others together? I need to speak to Ran real quick and then I'll join you."

"Of course," Eirin said. "Best of luck." With that, she stood to her feet and left the room.

Mima lingered behind a while longer. "I really have to say, Yukari. I am impressed. When your luck runs out, it does so _spectacularly."_

Yukari briefly wondered how the ghost would look without a head. "Mima, as much as I'd love to banter with you, I'd really appreciate it if you'd just do as I asked."

"Oh, I will, don't worry. But ah…Yukari?"

"What?"

"Don't think that this bombshell means I've forgotten the Marisa situation," Mima said in a flat tone. "We will finish that conversation later."

With that, she faded from view.

Yukari was left alone in her room. She stared at the round, wood table where Kotohime's image had stood. She considered picking up the table and hurling it through the wall. Wasteful, but it would make her feel better. Sometimes you just had to throw _something. _

Instead, she opted for slipping back into her chair and staring at the ceiling. No, giving into frustration would do her no good. Emotional reactions were anti-productive. The only way she could salvage the situation would be to keep her cool and think rationally. After all, the day was far from over. It wouldn't do to have the other Ringleaders see her collapse.

Yukari's hand slipped almost idly into her pocket. She froze when she realized that it was empty. She jumped back to her feet and immediately began searching the rest of her garments, clawing through all her pockets, pouches and shaking out her dress. This was followed by a thorough search of her room. While she pulled out a variety of interesting objects, the ones she was searching for failed to turn up.

Marisa's hakkero and spellcards were missing.

Ran showed up a few minutes later, disheveled and out of breath. "Yukari!" she panted. "Sorry, I lost my way. What have you-"

Then she looked around. Her eyes widened. "Wait, where did your table go? And, oh my _gods, _what happened to your wall?"

…

_Here's a fun game to play: let's see how many times I can make it seem like a scene is going to be about one plotline, only to have something interrupt and change it to something totally different. I don't know if this is a simple stylistic pattern or bad planning on my part, but things are getting a little messy. Damn it, time to try to tie these things together._

_Anyway, thanks for being patient! Comic-Con was an absolute blast (I got to talk to Joss Whedon!), though I was just as pooped as predicted. Two three-hour drives per day and only four hours of sleep per night will do that to you. Totally worth it though._

_Anyway, some of you have seen it already, but for those of you that haven't, the first chapter of the Kaguya and Mokou story is up. Like I say in the author's notes over there, it won't be updated as much as Imperfect Metamorphosis, but I will try to keep things flowing. Also, since the two stories will be connected, you should definitely go check it out. Plus, I just like hearing from you guys._

_Also…but _damn_ last chapter got a strong response! General consensus seems to be that Yuuka is scary/crazy awesome and most people want Yukari (with a couple exceptions) to be ran over by a steamroller or something (though this chapter may or may not change either of those views. We'll see). As for me, I couldn't be happier with the responses! I mean, don't get me wrong, I like Yukari and all, but it's good that people are responding to her actions, even if that response is the desire to throttle her._

_As for whether or not those actions will have consequences…Well, with Yuuka and Rin's Dark Voice gunning for her, Mima and Marisa holding grudges, Reimu starting to sneak around behind her back and the fact that she really isn't on her best game at the moment (just look at how quickly Mima turned the tables on her), I don't think her life is about to get any easier. Let's see if she can deal. _

_Also, in regards to Unown's question about why Reimu didn't want to talk about that Monopoly game (even though she probably won)…I don't think I know a Monopoly game that didn't result in some kind of blood feud. That game destroys families, man!_

_Anyway, next chapter we'll be catching up with Rin and Rumia as they try to unravel the mystery of Rumia's past and buried memories. All I can say about that is I hope you guys like Inception/Nightmare on Elm Street/Serial Experiments Lain/Ergo Proxy, because things are gonna get…_

_Trippy._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	16. Deep Within, Part 1

Deep Within, Part 1

_Deep Within_

Rumia looked up and scowled. "Oh, come on already!" she shouted. "Now you're just getting redundant!"

Rin looked at her confusion. "What? What are you talking about? What's getting redundant?"

Four days had passed since the two youkai had been thrown together through bizarre circumstances. And in that time, very little had changed. They were still on the run from everything and everyone, they were still trapped together in the endless void of Rin's mind, they still were no closer to solving the mysteries that beset them, and Rumia was still one inch away from strangling Rin to keep her from starting another stupid game.

Rumia gestured. "Her ability is eternal youth? We've got immortality in like three different flavors already! We don't need another one."

Well, to be strictly accurate, something had very recently changed. They had picked up a new passenger, yet another young blond girl, this one a long-haired witch that had been napping on a riverbank. Rin had very nearly tripped over her while emerging from the water, waking her up in the process. According to Rin herself, the time period between the actual awakening and the girl's assimilation into Rin's body was a jumble of confusion and reflexive action. She hadn't intended to absorb the girl, it just sort of happened that way. Mistakes do happen, after all.

Unfortunately, the girl wasn't inclined to see things that way, and she had taken a very dim view of losing her body and being forced to ride around with a couple of strange naked girls who may or may not be completely insane. In the end, Rin had been forced to remove her mouth, just as she had done with Kaguya and Mokou earlier. Though, if she were to be asked, Rumia honestly could not blame the girl for freaking out completely.

"Yeah, good point." Rin frowned as she cocked her head in the girl's direction. Taking the motion as threatening, the girl started up another bout of wide-eyed muffled shrieks. "So, uh, I don't think she's in much of a listening mood. What should we do with her?"

"I dunno, you're the one who ate her."

"It was an _accident," _Rin protested. "Jeez, how many times do I have to keep saying that? A _mistake! _I'm allowed to make a couple."

"Is that so."

"Seriously! It's not like I'm some sort of…compulsive…absorbing glutton…thing. I can stop eating people any time I want!"

"Uh-huh. Okay. This conversation is really starting to weird me out." Rumia shook her head and sighed. "So, back on topic, what about her? We let her go?"

Rin hesitated. "I…Uh, I'm not so sure about that. Maybe I should just stick her in a dream too."

Rumia sucked her teeth. "Rin, you can't fix everything by sticking it into dreams. That's lazy problem solving, and it sets a bad-" She cut herself off. "Okay, now this conversation's getting weird too. Point is, I don't want any more creepy people swimming around your head than we need. You already went crazy once, and who's to say having too many people wasn't a part of that? I mean, we have a good reason for not letting the other two go, mainly because they hate us and they're keeping up from getting exploded, but what good is she? Can't you just…erase her memories and dump her off somewhere?"

"Erase her memories? I…Uh, I really have no idea," Rin admitted. "Never done anything like that before, at least not permanently. I mean, I kinda screwed with Kaguya and Mokou's minds, but that really wasn't a full erasure…Look, point is, if I'm not careful I could end up crushing her mind and…" Then she blinked and squinted at the new witch-girl. She stepped forward and leaded in closer. Then she reached out to touch her fingertips against the girl's forehead.

The girl's reaction was predictable. Rumia rolled her eyes as the wordless screeching intensified. "Oh, nice going genius. That'll make you seem less scary."

"Shush," Rin mumbled. She pulled away. "Well now, _that's _convenient."

"Huh? What is?"

"Her memory's the worst I've ever seen. It's practically self-degenerating, bordering on anterograde amnesia."

Rumia stared at her. "Okay…I know I'm not the smartest youkai around, but…huh?"

"Right. Sorry. Her memory keeps destroying itself. Her personality and identity are kept intact, but specific events and other information gets wiped away on a constant basis, keeping that personality from maturing. I don't think I'll have to do anything besides put her to sleep for a few hours to make her forget. Crazy."

"Wow, really? Neat. Kinda sucks for her though."

Rin shrugged. "I dunno, she seems happy enough."

"…no she doesn't. She looks terrified."

"I mean before," Rin explained patiently. "I guess always forgetting if something bad happened would make you happy, you know? But yeah, gimme a sec."

Rin closed her eyes and concentrated. Rumia looked from her to the newcomer. Slowly but surely, the girl's metaphorical body began to fade away.

Rumia then turned her attention to the screen. The view still showed the riverbank where they had literally run into the girl. One of Rin's arms came view as it passed in front of her face. The ash-white hand bulged and expanded, losing its color and becoming transparent. As Rumia watched in horrified fascination, the bubble at the end of Rin's arm molded itself into a semblance of a Humanoid shape. Within, dots of matter began to appear. These dots swam toward the bubble's center, converging together and forming a larger mass. Organs began to develop, as did a skeletal frame. Flesh formed in patches, flowing over the bones and meat, (thankfully) covering them from view. Hair sprouted from the top of the head and grew out until it was partway down the back. Finger and toenails dug their way out of the digits for a finishing touch.

Rumia shuddered. _Okay, _she thought. _Now that was really, really disgusting. _She wondered if the same thing had happened to her when she had been absorbed, only in reverse. Of course, at the time she had been consumed by unbearable pain, so it had been difficult to pay attention. But she was willing to bet that it hadn't been any more fun to watch.

The bubble flowed away from the girl's body and the hand reformed. Rumia looked away from the screen and turned back to Rin. Apparently expelling someone was more tiring that bringing them in. A thin sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead and her limbs were shaking.

"Uh, Rin?" Rumia said. "You okay."

Rin opened her eyes. "Yeah, I'm good." She took a step forward and stumbled. Rumia grabbed her by the arm and helped her steady herself.

"Thanks," Rin muttered.

"No problem. Even though you falling over really don't make a whole lot of sense, all things considered."

"It's all a metaphor, remember? Everything that you experience in this state is just, um, is just a translation of what-"

"Yeah, okay. I got the really confusing analogies the first time around. Don't really want…" Rumia's eyes wandered back to the screen. She stiffened. "Oh, crap. Rin, you were supposed to put her to sleep!"

"Huh?" Rin looked in the direction Rumia was pointing. On the riverbank, the girl was starting to stir. She sleepily rubbed her eyes and looked around. Then she caught sight of Rin and froze, her eyes widening in fear.

"Oh, not good," Rin said.

"You think? Did you forget to put her under or something? Come on Rin, even for you this is pretty bad."

"Hey, I haven't done this for awhile! Still a little rusty, you know?" The view on the screen shot back and forth as Rin searched the area for a solution.

"Well, reabsorb her and start over!" Rumia growled. "We've wasted enough time as it-"

The girl was starting to scramble to her feet. Rin's pale hand snatched up a smooth stone from the riverbank and clunked her on the head with it. The girl's eyes rolled back and she slumped back to the ground.

"…or you can do that," Rumia finished. "Um, is she okay?"

"Uh, I think so," Rin said, though her voice didn't seem too certain. "Anyway, she's a witch youkai, so it's not like I can hurt her all that much. I think."

Rumia shook her head. Things were starting to unravel again. "Never mind, damage done. Let's just get out of here."

Rin agreed. Her physical body lifted off the ground and floated down the length of the river, quickly putting distance between them and the girl. Rumia found herself feeling a sudden stab of envy. Sure, the girl had been assaulted, dissolved, terrified out of her wits and knocked unconscious, but at least she had been released and was allowed to continue her life. Provided that she didn't experience some sort of mental trauma, of course.

"So, uh, Rumia?" Rin said.

"Huh?"

"Have you thought about what I suggested? You know, to help us dig up your memories and find out why those people wanted to kill you too?"

Rumia grimaced. The question of her memories had been a source of disagreement for the last couple of days. Rin wanted to find out what they contained. Rumia was curious herself, especially since her survival might depend on it, but the thought of having to endure that pain again made her very hesitant to let Rin make the attempt.

To that end, Rin had suggested a compromise. They would dissolve Rumia's metaphorical body, therefore removing the possibility for the phantom pain. Rumia would then be sent deep into a dream, just as Kaguya and Mokou had been. Rin would then have easier access to the memories and Rumia would (probably) be spared the agony of the operation, with any unpleasantness being retranslated into the context of the dream and therefore being easier to deal with.

Rumia still had strong objections to the plan. Like most youkai, she usually had very vivid dreams, and didn't want to be trapped in some kind of nightmare. Given the sort of memories Rin might be uncovering, Rumia might very well find herself being skinned alive or stabbed repeatedly while being burned at the stake. She had then suggested that they try just sending her to the limbo of darkness again. Rin had agreed, and they had given it a shot.

The attempt hadn't lasted much longer than two seconds before Rumia had started screaming to be released. She wouldn't even look at Rin for about an hour afterward. As it turned out, pain wasn't the worst thing one could experience.

Still, that did leave them with the problem of how to go about unlocking the repressed parts of Rumia's mind. At the moment, the dream option was the only one they could think of. Not for the first time, Rumia wished that they had someone with more creativity on board.

"Rumia?" Rin said again. "Come on, I know you don't wanna do it, but we need to find out what's trapped in your mind."

"Do we have to do it now?" Rumia said. "I mean, can't we wait until we find a better hiding place?"

"We _had _better hiding place! You made us leave!"

"No, I didn't! The sea monster did when he smashed up the place! I just didn't want to stick around for all his friends to show up."

"Okay, okay, fine. But seriously, we gotta find out what's in there sooner or later. The longer we wait the harder it's gonna be. You know, like jumping into a cold lake."

"Speak for yourself. Every time I jump into a cold lake I end up losing all feeling."

"That's because you hang out with ice fairies! Stop changing the subject!"

"I'm not, I…" Rumia shook her head. "Look, do we _really _have to do this? I mean, I'm literally putting my, uh, my mind? Soul? You know, that _thing_ that's super important! And I'm putting it on the line here! And you know what? You seem really eager to dig around in my head! Not saying I don't trust you, but it's really getting weird! How do I know you won't screw something up, put a thought in there that isn't mine but I'll think it's mine and end up doing what the thought tells me to do and…Sorry, got off track, where was I?"

"Questioning my motives," Rin said in a mild tone.

"Right! So why _do _you want to dig through my brain so much anyway?"

Rin's mouth straightened into a tight line, a sure sign that she was growing impatient. "Okay…Still looks like we're gonna have to work on the 'Trust' thing. Fine, I get that, I sorta deserve it. But, uh, Rumia? Duh? I've got major life-killy powers and a big whooping sword popping out of nowhere that are somehow attached to you. I've got a psychotic voice that sounds like you introducing itself as my split personality that can somehow take control of me when I'm not paying attention. I've got some really, really powerful people who think you're some sort of thing that needs killing. And I've got you, the only person who ties this whole mess together. And _you've _got a great big lump of repressed memories that could probably tell us why all this is happening! So yeah, I kinda want to dig in your head to find out why! Sorry, my self-preservation instincts are insistent like that!"

"But…but…" Rumia's mind raced as she tried to think of an appropriate rebuttal. Unfortunately, none was forthcoming.

Rin sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Look Rumia, just for the record, I don't think you're some kind of monster, okay? I mean, okay, you _are, _being a youkai and all, but so am I! And I've done some crazy stuff too! I know what it's like to be hated, and I'm not about to do that to you. No matter what's locked up in there" Rin tapped Rumia's forehead with her knuckles "that's someone who isn't you anymore. I wanna save you as much as I wanna save me, okay?"

Despite herself, Rumia was strangely moved. She wasn't used to people sticking up for her and promising to protect her no matter what. Sure, she and her friends watched each other's backs, but she wasn't sure they would go as far as Rin was offering to go. That didn't mean she liked the idea of Rin clawing out extremely stubborn memories from the deepest corners of her mind any more, but she was less suspicious of Rin's motives.

Besides, no matter how she cut it, Rin was right. The answers they needed were stuck inside her mind, an no amount of talking around the problem was going to change that. "Okay, look. I'll try one more time, but you gotta promise me that if things start going crazy wrong again, you'll stop. Deal?"

"Deal," Rin said happily. "Don't worry, it'll work this time. Promise."

"_So _not reassuring," Rumia muttered. She took a deep breath. "Okay, let's get this insanity over with."

"Sure. Hang on, let me find a place to park."

"Place to what now…?"

"It means…never mind. Just wait a sec."

Rumia sat and waited as Rin searched the riverbed for a suitable place to hide her compilation of a body. Finally she found a small outcropping of stone, with just enough space beneath for a body to fit. Rin wedged herself in the best she could and pulled up several rocks to further hide herself from view.

"Wow, that doesn't look comfortable," Rumia said as Rin put the finishing touches on their hiding place. "Can you…feel all that?"

"Yes, but it doesn't bother me," Rin said. "And stop trying to get me focused on other things."

"Sorry. So…how does this work, anyway? Do I...lie back or something?"

"Huh? No, why would you do that? No, I'll just do it like I did with the Princess and Mokou. You'll just…kinda fade away and wake up in the dream. Simple as that."

Maybe so, but it still sounded creepy. "Okay, and you promise it won't hurt?"

"How could it hurt? Your spirit-body…thingie here will be gone!" Then Rin's face grew troubled. "Then again, their dream is looking really realistic, so I dunno..."

"I really hate it here sometimes," Rumia muttered. "Okay, get it over with."

Rin nodded. "Okay, just try to relax. It'll still be a little weird, what with all the dissolving and temporarily losing all sensation, so close your eyes or something."

"Sure. Really feeling reassured here."

Rumia squeezed her eyes shut. As she did so, a feeling of slowly falling through darkness so dense it was almost tangible spread through throw her. As Rin claimed, all sensation started to melt away as Rumia sank deeper and deeper.

_This is crazy, this is crazy, _Rumia thought to herself. _This is crazy, this is crazy, …_

And she was gone.

…

Rin stared at the place where Rumia had stood just a second ago. "Wow, that is kinda crazy. Never really paid attention to it before." She shrugged and let her own mental projection of herself vanish as well, allowing herself to fully occupy her physical body. She wouldn't be needing that little room inside her mind anyway.

Once those barriers had been broken down, Rin reached out into her own mind. She felt the fleeting presences of Kaguya and Mokou, still drifting through the world of dreams she had sent them too. She briefly wondered how things were working out for them. Maybe she should check later.

However, there was no time for that now. Her mind brushed against Rumia's essence, a small quivering beacon of intelligence hovering deep inside the recesses of Rin's being. Rin smiled at she did so. It was sort of funny now that she thought of it. All those people were making such a fuss over something so tiny and helpless. Well, okay, so there was more to it than that, but it was hard to think of Rumia as a threat when she was like this.

_Okay, here we go,_ Rin thought. _Sweet dreams._

And with that, she opened Rumia's subconscious.

…

_...thisiscrazythisiscrazy..._

Rumia sat up straight with a jolt and a gasp.

"…this is crazy, this is…Holy crap!"

The transition between floating through a void and suddenly having mass and sensation again was so unexpected that it took Rumia's brain several seconds to catch up. She winced at the sudden onslaught of sunlight and squinted at the scene around her.

Her body was indeed back. That was a plus. And she was clothed again in her usual black skirt, white blouse and black vest, which was another step in the right direction. The youkai attitude toward nudity was much more lax than that of Humans, but that didn't mean she hadn't been getting tired of being naked.

However, as comforting as that bit of familiarity was, her surroundings were far from normal. From the look of things, she was in a medium-sized square room, though great effort had gone into making it appear otherwise. The walls and ceiling had been painted to depict a sprawling countryside with a blue sky overhead, complete with a glowing light that looked like a white sun. The floor beneath her feet was designed to represent a field of grass and flowers. There was even a trunk of a tree stuck halfway into the wall, with its branches fusing into the ceiling overhead to melt into a painted depiction of the rest of the tree, leaves and everything. A recorded track of chirping birds and chittering insects played in the background, and a gentle breeze flowed in through unseen vents. It all seemed very silly.

However, once Rumia's vision began to clear, she had to admit that the amount of detail put into the illusion was impressive. The designers clearly knew their way around matters of perception. She could almost believe that she was sitting inside a glass box in the middle of an actual countryside.

Then, as she stared at a painted river, she saw a painted hawk dive into the painted water and come up with a painted fish and flap its way into the painted sky.

She shuddered and turned away from the weird wall. After all, the scene taking place inside the room was, while less weird, a bit more interesting.

She was sitting at a rectangular table, set with a white tablecloth. All around the table were five chairs, four of which were occupied, Rumia's chair being situated at one end and the empty chair at the other. And in the other chairs…

Rumia jumped to her feet. "Guys!" she said happily. "It's you, you're okay!"

Mystia turned to smile at her. "Hi Rumia." She held up a squat, blue teapot. "Tea?"

"Tea? We've been separated all this time and all you can do is offer me tea? Wow, so glad you missed me."

"Missed you?" Wriggle asked from her place at Rumia's right. "Where did you go?"

"What? Don't you remember? I was-" Rumia cut herself off. "Wait, what the hell am I doing? Gah, I haven't even been here for a minute and already I'm wigging out." Still, she had to admit that, weird or no, the teaparty was _miles _better than what she was expecting. She sat down. "You know, I think will have some of that," she said, holding her teacup toward Mystia.

"Of course," Mystia murmured. She gently tipped the teapot over and started to fill the cup.

Rumia looked back and forth. Wriggle and Daiyousei both sat smiling in their seats, holding teacups but not drinking from them. On the table were a variety of different pastries, vegetables and sweetmeats, all untouched.

"So…you guys not eating?" Rumia asked. "And where's Cirno? She couldn't make it?"

"What are you talking about?" Daiyousei asked. She pointed at the empty seat. "She's right there!"

"Uh…No, no she's not. Unless she became invisible or really, really small or…"

"No, silly! Right there! Look!"

Rumia leaned forward and squinted. Now that Daiyousei mentioned it, there did seem to be something there. Small, fluttering white dots, dancing downward through the air…

She blinked. "Hold up, is it _snowing _in that chair?"

"It's Cirno's new idea!" Mystia said. "Having a body is too dangerous. This way, she can be everywhere at once without having people shoot at you!"

The snow was forming a small pile in the center of the chair. "Yeah, okay. That's…definitely the dumbest idea she's had in a long, sad history of bad ideas. Can she…hear us at all? Can she even talk?"

Mystia just shrugged and smiled.

"Right…You know, maybe she should have asked me before disintegrating herself, and…Uh, Mystia? The cup's full. No need to pour anymore. Seriously, you're drowning the tablecloth."

…

_Okay, so that is a little bizarre, _Rin thought to herself. _Funny, but still bizarre._

She shrugged. _Well, at least she's getting to talk to her friends. _Her mouth dipped down. _Even if one of them is nothing more than a pile of ice crystals._

She still hadn't told Rumia that Cirno had gotten herself vaporized during their escape from Eientei. And while she knew full well that fairies were destroyed and brought back to life on a regular basis, those spells had just been so powerful. And the fact that she had gotten herself killed while trying to defend Rumia only made it worse. Rin had no how she was going to break the news to Rumia. Their relationship was tenuous as it was.

Rin retreated from that line of thought. No time for that now. She had a job to do.

After taking a second to steady herself, Rin moved along the track of Rumia's memories. The most recent were the easiest to move through. Year after year of shenanigans with her friends, making and getting into trouble. Rin had to admit she was just a little envious. She had never had that much freedom, even before she had changed into a power-absorbing monstrosity.

Then she ran across one memory that made her pause. It wasn't anything particularly notable, just Rumia hanging out with her friend in their little mountain hideout. It was late evening, and they were all sitting in front of a small, crude fireplace. Judging by the conversation, they had attempted some sort of caper only to have it blow up in their faces. And yet, judging by the way they were laughing and teasing each other, they didn't seem to mind in the slightest. Gradually the chatter slowly died down as they drifted off to sleep, one-by-one. Rumia was the last to succumb. She just reclined against a stalagmite and watched the dying fire with increasingly heavy eyes and let the feeling of contentment wash through her.

Back when Rin had lived in Eientei, she had been taught that the wild youkai were little better than animal, creatures that stood upright and talked but were driven by their base desires. But this scene didn't seem particularly savage. Rather, it was kind of beautiful, in its own way. A small band of children who had been given eternal life and youth and had decided to enjoy every second of it.

Maybe it was her youkai instincts, but Rin found herself aching to join them, to greet each day with the knowledge that it would be full of nothing but fun, mischief and play. To go to sleep each night knowing that the next day would be the same. And to know that she had friends that thought of her as family and would always be there for her, no matter what the circumstance.

Rin lingered on that memory longer than the others, but finally managed to pull herself away. No, she mustn't let herself get distracted. The repressed memories, she had to focus on the repressed…

She stumbled upon another memory of an evening just like the one before, only in this one that bird girl, Mystia, had decided to use Rumia's stomach as a pillow. All right, now this was just getting unfair.

Rin forced herself to speed through the rest of Rumia's prankster days. Nearly a decade-and-a-half of mischief making sped by in a blur.

Then she was passing through events from earlier in Rumia's life, back before she had met Cirno and the others. Rin had to admit, these memories were much more unpleasant to view. She knew that these were from a time when Rumia had been much less civilized and almost feral. But still…

_No, please! Leave us alone! I don't wanna…_

Rin passed through those memories quickly, doing her best not to linger on one for too long. She shuddered. Maybe her teachers at Eientei did have a point after all.

Finally she reached as far as she was going to go. And there it was: a tangled knot of memory, buried so far in that Rumia hadn't even known they existed, not even in the context of a fleeting dream.

Rin moved her essence over the memories, wondering what they contained. She wasn't sure if she wanted to find out, but the situation they were in demanded answers.

_Okay, here we go, _she thought. _Hope this doesn't get too scary._

With that, she grasped the tangled mess and began to dig.

…

Rumia was suddenly knocked out of her chair by an unseen force. She gasped and tried to pull herself up, only to be lifted off the ground and thrown onto the table, scattering plates, cups and food.

She tried to sit up, but something was holding her limbs in place, almost as if she were tied down. Overhead, the sun seemed to be shining twice as bright, assaulting her eyes with a fierce light.

She squinted against the glare. Wriggle, Mystia and Daiyousei had risen from their seats and were now staring down at her. Though she could barely make out their faces, they didn't seem friendly.

"Hey look," Wriggle said. "The monster's waking up."

"Should we be standing so close then?" Daiyousei asked. "I mean, far be it from me to tell you two great masters what to do, but this inferior Human would be _much _more comfortable taking a few steps back."

"Then do so," Wriggle snapped. "If you can't handle a little risk, then feel free to leave."

"Well, excuse me for having a sense of self-preservation. Not everyone likes the idea of being incorporeal."

"Enough, both of you," Mystia said. "Save your moronic grudges for later." She leaned in closer, so that Rumia could see the scowl on her face. Rumia was pretty sure she had never seen Mystia's face look like that; so calculating, so cold, so…cruel.

Panic briefly seized Rumia's mind, but then she realized what was going on. _Well now, I guess Rin just got started, _Rumia thought. _I wonder what deep-seated issues _this _must represent._

She tried to open her mouth to ask what was going on, but found that she could not.

_Okay, not good. Uh, Rin? Are you listening? Things are getting uncomfortable. Seriously, I think they're gonna start skinning me. Rin!_

"Well, so far so good," Mystia muttered. She reached down to grip Rumia by the jaw, turning her face from one side to the other. "Look, no sign of the taint at all."

Daiyousei started a slow clap. "Bravo, bravo. Confetti and cheap alcohol all around. And it only cost you the lives of at least a dozen people, not counting the few hundred or so before I could get you to get off your immortal asses and actually help. Your skill is truly amazing."

Wriggle sighed. "May I squish the insect? Please?"

"No, you may _not," _Mystia hissed. "Be quiet. And that goes for you too, shrine maiden. Your comments contribute nothing of worth."

_Shrine maiden? Daiyousei, a shrine maiden? Did Miss Reimu start outsourcing or something? What's going on here?_

Rumia once again tried to speak, tried to move, tried to do _anything. _To her surprise, she actually managed to start struggling this time, though her movement was very weak.

"Well, look at that," Wriggle said. "I think she's scared. Aw, how adorable."

Rumia opened her mouth to demand an explanation, but all that came out was a wail of absolute terror.

…

_Okay, so that didn't work, _Rin thought to herself. She could feel her constructed body frown in frustration.

The lump of memories was proving to be exceptionally hard to unravel. So far it had resisted all her attempt to untangle the various threads and make some sense of Rumia's past. The experience was not too dissimilar to trying to push her fingers through hard clay.

_Alrighty then, so this is gonna take some work. Let's see what happens if I try this…_

…

The end of the table tilted downward and Rumia found herself slipping and sliding down a slope that had not been there a moment ago. Grass was swiftly replaced by soil, rocks and small shrubs that scratched her skin and tore at her clothing as she tumbled downward. Rumia cried out in fear as she tried to grasp for any kind of handhold to halt her fall, but her fingers slipped from branches and clumps of dirt broke loose to join her.

Then, after what seemed like an eternity of pain and confusion, Rumia finally rolled to a stop. Sniffling, she pulled herself to her feet. Thankfully none of her bones were broken, but her legs were still shaky and she needed to grab onto a nearby tree to keep from stumbling. Then she got a good look at her new surroundings.

She was in another one of those strange rooms fashioned to resemble the outdoors, only this one was larger and much less cheery. She stood at the foot of a large hill which rose up against one side of the room to continue into the painted wall, making it seem much larger than she actually was. Several tree trunks were placed here which rose into the ceiling, on which was depicted the roof of a forest. Though the ground beyond the dirt from the hillside was flat and clean, pictures of fallen leaves had been drawn. The whole place was done in muted browns and yellows, making it seem like it was in the middle of autumn.

_This is getting creepy, _Rumia thought to herself as she brushed off her clothes. _Who made all these weird rooms and why don't they just go outside?_

She looked from her right to her left. Lack of authenticity aside, there was something familiar about the forest. Although she couldn't put her finger on exactly when, she was reasonably certain she had been there before. She supposed that was a good sign, as it meant that Rin was making some headway.

"Just hope that whatever I discover here doesn't show that I was some kind of killer demon thing in a past life," Rumia muttered. "And really, what the hell happened up there? Did my friends put me together by…I don't know, sewing dead bodies together or something?"

She sighed. Well, nothing was going to be learned by just standing around, and at least there was nothing actively trying to torture her. She turned around and revised her appraisal of the room. The far end stretched far out of sight, making it seem more like a hallway. A hallway filled with tree trunks and fake leaves.

Well, it wasn't like she had anywhere else to go. Ignoring the little voices that were telling her what a bad idea this was, Rumia started off.

…

Rin was starting to make some headway. At least she had managed to coax a few stray fragments loose. Unfortunately, they were useless, just more of the same as she had been seeing already. A much more savage Rumia prowling through a forest, hungrily searching for food. And in some cases, she found it.

With a shudder, Rin pushed those images away. Though she knew that preying upon Humans was a fairly common practice among youkai even with the anti-hunting laws in place, it was still disconcerting to actually watch it happen. Poor kids…

Rin went back to working on the repressed memories. Hopefully she would find something that would make this unpleasant trip all worth it. Some clue, some indication as to why Rumia was so feared. Unfortunately, she had a feeling that even if she found what she was looking for, she was not going to like it.

…

Rumia nervously glanced back and forth as she walked forward. The artificial forest was causing her to experience a severe case of déjà vu. For some reason, she felt like she should be creeping around on all fours, preferably through the branches, even if the branches themselves didn't exist.

_Of course they don't exist, _Rumia thought. _None of this exists! In fact, nothing I've done in the last few days was real, not physically at least. So why am I even fussing about it?_

Maybe she was just getting claustrophobic. Even though the illusion of being outdoors was a good one, she was still painfully aware that the walls of the hallway were only about four feet in either direction. Rumia never did like being indoors. It made her feel like she was being pressed in from all sides. Even back at the gang's hideout she had preferred sleeping in the main cavern instead of her small alcove just because it was larger and more open.

_Maybe all this is some kind of metaphor, _Rumia thought. _Like, even when I'm outside I still feel trapped because…of something or another. I don't know, Rin's the one with actual psychosomethingoranother training. I'll ask her after this nonsense is over. No, wait, on second thought maybe I won't. She'll probably just go on an hour long spiel with about twenty different interpretations and…Oh, holy crap._

Rumia stopped in her tracks and stared. She had reached the other end of the hallway.

…

Rin was starting to contemplate taking Rumia's memories and bashing them against the wall of her mind until something came loose. She wondered what could have possibly happened to force Rumia to repress those events to such a degree.

_Dang it Rumia, did your past have to be _this _traumatic? _She was instantly struck with remorse. _No, wait! I'm sorry, I didn't mean it! Don't hate me or anything. _

Deciding that she should probably just keep concentrating at the task at hand before her dumb thoughts got her into any more trouble, Rin started to go back to work. But then she paused for a brief moment.

_Should I? It would be kinda rude. What if she's having a sex dream or something? Maybe with the bird friend of hers? I'm pretty sure I've seen fragments of them…flirting. So, maybe there's something there? No, wait, what am I doing? Rumia's love life is her business! She can keep her private sexual fantasies or…That is, assuming she's even _having _a sex dream. Could be about a game of mahjong for all I know. _

Rin struggled with the issue for another moment before going, _You know what? What the hell. It might be bad, and she'd want me to save her if it was bad, right?_

She snuck a quick peek. To both her relief and disappointment, Rumia wasn't doing anything of much importance, just walking through a strangely rectangular forest.

_Well, better boring that too exciting. Okay, back to work._

…

It was a building. A building three stories tall. A building three stories tall with row after row of rectangular windows. A building three stories tall with row after row of rectangular windows and a sloping, tiled roof. A building three stories tall with row after row of rectangular windows and a sloping tiled roof that had apparently been nearly destroyed by fire. A building three stories tall with row after row of rectangular windows and a sloping tiled roof that had apparently been nearly destroyed by fire and abandoned.

And, just to act as the icing on this highly bizarre cake, the front of said burnt-out husk of a large building was jutting out of the wall at the end of the hallway.

Rumia stared up at the structure, trying to piece her head around its purpose for being here. While it lacked the sheer size and intimidation of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, there was still something about it that sent a chill down Rumia's spine, even without the problem of it being the roasted skeleton of a huge building that somehow got stuck in a wall.

"Do I know this place?" Rumia said as she scratched her head. "Pretty I don't. Oh gods, I hope this isn't another stupid metaphor."

She started toward the front entrance and hesitated. There was definitely something about the place that repulsed her. Something about the loneliness surrounding the structure, the feeling of being abandoned and unwanted. She couldn't place her finger on it, but it made her feel odd. Not just nervous or creeped out, but also a little…

Guilty.

"Well, whatever," Rumia muttered as she turned away. "Screw that place." If there was one thing she had learned, it was that large, creepy looking buildings that popped up in dreams were best avoided. Better to just sit tight and hope Rin's plan didn't go horribly wrong.

Unfortunately, that plan suddenly proved impractical. For four different reasons, all of which started to rush toward her.

"There you are, slowpoke!" Cirno shouted as she and the rest of the gang ran up to Rumia. "We've been waiting for _hours! _What took you so long?"

Rumia stared at her. "Well, hello Dream-Cirno. Glad you decided to stop being falling powder. And hey there guys. Thanks for throwing me on the table and acting super weird back there. Really appreciate it."

This of course was ignored. "Here, hang on to this!" Cirno shouted, thrusting a card in her face.

Blinking, Rumia took the card from her. It wasn't a spellcard, nor did it contain any bizarre scenes that could be interpreted any number of ways. "Cirno, this is an Ace of Spades."

"Right! Don't lose it!"

"Yeah…Okay, look. I know the you from the real world ain't all that bright, but not even she would shove a playing card into my hand without telling me why. So, you wanna just skip the confusing symbolism and just tell me what I'm supposed to learn from this card here? Because I-"

"Stop talking," Mystia said as she grabbed hold of one of Rumia's arms. "We're late enough as it is!"

The night-sparrow's grip was surprisingly strong. Rumia didn't know what they were late for, but she was sure she wasn't going to like it. "Hey, you're kinda invading my personal space here, and I'd appreciate it…"

Wriggle wrapped her fingers around Rumia's other arm.

"…okay, now you see that? Don't do that! I feel like I'm about to get raped or something…Hey!"

That last exclamation was directed toward Cirno and Daiyousei, who had snatched up her legs and pulled them off the ground.

"Seriously, what the hell!" Rumia shouted. "Wherever it is you're going, you don't need to take me with you!"

They ignored her and started marching toward the building's entrance, carrying the struggling Rumia with them.

"Let me go, already! Okay, I don't care if you're not the real my real friends, as soon as I get out of Rin and back home, the first thing I'm going to do is punch all of you in the nose! Seriously, let me…" Her breath caught in her throat as they started up the building's steps.

"Oh, hell no! There's no way you're taking me in there! Look at it, it's got nightmare-central written all over it! I do _not _want to see what's in there! Let me go, you stupid figments of my imagination!"

The handles of the scarred and burned doors turned as they neared. The doors swung open.

"Let me go!" Rumia screamed. "I don't want to go in there! Let me go!"

All her cries and struggling were to no avail, and soon they had passed over the threshold and marched right inside.

…

Rin slipped away from the tangle and regarded it critically. It seemed that the deeper she probed into it, the more it resisted her. Maybe it was time for a change in tactics.

She took stock of the options available to her. Rumia's darkness causing powers and sheer destructive force was useless. So was Mokou's flame. And her own adaptability was restricted to external matters. It would do her no good in this situation.

Kaguya's abilities however…those gave her pause. Officially, the Princess' power was control over eternity. Rin had never been clear on what that exactly meant, and even now that she had full control over the power she still wasn't sure what it entailed. Still, it presumably had something to do with time, which would logically include the past. So by following that line of thought, perhaps by mixing Kaguya's strength to her own, perhaps it would have some effect on the tangle?

It was a long shot but hey, nothing lost by trying.

Rin reached into the well of Kaguya's power and drew out a considerable of energy. And then, after a brief moment of hesitation, she renewed her attack.

…

Rumia found herself dropped unceremoniously on her rear. She quickly scrambled to her feet and backed away.

"Okay, you imaginary freaks stay away from me!" she shouted. "I don't care if you look like my friends or not, I don't like anyone who kidnaps me and drags me into…huh?" She took a look around her. Her eyes widened in shock. "Wait, w-where is this? _What _is this? Where did you take me?"

The best she could figure, she was standing in a room made from musty old wood, burnt black by fire. Such was to be expected from the building's appearance. However, it was apparently much, much larger on the inside than it was on the outside. There was a single wall behind them and the floor beneath their feet. Beyond that, the room seemed to have no end in any of the other directions. The wall stretched upward and to either side for what seemed to be eternity, disappearing into a black void that was uncomfortably reminiscent of the world inside Rin's mind. The floor continued forever as well, a vast expanse of hard charcoal.

It was not empty, however. The majority of the room was taken up by what had to be the strangest looking festival Rumia had ever seen. At least she assumed it was a festival, judging from all the lights and bright colors. However, everything was wrong. The lights were too gaudy, the decorations extremely tacky, there were too many pictures of horrific white-faced monsters with large red noses and the entire thing was dominated by a huge red-and-white striped tent. Strange tinkling music filled the air, of the sort that was probably written to sound cheerful but just came off as ominous and creepy.

Rumia had been to her fair share of festivals in her time. In fact, it was an ongoing tradition for her and her friends to get thrown out of one at least one per year. However, those had mostly been small celebrations put on by towns and villages in honor of some holiday or other special occasion. She had never seen anything like this before, and she was certain she didn't want to see it now.

"Okay, don't like. Definitely don't like." She turned around and faced the wall. "How do I get out of here? There was a door here a second ago. What happened to those windows now? There was like a hundred of them."

"Come _on _Rumia!" Cirno cried as she grabbed Rumia by the shoulder. "We wanna beat the crowds!"

"Don't touch me!" Rumia said, jerking away from her. "And what crowd, we're the only ones-"

"Move," Wriggle said. She got behind Rumia and pushed her toward the festival. "The circus is gonna fill up fast."

"Circus? I don't know anything about any circus, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to go to any…" Rumia looked up and realized that, despite the fact that the festival had been a good distance away only a few moments ago, they were now practically at the front entrance, which consisted of a gated archway decorated by red-and-white flashing lights and the head of one of those creepy white-faced monsters at the apex.

Rumia sighed and shrugged Wriggle off. "Stupid dreams with their stupid rules not making any stupid sense."

"Ahem," a humorless voice said from somewhere above her. Rumia looked up to see a Human girl sitting at some sort of booth to the left of the entrance. Rumia blinked.

"Reimu Hakurei?" she asked, but a moment later she saw that no, the girl was not Reimu. She was dressed in the same outfit as Reimu, and there was enough of a resemblance that it was easy to mistake her for the shrine maiden at a glance. But this girl was shorter and a little stouter than Reimu, with lighter hair done in two pigtails on either side of her head. Also, this girl looked like she had never had a single day of fun her entire life.

The girl glared down at her. "Ticket?" she said in a voice usually by waiters in high-priced restaurants to ask poverty-stricken ragamuffins if they had a reservation.

Rumia stared back at her. "Ticket?" she said. "You mean, do I want a ticket or do I have a ticket? Sorry, I have no idea where-"

"Rumia, get your ticket out!" Cirno hissed. Rumia turned to see that the dream's depictions of her friends were each holding up a playing card, all of them Aces.

"Seriously?" Rumia said. "The cards are…Oh, never mind. Dream logic, I gotcha." She rolled her eyes. "Well, looks like I'm going to the freaky-ass festival. I guess it's better than what I thought this was going to be like, but Rin better have an explanation for this weirdness." She held up her own Ace of Spades. "Though I'm pretty sure there's only _four _Aces in a deck. What's Dai got there, an…Ace of Skulls? Okay, that's not creepy at all."

The annoyed looking girl who wasn't Reimu took the cards from them. She examined them closely and grunted. Whether it was a grunt of satisfaction or annoyance that she would have to let them in could not be judged. At any rate she reached down to tug on something behind the booth and out of sight.

The gate shuddered once and slowly swung open with a loud _crreeeeaaaak._

"All right, let's go!" Cirno shouted as she tugged Rumia by the sleeve.

Rumia stared up at the open gate with the grinning visage of the white-faced monster overhead. "Uh, yeah. You know what? I'm starting to have second thoughts, so if it's okay with you I'm just gonna-"

"Move!" the ticket-taker girl snapped.

Rumia winced and allowed herself to be dragged inside. It probably wasn't the wisest choice, but the girl looked like she was about to pull out a meat cleaver or some other sharp object.

The circus was even more bizarre on the inside than it was on the outside. All around them were booths painted colors that hurt the eyes. Some sold disgusting looking junk food, some sold souvenirs (most of them unnecessarily pointy) and others were that which consisted of trying to hit targets with various projectiles. Rumia tried not to look as those too closely, as most of the targets resembled the faces of screaming children.

Rumia shuddered and turned to the people who brought her here (she still refused to think of them as her friends). They were huddled around a map, pointing and talking excitedly.

"Oh…We gotta try the funhouse!" Wriggle said. "All those mirrors…"

"Can we get something to eat first?" Daiyousei asked. "I'm starving for some cotton candy!"

Rumia shook her head. She didn't know what was stranger; this nonsensical festival from who knew where, or the idea that all these nonsensical words were somehow taken from her own mind. And she was willing to bet that the "Funhouse" was anything but.

"No way," Cirno said as she snatched the map away from the others. "The show's gonna start soon. We need to get to our seats!"

Rumia perked up. Now _that _sounded potentially useful. "Show?" she asked. "What show?"

In response, Cirno pointed toward the large red-and-white striped tent. "What show do you think? _The _show, the big show. The greatest show on earth!"

…

_Almost there…_ Rin thought grimly. The tangle of memories was starting to separate under her assault. _Almost there…_

A fragment came loose. Rin seized up it and opened it up. The image of a golden-eyed face framed by long, blond hair. Rin frowned. _Hey, isn't that-_

_**Yeah, you really don't want to go there.**_

Rin suddenly found her mind blasted backward, almost all the way into the physical world. Disoriented, she steadied herself and regarded the tangle as realization struck her.

_So _that's _where you've been hiding!_

The tangle was starting to clump back together, fixing the damage Rin had done. Rin growled and hurled herself back at the tangle. Now this had gone beyond a simple quest for information. The monster that had used her to try to kill Reisen had been found. Now there was hell to pay.

…

Rumia gasped as they entered the tent. Given how deserted her dream had been up until now (annoying knockoffs of her friends and one crabby Reimu Hakurei cosplayer notwithstanding), she had expected the interior of the tent to be the same.

She was wrong. The place was _packed. _All along the edges of the tent wooden bleachers were set up, filled with seats. And each and every seat was occupied. And each and every person was _noisy._

Despite her chosen lifestyle as a forest dweller, Rumia had seen crowds before. She and her friends would make semi-regular trips to the Youkai Market to see what new cool thing had just popped up for sale. And of course the festivals were always packed.

Still, seeing so many people gathered in such a small place, all of them on their feet and cheering for the show to begin…it was a bit overwhelming.

Furthermore, she knew many of those people. There was one whole section devoted row after row of rabbit youkai. Some were wearing militaristic uniforms, others had the frills and aprons of maids, others the stained white uniforms of cooks. Rumia's heart leapt in her chest. She had seen those uniforms before. She wasn't sure what the entirety of Eientei's population was doing here, but given that she and Rin had made off with their princess, she was willing to bet that they wouldn't be welcoming her with open arms.

Sitting at the front of the assemblage of long-eared youkai girls was the woman Rumia recognized as Eirin Yagokoro. Rumia couldn't help but glare in resentment. In many ways that woman was responsible for all the hell she had been through. She had turned Rin into what she was. She had called in Yukari and her minions, forcing Rin to flee. And now she was presumably one of their pursuers. The woman was a monster in most, if not all senses of the word.

However, the Eirin she saw before her didn't seem all that terrible. She seemed weak and frail, as if she had her strength sucked from her. And the look on her face wasn't hard or terrible. It was…sad. Even regretful in a way.

Rumia tore her eyes away from Eirin and searched the rest of the crowd, searching for people she knew. To her relief Yukari didn't seem to be present. If she were to show up than this dream would be a certifiable nightmare rather than just frustrating and kind of creepy. However, Reimu Hakurei was. She was sitting at the top of the bleachers to the right, watching the scene below with a look of utmost boredom. Sitting next to her was that stupid witch-girl Marisa Kirisame. Rumia wasn't sure how this was going to turn out. Few of her previous encounters with those two had turned out well for her…Well, okay, so maybe the noodle thing had been totally worth it, but still.

Sitting on Marisa's other side was a girl with short blond hair that most people would probably mistake for a Human girl in her mid-teens. However, most people didn't live in the forest like Rumia did, and were thus unaware of the reputation of Alice Margatroid, the girl who had reportedly achieved youkai immortality through sheer force of will. Her presence didn't bother Rumia, seeing how she had no longstanding grudges with the puppet-master. Still, she had been known to team up with Marisa in the past to wreak havoc. Wriggle and Mystia had both gone on at length at the sort of damage those two together could accomplish. And with Reimu there as well…Rumia decided to not trust her subconscious to have any sort of warm feelings towards them and keep her distance.

But it didn't stop there. Over there, Cirno's friends Sunny, Lunar and Star were sharing the longest sandwich Rumia had ever seen in her life. Up there was the vampire (and Rumia's ex-boss) Remilia Scarlet and her servitors in a private box all to their own. That Human police-girl that was always spoiling their fun was stalking around in some kind of security uniform. The Tengu reporter Aya Shameimaru was moving around, taking pictures of everything. The goddess of Moriya Shrine, Kanako Yasaka, was in attendance with her shrine maiden Sanae and sometimes rival Suwako. Chen and her boss/mentor/mother figure Ran sat in the front row.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Nearly everyone Rumia had ever met or at least became aware of seemed to be there. There were even people she only vaguely recognized. Even though she was still standing by the entrance and well out of the way, she was starting to develop a serious case of stage-fright. Something told her that she was going to end up at the center of attention, one way or another.

_And with my luck I'll somehow end up naked as well, _she thought. _I mean, at least with Rin everyone else was naked too. I suppose I should just be glad I don't see Miss Yukari here. Because then this really will be a nightmare._

"Rumia!" called out a nearby voice.

Rumia looked up. Filling the first two rows of seats of the bleachers to her right were several Human children, all wearing the same depressing grey uniforms. Sitting with them was a tired but kind looking young woman with short brown hair, presumably their caretaker. The one who called her name was a spiky haired boy with eyes so narrow they almost seemed shut and a smile so wide it more than made up for it. He waved at her with unmistakable enthusiasm.

"Hey Rumia, we made it!" he shouted down at her. "Didn't I tell'ya? I told you we'd get here!"

Now thoroughly confused, Rumia managed a half-smile and waved back. "Um…sure. Yeah, that's great."

"Oh hey, what happened to your eyes?" he said. "They're all red! That's so cool. Did the ghost witch curse you or-"

"Kohta, that's enough!" the young woman said. She grabbed the boy by the arm and pulled him back.

He just looked confused. "But it's Rum-"

"Don't talk to it, you know better than that!" she hissed as she pulled him out of sight.

Rumia scratched her head. "Hoe-kay, that made no sense whatsoever. Who…Hey!"

Her dream friends got behind her and pushed her forward, away from the seats and toward the center of the tent.

Rumia whirled around. "What do you think you're _doing?_" she snarled. "I'm getting real sick you pushing me everywhere. And no, not being real isn't an excuse!"

"But the show must go on," Mystia said. "And how can it go on if it doesn't even start?"

"That's right," agreed Wriggle. "And the show can't start without you. Why do you think we came here in the first place? So the show can start!"

"So get out there already, dummy!" Cirno gave Rumia another push, causing her to stagger back a couple of steps.

Rumia looked over her shoulder toward the tent's center, where several slats of wood were laid out to form a large ring. She didn't know what kind of show the audience was expecting, but she was willing to bet that if she was going to end up skinned alive, dismembered, disfigured or any other nasty ways the searing pain of Rin digging through her memories might translate itself into her dream, it was going to take place inside that ring.

"Screw that," Rumia muttered. She tried to shove her way past her friends' doppelgangers, but they quickly moved to block her way.

Rumia's eyes flashed. "So that's how it's gonna be?" she asked. "Okay, fine. Just warning you, I've had dreams about being a really kick-ass goddess before, and if I could do it then, I can do it now." Her hands started to glow white as she prepared to unleash a hail of bullets. Dream or no dream, she was not going to be thrust into the middle of this show without a fight.

Unfortunately, the dream disagreed. Strong fingers wrapped around Rumia's wrist and very nearly pulled her off her feet. She turned to see that those closest to her had risen from their seats to help "motivate" Rumia to start the show.

"Let go of me!" she shouted as she tried to jerk away. But the grip on her arm was too strong. Once again, Rumia found herself picked up and carried toward somewhere she did not want to go, born along by people who did not seem to hear her cries and protests.

And then Cirno started chanting. "Rumia, Rumia, Rumia…"

Those moving Rumia forward seemed to like the sound of that rallying cry, as they quickly joined in.

"…Rumia, Rumia, Rumia…"

The cry was seized upon by those in the bleachers. It spread through the audience, picking them out of their seats and moving them to clap along with the rhythm. Within a few short seconds, everyone was on their feet and the air was filled with the deafening roar of their voices.

"Rumia! Rumia! Rumia!"

And all through it, Rumia kicked, Rumia struggled, Rumia even managed to get the odd bullet shot off, but it made no difference. She might as well been trying to fight against a hurricane.

And then she was suddenly released. She landed on the dirt floor and quickly scrambled to her feet. She moved her body into a fighting position, ready to redesign the faces of anyone who would be stupid enough to touch her.

However, no one made themselves available. The chanting had ceased as soon as she had hit ground, and everyone was back in their seats, watching her in expectation. Rumia slowly looked around the room, taking stock of the hundreds and hundreds of eyes boring into her.

Sweat prickled at the back of her neck. Her eyes furtively searched for an exit, any exit. Unfortunately, the one and only entrance had now been closed off. And any attempt to try to tear her way through the roof would likely incite a riot.

Her gaze settle upon her friends' doppelgangers, who were all sitting together and munching on some strange feathery pink bread. She slowly extended her right hand in their direction, middle finger raised to the sky. This seemed to amuse the audience, as a small wave of laughter filled the room.

Rumia took a deep breath and steadied her nerves. "Great, so now you've-" Her voice squeaked. She paused and tried again, louder and slower this time.

"Great, so now you've got me here in your damned ring," she called out, her voice echoing through the tent. "So now what? You're just going to laugh me? Am I supposed to start dancing and singing too? I came here to learn about my past, not have my dream try to kill me through embarrassment. What's supposed to hap-"

At that moment the lights went out. All of them.

Despite the suddenness of the action, Rumia actually started to feel better. Complete darkness she could handle. She was, after all, the Youkai of Darkness, the only one she knew. Unlike most people, all of her dreams about being in the dark were not nightmares. In fact, nine times out of ten they involved her being the predator in the shadows. Maybe now things would start going in her-

Blinding light flared up out of nowhere, causing Rumia to reflexively squeeze her eyes shut. Once the pain had faded, she opened her eyes just a crack and slowly widened them as her irises constricted in response.

The majority of the tent was still covered in darkness, but a spotlight had been turned on, illuminating the ring in which Rumia stood. Actually, "illuminating" would be an inadequate description in this case. "Flooding it with so much light that it was almost oppressively tangible" would be closer to the mark.

At the same time, the unseen crowd erupted into cheers. Rumia trembled as the sound buffeted her from all sides, making her feel trapped. At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to curl up in a dark corner somewhere, unnoticed and safe from the world around her.

That was when a new voice rose up above the cheers and whoops. A voice that was very close to Rumia. Directly behind her to be exact. "Ladies and more ladies and the occasional gentleman, children of all ages, welcome to the greatest show in Rumia's mind! Appropriate, seeing how it's the only show in Rumia's mind!"

Rumia's spine stiffened immediately. She knew that voice and knew it well. She slowly turned around as it continued its introduction.

"And in this show, there will be _no _acrobats, _no _trapeze artists, _no _clowns and _no _dangerous stunts of any kind! Because let's face it; with all of you being able to fly and come back from just about anything it would be a bit unimpressive, now wouldn't it? Instead, watch and be amazed as little Rumia here is confronted by the truth of her horrifying and forgotten past! Laugh as she completely fails to understand any of it, because what she'll be shown will be annoyingly cryptic and unhelpful in the extreme! Wince as she becomes increasingly frustrated when she realizes that the information locked inside her head is totally useless without any frame of reference! And feel the icy touch of fear as the implications of what Rumia learns slowly dawns on you, and the magnitude of the hell she has found herself in reveals itself! All this and more await her, so let's show our support for our brave and confused heroine…_Ruuuuumia Yagami!"_

Rumia's jaw dropped as the crowd went absolutely crazy. Yagami? What? Was that her surname? Did she even _have _a surname?

She would have asked the owner of the voice to clarify that bit of information. Unfortunately, the person in question was the absolute _last _person Rumia wanted to ask anything from. She was a tall woman, almost twice Rumia's height. Her legs were long and shapely, which her tight black slacks absolutely failed to conceal. She wore a dark blue shirt and a bright red topcoat over that, with long tails that reached halfway down her calves. She held a leather whip in one white-gloved hand and a red megaphone in the other. A tall, shiny black hat sat on her golden hair.

Rumia felt her legs go weak. "Mi-mi-mi-" she stuttered.

The woman leaned over to smile at her. "Mi-mi-mi? Come on girl, you're on stage! Spit it out!"

Rumia gulped and whispered, "Miss Yukari…"

With a grin, Yukari Yakumo poked Rumia in the nose with the handle of her whip. "Isn't she great, ladies and gentlemen?" she shouted into the megaphone. "Why don't we give her another round of applause?"

As the tent once again filled with cheers, Rumia could only think one thing: _Okay, _now _it's a nightmare._

…

_Rumia, stop leaning on the fourth wall! I just had it painted!_

_Anyway, if this chapter feels like a lot of buildup with little in the way of actual payoff, then you're absolutely correct. I wanted to get this whole weird plotline accomplished in one chapter, but as I started to get more and more ideas that idea just stopped being feasible. As such, I decided to break up the dream into two chapters instead of one. That way, the likelihood of individual scenes from Rumia's weird dream being overshadowed by this plotline's climax becomes somewhat less. And believe me, _every _scene, no matter how surreal, is significant: whether by dropping clues to Rumia's past, foreshadowing future events, reflecting some aspect of Rumia or Rin's personality or even a silly shout-out to a Disney movie. Though on the negative side, it means spending longer time in mindscrew land. And if mindscrew's aren't your thing, hang in there. The action chapters will return soon enough._

_Gah, it's the Eientei arc all over again! More in the way of answers will be in the second part, though I won't promise they'll make any sort of sense, at least not right away._

_Anyway, couple of interesting bits of trivia. First of all, Ellen (the forgetful witch-girl at the beginning) holds the unique distinction of being the only Touhou character not created by ZUN himself or based upon some myth or folktale. Rather, she's the protagonist of one of his favorite mangas. What's she doing in Gensokyo? Don't know, never read it. But it's kinda cool that ZUN has done his own share of fanfiction through his games. Represent!_

_Second, despite the obvious associations with the name, Rumia's surname of Yagami isn't a Death Note reference, at least not directly. That's actually taken from the fantastic Walfas-esque comic Touhou Nekokayou: Scarlet Weather Archive in Japanese Red by a fellow called Kimiko Muffin. Out of all the zillion Touhou works out there, that one is probably the most influential insofar as Imperfect Metamorphosis is concerned. At least, it's what got me interested in Ex-Rumia and Rin Satsuki (even though my depictions of those characters and his are very different) and motivated me to use them in this story. If you've never heard of it before, check it out. It's an archive binge you won't regret!_

_Until next time, everyone!_


	17. Deep Within, Part 2

Deep Within, Part 2

To date, Rin Satsuki's life had not been an easy one. The first major two events of her life were being kidnapped by slavers and the presumed murder of her parents. And things had just gone downhill from there. She had been deceived, abused, robbed of literally everything she held dear, forced into complete isolation for what felt like forever, attacked without provocation, betrayed, violated by something that claimed to be part of her own mind, and was now hunted by the very people she once trusted with no allies beside a single girl who she was more-or-less holding hostage who may or may not be some kind of monster. Things quite simply never went right for her, and to be quite frank she was growing tired of it.

However, while digging through Rumia's mind on the small hope of finding something that would help them survive, she had discovered a surprising opportunity, which shall be outlined below:

1. The entity that Rin hated and feared the most had been found.

2. Said entity was hiding in Rumia's repressed memories, something Rin had been trying to pull apart anyway.

3. Said memories were contained within Rin's essence, a place where, one minor loss of control notwithstanding, she reigned supreme.

4. Rin was dealing with the frustration born from several decades of hell and desperately needed some way of burning it off.

All of these points flashed through the Kirin's mind in an instant and came together to form a single bright and shining conclusion. Rin's physical body, still wedged under a shelf of rock, began to grin. It was nice that things were finally starting to work in her favor.

_**Now Rin, **_the Dark Voice was saying. _**I know you're upset, but let's not do anything we might regret later, okay?**_

Rin decided to forego a worded response in favor of a more aggressive one. She gathered up her energies and slammed them against the slowly recovering tangle of memories. She felt it tremble under her assault.

_**Okay, I deserved that. But for real, you can't-**_

_Watch me, _Rin hissed. She then began to hammer the Dark Voice's hiding place from all sides.

There was a ripple of emotion that felt very much like a sigh. _**Rin, be reasonable. Do you really think-**_

_Reasonable? _she screamed. _You tried to kill the only person who ever cared about me and you want me to be reasonable?_

_**Oh, come on Rin. Like you've never done things you've regretted in the heat of the moment. Why don't you go talk to that little witch girl and see how she feels about crossing your path!**_

_Shut up!_

_**Wow, fantastic rebuttal there. I'm sorry, was that a sore spot?**_

_Don't give me that "Heat of the moment" bullshit, you tried to murder her!_

_**You mean **_**you **_**did. I am part of you, after all. Why don't you just go and tear yourself apart if you're so mad? You're practically doing it anyway.**_

Instead of replying, Rin merely pressed her assault. She drew in more energy from her immortal captives and added it to her attack. The Dark Voice's defenses began to disintegrate.

_**Very well, ignore logic and reason if you wish. But if you keep this up, I will start to defend myself. Do you really want to risk the damage to Rumia's mind by battling me?**_

That last part finally gave Rin pause. Even without the potential collateral damage of crushing the Dark Voice once and for all, digging through Rumia's mind was risky enough as it is. Engaging in open warfare was probably not advisable.

Unfortunately, she wasn't given time to debate the topic. At that moment a presence, one that felt cold and strong and very wrong, surged out from behind the tangle's walls and slashed at the core of Rin's consciousness, cutting deep and causing her physical body to convulse with pain.

…

Rumia's legs had grown weak and given out from under her. From her spot on the dirt floor in the center of the illuminated ring, she stared up at Yukari Yakumo with wide, frightened eyes.

For her part, Yukari didn't seem to be overly concerned with Rumia's distress. Instead, she was enjoying being at the center of attention. "And why shouldn't we cheer for her?" she shouted into her megaphone. "After all, isn't she the reason we're here? She is the thread that ties us together, that brings us together under one roof. For despite our many differences, we are all united by one single thing: we all have Rumia to thank for our deaths!"

_What? _Rumia tried to wrap her mind around that concept, but it was already so disorganized that all she could come up with was a wall of absolute confusion. And the fact that the crowd started to cheer for this as well only made it more bizarre.

"Some of us have already departed this veil of tears," Yukari said. "And for others it's only a matter of time. 'Course, the future's a tricky thing to predict, but the way things are heading I don't think it's that much of a stretch to pre-order our special 'Killed by Rumia Yagami' tombstones! In fact, we should probably form a union while we're at it."

The crowd laughed.

"But I forget myself; this show isn't about us, it never was! It's all about her." Yukari turned to smile down at Rumia. "This little girl who wants to know who she is. Well, tonight she's going to find out! Will she understand what she discovers? Probably not. Will she like it? All signs point to 'no'. Will she retain any memory of it afterward? Better hope not. I don't think her poor little mind can take that much revelation. But whatever happens, you can bet that it'll be one _hell _of a show!"

Yukari tossed the megaphone to one side and reached down to snatch up Rumia by the arm. She brought her lips close to Rumia's ear and whispered, "Okay kid, you're on. Make us proud."

"W-what?"

In response, Yukari spread her other arm out in a grand gesture. The lights shining down upon the ring spread outward. Rumia gasped when she realized that they were no longer in a tent. Nor were they still in the circus. Instead, the ring had become the top of a massive column, alone in the middle of a large, open space. Rumia wasn't sure if the transition had happened that very second or back when the lights had gone out, nor did she care. The only thing that her mind was focused on was sheer and utter terror.

Thunder rumbled from nearby. An icy wind picked up, buffeting her and Yukari and tearing and their clothes. Yukari's hat was torn from her head and went sailing off into the black. She didn't seem to even notice. Instead, she gestured toward the edge. There, jutting out from the column's side was a single plank of wood, painted bright yellow and decorated with red stars.

"You wanted to figure out who you were? Well, you won't do it by playing circus."

Rumia gaped as she realized what Yukari was saying. "Y-you want me to _jump _off?"

"Hey, it's your dream, kiddo. You don't like it, complain to yourself." With that, she heaved Rumia through the air.

Rumia screamed as she flailed her arms in a futile attempt to regain control. The wind seemed to surge up at that exact moment, propelling her onward. She landed on the plank and tumbled forward, nearly falling off in the process. She wrapped her arms and legs around the plank's side and held on for dear life.

"Come on, you won't get anywhere with that attitude!" Yukari shouted at her.

"Forget it!" Rumia shouted back. "I'm through with this! Rin, wake me up!"

Yukari laughed. "Yeah, you can forget about that. She's got her own problems to worry about. Go on, get up and dive. The show must go on, after all."

Rumia peeked over the plank's end and felt sick. She had to be miles up. "You're crazy!" she shouted over her shoulder.

Yukari sighed and knelt down to retrieve her megaphone, which was strangely unaffected by the wind. "Looks like she's going to need some encouraging, folks!" she shouted at the sky. "Come on, let her hear your voices! Rumia, Rumia, Rumia…"

Despite the fact that there was no more tent, despite the fact that the audience had to have disappeared along with it, the chant started up regardless, a thousand voices taking up Yukari's words and escalating them.

"_Rumia! Rumia! Rumia!"_

The noise thundered from all sides, so loud it was almost as powerful as the wind. Rumia squeezed her eyes shut and prayed for reality to come and rescue her.

"_Rumia! Rumia! Rumia!"_

"You're letting the fans down, kid." Yukari was suddenly on the plank behind her. "Come on, can't you hear them cheering for you?"

Yukari's strong fingers seized onto Rumia's collar and tore her from the plank. She was then dropped on her feet at the very edge, staring down into endless darkness.

"I thought you liked darkness, kid. Think of it as diving into your bed. From about a thousand feet straight up."

Almost frozen with fear, Rumia managed to shake her head.

"I don't believe I made myself clear," Yukari said as she took a couple steps back. "I'm not taking 'no' for an answer here."

There was a sudden _crack_, and the leather tong of Yukari whip snapped against Rumia's lower leg and wrapped around her ankle. Before she knew what was going on, Yukari pulled and flipped Rumia right off her feet. She desperately tried to grab onto the plank but she had flown out of reach.

Down she fell, screaming all the way. And all the while, the voices continued their endless chant.

"_Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! _

_Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! _

_Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! Rumia! _

_Rumia! Rumia!"_

…

Rin's mind reeled from the psychic attack. She tried to recover, but the Dark Voice hit her again, driving a dagger of ice through her mind. The walls of Rin's mind reverberated with her silent scream.

_**You never were good at fighting, **_the Dark Voice hissed. She could feel it prowling about, slinking around the core of her consciousness. _**Even here in your own mind you can't even muster up a decent defense. Do you want to know why that it?**_

Out of pure desperation, Rin threw everything she had at the monster. To her dismay, it slipped past her attack with ease and disappeared.

Though she could no longer feel its presence, that low, seductive murmur continued to taunt her. _**It's because you continually denied your own strength. You were afraid of it, afraid of what you could do. So you sealed it off. Pushed it away. Guided by the delusional belief that refusing to acknowledge your own power would win you friends. But what happened instead, Rin? Can you tell me that?**_

Rin turned her attention back to Rumia's repressed memories. It had to have retreated back there.

_**You turned into a spineless weakling. Others would trample on you and you would just lie down for them. **_

_I didn't! _Rumia protested. _Remember? When I nearly destroyed Eientei?_

_**Don't delude yourself. That was all me. You just put your head down and meekly followed orders.**_

_I mean before! The first time!_

A hissing laugh that was completely devoid of warmth echoed through her mind. _**Yes, you did. You were so horrified at what you had done that you pushed those feeling of anger and outrage back down and sealed them off. You turned yourself back into the good little girl who only wanted to be loved!**_

_No I didn't! _Rin snarled. She gathered her power and prepared to strike down the thing's stronghold.

_**Oh really? Then what do you think created me?**_

That last point actually gave Rin pause. _Wait, you're saying that because I repressed my emotions just as Rumia repressed her memories, they eventually developed a personality of their own?_

_**Exactly. I'm you, girl. Just not a complete and utter wuss.**_

Rin considered that for a moment. She thought of the years and years spent in isolation, during which she had entertained any number of imaginary voices, none of which sounded even remotely like the Dark Voice. She thought of all the things it had tried to get her to do and the twisted glee it took in seeing others suffer. Rin knew that she had more than a few issues of her own, but there were certain lines that she was sure she would never cross. And finally, she thought of her last memory of the Dark Voice, as it held control of her body and stood ready to stab Reisen's brains out.

All those taken together, Rin found herself reaching a rather liberating conclusion.

_Uh, yeah. Okay. Hey, you know what?_

_**What?**_

_Fuck you._

…

Rumia hit solid ground, hard.

The impact drove the wind from her and she found herself bouncing and tumbling forward before coming to a stop. There she lay gasping as the world spun around her.

She tried to push herself up but her elbows gave out. It didn't feel like anything was broken, but the shock from the collision had driven all the strength from her muscles. To that, it was all she could do to just curl up into a protective ball.

In time her breathing evened out and her head started to clear. But she didn't get up. Her whole body starting trembling. Her eyes teared up and she began to cry.

She couldn't help it. That last bit had been too much. She didn't want to do this anymore. Even though it made her weak for feeling so, she wanted it to end. She rolled over to her side and curled up into a ball as the sobs continued to rack her body.

_Look at you, _the self-loathing part of her said in disgust. _You were all ready to face a dream about being tortured. And now a weird stage-show and a fall makes you fall apart?_

She didn't care though. She was sick of it. Sick of being trapped in someone else's mind, sick of this freakshow, sick of Rin, sick of questioning her own sanity, sick of being hunted, sick of everything. She wanted to wake up. She wanted to go home.

In time her body stopped shaking and her eyes started to dry. Sniffling, she slowly pulled herself up. "At least the real Cirno's not here to see me," she muttered. "She'd never let me hear the end of it."

Then she opened eyes. Might as well see where her dream had led her now.

She was standing in the foyer of a large building. Directly in front of her was a staircase leading to the second story and hallways stretching to either side. Everything was blackened as if it had been scorched by fire.

She was back inside that strange building, only now she was standing where she should have ended up before her dream had been hijacked by that circus-thing. _So they have to go through a creepy-ass festival and get thrown off a gigantic pillar just to walk in through the front door, _she thought. _Wow, they really should've fired the architect. _

Giggling at her dumb joke, Rumia turned around. As expected, there was the front door and all the windows. However, the door was locked securely and the windows, once wide open, were now covered by shutters. She tried tugging on the door handle and pulling at the shutters, but they refused to give.

With a sigh, she leaned up against the door and slid back down to the floor. There was no getting out of this, was there?

That was when she heard something. She frowned and listened.

For a moment, she thought she had started crying again. But the weeping was not her own. It was coming from somewhere else, somewhere from deeper within the building.

Rumia rolled her eyes. _Oh, come on, _she thought in disdain. _Can't you be any less-_

She paused. Now that she thought about it, the crying voice did sound familiar. She strained her ears and listened for a moment longer.

"Mysty?" she whispered. She wasn't sure, but it certainly sounded like Mystia. She had seen the night-sparrow cry a few times in the past, and it had sounded very similar.

Rumia debated the dilemma before her, turning it around in her mind. Everything she had learned from the scary stories that she and the rest of the gang had told each other around the fire said that wandering around creepy abandoned buildings and following strange noises was stupidity in the extreme. More often than not, it was a trick by the killer to lure the little girls away from safety. Rumia herself had employed that same tactic in the past and could attest to its effectiveness.

She glanced to the hallways at either side. But then, what choice did she really have? If she refused to go forward, something would just show up to force her onward. Whatever this dream wanted her to learn, it seemed dead set on making her play its game to learn it.

With that, she rose to her feet. Though she hated it, it would probably be best to get it over with. She listened for a moment longer, trying to judge the direction of the sound's location. It sounded like it was coming from up the stairs. Nervously glancing around her, Rumia slowly ascended the stairs. The steps creaked worryingly under her feet but the held.

"Mystia?" she said when she reached the top. "Is that you?"

…

The creature laughed again. _**Wow, such language! Do you kiss your bunny-girl with that mouth?**_

_Cut the bullshit, _Rin snapped. _Do you really believe that any part of me, no matter how twisted with hate, would ever do _anything _to hurt Reisen? _Then she remembered when she herself had absorbed Reisen. _On purpose, I mean. And enjoy it._

_**Nice amendment there. Bet you justify away all your uncomfortable truths like that.**_

Before Rin could respond, it struck again. Her body convulsed as her mind exploded into pure white.

…

Rumia winced when the a sudden rumbling shook the building. For a moment she was afraid it was going go collapse, but the shaking stopped and everything was still. Her heart pounding, Rumia quickly climbed to the top of the stairs and looked around.

At the top of the staircase was another hallway, lined with open doorways. Rumia slowly passed by room after room, peeking into each one. They were all empty, containing nothing more than decomposing leaves, burnt papers and other rubbish.

She ran her hand over the ashy wall and rubbed the grit between her fingers. What had happened to this place? Was this supposed to represent her former self, contained within those hidden memories Rin had found? (What had she called them? Depressed memories? No, it had been repressed). Or was this an actual place from her past? If so, who had started the fire? Had it been her?

The sound of Mystia crying seemed to be coming from a room near the end of the hallway. Rumia stopped at the entrance and peered in. Like the others, it was practically empty except for the trash and dust that such abandoned places tended to accumulate. There was a window, but it was all boarded up. Sunlight glinted through the slats, casting thin fingers of light over the decay. At one end was what appeared to be a double-door closet, shut tight.

Wait, there was something else. Shoved in the far corner was a roll-away bed with a filthy old blanket and pillow sitting on top of it. Rumia entered the room and goose-stepped her way over to the bed. She gingerly touched the pillow. A cloud of dust puffed up in response.

_Guess this was some kind of bedroom, _she thought as she looked around the deserted room. _But something's…not quite right. _

Well, of course something wasn't right. She was trapped in the most vivid dream of her life, exploring a bizarre building gutted by fire. But still…

She squinted and tilted her head sideways. _There should be…more…_

She blinked. For the briefest of seconds she saw the room restored to pristine condition. The trash was cleared away and the floor scrubbed, the walls cleaned and painted a cheery yellow, the window wide open and letting in the sun's soothing rays.

And everywhere were more beds, blankets and pillows, all lined up in neat little rows. Children's toys and books were strewn among and over them.

And then it was gone. Rumia was once again standing alone in a forgotten room in a forgotten building.

Her head swam. She reeled slightly and forced herself to find her footing. She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead with her fingertips.

Then she opened her eyes. She could still hear Mystia crying; only it was closer. She turned toward the closet. That had to be it. Rumia took a deep breath and pulled it open.

…

Rin couldn't even think, the pain was too much. She was dimly aware that she had been thrown back into her physical body. The feel of the stones pressing against her and the smell of water rushing past was unmistakable, but what difference did it make? The only thing she could concentrate on was the cold steel knife cutting through her brain and the even colder words whispering in her mind.

_**Why not just let it go? Just let yourself die here, hidden behind the stones. The pain would be over, the fear would be over, and no one would ever know you were here.**_

Rin managed to gather enough strength to focus on a single name. _Rumia…_

_**Aw, still concerned for your little hostage girlfriend? Worried that she might die with you? **_The Dark Voice cackled. _**Do you even **_**know **_**what kind of person she is? What she's done? Here, let me show you.**_

There was a bright flash, and suddenly Rin was no longer wedged under a shelf of stone, she was…_prowling through treetops the forest, _her _forest, feeling the leaves brush past her cheeks and bare limbs as she slowly passed from one branch to another. A night breeze blew in her face, bringing with it all sorts of interesting smells: others like her, sneaking around as competition. The babbling river, its scent still detectable even though it was miles away. The spray of a nearby skunk, disturbed by a pair of unlucky fairies who were now furiously clawing at their noses. And…_

_Her eyes narrowed. There, so close she could almost taste them. A pair of human children, a boy and a girl. They had probably gone exploring and had gotten lost. Their hands were clasped tightly, and their eyes flitted fearfully at the forest all around them. The girl (she couldn't have been much older than eight) was pressing herself against the boy's side, while the boy kept dropping smooth white stones every few feet or so. Probably so they could keep track of where they had been and not accidentally wander in a circle. Smart, if they were anywhere else._

_With an anticipatory grin she dropped silently behind them, keeping pace. Every time they would glance over their shoulders she would shroud herself with shadow and no one would be the wiser. _

_And so she continued, step by step, inch by inch, until she was right behind them. She reached out with her hands, ready to grab their necks, ready to snatch them away before they even knew she was there. And they would disappear, swallowed up by the night…_

Rin returned with a gasp. A few fragments of Rumia's memory clung to her, like the remnants of a particularly vivid dream. She tried to brush them off and reestablish her identity.

_**You see? She's nothing more than a monster. Put her in a nice dress, tie a pretty bow in her hair and she'd still be nothing more than a monster.**_

Rin grit her teeth. "She…she…"

_**Yes, yes, come on. I want to hear this. She what?**_

Rin summoned up every ounce of strength she could muster. "She's at least better than me," she hissed out loud. "And she sure as hell's better than _you!"_

With that, she gathered up all her power, every scrap of energy she had at her disposal. Then she stole strength from Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou as well, digging deep into their seemingly inexhaustible wells. She drew it all together and used it to fashion a weapon, a dagger of pure fury.

_**Wait, what are you-**_

Before it could retreat back into Rumia's memories, Rin sealed them off, surrounding them with a barrier of her own will, sealing the creature off from escape. Then, before, it could retaliate, she took the dagger and stabbed it in with all her might.

…

Rumia wasn't sure what she had been expecting to find. Maybe Mystia curled up in the corner. Maybe nothing, with Mystia's voice calling through the walls. Maybe a ghost jumping out to say "Boo!" Maybe a five-star restaurant and attached hot-springs. It didn't matter. Dreams were notoriously unpredictable.

Still, she sure hadn't been expecting a colorful archway filled with smoke and flashing multi-colored lights. That same tinkling music from the circus was playing, and overhead was a yellow sign bordered by green and blue blinking lightbulbs and the word FUNHOUSE in bright green letters.

Rumia closed her eyes with a groan. Great, more of this circus nightmare. Truth be told, she preferred the creepy building nightmare. At least it was quiet.

"Fine, you know what?" she said out loud. "Fine! I'll keep playing your stupid game. But there better be some big-time revelation that makes up for all the crap I've been through, you hear me?"

Without stopping to wonder exactly who she was talking to, Rumia stomped through the archway.

At first, she could see nothing but the smoke and the flashing lights. Then that finally cleared and she found herself in a hallway filled with…

"Mirrors?" She looked the passageway up and down. "Well, that's…new."

Mirrors it was. Dozens of them, all along both walls. Rumia walked up to the nearest one and looked in.

She let out a small _eep! _and leapt back. Her reflection was horribly deformed. Her head and thighs were blown up like a balloon while her torso was squeezed to the size of the wasp's waist.

She quickly assessed herself. No, her proportions were still all the same. She looked back at the mirror. Still bizarre. She frowned and tilted her head as she peered in closer.

The mirror's glass was folded and squeezed, resulting in the strange reflection. Rumia had to admit it was pretty clever. She wondered if anyone in the real world had ever thought of doing this. If not, she could probably make a killing.

She continued down the hallway, watching the distorted mirrors twist her form in several different ways. Now that she knew how it was done, she could help but giggle at some of the funnier results.

Then she reached a mirror that made her pause. It didn't change her reflection in any way. Instead, it was perfectly normal. A youkai girl with short blond hair and red eyes dressed in a black dress, white shirt and black vest with a red tie. A red and white ribbon was tied into her hair.

She instinctively touched her hand to her hair. The ribbon was gone. And yet, there it was in the reflection. Strange. Hadn't Marisa Kirisame say something about her ribbon, back in that recorded memory Rin had played for her? Interesting.

She glanced at the next mirror and her heart nearly leapt into her throat. It was her again, except now she was only wearing a filthy grey shift and crouched down on all fours. Her body was much leaner, her eyes much more wild, and her face was smeared with dirt. Dried blood crusted around her lips. However, the ribbon was still in her hair.

Rumia almost didn't recognize herself. It had been decades since she had looked like that. It wasn't a time of her life she gave much thought to. As far as she had been concerned, it was just the natural way of youkaihood. Still, actually seeing herself like that was…disquieting.

The third one was easy enough to identify. In this mirror, she was completely nude, missing all her clothing up to and including the ribbon. Furthermore, her body glowed with a faint yellow light. It was that mental body she had been wearing while in Rin's mind. Rumia set her mouth in a thin line, shrugged, and moved on.

The one right after that thought, that one just confused her. It was still her. Sort of. At least she was sure it was. There were a great number of differences though. Her hair was longer and twisted into a pigtail. Her face was…plainer, thin but not gaunt, not like the echo of her savage days. And, paradoxically enough, her eyes were no longer red but muddy brown. To top it off, she was wearing some kind of odd uniform; grey skirt, grey jacket over a white shirt.

Rumia scratched her head. There was something _very _familiar about that outfit, and not in the sense of the strange déjà vu she had been getting lately. She was pretty sure she had seen that same uniform very recently.

Then her eyes widened as realization struck. She _had _seen that uniform, not ten minutes ago back in the giant tent! Those children, sitting in the first two rows. The girls had all been wearing uniforms exactly that like one.

She thought of the cheerful-looking boy who had waved at her. Pieces were starting to come together. Slowly at first, but she was inching toward some possibilities that she did not like. No ma'am, she did not like them one bit.

Then she came to the next mirror, the last one in the row, and gasped.

It was…her? Not her? Again, there were similarities and differences, but they were even more extreme. She was at least two feet taller and much older. Her body had grown and filled out, replacing her chubby-little girl's form with feminine curves and breasts. She wore a plain, sleeveless black dress, which was ripped and torn as if she had fallen through a thorn patch. Her normal red eyes were back, but the burned with a cruel intensity that was more than a little frightening. Her wild hair fell past her shoulders and was tipped in black. Metallic talons instead of fingers, two rows of spikes for teeth, and two massive leathery wings sprouted from her back.

Rumia held up a hand. The nightmare reflection copied her like a good reflection was supposed to do. She raised her eyebrows and let them drop and stuck out her tongue. Again, everyone movement was mirrored exactly.

She was starting to feel sick. Was _this _her past? Or was it her future? Or another one of Rin's metaphors? Was this supposed to represent the condition of her soul or something? If so, she needed to pay a visit to the nearest shrine and start repenting, fast. Maybe even a temple.

Then her nightmare reflection smiled and winked at her.

Rumia shrieked in alarm and fell backward as the nightmare reflection drew its fist back and slammed it against the glass. The mirror shattered into a thousand sparkling pieces.

Rumia remained sitting where she was, hands splayed to either side and eyes fixated on the remains of the destroyed mirror. Her breath came out in panicked little gasps.

Then she looked up. Where the mirror's glass had once been was now an open doorway. Through it glowed a flickering orange light. A cool breeze floated in, smelling of dry grass.

_Oh, come on! _Rumia thought as despair welled up. _There's still more?_

She took a deep breath, held it in and slowly let it out. It came out a little more shaky than she would have liked, but it helped steady her nerves.

Then she pulled herself to her feet and, careful to avoid cutting herself on the fallen shards of glass, walked through the doorway.

…

The monster shuddered as Rin attacked. It tried to pull back, but now that it was out in the open Rin wasn't about to let it go. She continued to hem it in as she drove that spike of hate into the core of its being.

_You want hate? _she demanded. _You want pain? You want me to start killing? Okay, I'll start with you._

It hissed at her. _**Do you…Ah!...Do you really think this…this will fix anything? Killing off a part of your own self?**_

Rin screamed and drove it in deeper. She could literally feel the thing recoil in pain. _Stop saying that! You're not a part of me, you never were! I was an idiot to listen to you in the first place. But now…I think I'll be correcting that mistake._

A part of her was aware that she was enjoying this entirely too much. A part of her was disgusted by that fact. However, by this point, that part of her had lost its right to vote.

And then the Dark Voice spoke again. Despite the agony it was in, it managed to laugh. _**Ah, R-R-Rin, still s-so stupid to th-th-the end. Y-you're right, I was never a p-part of you, t-that was just to get you to l-l-l-listen…B-but do you know who I **_**am **_**a p-p-part of?**_

Rin stopped her attack. Her mind froze when she realized what it was implying. _Wait, Rumia?_

She had been right after all? But if that was the case, then wouldn't hurting this thing also hurt…

Uncertainty and dawning horror took her, and her weapon dissolved. The walls she had formed to trap the thing shuddered and collapsed.

Even in its wounded state, it was fast and opportunistic. Before Rin could recover it struck her, sinking talons that were hard as steel and cold as ice into whatever bit of Rin's being it could find purchase. Rin tried to scream, but she couldn't even find the strength to do that.

…

She was outside again, only this time it was for real.

Rumia stood in a field of tall, windblown grass. There was a forest nearby. Judging by the color of the leaves, it was in the middle of autumn. The sun was setting, a huge orange sphere melting into the horizon. It was cold, but not unbearably so. Rumia didn't even notice. Her attention was focused on what was in the center of the field.

There, the grass had been cut down and cleared away, forming a ring about forty feet in diameter. In the ring's center was a stack of deadwood. It was burning softly, sending flickering embers up to disappear in the mild light of the sunset. The fire didn't look that dangerous. If it weren't for the object jutting up out of the fire, it would be easy to mistake it for a normal bonfire, similar to those commonly seen at parties. However, there was an object, one that Rumia recognized immediately.

It was a tall wooden plank, with a shorter one fixated across its length a few feet below the top. "A cross," Rumia said in amazement. "A real, honest-to-the-gods cross." She had always been fascinated with the human stories of the saint who had been crucified on a cross. It had been a cool story, but she had never expected to see one for herself.

She slowly circled the fire, staring. Now that she was actually seeing one, she realized what an awful way to die it was. To feel you life seep away minute-by-minute, when every breath was an agonizing effort? She could see nails stuck in the wood at the end of each of the cross's arms. She swallowed. Those would be driven right through the unlucky victim's wrists, not enough to kill but more than enough to cause agonizing pain.

But it seemed like simple crucifixion had not been enough to satisfy whoever had done this. With the addition of the bonfire, the victim's death would probably be quicker, but extraordinarily painful.

_Who was this for? _she wondered. _What did they do to deserve this?_

Then her eyes dipped down to where the feet would have also been nailed to the cross. Her eyebrows shot up and she gasped.

Where the nail should have been a sword had been driven into the wood near the cross's base. The thin and curving blade shined silver in the firelight. The handle glinted gold, and precious stones sparkled from the pommel and from around the cross-grip.

Rumia's body started to tremble. She licked her lips as she stared. Though her intelligence was more-or-less on par with a human's, Rumia still had a youkai's instincts. And among those was a fascination with shiny objects, especially treasure.

Rumia neared the gleaming weapon, unsure of what do with it. In all likelihood the metal would be too hot to touch. She would sear her hands before she even got close to pulling it out.

Rumia glanced around, looking for a tool she might use. Nothing. She looked back at the cross and slowly extended a hand, only to draw it back again.

What was she doing? Pretty or not, the sword wasn't even real. Even if she could get it out without scorching herself, what was she going to do? Cut her way out of the dream and Rin's mind and hope it somehow followed? Better to just forget it and move on.

Still…Rumia had been shown it for a reason. Even if she didn't fully understand anything she had seen, she probably shouldn't ignore something just because it didn't make immediate sense.

She extended her hand again. To her surprise, there was no increase of heat as she drew closer to the fire. Emboldened by this, she reached all the way and cautiously touched the pommel.

It was cool to the touch.

Rumia grinned. "Finally this weirdness is starting to work for me." With that, she gripped the handle with both hands and tugged. It slid free with ease.

With a wide grin, Rumia examined her new treasure. She'd like to see Yukari try to throw her off a cliff when she had this!

Then something caught her eye. Set between the arms of the cross-brace was a large round stone. It was perfectly smooth and deep shade of blue that was almost black. Inside was something she had first mistaken for a star-sparkle, such as she had seen in other stones, but upon further inspection she saw that it was the outline of an upside-down woman dressed in a robe with six wings extending from her back.

Rumia frowned and turned the sword around. No matter which way it was facing, the woman's outline remained pointing downward.

Huh, now _that _was weird. Rumia shook her head. She wished her dream would stop being so damned cryptic all the time. She was bright enough to get by in her chosen world, but all of these mind games were starting to give her a headache. Hell, just the idea of her having a _surname _was enough to put her in a state of shock.

She sighed and stood to her feet, the sword clutched in her hand. Well, it was time to move on. At least this segment wasn't nearly as freaky as the others had been, flaming device of horrendous execution notwithstanding. In fact, this time she had actually profited! If only the remaining time she spent here would be as pleasant.

Speaking of which, what was taking Rin so long? Rumia shrugged and started walking. She guessed that her memories were giving the Kirin girl more trouble than they expected. Well, it wasn't like anything else had been going their way as of late. She just hoped Rin would find a solution soon.

…

_**I really should have done this from the beginning, **_the Dark Voice said scornfully. _**Look at you! To think I was actually worried that you might have been able to stop me. All that time wasted for nothing.**_

It lashed out again, piercing through Rin's psyche with a long, thin wire, razor-sharp and ice-cold. Rin could only lie helplessly as her mind was shredded from the inside out.

_**You know, if I were capable of the emotion I think I would feel sorry for you. I don't think I can think one single thing that's gone right in your life. Hell, if you weren't such a pathetic coward I might just be able to summon up some pity. But no, you're going to die here as you've lived: a complete and utter failure, worthless in every way.**_

And it hit her again. And again. Rin could only rock with the blows as her shattered thoughts focused on a single name.

_Reisen! _she cried out. _Reisen, Reisen, Reisen…_

The attacks ceased. _**Aw, does it miss its mommy? **_The Dark Voice laughed. _**Does it want the bunny-girl to come and give it a hug and a cup of warm milk and make all the pain go away? Tooooooo baddddddd. Mommy's not coming to save you, kiddo. Not now, not ever.**_

Rin couldn't think of a response. She just kept repeating the same thing over and over.

…_Reisen, Reisen, Reisen, Reisen…_

_**In fact, you know what I think I'll do once I've disposed of you and retaken control of your body? I think I'm gonna head back to Eientei. I'm gonna find that bunny-girl of yours. And you know what I'm gonna do then?**_

…_Reisen, Reisen, Reisen…huh? _

_**First I'm going to walk up to her. I'll act all scared and timid-like. I'll use your voice. I'll start crying and acting real pitiful, saying I'm sorry and I miss her and love her and just want to come home again. I'll have picked through the scattered remains of your memories, so I'll know exactly what to say to worm into her heart.**_

Rin's physical body lay silent, as did her mind. Her right hand started to twitch.

_**And then, once she's won over and convinced that her little girl's finally come home, do you know what I'll do? Well, to be honest there's so many choices I'm not entirely sure yet! Maybe I'll just stab a stalk of bamboo right up her ass and wave her still-living body around like a flag. Maybe cut up her feet bit-by-bit and force her to eat it. Maybe I'll just rape her and enjoy the way her struggling body feels as warm flesh is consumed by the taint. Or hell, here's a classic: maybe I'll crucify her and set her on fire! People seem like that one a lot!**_

The spinning fragments of Rin's mind started to piece themselves together, slowly at first but steadily gaining speed. The searing pain began to recede and fade away. No, not fade away. It was still there, burning with the same intensity. But it was starting to change, to become a different sensation entirely.

Rage.

…

Rumia hadn't gone far before she found the next place she was supposed to go. She let out a groan of exasperation. It was another tent. This one wasn't nearly as big as the one her friends' doppelgangers had dragged her into. In fact, it was barely large enough for two people, and it was made from green silks rather than red-and-white fabrics. Still, a tent was a tent, and right now in Rumia's mind they were all the same. Over the entrance was a blue sign which proudly proclaimed that people could go inside to have FORTUNES TOLD.

"Ugh," Rumia said. Her face twisted into a grimace. "Great. More of this circus shit."

She looked down at her sword. A small smile tugged at her lips.

"Well, at least I've got my new toy here! The next person who tries to take my ticket or force me to put on a show's getting their head chopped off!"

Cheered by the thought, Rumia walked up to the entrance. "Whoever's in there, I'm warning you: I'm in a cranky mood and I got a really kick-ass sword! So I'd better not see anything annoying, weird, frustrating or scary, got it?"

A low laugh was her response. But instead of a sinister cackle like she might have been suspecting, it was a sincere chuckle of amusement. "Got it," a rich, velvety voice said. "You may enter without fear."

Rumia frowned. Like just about everything she had experienced thus far, that voice was familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on where she had heard it. "Okay, but you'd better keep that…Oh _shit!"_

The sword nearly fell from her hands. Rumia took a hesitant step backwards. "It's _you," _she whispered.

The inside of the tent was circular, with a round, wooden table sitting on a single leg at its center. A variety of different charms were hung from the roof by thread: bones, papers with strange symbols, stones and multicolored crystals that cast strange lights along the walls as they rotated.

But Rumia's attention was focused on the person who stood behind the table. Or rather, _floated. _From the waist up she appeared to be an attractive woman with flowing green hair and pale skin. She wore a blue and white robe, and a tall blue hat decorated with depictions of celestial bodies sat on her head. But she had apparently grown tired of her legs and had them replaced with a twisting tail of pale blue mist.

The creature known only as Mima smiled at Rumia. "Well, looks like you know who I am. I feel famous!"

Rumia stiffened. She held up her sword with both hands and waved it threateningly. "Stay back, or I'll…uh…"

Mima laughed. "Oh, you're so precious. Honey, I meant what I said. You have nothing to fear from me. I have no intention of harming you, scaring you, freaking you out or any of that other stuff you said for the duration of our session. Besides, even if I did, what did you intend to do with that oversized toothpick? Fan me to death?"

Rumia glanced down at the sword. She lowered it. "Uh, I guess. You…promise you won't do any of that stuff?"

"Of course. That would be bad business."

"How…I'm sorry, but you _kinda_ have a…no offense, but people have told me that you're not exactly truthful. So, uh, how do I know…"

"Sweetie, this is your dream. Only you can answer that question." Mima gestured toward the chair across from her. "Sit."

Rumia hesitated, and then she took the seat. "Okay, but _please _don't go back on your promise. I'm having a pretty rotten day so far." She looked around. "So, uh, what happens now? Do we…have tea or what's going on?"

Mima shook her head. "Didn't you read the sign outside? You want tea, then go to a tea house. This is a place to have your future revealed."

Rumia's eyes widened. "My…future?"

"Of course. The sign did say FORTUNES TOLD. Honestly, what did you expect that meant?"

"I'm…not sure. But how can you tell me my future? I mean, you already told me that you know this is all a dream, right? I can get how my weird-ass past might pop up, but the future?"

"You'd be surprised," Mima said with a shrug and a smile. "This is no ordinary dream, after all. Reality here is already warped thanks to your Kirin friend's…unique mind. Plus, she's been using the Moon Princess' power over eternity to unravel your stubborn memories. As a result, time here has been distorted, in both directions."

Rumia blinked. "Wait, how do you know all this? You're not even real!"

"Am I not? Perhaps so, but a lack of existence is no excuse for being ignorant."

"What-"

"And speaking of ignorance, you seem to be swimming in it. So should you really refused the opportunity to gain more information? Who knows, you might learn something useful."

"I…" Rumia shook her head. "Sorry, this is just so confusing."

"Most things are, when they happen. It is not until we have the advantage of hindsight that they make any sense. And by then it's usually too late."

"Well, that's…optimistic."

"Hmmm, at least you've kept your sense of humor. Shall I begin?"

Rumia shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Are you going to use a crystal ball or what?"

"Nothing so fancy." Mima passed her hand over the table's surface. Three cards appeared, face down.

Rumia groaned. "More cards. Great." Then she clapped her hand over her mouth when she realized who she was mouthing off.

For her part, Mima didn't seem to be offended by her rudeness. "I know. Don't look like much, do they? But sometimes it seems that the humblest of things can become the most significant, yourself being a prime example."

"Can…uh, can they really tell me what's going to happen? I mean, for real?"

Mima shrugged. "Nothing lost by trying. If nothing else, they can encourage you to look at a problem from a different viewpoint and gain a perspective that had never occurred to you. Now, we'll keep things simple. This is a three-card spread. One card for your past…"

Rumia's ears perked up immediately. "Wait, it can tell me my past too? The one I've been trying to find? Or just the one I've known?"

"Yes," Mima said.

"Yes, what? Yes, my missing past or just my regular past?"

"Exactly."

Rumia repressed the eye-roll she felt forming.

Mima continued. "After that, your present. In many ways, this is the most important, as your actions now decide what will happen. And finally, the final card reveals your eventual fate." She laid her hand on the first card. "Now, let's see how you've been behaving yourself."

With that, she turned it over.

On it was a picture of a young man walking along a cliff. Over his shoulder was a stick with a bag tied to the end.

"The Fool," Mima said.

Rumia scowled in indignation. "Hey!"

Mima waved off her protest. "It doesn't mean you're an idiot. More commonly, it symbolizes the beginning of a journey, someone who is setting forth without fully knowing or understanding the hardships that await them. And that's not a bad thing either, as it implies a certain amount of innocence. And to date, you've lived you life innocent of any excessive ordeals, correct? A silly mischief-maker, who's only concern was how to keep herself amused." Mima's half-smile returned. "In which case, I supposed the literal meaning of 'The Fool' would be quite appropriate."

With that, she turned over the second card. On this were several animals staring upward at the night sky, with the Moon staring down at them. "The Moon," Mima said. "It seems that your days of carefree mischief are over. Now you are lost and unsure of your path. You are without a reliable guide, and do not know where your steps will lead."

Rumia didn't say anything. That part was true enough.

With that, Mima overturned the third card. She hesitated for half a second before putting it all the way down. Rumia stared. On it was a hideous horned, hairy-legged monster. It sat perched on a post to which were chained a naked man and a naked woman. Over its forehead was a five-pointed star, upside-down.

"The Devil," Mima murmured. "The destroyer from within. Hmmm…"

"What? What? What's it mean?"

"Exactly what I just said. Something from within _you"_ Mima reached over and poked Rumia in the chest "will rise up and take control. Something…crippling. Perverse. Perhaps even evil. Usually it signifies some sort of flaw that you are allowing to hold you back through inaction. But here in Gensokyo the evil could end up being quite literal. I would watch my step if I were you."

Rumia shook her head. "So…that's all you can tell me? That I'm lost? I knew that already. That I've got some sort of evil monster inside me? Is that what Rin was talking about? Or does it…Come on, give me something to work with here."

"I'm afraid that's it. If you find yourself disappointed then I'm sorry. However, if you were expecting the cards to spell out your path in detail, then perhaps you should consult a crystal-ball. If nothing else it's easier to wing." Mima passed her hands over the cards again, returning them to their face-down position. "But at any rate, this session is over. There are others that need my guidance."

Rumia looked around. "Who? I'm the only one here! Uh, I mean besides you of course."

"Perhaps, but this story is not about you alone. There are others that will be affected by what is to come." With that, Mima once again turned over the first card. "Hmmm, the Eight of Pentacles. The apprentice who desires to learn more. You have studied under a master but still wish to learn more. Ambitious, aren't you?"

Rumia looked around the otherwise empty tent. "Um, who are you talking to? I've never been anyone's apprentice. And Cirno doesn't count!"

Mima ignored her. "Ah. The Seven of Swords. It would seem that despite all the power you've accumulated, it isn't protecting you from the wiles of others. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that you are being betrayed, though not by someone you trust anyway. And now…Oh dear. The Ten of Swords? I'm sorry, but it looks like despite all that you do, it will all be for naught. Failure is your only option."

A slow shiver trickled down Rumia's back. Mima didn't even seem to know that she was there anymore.

"Well then, moving on." Mima once again reset the cards and started over. "The Empress. The creating spirit. And you've done quite a bit of that, haven't you? In addition, you are quite protective of what you've created. However, I would be careful of becoming overzealous. And now…Ah, there, you see? The inverted Hierophant. The false teacher. Except you aren't the one to take on a mentor, false or otherwise, are you? Well, I suppose this must mean you. Manipulative and deceptive. But is it for the greater good? A necessary evil? But unfortunately for you, you path leads to…Death. The end of an era. Depressing, isn't it?"

Rumia started to become aware that the lights inside the tent were started to dim, to the point that Mima was now enshrouded with shadow. However, her blue eyes continued to glow in the dark, until they were almost two floating spheres of cold flame.

"And as for you…The inverted High Priestess, the concealer of secrets. Are you keeping secrets to yourself, or has someone been keeping secrets from you? Or perhaps it is to be taking literally. After all, you're not exactly known for being vigilant about your job. And what's this? The Seven of Cups? And it's inverted as well! Looks like someone is getting a little fed up with deceptions and machinations! Good thing too, as this will lead to…The World. Not bad. Ascension to something greater."

What was going on here? Mima had specifically promised not to start acting creepy like everyone else had. But here she was, being creepier than Rin whenever she was trying to be nice.

Then two things Mima had said to her echoed in her mind.

_I have no intention of harming you, scaring you, freaking you out or any of that other stuff you said for the duration of our session._

_But at any rate, this session is over._

Oh. Crap.

Careful not to upset anything, Rumia slowly slid from her chair. Mima paid her no mind, content to continue flipping over the same three cards again and again, producing new results every time. She continued her readings in a low murmur, speaking to seemingly no one.

"The Fool inverted. You've had your naïveté taken advantage of, haven't you? Innocent to begin with, but that hasn't exactly turned out well."

Rumia cleared her throat. "Um, it looks like you're busy. So, uh, thanks for the prediction and all. I'm just…gonna leave you to your. Other. Customers? Is that okay?"

Mima paid her no mind. "Ah, you have a Ten of Swords as well. One wonders if things can possibly get any worse. I'd beware of asking that question, because it usually can."

Clutching her sword tightly, Rumia edged her way toward the silk-covered entrance to the tent.

"But all is not lost. For here we have the Hanged Man. Not as dismal as it appears. Look at the smile on his face. A sacrifice will be made, but it will be made gladly, and just might be beneficial toward you."

_Enough of this. _Rumia turned and ran from the tent, leaving the ghost alone with her cards and their meanings. Oblivious that her client had just left, Mima continued muttering readings, reading the fates of people who were not there.

…

_**Hmmm, I wonder what I should do with her after she expires. Skin her maybe? I don't know, sounds a little over the top if you ask me. What do you think? Should I…What are you doing?**_

Rin didn't answer. In fact, she couldn't even if she wanted to. All her concentration was focused on pulling the ragged bits of her psyche back into something that was at least functional.

The Dark Voice let out a low whistle. _**My gods, are you trying to get up? Don't tell me you're still trying to fight. Do the words 'resistance is futile' mean **_**anything **_**to you?**_

Enough damage had been repaired to allow for semi-coherent thought. The response Rin shot back lacked much in the way of subtlety, but the point was clear.

_**Wow, you really do have a foul mouth, don't you? **_the monster laughed. _**And hey, looks like you've finally decided to grow a backbone. About time too. Too bad I'm about to shatter it to pieces, but you get credit for trying. **_There was a rush of energy as it gathered its power together, ready for another strike. _**So this tragic tale has finally come to its tragic end. It was inevitable if you ask me. Any last words? Not that anyone'll ever hear them but hey, it's tradition.**_

Rin said nothing.

_**No? Just as well. Go out with dignity then. Sayonara, little girl.**_

Just before the Dark Voice struck, Rin used her remaining strength and will to bring up the best defense she could. It didn't stop the blow, but it was never intended to. Rather, it deflected it just enough so that it missed the core of Rin's being. Instead, it hit the dam holding back Rin's rage and cut right through.

Emotion is a funny thing. People believe they can control it, suppress it, hold it under. And under favorable circumstances, they can. To a degree. But it's impossible to get rid of. It's always there, lurking below the surface. Every experience adds to it, all those little triumphs and defeats, all of them making it all the stronger and more chaotic. And so people control to push it back down, covering it with reason and logic, hoping their minds would be enough to hold back the flood of passion that would drown them if it were ever to be loosed.

Sometimes it's possible. Those who've lived relatively normal lives, or at least lives free from excessive complication, can usually balance out the negative emotion with the good, keeping it in check. However, those who live under extremes find it to be much more difficult. Find someone who's known nothing but bliss and joy, someone who's lived their life ignorant of the world's hardships, and introduce them to real pain. Watch them collapse as thoughts and feelings they might never have thought themselves capable of rush up to consume them.

Likewise, find someone who has known nothing but pain and fear, someone who's lived their life devoid of happiness. Show them kindness, show them love. Show them that the world is not as bleak as they have thought it to be. Maybe they'll react with suspicion and hostility and bite the hand that feeds them. Maybe they'll weep tears of joy. But whatever the reaction, there will be little in the way emotional restraint.

Rin had lived such a life. She was not old. Perhaps she had lived a full set of years by how a human judges a lifespan, but according to a Kirin's calculations she was still a child. But even in her relatively short time she had known more pain, more fear, more anger and more frustration than many who had existed for centuries. And the Dark Voice had been right about one thing: she _did _always try to keep the worst of it in check, because she was afraid of what would happen were she to truly let loose.

However, the Dark Voice had hit her right where she had been keeping those emotions, holding them back. And as such, it got the full brunt when they came pouring out.

_**AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! **_it screamed as they poured into it like liquid fire. It tried to pull back, but there was nowhere to run. Rin couldn't stop the flow even if she wanted to. And after what the monster had said about Reisen, there was no chance she would be motivated to even try.

And so, her strength now powered by pure, unadultered fury, Rin clamped down on the creature and refused to let go. It tried to lash out, but even it had a limit as to how much pain it could take. And now it was literally being burned alive.

If Rin could have, she would have started taunting the Dark Voice, letting it know _exactly _how she felt about what it was experiencing. However, all of her concentration was taken up by holding it place, so she remained silent and let it writhe in agony. Even when the fire began to burn her as well, she continued to hold on.

…

Rumia stopped running and looked around. It seemed that the tent had chosen not to cooperate with her desire to leave. The entrance had vanished, replaced with a seemingly unending passageway of blue silk. Ornate lanterns hung from overhead, providing her with enough light to illuminate her way, but not enough to see any kind of end.

With a shudder, she continued onward. The only other option was to go back, and her gut told her that doing so would not turn out well for her.

Then Rumia looked up and frowned. Through the thick folds of fabric, she could the winds begin to howl. Then thunder boomed from somewhere nearby, making her jump.

"Guess there's a storm going on," she muttered to no one in particular. "Hope it's nothing serious."

The lights flickered. For a moment she was worried that they might go out entirely, but they managed to remain lit.

"Okay, let's get out of here before the whole place collapses."

Rumia increased her pace, starting off at a jog but eventually escalated to a full run. She charged through the tunnel of blue silk, holding the sword out in front of her in exactly the sort of way she wasn't supposed to.

A strange howling filled her ears, like wind rushing through a canyon. Fear started to trickle through her veins. For some reason, she felt like something was following her. She stole a glance over her shoulder. The tunnel lay empty behind her, but this did nothing to calm her. If anything, it made her run all the faster.

Suddenly the tunnel opened up and her feet were slapping on cold stone instead of soft fabric. Rumia skidded to a stop and looked around. She had emerged in some sort of stone passageway. It was completely windowless and lit only by torches set in intervals along the walls. It reminded Rumia of the sort that one might see in castle basements.

Or dungeons.

The skin on the back of her neck started crawling. Rumia looked behind her and saw nothing more than a blank wall. Whatever entrance she had emerged from was long gone.

"Guess I'm stuck here," she whispered. "Okay then. Not cool."

That was when the sound of Mystia's sobs returned, echoing through the hallway. Rumia flinched at the unexpected noise.

"This again?" Rumia sucked in air between her teeth. "Okay, fine. Let's finish this quest already."

Biting her lower lip, Rumia cautiously made her way down the passageway, blade held at the ready. The sound was definitely coming from up ahead. Just a little closer, just a…

Rumia stopped in her tracks. She had come to a rectangular wooden doorway with iron hinges. Set in the upper half was a barred window. From the sound of things, Mystia (if it was her) was inside.

Rumia stood on her tippy-toes and peeked in. The room appeared to be some sort of laboratory. All along the walls were shelves and shelves of all sorts of things; books, scrolls, bottles of strange liquids, instruments of unknown purpose and design, boxes containing who-knows-what, even what appeared to be a full human skeleton, disassembled and spread over two of the shelves. In the center of the room was a flat stone table with several leather straps attached, presumably to keep whatever poor fool that had been unlucky enough to be experimented on in place. The place was dimly lit, with a dull grey light coming from an unseen source.

Rumia shuddered. Though this was (as far as she knew) the first time she had seen this room, it still sent spiders crawling up her spine, not too dissimilar to how Yukari made her feel. She didn't know if this was something from her past or her future, but she prayed it was the past. Though the idea that she had spent any time here was repugnant, it was better than the idea that she was going to have to go here in the future.

Mystia cried out again, louder this time. She _was _inside, there was no doubt about it. And now she was saying something, repeating a single phrase over and over.

"Die. Gone," she wept. "Die. Gone. Die. Gone."

What? Was she dying in there? Sure, Mystia's dream double had been incredibly annoying, but that didn't mean Rumia wanted her to die in a place like this.

But wasn't it all fake? It wasn't like this Mystia was a real person anyway. She was just doing whatever weird stuff the dream had programmed her to do. She couldn't feel any actual pain or actually die, because she hadn't been alive to begin with. And Rumia wasn't hero enough to go risking her life (or at least what peace of mind she had left) to save someone who didn't really need saving.

"Die. Gone. Die. Gone. Die. Gone."

Rumia rolled her eyes. "Damn it," she whispered. Then she seized the iron ring on the door's side and pulled back.

It didn't budge.

With a growl, Rumia dropped the sword and grabbed the ring with both hands. She braced one foot against the wall and yanked back as hard as she could.

It took all of her strength, but the door finally began to slide open with a groan. The iron hinges loudly protested the disturbance, but she managed to open a crack wide enough for her body. Rumia grabbed up her sword and squeezed through.

Doing her best to avoid touching the stone table, Rumia searched the room. It was just as dismal now that she was inside than it had been when she was observing it from without. "Mystia?" she said in a loud whisper. "Damn it, quit hiding! You're making this harder than-"

Then she saw her. Mystia was indeed in the room. She was sitting in one of the far corners, knees brought up and arms wrapped around something Rumia couldn't make out, something white. Her face was downward as she continued to weep as she repeated the same two words.

"Die. Gone. Die. Gone. Die. Gone."

Rumia slowly made her way over to the night-sparrow. "Mystia, what's wrong? Are you from the past or the future? Or is this a…I don't know, what's going on? What are you holding?"

Finally Mystia looked up to face her. Startled, Rumia sucked in air. This Mystia was most definitely not the one she had met at the tea party or in the circus. This Mystia had none of that infuriatingly smug emptiness that seemed to define her friends' doppelgangers. Rather, this Mystia looked like she had been through hell. Her face was filthy and bruised and streaked with tears. Her hair was disheveled and unwashed and missing its winged hat. Her clothing was likewise in need of a good laundress and seamstress. And the look on her face…

Rumia had never seen her like that before. Sure, there had been time when Mystia had gotten upset, but it wasn't like this. This was naked grief, pure and painful.

Rumia gulped. "Mysty," she whispered. "What _happened?"_

Mystia didn't answer her question. She just clutched the white thing closer to her chest and said, "Die. Gone."

"What does that _mean? _Who died? What's gone?"

"Die. Gone. Die is gone."

The room suddenly filled with a brilliant flash of light. Rumia cried out in surprise and covered her eyes. Her sword fell to the ground beside her, clattering against the stone.

When she was sure she could stand it, Rumia opened cracked open her eyes. Golden sunlight was pouring in through the doorway, lighting up the dreary laboratory.

"Wow," Rumia said in amazement. "When the sun comes out, it comes out!" Then she frowned. "Unless of course it's not the sun and the place in on fire or something. That would go with the sort of day I'm having."

She glanced down. "Look, that's probably our cue to leave. You can fill me in later on what-"

She stopped talking. Mystia was gone. Vanished, as if she had dissolved in the sunlight.

Rumia stared at the now-empty space, unsure of how to react. On the one hand, having Mystia suddenly disappear was perfectly keeping with how this dream had been behaving. Her message, confusing and disturbing as it had been, had been delivered. Therefore, she had served her purpose and it was time to move on.

On the other hand, Rumia couldn't get her mind off of the expression on the night-sparrow's face. That look of anguish had been more real than anything else Rumia had encountered thus far. It troubled her to her core.

She took a steadying breath and looked around. Even in the sunlight, the strange laboratory still creeped her out. "Okay, I guess I'd better go." She shook her head and moved toward the door. "Rin, I don't know _what _the hell you're doing out there, but I've got a serious bone to pick with you. Whatever you've dug up better answer everything."

With that, she shoved her back against the door to open it further and stepped outside into the light.

…

Dying, it (something, he, her, me?) was dying, had to be fading away (off, like smoke. Like. Smoke), drifting into not(emptiness? Nonexistence? Hehehehe)hing.

Hurt. Yes, it was hurt. Everything hurt. She hurt, it hurt (what was it? Is it me or her or him or everyone?), they might or might not hurt, but it still was hurt. Everything was broken (smashed, ripped torn {to pieces [and bleeding!]). Could it be fixed?

Could?

It?

Be?

…fixed…?

It's not moving anymore. It's talking (speaking? Taunting). It's hurt too. Can't talk/think in a straight, straight line. _**W-w-wel-l-l-l.**_ _**G-go-good job-ob. Y-you b-bb-beat the bb-b-bad guyyyy. B-bbuuutt-t-tt yo-you still l-l-l-loozzzz. Th…They'll n-never ac-c-cept you. Yo-ou'll b-be f-f-forev-ev-ever hun-hunted. No m-m-atter wh-what you d-d-do, y-you'll-**_

Nothing. Silence (quiet, all no longer speaking/thinking). Dead? Is it dead? Is I(t) dead? Dead and gone? Dead. Died. Dies. Die. Gone. Die. Gone. Diegone.

No (nothing), can't let. What? Nothing. Falling? May(be). R(a)ising? Don't wanna. Don't make m(h)e(r) get up Reisen, I want to sl(di)eep in!

Reisen? (R)e(i)se(n)? Reisen-ese=Rin, right? It must mean some(thing). Soemtihng. Must firuge it uot. Msut furige it…

...

Can I sleep now?

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

..

.

.

_**Well, damn. I can't use this mess. On to Plan E then.**_

...

_If anyone's wondering exactly how the world inside Rin's mind works…then your guess is as good as mind. Honestly, I'm just going with whatever's the coolest. So…yeah._

_Anyway, to anyone who actually has experience with Tarot cards, I apologize for any inaccuracies I might have written into the cards' meanings. I don't use them myself, so I had to look them up online and ask someone who does do tarot readings to help me. But still, there are probably some mistakes. If I screwed something up, feel free to send me a pm and I'll be glad to fix it._

_Also, I meant to address this last chapter, but it was late and I forgot. Regarding the censoring of the f-bombs…Yeah, I can see how that would be annoying. The reason why I was doing that was partially as a way to cheat and avoid bumping this fic up to a Mature rating right off the bat, as it's straddling the line already and I didn't want it to vanish from the normal search results. Also, I was trying to take a page out of NGE: Nobody Dies' book, in that when an f-bomb does show up uncensored, you know something big just happened. However, looks like it's not working out the way I thought, so all future "fucks" will be uncensored. I was planning on bumping up the rating in a few chapters anyway._

_Anyway, looks like Deep Within's gonna be extended to a third installment, and then we'll get back to Yukari's Really Bad Day. _

_Until next time, everyone!_


	18. Deep Within, Part 3

Deep Within, Part 3

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…

The first thing Rumia noticed when she stepped outside was just how _bright _it was. Every place she had visited from the burned-out building on had been dimly lit, and he eyes were not ready for the excessive amount of light that awaited her. She squeezed her eyes shut and covered them with her hand. When she was sure that she could open her eyes without having them feel like they were melting, she slowly cracked them open, which led to the second thing she noticed.

She was outside again. And unlike the tea party or the tunnel-shaped forest, she was not back in those faux exterior sets. Nor was she in some strange field she had never seen before sharing company with burning instruments of torturous execution. No, this time she stood at the top of a short but steep grassy hill. The surrounding area was surprisingly peaceful, especially when one took into the account the sort of day Rumia was having. The top of the hill was sparely inhabited by the sort of gnarled trees with bent trunks and low-hanging branches that practically begged children to climb them. At the bottom was a healthy looking meadow, dotted with patches of wildflowers and large stones that had been stacked in large piles. The sun shown cheerfully overhead, and the air filled with the cries of cicadas.

Also unlike the areas she had visited thus far, Rumia _knew _this place. She knew it very well. She and her friends played here often, chasing each other through the meadow, pretending the stone piles were indestructible fortresses as they made war upon one another and rolling down the hill (well, at least most of them did. Daiyousei downright refused to participate in rolling of any kind after that one time Cirno had snuck up behind her and pushed her down the hill's slope, resulting in a broken wing). In fact, it was located only a few short miles from their hideout in the side of the Youkai Mountains, which technically made it part of their "territory".

Frankly, Rumia wasn't sure how to react. On the one hand, it felt good to be back in a place she knew and was comfortable in. As far as she could tell, it was exactly like the original. But on the other hand, she was now very suspicious of anything this dream presented her. She didn't want to have a place she actually liked to be corrupted by some sadistic turn in events.

Her eyes swept over the meadow, looking for any sign of weirdness. At first it seemed like there was nothing. Just grass and flowers waving in the wind. Rumia started to relax.

Then her spine stiffened. Her eyes narrowed. She had caught movement.

There, in the center of the field, was a person. They had been hunched over and been mostly concealed by the grass, which is why Rumia hadn't seen them at first. But now they had straightened up. They were wearing a robe woven from the blackest midnight. It was completely formless and perfectly concealed their body. The hood of the robe was pulled up over their head, hiding their face from Rumia as well. In their hands was a wooden-handled shovel. From the look of things, they were busily digging a hole.

Rumia licked her lips as she looked around nervously. Everything she had learned from stories combined with plain common sense told her that approaching strange black-robed people was a bad idea. People generally didn't wear such outfits unless there was something weird about them. Especially if they were by themselves, digging holes. And given the sort of dream she was having, the chances of the stranger having malevolent intentions only increased. Unfortunately, so did the odds of something showing up and forcing her to go and meet them.

Rumia looked down at her sword and frowned. Maybe she should just cut to the chase and cut their head off. She had been given this weapon for a reason. Would it work? Would the dream even let her attack? And if she was successful (and that was a big "if"), who's to say that she wouldn't make things worse? For all she knew that person held the final clues she needed.

Of course, it was quite possible that the hole was intended for Rumia herself. In which case approaching them would be a very bad idea.

As she turned the problem over in her head, Rumia's eyes wandered up the hill's slope. Then her eyes widened. There was a third person with them. There, sitting in the shade of the climbing trees, was what appeared to be a girl with her back against one of the trees. She had her hands in her lap and was watching the robed stranger.

Rumia glanced from one stranger to the other, wondering which person she should approach first. Well, the girl was closer than the robed stranger and much less threatening looking. Plus, she seemed to be unarmed, though that really didn't count for much in Gensokyo. Still…

Rumia cautiously made her way toward the girl. As she drew closer she could make out more and more of the girl's features. She looked young, roughly around Rumia's age. She wore a simple red dress with a thin pale pink open robe over that. In her short hair was a large red bow from which dangled large red beads.

_Wait a minute. _Rumia slowed to a stop. She tilted her head and frowned. There was something familiar about that girl. Something _very _familiar…

Then her head jerked backed. Her eyes narrowed and her teeth bared. She knew that girl all right. Oh yes, she knew her. And she had one hell of a bone to pick with her.

Her grip on the sword tightening, Rumia stomped over to where the girl sat. "Hey!" she called. "Hey, you! Rin! Rin Satsuki!"

Rin Satsuki, fully clothed for the first time since Rumia had involuntarily been introduced to her, looked up to her and smiled. "Rumia!" she said happily. "Hey, you made it! I was wondering when-"

The rest of her greeting was prematurely cut off when Rumia smacked her in the nose with the sword's pommel.

Rin fell to her side, clutching at her face and wincing in pain. "Owwwwww!" she shouted. "Why'z youse dooz dat fur?"

It was all Rumia could do not to hit her again. "That was for sending me on a weird-ass journey through dreamland! And for not pulling me out when I told you to!" she shouted down at the Kirin. "And come to think of it, I still owe you for eating me without permission and ruining my life!"

Rin pulled her hand away from her face and flinched when she saw the blood. She pulled a white linen handkerchief from her robe and pressed it against the bleeding nostril. "Ogay, ogay, I'm sowwy alweady! No need do hwit me!"

"Oh, I can think of plenty of reasons!" Rumia snapped. "And what the hell are you doing down here anyway? You're supposed to be trying to figure out what's in my memories! What, did you get bored and decide to go for a walk in my subconscious or something?"

Rin made a _huock! _noise from the back of her throat and spat out a gob of mucus and blood. She sniffed. "Um, yeah. About that…"

"About what?" Rumia demanded. "I swear to everyone worth swearing to, if you've got some lame-ass excuse for being down here I'm gonna take this sword and shove it right up your…" Her voice trailed off when something occurred to her. "Wait…wait, wait, wait, you're the _real_ Rin, right? Please tell me you're the real Rin."

Rin looked down. "Uh, what exactly do you mean by that?"

"Don't give me that! Gods, what is it with people and not giving me a straight answer? Are. You. The. Crazy-ass freaky-weird blobby girl-thing who ate me?"

"Er, not really?"

"Rin!"

Rin sighed. She straightened to her feet, handkerchief still held over her nose. "Okay, fine. No."

"So you're a fake then?"

"Hey!"

"I'm serious. You're just something my subconscious thingy cooked up? Another fake person sent to talk nonsense and piss me off?"

Rin scowled. "Look, just because I'm a dream doesn't mean I don't have feelings."

"Uh, it kinda does? What are you doing here, anyway? You're not a part of my past. At least I sure hope not."

"I…uh, well. I'm…not really sure," Rin admitted.

"You're not sure?"

"Yeah. To be honest, I don't think I'm supposed to be here." She looked around at the trees surrounding them. "Maybe I'm a piece of the real Rin that…got stuck here? And was turned into a full Rin? I don't know, I just sorta popped up here and no one bothered to tell me why."

Rumia stared at her. "May I hit you again? Because right now I really, really want to hit you."

"Heck no!" Rin shouted as she jumped half a step back. "That hurt!"

"So…if you're not the real Rin or…whatever the hell you are, where is the real Rin? Why didn't she take me out when I called? Or do you not know about that either?"

"Oh. That." Rin stared down at the grass. "Um, I sorta do know something about that. Which is why I think I may be part of the original Rin, because otherwise how could I-"

"Stop it!"

"Right, sorry. Anyway, about that. See, the thing is…" Rin gnawed on her lower lip. "She's kinda dead."

Silence fell. Well, to be strictly accurate, it wasn't complete silence. The breeze continued to blow, the leaves continued to rustle and the cicadas continued to chatter. But insofar as the two youkai girls were considered, there was nary a peep to be heard.

Rumia stared at Rin, neither blinking nor changing the rhythm of her breathing. Rin shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She removed the handkerchief, sniffed, and pressed the opposite corner to her nostril.

Then finally, Rumia spoke.

"Huh?"

…

.

.

.

.

..

…

Rin fell backward, tripping over a tree root as she tried to scramble away.

"Rumia, knock it off!" she shouted. "It's not my fault!"

It should be noted that Rumia was not in much of a listening mood. Rather, she lunged for Rin again, with the intention of grabbing her by the collar and swinging her spine-first into the closest tree trunk available.

Rin rolled out of the way and hopped to her feet. "Seriously, stop it! Calm down al-Gack!"

Rumia had succeeded in catching the fleeing Kirin and made good on her intentions of introducing her back to wood. "What do you mean you're dead?" Rumia screamed in Rin's face. "How could you be dead? That's impossible! You were fine just a few minutes ago!"

Rin grimaced as her face was pelted with saliva. "Put me down and I'll tell you, okay?"

Rumia's arms were starting to shake but she acquiesced, giving Rin a rough shove in the process. Rin landed on her butt with a wince and an "Ow!" She started to pull herself up but found herself staring up at a _very _angry Rumia.

"Talk," Rumia growled.

Rin cringed back. "Okay, but can you not hover over me like that? Because it's kinda-"

Rumia nudged her toe under the hilt of her sword, which she had dropped to free both hands. She kicked it up to her waiting grasp.

"-or you could stay right where you are, perfectly fine with me." Rin grimaced. "Wow, this day just keeps getting better and better."

"Oh, you don't know the half of it. Now, start talking already."

"Um, okay. It's like this: remember that evil deep voice that I…uh, _she _said was whispering to her when you were gone, the one that sounded like a psycho-you? The one that disappeared right after?"

"Yes."

"Well, uh, she found it. In your memories."

Rumia rested the blade in her other hand. Her fingers started to drum a rhythm against the steel of its side. "Explain."

"S-sure. Where'd you find that thing, anyway? Because it kinda looks like-"

"Rin…"

The Kirin flinched. "Okay, okay! Anyway, she was busy trying to pick apart your repressed memories when it jumped out of nowhere and attacked her."

Rumia raised an eyebrow. "Attacked her?"

Rin nodded. She looked down at her feet. "Yeah…"

"And it killed her?"

"Well, her mind was torn to pieces and she stopped thinking right after, so I'm pretty sure she's dead, yeah." Rin shook her head. "I mean, she got in a few good hits, and I'm pretty sure she took it down with her, but-"

"You're lying."

"Eh?"

"You're lying. You have to be. This is just more dream-bullshit meant to mess with my mind. You're just trying to confuse me. More."

Rin's head snapped up. For the first time, there was a flash of anger in her eyes. "I felt it happen!" she snapped. "Don't tell me it didn't happen, because it did!"

Rumia stared. "You're serious."

"I am! Jeez, why do we have to go through every time?"

"Rin is dead. For reals."

"Yes! For reals for reals."

Rumia suddenly found herself on her butt as well. Strange, because she had made no conscious decision to sit down. Her mind was whirling with the implications of what she just been told. And she had _no idea _how to feel about it.

She didn't like Rin. There were no surprises there. The girl was weird, unreliable and annoying. When she wasn't babbling in circles and making things more confusing, she was being casually terrifying and completely oblivious about it. Plus, there were all those stupid games she liked the play "to pass the time". And that wasn't even touching on the bit Rumia had mentioned earlier about the fact that the Kirin had, for all intents and purposes, ruined her life.

But still, like it or not Rin was her only ticket out of here. She was the one who had sent Rumia to this place and as far as she knew, she was the only person who could bring her out. Also, Rin had been right when she had said that she was Rumia's best chance for survival. Desperate situations made for strange bedfellows, and being hunted by virtual (and in some cases, _literal) _gods was about as desperate as things got. Rin had indestructibility three times over. Rumia…didn't.

Plus, as much as she hated to admit it, Rumia had been starting to get used to her.

In a low monotone, she said, "She has Miss Kaguya and Miss Mokou's power. She can come back."

Rin shuddered. "Maybe. Wow, I sure hope so."

"What does this mean for me?"

Rin shrugged and shook her head. "Sorry, I have no idea. All I know is that her mind was shutting down, and suddenly I was here, waiting for you."

Rumia inhaled through her nose and let it out through her mouth. Then she moved her body around so that she was sitting next to Rin, back against the tree and eyes staring down at the meadow below. The robed stranger was still busy with their hole and making good progress. From the look of things, it was almost three feet deep.

They just sat there for a long while, listening to the wind and watching the stranger dig. Then Rumia said, "So, what happens now?"

"Now?" Rin sighed and stretched out her legs. "I dunno. I guess wait and hope you're right about the rest of me coming back. If not…well, at least this place is nice. And it looks like your home."

Rumia's eyes narrowed and grew cold. "I don't want to get stuck in someplace that _looks _like home. I want to go to my _real _home."

"I hear ya," Rin said softly.

"Besides, I was talking about here. Inside the dream. Is this it? Or is there anymore?"

Rin shook her head. "Uh, I don't know. Maybe you should ask her." She pointed down the hill toward the robed stranger.

"That's a her?" Rumia said. "How can you tell? Did you talk to her?"

"No way. I mean, she's wearing a big black scary robe! Haven't you read any fantasy stories at all? But yeah, she moves like a woman, so…"

"Okay, but now you want _me _to go talk to the scary robe lady?"

"Good point," Rin admitted. "But I'm not seeing much of a choice here. I mean, you came for answers, right? And she might have them."

"I hate you sometimes," Rumia muttered. She stood up. "Well, fine. I'll go talk to the creepy lady with a shovel. It's not like I'm learning anything useful from you."

"You mean _besides _the thing about the real Rin dying."

"Still might be fake, so that doesn't count. See yah."

Rumia started down the hill, half walking, half scooting her way down the steep incline.

"Wait," Rin said.

Rumia turned around. "Oh, what is it now? And please, make it good."

"There actually is something important I need to tell you, something that just came to me."

"Oh?" Rumia raised a questioning eyebrow.

"But it's not something about your past. Still have no idea about that. But anyway…"

Rin looked Rumia directly in the eye. "One day, when all of this is over, for good or evil, you and I will end up sitting on this hill again. And I'll ask you to do something, something that's harder than anything you've ever done. And you need to do it."

Rumia's jaw dropped. "What the _hell _is that supposed to mean? You…you think you can just show up without explanation, claim to be dead, tell me jack-shit about what I want to know, and then go spouting off random predictions like you're some kind of drugged-out oracle? Where do you get off, you-"

Rumia shut up. She was yelling at empty space. Rin was gone. Rumia stared at the place she had been and considered whether or not a tantrum of some kind was warranted. Maybe test just how realistic this new setting was and see if she could uproot a few trees and use them like a pair of clappers.

"Screw it," Rumia muttered. She resumed her descent. "And while we're at it, screw her too. I'm adding the real one to my 'Need to Punch for Real' list."

…

..

..

..

..

...

…

Rumia slowly made her way down the hill, using small shrubs for support and digging her heels into the hillside when necessary. Finally she reached the bottom. Over in the meadow, the strange woman paid her no heed, content to focus on her rapidly deepening hole.

"Well, here goes," Rumia said. Then she set off towards the woman.

When she got close enough to communicate without shouting, Rumia cleared her throat and said, "Um, excuse me? Hello?"

The sound of metal scraping against dirt ceased. The woman straightened up and turned to look at her. Rumia couldn't make out much of her face, but what she could see made her shudder. The woman's skin was a sickly shade of purplish-pink, and her chin was mottled with blisters. It looked like she had been horribly burned and had only begun to recover.

Now more than ever Rumia decided to not take any chances. She made sure to keep a good distance between her and the hole and held her sword at the ready.

"Oh," said the woman in a bored voice. "It's you. Figures." She looked back down to her hole. "Go away."

"What?"

"You heard me. Go away. Scram. Beat it. Vamoose. Get lost. Return from whence you came. Getting the picture?"

Rumia blinked. She had seen plenty of strange things the last few minutes, but never had anyone outright refused to talk to her. "But…I can't! The door's gone, and I-"

"Oh, the door's gone, the door's gone," the woman mocked. "Big deal. See all this open space? Looks big, don't it? Pick a direction and keep going."

"Look, I don't know who you are, but I've been through too much to just stop trying now. This dream led me here, so-"

"Oh, did it? And are you sure you wanna keep riding this train? I'm offering you a chance to get off."

Rumia thought for a moment. She shook her head. "No, I'm not giving up now."

"No, of course you wouldn't," the woman grumbled. She looked up again, though her cowl still obscured her features. "Look, small fry, I don't have time to-"

Then the woman stiffened. She leaned in closer. "Where," she said, the word coming out in a low hiss. "Did you get that?"

She pointed at Rumia's right hand. Rumia glanced down. "What, this sword? I found it. Why?"

"Found it. You just found it. Where?"

"Uh…Earlier in my dream. There was this big old field thing, and there was this cross-"

"A cross?" the woman said sharply. "Did you say there was a cross in a field? Was it on fire?"

"Uh, yeah actually. Why?"

"And the sword? Where was the sword?"

"Stuck in the cross, where the foot-nail should be. Why, does it mean something?"

"Perhaps," the woman muttered. "I'm not sure. The sword obviously allowed you to hold it. I wonder…" She shook her head. "Well then, I suppose we're overdue for a conversation."

Rumia perked up. "Really?"

"Yes. But I still have some work to do. So long as you're here, make yourself useful."

She pointed toward the pile of dirt and uprooted foliage that sat next to her hole. Lying on the ground next to the pile was another shovel, identical to her own.

Rumia blinked. "You…want me to help you dig?"

The woman moved her head in a manner that suggested that she was rolling her eyes. "No, I want you to hop around on it like a pogo-stick. Come on girl, snap to it."

Rumia of course had no intention of joining the woman in the hole. That would just be stupid. No, better to stay here, a safe distance away, so that if the woman made any threatening moves she would have enough time to swing her sword and…

Rumia looked down. To her surprise, in her hands where her kick-ass sword had been was now the wooden handle of a shovel. Furthermore, she was no longer standing a safe distance away. Quite the contrary, she was now standing in the hole directly next to the woman. And the sword in question was sticking blade-first into the pile of dirt.

Now, when had _that _happened?

"I won't get any deeper by you just standing there," the woman said. "Unless you hope your stench will erode it away."

Rumia quickly jammed the shovel blade into the earth at her feet. She pushed it in with her foot, grunted as she pulled up a decent amount and tossed it into the pile.

"So…" she said. "What are we digging for?"

The woman glanced at her. Rumia expected her to snap at her again, but instead she just shrugged and said, "The way down."

"The way down?" Rumia asked curiously. "You mean the way out? Out of this dream?"

"No. Down."

"Ah. Okay. Well, uh, you're definitely going in the right direction. Down, I mean. You're definitely headed downward. No one would mistake this for going up, right?"

The woman returned to her work. "Is semantics really what you wanted to discuss? Don't babble on unnecessarily."

Rumia flinched. "Oh. Sorry."

Despite the woman's promise of a conversation, the next couple of minutes passed in silence. As she pulled out shovelful after shovelful of dirt, Rumia wondered why she was even going along with this. _This is ridiculous, _she thought to herself. _It's getting me nowhere. I should be asking questions, not looking for her lost bone or whatever._ Still, something compelled her to keep on digging. It just felt like the thing to do.

She stole a look at her impatient companion. Now that Rumia had stopped talking, the robed woman appeared to be ignoring her. Despite this (or was it because of it?), Rumia found herself growing steadily more or more uncomfortable. It wasn't just the reprimand or the oddness of the situation, it was something about the woman herself. Like just about everything else Rumia had encountered today, there was a feeling of horrible familiarity about her, something Rumia just couldn't identify. It was as if Rumia had been greatly terrified by this woman sometime when she had been younger but could no longer remember exactly when.

_What's wrong with you? _Rumia thought in disgust. _Come on, you faced down Miss Yukari! Sorta. And she ended up throwing you off a big-ass column, but the point still stands!_

"So," the woman said suddenly. "Word has reached mine ears that you are on something of a quest. Trying to piece together details of your spotty past. Am I right?"

"U-um, yesss…"

"Had a bit of a rough time with it, haven't you?"

Rumia inhaled and slowly let it out. "Yeah. Had everything from inside-out rooms to creepy festivals to getting thrown from like a hundred feet up to way too many cards."

"Huh. Sounds annoying."

"Yeah," Rumia said with a nod. "So…Uh, sorry, but I need to ask: I'm kinda running out of options here. Is there…anything you can tell me to help?"

The woman paused. She stuck her shovel-blade into the earth and leaned against the handle while she thought. One gloved finger idly rubbed one of the blisters on her chin. "Well, that's an interesting question. Help you? Mayhap, mayhap not. It all depends."

"On what?"

"On what kind of help you're looking for. Help in escaping from this dream? 'Fraid not, kid. I intend to only go deeper. Help in cutting your way out of what's left of Satsuki and going home again? Again, no luck there. But if you want help in understanding who you were …Well, maybe there is something I can do about that."

Rumia felt a brief flutter of hope. "Really?"

"Sure. No one knows you better, actually. But first, there's something you need to answer for me first: why?"

The question caught Rumia off-guard. "What?"

"You heard me. Why is it so important that you find what you're looking for? You were perfectly happy living in ignorance. Why spoil that with something you might regret learning?"

"Uh, because people are trying to _kill _me over it and I wanna find out why!"

"So it's self-preservation that motivates you? Fine."

The woman straightened. She extended her arm and pointed toward the horizon. Off in the distance, the hump of the Youkai Mountain could be seen.

"At the foot of that mountain you'll find a series of caverns identical to the ones that you and the rest of the little vermin have been infesting, right down to the last strip of salvaged linen. I suggest you head over there immediately and make yourself at home. The rest of the vermin should show up sooner or later as well, acting exactly as you remember. Forget this stupid mission, forget Rin Satsuki, forget the mess of the world you left behind and reclaim your life. Hide forever deep within your own mind. You won't be able to tell the difference, promise."

Rumia stared at her. "B-but it wouldn't be real, it'll be fake-"

"Not real? Fake?" The woman laughed. "Big deal. So are you."

"Say what?"

"You're not real," the woman said in an almost conversational tone. "You barely even exist. You're an empty shell that somehow got the idea that you should have a life of your own. You're a shadow of…No, check that. Don't want to insult the shadows, after all."

Rumia could scarcely believe what she was hearing. "What the hell are you-"

"You're a speck of ash, blowing from the burning remains of a great city. You're a filth-filled latrine placed over the foundations of a once magnificent mansion."

Okay, so the freakshow had begun. Rumia slowly laid her shovel against the wall of the hole and inched her hand toward her sword.

"You're a punctuation mark in a footnote of the greatest story ever told. You're nothing, you getting this? You. Are. _Nothing!"_

Rumia's hands grabbed at empty air. Surprised, she saw that the sword no longer occupied the mound of dirt. She turned back to the woman.

The woman balanced the sword on one hand, resting the arms of the cross-grip on two mangled fingers with the blade sitting between them, pointing down.

"Looking for this?" she asked. She flipped the sword upward and caught the grip in her hand. "Okay, so maybe you're not so worthless after all. You at least make a good delivery girl."

…

...

...

...

...

...

…

Rumia was out of the hole so quickly that she couldn't remember making the conscious decision to jump. All she knew was an intense feeling of alarm, and the next moment she was seven feet up and twenty feet away.

She wobbled a bit but managed to steady herself. _Oh, hey. I can fly again. Cool. _

She looked toward the hole. The robed woman still stood within, holding Rumia's sword and watching the young youkai with manner that suggested amusement. That…wasn't cool.

"Oh, come on" the woman asked. "Don't be like that. I'm not going to hurt you."

Rumia brought up her hands. "Stay away!"

The woman laughed. "I'm not going anywhere." She held out a hand and crooked a finger.

Rumia's arms were suddenly thrust to either side of her and her entire body stiffened up completely.

And then she was rushing forward, heading straight for the woman at breakneck speed. Rumia couldn't even form enough thought to scream.

The woman held up a palm, and Rumia came to a sudden stop in midair.

Rumia tried to move her body, but found that she couldn't. At least not from the neck-down. Her head and mouth still had mobility at least.

_Oh no, _she thought in despair. _It's like that whole thing with Rin all over again._

"Seriously, calm down. I have no intention of hurting you. Doing so would be counter to my intentions anyway."

Rumia stared down at her. "So you say I'm worthless and then freeze me up?" she shouted. "Sorry, but that looked like _all _kinds of malice right there! And what do you mean, 'Your intentions'? Aren't you just another part of my dream?"

The woman shook her head, tsking under her breath. "I never said that you're worthless, I said that you're nothing. There's a difference. And no, I'm _not _part of your dream."

Rumia felt ice water flow through her veins. "You're…not?"

The woman's scarred lips, the only real part of her face Rumia could see, parted in a mirthless smile. "No, I'm not. I'm not even supposed to be in here. Had I not arrived, you would have likely traveled for an even longer of confusing sequences. So say 'Thank you'."

Rumia wasn't feeling very thankful. "So, who _are _you then? Are you like me from the future? Because Miss Mima said that time's all weird and twisted here, so…"

The woman shook her head. "No, I can honestly say that you will never become me."

"My past then? Are you someone from my past? Are you-" Rumia let out a small gasp as a horrible though occurred to her. "Wait, you're not…my _mother _are you?"

Rumia's question resulted in a sudden bout of surprised laughter. The woman wrapped her arms around her stomach as she doubled over.

"_What?" _the woman gasped out between guffaws. "Your…_mother? _Wow, I…guess I am in a way." Still chuckling, she straightened up and brushed away what were probably tears of mirth from under her hood. "Never really thought about it like that before."

Rumia was starting to feel dizzy. "Wait, you mean you _are?"_

"In a matter of speaking." The woman shrugged. "Though not in the way you're thinking. But I suppose I did unintentionally give birth to your existence, as insignificant as it may be."

"What does that even mean?" Rumia demanded. She was now completely fed up with it all. Fed up with mysteries, fed up with being denied answers, fed up with confusion, fed up with everything. "Who are you? Tell-" Then she had a sudden flash of insight. Her eyes widened and throat constricted. It suddenly became difficult to breathe.

"W-w-wait a minute…" she stuttered. "You're not…the past me, are you? That Evil Rumia Miss Marisa mentioned in that memory? The one everyone's so frightened of?"

The woman stood still for a moment. Then she slowly and laboriously pulled herself out of the hole. Once she was out, she reached up and pulled the hood away from her face.

Rumia felt a surge of disgust well up from within. The woman's face was _hideous. _The damage she had managed to glimpse thus was only a small fraction of the tortured waste she saw now. Hair had been burned away in clumps, leaving a few feathery threads of varying lengths sticking out of her skull. Blisters rose up from all over, with one especially thick clump over her left eyebrow, or at least where it would have been had not both eyebrows been burned away. Several white scars slashed their way over her visage, standing in stark contrast to the sickly purple of her skin.

But even with the incredible amount of damage, there were no mistaking those round, scarlet eyes, eyes that were completely identical to Rumia's own.

"Well, I'll say this about you," the ruined woman said as she tugged at the loose collar of her robe. "You're slow as all hell, thick as an oni's skull."

The robe fell away, revealing a body that was just was as burnt and twisted as her face, covered by the torn remains of a sleeveless black dress. Still, even with the extensive damage, Rumia knew it instantly. The huge leathery wings that were now slowly stretching out from the woman's shoulder-blades were a tip-off, but even so there was no mistaking it: it was her nightmare self, the one she had seen in the Funhouse's mirror.

The woman smiled. **"But given enough time, you catch on."**

…

...

...

_...wha-_

…

Her body locked and frozen in place, Rumia could only watch helplessly as her nightmare self slowly walked around her. She casually twirled the sword between her talons, spinning it around in slow, lazy arcs.

"**I have to admit, I was wondering when you would figure it out," **the Other Rumia said in a conversational tone. Her voice had changed in an obvious way. Before it had been somewhat generic and unforgettable. Now it was very similar to Rumia's own, only much more sinister. **"I mean, you waltzed right through memory lane, **_**my **_**memory lane I might add, and all you did was whine, whine, whine. 'Oh, everything is so confusing, why won't anyone just tell me what's going on, I'm so annoyed, oh, oh, oh'. Good fucking gods, you had everything short of a flashing sign in big neon letters, and it took you this long to start putting two and two together?"**

The Other Rumia stopped her pacing and stood in front of Rumia. **"Well, come on. You've just the revelation of a lifetime, haven't you? It's not every day someone is presented with an opportunity of this level. Surely you must have something to say?"**

Rumia gulped. "Ri-R-R…"

"**Yes, yes, very good. We have an 'R'. Now, where's the rest of it?"**

"R-Rin was right, w-w-wasn't s-s-s-she?" Rumia squeaked. "About you. I mean me. I mean…you-you're that evil voice that was talking to her, making her try to k-k-kill people." If it were possible, Rumia would start feeling even colder now. "And you k-killed her as, as, as well."

"**Got that straight. Whiny little bitch didn't have the sense not to pry into areas that didn't concern her. Thought I'd teach her a lesson. Maybe even wrench control of this whole ridiculous whatever it is away from her again." **She ran her talons down on ruined cheek and smiled. **"Unfortunately, she made a better showing than I expected. Credit where credit's due. **_**That **_**was impressive."**

Rumia's jaw dropped. _"Rin _did that to you?"

"**Yup. Beautiful, ain't it? Went and torched herself in the process, but hey, she tried. Nearly took me down with her too. Fortunately, I'm just a little bit harder to kill than she is. It's not the first time I've been burned alive, after all." **The Other Rumia shrugged. **"'Course, it probably won't be long before the powers she got from those two freaks kicks in and she's back in business, but I think we still a little time." **She turned to look at the partially dug hole.** "Pity she went and burned away all the work I've made on her mind, but there's more than one way to vivisect a cat."**

"Wh-what?"

"**Don't worry about it, none of your concern."**

"But _what _are you?" Rumia screamed. "How can you be me? How can I have even been anything like-"

"**You just don't get it, do you?" **The Other Rumia shook her head pityingly. **"You're **_**not **_**me, not really. After that bitch Yukari and her cronies finished ripping apart my mind and sealing off my strength, the body still lived. Of course, it was all just pure, animal instinct to begin with, but over time it started to develop something resembling intelligence, small as it was. Enter you."**

Rumia felt like vomiting. Is that all she was? An accident? A sort of secondary mind that formed in the shell of a monster?

"**But you know what really irks me?" **the Other Rumia said. **"That your creation is probably more than just an unfortunate side-effect. I wouldn't be surprised if that bitch Yukari did it on purpose, just as a final insult to my memory. Leave nothing of her onetime arch-nemesis except a weak, stupid little slip of a girl who can't even use her own powers properly. Bet she thought the real me was gone for good, wiped away by that green-haired ghost's spells. She of all people should have known that nothing is ever gone for good."**

The Other Rumia got a faraway look in her eye. **"I can't tell you what is was like, being nothing more than a shattered mind. I didn't even a real consciousness. Just a bunch of fragments, floating around in the back of your mind. It took years for them to slowly come together again. And even when my awareness began to reappear, I was still too weak to do anything. I'm tied to my power, you see. And so long as that damned ribbon was in place, I couldn't even whisper to your dreams."**

"My…ribbon?"

"**Yep. Clever use of fashion, I must admit. Disguising a powerful sealing spell as a hair ornament. Of course, once it was gone and Satsuki started using my powers, then there was nothing stopping me from coming back." **The Other Rumia shrugged. **"Of course, I was a bit…overeager at first. Probably should've been a little more subtle when working on the Satsuki girl, but hey, spilled milk and all that." **

The Other Rumia headed back toward her hole. **"And when I get done here, it won't even matter anymore. Anyway, I've monologued long enough and the clock's ticking. So if you'll excuse me…" **

"No, wait!" Rumia screamed. "What's this all about? Why didn't anyone ever tell me? Why did they let me go? Where did you come from, why are trying to kill everyone, why…Who _are _you?"

"**What, wasn't all that enough for you?" **The Other Rumia chuckled. She turned around again and strolled right up to Rumia. She reached up with her twisted talons and lightly brushed the tips against Rumia's cheek.

"**Isn't it enough to know that you were born from the shattered remains of the greatest terror ever to walk the dust of Gensokyo?" **The Other Rumia purred. Her hand slipped down to caress Rumia's neck.

Rumia grimaced and tried to pull away from the touch. "Wait, stop-"

"**Isn't it enough to comprehend the entirety of your pointlessness in this world? That the threat to your life is simply reflective of your status as a scapegoat?" **The Other Rumia's hand moved even lower to run up and down Rumia's thigh. **"No other purpose than to take the penalty for my sins. Delicious irony, isn't it?"**

"I don't-"

The Other Rumia pressed herself uncomfortably close. **"Of course you don't. I'm surprised you're even capable of understanding language, much less comprehending your place in this world. But getting back to your question: if it's an introduction if you want, then I suppose I have the time to indulge you. After all, it's not like you'll remember any of this anyway."**

Rumia gaped. "Wait, _what?"_

"**You really didn't think I'd let you just stroll off and report back to Satsuki that I survived? The last thing I need is for that girl to start hunting me down again. As far as you'll be concerned, you stepped through that door and ended back at that silly tea party."**

"But you can't!"

"**Oh, I can. We're connected, remember? And you're no longer delving into the depths of your subconscious. You're in **_**my **_**world, Rumia. I can do whatever I want to you." **The Other Rumia laughed when she saw the look on Rumia's face. **"Oh, don't worry. I've leave the bulk of your journey intact. Hell, it might send little Rin after Yukari. Revenge by proxy isn't as satisfying as doing it yourself, but hey, let's be practical. Now then…"**

She stepped away from Rumia and spread her arms to either side. The meadow began to darken. Rumia looked up and saw that the once clear sky was now being blotted out by storm clouds. Lightning flashed without thunder.

She looked down again and inhaled sharply. The meadow was dying. All around her the grass and wildflowers were wilting away, blackening right down to their roots. An icy wind picked up, biting right through her clothes and chilling her to her bone.

The Other Rumia seemed not to notice. Her arms remained stiffly outstretched and her eyes pointing upward. The wind tore at the tattered remains of her dress, flapping them around.

And then, in a low monotone that was nevertheless filled with power and authority, she began to speak.

"**I am…" **she whispered.

"**First among the bastard daughters of He who is called I Am, I have come.**

**I am she who was cast from Heaven and rejected by Hell.**

**I am she who steals men's hearts with a look and their souls with a kiss.**

**I am the heretic who was crucified, the apparition that stalks the night.**

**I am the shadow that lies in all men's hearts, the consuming flame that they refuse to see.**

**I am she who was betrayed by my people, and so shall I reap my vengeance tenfold.**

**I AM the dark, I AM death given flesh.**

**I AM Rumia Yagami. The one, the only, the original. **

**I AM the Shadow Youkai."**

The Other Rumia threw her head back and shouted her boasts to the sky. The wind leapt up in response, howling ever so loud but not loud enough to drown out the monster's words.

"**And from my hand shall come the fires that will scorch Gensokyo to the bone. And as I look upon the ashes, as the smoke of burning flesh enters my nostrils and the screams of the damned souls sings in my ears, I will say that it is good.**

**For I am the Alpha of the Omega, the beginning of the end. And I will **_**strike down**_** with great vengeance and **_**furious anger**_** on those who attempted to **_**betray and destroy**_** me! And they **_**will know**_** the name of the Shadow Youkai **_**when I lay my vengeance upon them!"**_

With that she let her arms fall to her sides. Her face came back down as a slow smile spread over her lips. The wind died down to a gentle hiss. **"Sorry, I've always wanted to do that."**

Rumia stared. "That…really didn't…"

"**Yeah, I really don't care. Sorry mini-me, it's time for to go now. I've got an appointment with a couple of freaks that I really can't miss." **The Other Rumia flicked her hand in Rumia's direction. **"Buh-bye now."**

Rumia opened her mouth to say something, but the words were robbed from her mouth as her body was suddenly flung backward at an incredible speed. The dead field receded from sight at a breathtaking pace, with the last thing she saw was her nightmare self jumping back into the hole. She tried to scream, but if she made any noise she couldn't hear it over the roar of the wind in her ears.

And then _the meadow and the hill were gone, and she was flying through the dank, stone passageway, watching the walls fly past like a tunnel. The tunnel shifted from hard stone to soft fabric, and she caught a brief glimpse of Mima still hovering at her table, turning cards over and murmuring to an audience that wasn't there. And then the tent was gone as well, and she was flying through an empty field. The burning cross flew past just long enough for her to notice its presence. And then the field was gone, and she was in a smoky hallway of mirrors. Rumia looked to the side to see an endless line of distorted reflections dart past. And then glass and smoke was replaced with dust and decay as her body twisted around corners and sped through the ruined corridors of the burned out building. Her body then suddenly shot upward and she was soaring upward through darkness next to a tremendous column of stone. She ascended so quickly that it looked like the column was endless falling downward. She reached the top, narrowly missing cracking her head on the painted plank that extended from its edge and continued upward. She caught a brief glimpse of Yukari still dressed in her strange column and standing on the plank's edge, and then her body tore through fabric and she shot out of the roof of the tent. The circus in all its gaudy horror surrounded for a fraction of a second before it too disappeared in the distance, followed by the front of the burnt building as she flew through the faux forest, darting and dodging the tree trunks through no will of her own. Then her path of flight titled again and she was flying up a steep incline of earth and scraggly bushes. Then things leveled out and…_

…

_Wha…I…Where am…_

…_Did I…Oh my gods my head…_

_Wait, where…Where is…_

…

"Oh, am I?" Mystia said. She set the teapot back down. "I'm sorry."

Rumia didn't respond. She was slumped bonelessly in her chair, trying to catch her breath. Her mind was swimming with a thousand different images, none of them making the slightest bit of sense.

"Rumia?" Daiyousei said. "Are you all right?" Despite her question, the little ice fairy didn't sound the least bit concerned.

Rumia shook her head. She felt like throwing up. "What…what just happened?"

"I poured you a cup of tea," Mystia said. "But it seems the amount was too great, and the tablecloth suffers."

"What?" Rumia looked around. A table of various foodstuffs was set before her. It was covered with a white tablecloth. Around it sat Mystia, Daiyousei and Wriggle. At the far end, fluttering snowflakes fell into a small pile in an otherwise empty chair. The whole setup sat in a medium-sized room, painted with realistic depictions of the outdoors.

"Seriously?" she said in disbelief. "I'm back here? _That's _what that light was all about? Bringing me full circle without explaining anything? What. The. _Hell?"_

She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to overturn the table and scatter the dishes. She wanted to do all these things. Instead, she just let her head fall forward so that her face hit the tablecloth.

"Rumia, what are you doing?" Wriggle asked. "The tablecloth is not food."

Rumia tilted her head so she could get a good view of her friend's doppelganger and the empty smile on its face. She turned her head the other way. Mystia and Daiyousei were also watching her with the same infuriating smile.

Her hands clenched and unclenched. It seemed that her sword had also disappeared. Well, wasn't that disappointing.

Then her eyes fell to the table itself. They focused on the knife and fork that had been set for her, glittering in the sunlight. Her crimson pupils narrowed.

…

Her mind was an absolute mess.

She could tell that even without checking. Even forming coherent thought was a chore. She didn't fully understand how her once-physical brain operated in her now cohesive state, but it was obviously broken. Her psyche had been beaten, torn apart and then incinerated.

In fact, the damage was so extensive that she was certain that she should have been dead. She wondered why she wasn't, or at least she tried to. Putting two-and-two together became all the more difficult when her basic reasoning facilities didn't even work properly.

Fortunately repairs were underway. Bits of memory and sentience were piecing themselves back together, piece-by-piece. It was slow going, but she was gradually becoming whole. But until then, there was little she could do but lie still and let herself heal.

Still, there was something bugging her. There was something important, something she couldn't quite remember. Something about a girl and a dream. But whatever it was, she just couldn't pull together enough of herself to form the girl's name.

…

_Much later…_

Rumia lay on her back and stared at the artificial sky. One arm was behind her head and the other held a half-eaten strawberry tart.

Now that she thought about it, things weren't really that bad here. A little boring maybe, but after the circus of fear and the dungeon of pretentiousness, boring was more than welcome. At least things were peaceful here. And the food didn't suck.

She glanced to her side at the ruined table. Well, the food that hadn't been smashed during her rampage didn't suck. And the bodies of Wriggle, Mystia and Daiyousei's doppelgangers were starting to smell, even though she had stacked them in the far corner.

Rumia wondered if she should feel guilty about that. Even though they weren't real, they did look exactly like her friends. She also wondered if killing them in her dreams would affect how she saw them in real life. Maybe she had accidentally created some sort of deep, psychological problem stemming from murdering her mind's representations of the people she cared about most.

_Screw it, _she thought. _They were annoying the crap out of me._

She brought the tart to her mouth and nibbled a bit off. She had to admit, it did taste good. But like everything else, it was nothing more than an illusion. And she was really growing tired of illusions.

With a sigh, she said, "Hey, Rin? Just wondering if you're listening. Not really expecting you to, seeing how you haven't been listening the last fifty thousand times I've called you, but just on the off chance that you are, I'm getting kinda sick of this. So if you'd be so kind as to _let me out of this effing nightmare, _I'd be really much obliged."

Nothing.

"Okay, seriously. Do it now!"

Still nothing.

Well, that really wasn't a surprise. Rumia sighed and tossed the rest of the tart aside. The way things were going, she wouldn't be surprised if she…

…

_Deep Within_

…ended up spending…wait.

Rumia jolted upward and regretted it immediately. A sharp pain seized her stomach and she flopped back down. Wincing, she fell backward again.

She was back inside Rin's weird mind-world, that much was certain. The surrounding nothingness was a big tip-off, as was her own lack of clothing and sudden luminescence. She supposed she should be relieved that the dream was over. And under normal circumstances, she would be.

However, she didn't quite recall Rin's mind-world world hurting like a bitch.

Her entire body ached. She felt like she had been pummeled by an oni undergoing that time of the month and then stepped on by a giant for good measure. And to top it off, her skin felt dry and burnt, as if she had been left unconscious in the summer sun for about twenty hours. Every movement sent lances of pain shooting through her nerves.

Rumia managed to lever up a single arm enough to get a good look. What she saw made her gasp. The skin was now lobster red and covered with deep purple bruises. She quickly checked the rest of her body. It was the same.

"Rin!" she screeched. "Where are you? Get your ass out here, now!"

She was answered by a wordless shriek of agony. Rumia stiffened and turned around.

Rin Satsuki was lying nearby, curled up in the fetal position. And from the look of things, she had been through even more hell than Rumia had. While Rumia looked like she had been left out in the sun too long and then gotten into a bad fight, Rin looked like she had been systematically tortured. Her skin was red, black and pink and also covered with ugly bruises. Her hair was mostly burned away and only just coming back in ragged patches. Straight scars crisscrossed her body, conspicuous white lines against the red and purple. Her eyes were swollen shut and her lips were bleeding.

"What. The. Hell? Rin?" Moving as quickly as her aching body would allow, Rumia made her way to the Kirin's side. "Rin, are you okay? What the hell _happened?"_

Rin shuddered once and faded away. Rumia jerked back.

"Wait, where are you going? Rin? Are you still there? What's going-"

"_I-I'm here, Rumia."_

Rumia whirled around and saw nothing. The voice was Rin's, but it had come from no specific source. Rather, it seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"Rin? Is that you."

"_Yeah. Sorry. Didn't, ah, didn't know that the damage was…all great inside, quite big it was. Yes, it all freezes little by little."_

Rumia frowned. "What?"

"_Sorry. It's…really hard to concentrate like this. The worst of it is fixed, repaired. Construction complete, new construction options. But…there's still a ways to go, and I think it's gonna be a long, long time, till touch down brings me home again-"_

"Rin! Focus!"

"_Right, sorry. Anyway, didn't think it was that bad though. But when I made my avatar again, all the mentality messhall where the soldiers go…Gah, sorry. All the mental damage got turned into physical, and oh my gods that hurt."_

Rumia's eyes widened. "Wait, all that happened because…Were my memories that bad?"

"…_be a sweetest dream or a beautiful, you're beautiful it's true…sorry, what?"_

"I said, did my repressed memories do this to you?"

"_Those? Naw, not them. It was what was hiding inside them, and what it did to me."_

"Huh?

"_I've been kinda dead."_

"…what?"

"_Deader than a ding-dong doornail dropped on a drippy…Darn it, there I go again. But yeah, remember that evil voice thing that said she was me but sounded more like you?"_

Rumia nodded. "Yeah."

"_Well, turns out she was hiding in your repressed memories the whole time." _Rin giggled, a high-pitched sound that was slightly crazy. _"And I was all like, 'Ready or not, here I come!' And she was all like, 'Noooo, you found me!' And I was all like, 'You!' And she was all like, 'Go away!' And I was all like, 'My name is Rin Satsuki! You tried to kill my bunny! Prepare to die!' And she was all like 'No!' So I go all nuts, right? Like I was pounding her to oblivion. But then she grabs a knife from the ground and tries to stab me to death. And I'm all like-"_

"Rin!"

"_Huh? Oh, right. Focus. Anyway, we got in a fight."_

Rumia slowly lowered herself into a sitting position. She thought on this for a moment. "So…While I was going through weird-ass dreamland, you were having an epic battle in the center of the mind with your evil twin?"

"_Uhhhh, I don't think she's my evil twin. She kinda admitted she was lying. But the part about the epic battle was right."_

"Is that so," Rumia growled. "Then what the hell is she? And what happened to her?"

"_Still not sure about the second one," _Rin admitted. _"Couldn't question her very much. She just wouldn't sit still, and she kept dodging all my questions and attempts to kill her. It was very rude. I have half a mind to report her to her mother and…And there I go again. Right. But she did say she really was a part of you after all." _There was a sudden ripple through the darkness that felt like a wince. _"Wait, sorry! I don't mean you're the Dark Voice! I'm just saying…Well, you know…"_

"Yeah, I get it," Rumia muttered. "Don't worry about it. I saw some stuff that makes me think you might've been right about that part after all. But what happened to her?

There was another ripple of emotion. Rumia wasn't sure, but she got the feeling that Rin was smiling. _"I beat her," _Rin said proudly. _"She did her best to kill me and…I won. She's gone."_

Rumia blinked. "Wait, really? You killed it?"

"_Uh-huh. Well, we kinda killed each other."_

"Wow."

Death really didn't carry the same weight for youkai that it did for humans. In fact, most youkai will have experienced being killed at least twice during their first year. But the actual experience of dying was still the same for youkai as it was for humans, and as such it was an uncomfortable subject to bring up, not too dissimilar to discussing being unjustly released from a job or discovering a cheating spouse.

In fact, Rumia herself had been killed more than her fair share of times. Mystia called it an occupational hazard, and though Rumia wasn't exactly sure what that meant, she assumed it probably had something to do with things that were going to happen sooner or later. Like that one time she and Wriggle had tried to sneak into Master Sonozika's mansion. Since then, she had given the Human Village a wide berth. Being beheaded does that to a person.

A lengthy silence passed, and then Rumia said, "Um, how are you doing now?"

"_Huh?"_

"Are you okay?"

"_Oh, yeah. Well, no, not really. But I'm getting better. Not my first time. Had some…bad days, back when stupid Eirin was doing her experiments. But yeah, all that immortal recovery juice is helping. Should be okay in a few hours or so."_

Rumia was beside herself. Over the last who knew how many hours of being stuck inside her dreams, she had steadily grown more and more angry at her captor, to the point where she was ready to beat the annoying out of her. But now that someone had quite literally beaten her to the punch to an extreme degree, she had no idea of what to think. So instead she decided to abandon that line of thought entirely and said, "So, what happened to me? Why am I all beat up?"

"_What? Oh, right. Uh, well, most of you was in that dreamworld place. And…how was that, anyway? See, it's been a long time since I've had a dream, and I'm kinda curious about what it would be like to go in one for real."_

Rumia closed her eyes. "Look, do me a favor? Can we not talk about that now?"

"_Er, okay. Sorry. But yeah, there was still some of your essence outside with me, and it kinda…Well, you know. Collateral damage._

Rumia opened her mouth to start yelling. Rin, likely sensing this, was quick to add, _"But it's being fixed! Even as we speak! You'll be all better before I am, promises to promises!"_

Rumia held up her right arm to look. Sure enough, if she squinted she could see the bruises receding little by little. It was a slow process, but it was happening.

"Okay, fine. But if I was still messed up, why'd you pull me out?"

"'_Cause you told me to. Hey, what happened to that teaparty? Looked like everyone was dead. Did you kill them? All of them were dead and gone."_

Rumia growled. "Well, I didn't know I would be popping into ground zero! And please, drop the teaparty."

"_Dead," _Rin continued on as if Rumia hadn't spoken. _"Dead and gone. Dead. Gone. Dead. Died. Die. Die gone."_

"I _said…_Wait!" Rumia felt like her brain had just been jolted with electricity. "What did you just say?"

"_Gone, gone, gone, gone…"_

_She's losing it, _Rumia thought. Aloud, she said, "Rin, snap out of it!"

"…_gone, gone…huh? Sorry, what did you say?"_

_And in a moment, I will too, _Rumia thought. "Go back. What's that part you just said? About 'Die gone'?"

"_Dunno. Why?"_

"You seriously don't know why you said that?"

Rin didn't answer. Rumia let about thirty seconds tick by before yelling, "Rin!"

"_Huh? Sorry, blanked out. What'd you say?"_

"Forget it," Rumia sighed. "Look, just concentrate on fixing us. We'll talk later."

"'_Kay," _Rin said wearily. Then her voice brightened._ "Oh, hey! Guess what?"_

"What?"

"_You know your repressed memories, the ones deep, deep down, deep within? The ones where the Dark Voice thing was hiding?"_

Rumia sat up straighter. She didn't want to let herself hope, but a small trickle was inching its way in. "Yeah…?"

"_Looks like the Dark Voice thing was the reason they were so hard to get at. Impenetrable fortress! But when I was working on putting you back together, they were all unraveled and stuff!"_

The small sliver of hope started to grow. "Seriously?"

"_Uh-huh. I think I'm fixed enough to show them. Hey, you ever heard of thing called 'Movies'? Reisen says they had them back on the Moon, and they sound really cool. Maybe next time we visit Eientei we can-"_

"Rin!"

"_Sorry. But yeah, wanna see them? They're still a little messed up, so I don't wanna stick them back in your head just yet, but I think I can still play them. You know, like before?"_

"Yes! Show me now!"

"_Okay, okay! No need to be pushy. Pushy. Pushier. Pushiest? Yeah, okay. Focus. Anyway, just a little warning, it's kinda…weird."_

Once again, an opening in the nothingness before Rumia opened up, revealing a tableau of images inside. However, unlike last time, it was covered with a grainy film, and the images jumped in and out of focus. The colors warped and bled together like a bad watercolor painting.

Then one of the indistinct blobs took on a more substantial shape, that of a woman leaning over and looking straight into the memory's viewpoint. Rumia felt her throat rise. Even with the heavy distortion, she knew exactly who it was. And she was not in the least bit surprised.

_"Hey look,"_ Yukari Yakumo said. Her voice sounded warped, as if she were underwater. But Rumia was still able to make out what she was saying. _"The monster's waking up."_

Rumia inhaled sharply. She knew this scene. She knew it very well.

_"Should we be standing so close then?"_ said another voice. It took Rumia a couple seconds to remember where she recognized it from, but then she remembered the humorless girl dressed as Reimu Hakurei taking tickets in front of that damned circus. _"I mean, far be it from me to tell you two great masters what to do, but this inferior human would be much more comfortable taking a few steps back."_

A green and blue blur moved. _"Then do so,"_ Mima snapped. _"If you can't handle a little risk, then feel free to leave."_

_"Well, excuse me for having a sense of self-preservation,"_ said the Reimu Hakurei cosplayer, whom Rumia assumed to be the red and white blob at the other end of the scene. Both she and Mima were standing behind Yukari, still in sight but a ways away. _"Not everyone likes the idea of being incorporeal."_

Rumia shook her head. So, Mima had been on whatever it was as well? This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

_"Enough, both of you,"_ Yukari growled. _"Save your moronic grudges for later."_

The Yukari-shaped blob leaned in closer. _"Well, so far so good," _Yukari muttered. An arm-shaped blur moved, and the view staring moving back and forth. Rumia unconsciously touched her jaw, remembering how Mystia's doppelganger had held and shaken it. _"Look, no sign of the taint at all."_

There came the sound of someone clapping sarcastically. _"Bravo, bravo,"_ said the unidentified girl. _"Confetti and cheap alcohol all around. And it only cost you the lives of at least a dozen people, not counting the few hundred or so before I could get you to get off your immortal asses and actually help. Your skill is truly amazing."_

_"May I squish the insect?"_ Mima said. _"Please?"_

_"No, you may _not," Yukari snapped. _"Be quiet. And that goes for you too, shrine maiden. Your comments contribute nothing of worth."_

The view started to shake again, though not from Yukari's efforts. Instead, it looked like the Rumia of times past was trying to struggle.

Yukari laughed. _"Well, look at that,"_ she said. _"I think she's scared. Aw, how adorable."_

A cry of terror filled the scene. Even distorted as it was, Rumia didn't have any trouble recognizing it as her own.

"_Oh gods, make it stop," _the girl groaned. _"Yukari, can't you do anything to shut her up?"_

"_Can you shut up the human as well?" _Mima asked. _"Kill two birds with one earth-scorching fireball?"_

"_I said enough," _Yukari said. _"If you two want to go ten rounds later, feel free, but for now-"_

The picture suddenly fell apart into formless smoke, taking the voices with it. The hole then sealed itself up and disappeared. Rumia blinked in surprise and looked around.

"Hey, Rin?"

"_Yeah?" _

"What just happened?"

"_To what?"_

Rumia gestured to where the hole had been. "What happened to the memory? It just stopped."

"_Oh, it did?" _Rin said._ "Yeah, I guess it did. Sorry. Guess it's still damaged. We can try again later, after it's all fixed." _Then her disembodied voice turned vicious._ "And I'm doing the best I can, so stop yelling at me!"_

Rumia jerked back in surprise. "I'm not! I'm…Okay, look. How about you just rest and work on fixing us. We can talk about this later."

"_Okay," _Rin said wearily. _"Talk to you later."_

"Later. Sure." Rumia looked at the nothing around her and then down at her still-healing body. She sighed. "One last thing though."

"_What?"_

"Next time you get a crazy idea that involves me getting sucked into bizarro world and having to deal with my mind getting totally screwed with while you go and dig around in my head and fight evil version of one of us resulting in both of us getting totally messed up beyond belief…"

"_Yeah?"_

Rumia put her head down and groaned. "Do us both a favor and keep it to yourself."

That actually got a laugh out of the Kirin. _"Yeah, good idea. That works, work, works…Um, I'm gonna shut up now."_

Everything was quiet. Moving carefully, Rumia levered her body down and lay flat on her back.

This had been most definitely the single worst day of her life. She wanted to blame Rin for it, but that just wasn't working the way it used to. And the worst part was that despite everything she and Rin had been through, they still had no concrete answers. Hints, clues, maybe a vague direction or two, but no answers.

She wondered about the Dark Voice that Rin claimed to have fought. This time at least she was sure that Rin was telling the truth. Either that or Rin had screwed thing up on accident and was using the Dark Voice as a convenient scapegoat, but something told Rumia that such was not the case. She couldn't put her finger on it, but her instincts were telling her that the mystery of the Dark Voice was more serious than she thought. But everything time she tried to give the problem any deeper thought, she just ended up getting confused.

Well, whatever. At least they knew one thing for certain: Yukari had the answers. As did Mima, for that matter, and whoever that human girl had been. She had been dressed in a Hakurei shrine maiden uniform, so there was probably some connection to Reimu. Some long, lost sister, maybe? No, she would be too old by now. Her mother? Grandmother? Rumia just hoped that they wouldn't be forced to go after those three for information. Running towards those seeking to destroy you was a bad survival tactic.

Rumia closed her eyes. For the first time, she was glad she could no longer sleep. She had quite enough of dreams.

_The Devil, _a voice whispered in her mind._ The destroyer from within._

Rumia sat up immediately, despite the pain it caused her. She looked around. "Is anybody there?" she asked, but there was no answer.

…

_A few minutes ago…_

Finally!

She had cut things really close, but she had made it. The final layer had been breached, and she was home-free. Well, in a matter of speaking.

With a wide grin over her twisted features, she leaned over to peer at the bottom of her hole. A ray of sunlight shone out of the crack she made.

With a whoop, she jammed her shovel into the crack and opened it wide enough to admit her admittedly odd shaped body. Then she tossed the shovel out of the hole, clutched her sword tightly (hadn't been just so nice of the little idiot to return it to her?) and leapt in.

She found herself flying through open air, high above a sparkling ocean. Seagulls called to each other as they circled the sky, looking for discarded food. Waves crashed against a nearby shore, on which a small seaside village sat. The large amount of vessels seemed to be more geared to the shipping of goods, suggesting that this hamlet got its wealth from merchants rather than fishing.

She scanned the coastline, looking for her targets. She hoped she wouldn't have to go into the village to find them. That would take way too long.

However, she was in luck. She spotted them walking together along a beach a few miles south of the village. Grinning, she folded her wings and dove into the ocean. She did appreciate a good entrance, and rising from the waters was a classic.

The salty waters felt like fire against her battle-scarred skin, but she didn't care. Her main concern was just how hideous she looked. One look at her and the people she came to meet would run away screaming.

Even though it would slow down the healing of the real damage, she couldn't afford to lose any more time. With a concentration of will, she reshaped the form she had taken, moving the damage inward and changing the exterior. When she was finished, one would never be able to tell she had been hurt in the first place. Of course, it did make her movements weaker and her reactions slower, but she could deal with that. She wasn't here to fight after all.

A song started playing in her head. Without fully realizing it, she began to hum under her breath while singing the lyrics in her head. **"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream."**

She slowly surfaced above the water and watched her targets as they walked down the beach. There were two of them. Both of them were pale girls with long hair, but that was where the physical similarities ended. The softer looking one had midnight-black hair and was wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. A heavy purple robe was slung over one shoulder. The leaner one had lavender hair so pale it was practically white. She wore a long-sleeved shirt and red trousers, held up with suspenders of the same color. White and red paper charms covered her trousers and ribbons of the same color were tied into her hair.

With a grin, she began to swim towards the two, now singing softly to herself. **"Merrily, merrily, merrily…" **She frowned. That voice wouldn't do at all. It suited her well enough, but not for this mission. With a painful grimace, she changed it as well. Then she resumed.

"Life is but a dream."

…

_Having a villain launch into a lengthy monologue while the hero lies helpless is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it's a good way to reveal a chunk of exposition concerning their identity, motives, backstory, future plans, etc. Also, it's a great way to have them ham it up and enjoy their time in the spotlight. _

_On the other hand, as any comic-book villain will tell you, it's a freaking stupid tactic. The hero is at your mercy, so wouldn't it make sense to just kill them then and there? You know, before they can find some way to escape and use the information you've just given them to defeat you? it's especially bad when the villain just takes off afterward and leaves the actual killing to some kind of death trap. Seriously, those never work._

_However, in this case Ex-Rumia needed our Rumia alive to keep Rin busy. Plus, seeing how they were technically still connected, killing her would be a bad, bad idea. And since she was going to forget everything afterward, the risk was at least minimized. And let's face it: monologues are great fun to write, and Ex-Rumia can chew the scenery with the best of them. So I decided to say "Screw it" and have a little fun._

_Anyway, sorry this one took longer to come out. I hope some of you got the message on my profile, but for those of you who didn't, school has unfortunately started up again and is in full force already. I don't know how much this will affect future updates, so let's just play it safe and say that there will be delays here and there. I'll do the best I can, but since I'm going to be graduating in a couple semesters I need to focus on that._

_And speaking of the story, I'm curious on what you guys thought about the last three chapters. Specifically, what do you think all of the weird stuff like the tarot cards and Mystia's weird chant meant and where do you think our lovely ladies will end up as a result? Also, since I do plan on writing my own stuff one day with plenty of mindscrews, did the Deep Within mini-arc work? If so, what worked about it? What didn't and could be improved? Was it awesome? Did it suck? Or was it just weird? Anything goes, so long as it's constructive and polite. So let me hear from you! Especially you, yes _you, _Adrian!_

_Until next time, everyone! _

_(Die gone)_


	19. Master and Servant

Master and Servant

A thunderous explosion shook the Scarlet Devil Mansion from the foundations up, rattling the windows. This in itself was very impressive, as with all the structural and magical precautions against such disturbances the mansion possessed, it could hypothetically survive a volcanic eruption.

Deep within the mansion's depths, Sakuya Izayoi stood next to a cold steel door, hands clasped in front of her. She stared at the rising staircase in front of her, rarely blinking. Through the door, sounds of conflict could be heard. Shouts, screams, crashes, explosions and occasionally flesh being ripped apart. If Sakuya was in any way affected by the disturbing things she heard, she made no outward sign.

Then she heard a distinct fluttering noise. She reached over with one hand and brushed surface of the door. The sequence of locks along the door's side unlocked one after the other and the heavy chains that bound its frame fell loose. Sakuya grasped the steel handle and pulled the door open.

Less than a second later a swarm of black bats with a crimson sheen to their fur burst through, filling the small space between the door and the stairs. Sakuya shoved the door shut as quickly as she could, even though there were still bats on the other side. It didn't matter. All that was needed was one.

A second later something smashed against the door with incredible force. The mansion shook again from the impact, and flakes of stone were knocked loose from the walls. A wordless scream filled the air as the something slammed against the door again and again, trying to knock it loose. The door shook in its frame but it held. The screams continued, but they were then joined by cries of pain as the bats that were unlucky enough to be trapped within were ripped to pieces.

On Sakuya's side, the maid stood at attention as the bats circled down in a tight spiral, coming together to form a humanoid shape. The mass of wings and fur held its form for a single second before shuddering violently, and then Remilia Scarlet stumbled forward with a gasp.

Sakuya was there to help steady her. "Mistress, are you well?"

Remilia grimaced as she straightened. "Ungrateful little brat," she snarled. "I put by life and pride on the line to protect her, and this is how she repays me?"

"Well," Sakuya said in a diplomatic tone. "Young Mistress Flandre is not known for her rationality."

"She _tore _off my _arm!" _Remilia held up her newly regenerated right arm to demonstrate.

"Nor her carefulness," Sakuya said. "Will everything be all right? With Flandre, I mean."

"That is entirely up to her," Remilia sniffed. "But I for one do not have the time or the patience to indulge her temper tantrums." The small vampire then sighed and started to massage her forehead with her fingertips. "At any rate, we've more pressing issues to worry about, wouldn't you agree? What's the progress on the defenses?"

"Steady," Sakuya said. "China…I mean Meiling has been returned to active duty, and I've reassigned a fourth of the staff to assist her."

"That does not fill with any degree of confidence."

"True. Fortunately, it's a temporary solution. Patchouli has been working on-"

She was interrupted by the loud sound of something banging repeatedly against the door. Sakuya winced as the echoes filled the small room.

"You promised!" Flandre shouted from the other side. "You promised, Remi! You said nothing bad would happen! You broke your promise! Liar! Liar! Liar!"

Her fingers stuck into her sensitive ears, Remilia groaned and indicated that Sakuya should follow her out of the room. Sakuya nodded and gratefully followed her Mistress up the stairs to the floor above.

At the top was an arched double-door the color of dried blood. Remilia and Sakuya quickly passed through and shut the door behind them. The sound of Flandre's cries cut off immediately.

"That hurt," Remilia muttered. "I have to admit: soundproofing everything from this door down was a fantastic idea."

"Thank you, Mistress."

"Yes, yes. Now, what was that you were saying about Patchy?"

"Ah, yes," Sakuya said. "She has been searching through her books for a spell that would bolster our defenses and warn us of any intruder.

"Is she now? Good for her."

"Yes, Mistress. She has been diligently working on it ever since we returned to the mansion."

"Splendid. Nice to know she puts her full effort into all of her projects, wouldn't you agree?" Remilia turned and started down the red-velvet corridor. "At any rate, I need to rest and recover my strength. Please do not disturb except in the case of an extreme emergency. In the meantime, keep an eye on China and her little helpers. And while you're at it, check up on Patchy and make sure there's a full progress report waiting for me when I rise, am I understood?"

Sakuya bowed her head. "Yes Mistress, I'll take care of that immediately."

With that, Sakuya's hand slipped into the pocket of her apron. When it came out, it held an old but meticulously maintained golden pocket watch. The face of the device's cover was inscribed with strange symbols and geometric shapes that only a handful of beings would recognize, much less translate. Sakuya popped open the lid, revealing a clock's face with four hands, diligently clicking forward.

A small infuse of will, and the watch's hands slowly came to a halt. At the same time, everything else around Sakuya ceased to move as well. Remilia stood still in mid-step, and the dust motes floating in the air hovered in mid-air.

Sakuya replaced the pocket watch in her apron. Her feet left the ground and she floated through the mansion's many corridors, heading for the library. Once she was there, she flew over the seemingly endless rows of bookshelves, pausing only to take note that Patchouli's current intern was once again hiding in a corner with a smuggled volume. Sakuya shook her head. Patchouli never really did have much luck finding good help.

Finally she reached the end of the library, where the door to Patchouli Knowledge's study was located. Sakuya floated to the ground and released her hold on time as she did so.

Immediately she heard the sound of someone coughing violently and trying to inhale through blocked lungs. That was never a good sign.

"Koa-" Patchouli's voice wheezed out between coughs. "Koaku…medicine. Where's my…"

"Here it is, Miss Knowledge!" said the voice of Patchouli's familiar. "Here you go. Take it easy, you'll be all right." The sound of coughing slowly subsided and Patchouli's breathing became easier.

Sakuya reached up with one hand and rapped her knuckles against the door.

A heartbeat passed, and then Patchouli said, "Who's there?" Her voice still sounded strained, but she could speak without restriction.

"It's me," Sakuya said."

"Oh. Yes, of course it is. What is it?"

"The Mistress requests a status report on your preparations."

Patchouli started to sound annoyed. "Oh, does she? I suppose she was just too busy to come down here and get it herself. Well then."

Sakuya frowned. "Patchouli, may I come in? It's inconvenient to speak to you through wood."

"If you must. Try not to get in the way."

Sakuya opened the door and stepped inside. As usual, Patchouli's study was a small museum of rare and valuable items. The walls were lined with shelves and cupboards of books, chests, mounted and stuffed animals and bizarre looking instruments. At the far end were two large easy chairs and a round tea table in front of a large fireplace. In one corner was a complete skeleton of a long-extinct carnivorous reptile, standing within a glass case. From the ceiling hung models of various flying machines, celestial bodies and the stuffed corpse of a tremendous eel-like creature, presumably to keep the skeletal reptile company when their owner wasn't around.

Patchouli herself sat at her oak desk. Several tomes lay open among piles of notes. A green chalkboard covered with formulas and calculations sat to her right. Her familiar, the devil-girl Koakuma, stood at her left and was doing her best to look inconspicuous. The librarian herself was sitting slumped in her chair. A small glass bottle was clutched in one hand, from which rose a thick, sweet smelling smoke.

As Sakuya approached, Patchouli pulled herself up with a grunt. "Hello Sakuya. And, if-" She was cut off by another bout of raspy coughing. She thrust the bottle under her nose and inhaled deeply. Sakuya patiently waited for her to bring her rebellious respiratory system under control.

"Well, if you must know," Patchoulis said once she was able. "Yes, I have found a solution to our problem."

She picked up one of the books and held it so Sakuya could see. On it were several arcane symbols and formulas surrounding a circle. While Sakuya did not recognize most of the symbols, the circle's meaning seemed to be clear enough.

"A barrier?" she said. "Didn't we try that once before, back during Satsuki's first rampage?

Patchouli replaced the book on her desk. "Indeed. Her adaption to magical energies severely limits what I am able to contribute. However, this barrier might just be the exception."

"Explain."

"Most barriers use a specific magical element as their base and amplifies it. Force is the most common, as it acts as a physical deterrent to physical objects. Water-based barriers rely on dispersing and dispelling kinetic energy, fire-based employs fire's purifying effects to disrupt magical energies and so on. The problem with using any of these against Satsuki is that she will eventually adapt to element in question and, well, 'eat' her way through."

Sakuya nodded. "Yes, I remember. Vividly."

"However, according the reports of her recent attack on Eientei, it seems that she is unable to adapt quickly enough to constantly changing energies and can therefore be overwhelmed. Unfortunately, the acquisition of Kaguya Houraisan and that other one, Mokou Fujiwara-"

"Fujiwara no Mokou," Sakuya said.

"Right, of course." Patchouli waved off the correction as irrelevant. "My point is, her new immortality and associated regenerative capabilities have rendered that tactic more or less obsolete. However it did get me thinking: can something similar be used for defense?

"Now the base of this barrier is a bit different from most. The base employed here is the light spectrum. Solid light is fairly popular among magicians, mainly because the different wavelengths offer a large variety of additional effects. Ultraviolet, for example, can be modified to-"

"Patchouli, I am not unfamiliar with barriers. Please get to the point."

Patchouli stared at her, mouth still open in mid-lecture. "Fine," she said angrily. "Forgive me for trying to help. But as I was saying, most light barriers rely on a single wavelength. This one, however, quickly cycles through the entire spectrum, changing from wavelength to wavelength in a very short period of time."

Sakuya raised a single silver eyebrow. While she was no student of the magical arts, she had picked up her fair share of things over the years. "But wouldn't that destabilize the barrier itself?" she asked. "As well as negate any possible additional effects?"

"Exactly!" Patchouli looked pleased that Sakuya was able catch on. "As a conventional means of defense, it's nearly useless. Even the barrier's designer admitted that its creation was entirely experimental."

"And who was that?"

In response, Patchouli slowly closed the book in question and showed Sakuya the cover. On the top was the book's title, _In Regard to the Elements and Their Uses in Spellcasting. _Below that was the symbol of a golden sun.

"Madam Mima," Patchouli said.

"Of course," Sakuya sighed.

"Indeed." Patchouli looked down at the volume in her hands with an almost reverent look. "To be honest, it wasn't her most influential work. There were many critics that claimed that it was too experimental for what appeared to be a primer on the basics. She of course disagreed, claiming that there had been enough how-to books as it was, and it was time to start moving away from the tried-and-true lest spellcasting become stagnant. She had her supporters, of course, but unfortunately the Magician's War occurred soon after, and whatever support she had dried up when-"

"Patchouli, if I wanted a lecture on your idol's personal history, I will be happy to let you know. But in the meantime, I must insist that you focus on the task at hand. Can the spell be made usable?"

Patchouli glowered, but she said, "I believe so. There have been many advancements since the book was first published, and I'm fairly certain the barrier can be modified." He eyes glanced back to the book in question. "I…had hoped I would be able to ask Mima herself for her input. Logically speaking, no one would know the spell better than she would, and her help would be invaluable."

"Perhaps," Sakuya admitted. "But given recent events, I'm sure that Yukari Yakumo is keeping us on a short lease. I highly doubt we will be allowed to go anywhere near this operation's leadership for some time."

"Yes, and wasn't that just a brilliant idea?" Patchouli hissed. "Threatening what very well might be the single most powerful and influential being in all of Gensokyo. A few more of Remilia's 'plans' and we will end up so crippled that Satsuki will probably end up taking control of the whole mansion."

Koakuma started to look even more uncomfortable. The devil girl began to discretely move to the other side of the room. Sakuya took no notice.

"Patchouli, I am not liking that tone of disrespect."

"Oh, did I offend you? I'm so sorry. Far be it from me to insult the Mistress."

"That's enou-"

"Except she's not my Mistress, is she? Last time I checked, I am not listed among the employee roster. I was given to understand that my presence here was to be one of mutual benefit."

Sakuya's already cold gaze grew even colder. "You are still a guest in this house, however long term. And I do expect the Mistress' guests to remember their manners."

In answer, Patchouli brought her fingers up to brush her cheek. At her touch, a dark purple bruise blossomed on her skin.

"Yes," she said. "And we've all seen how well she treats her guests." She let her hand fall, banishing the blemish in the process.

Koakuma cleared her throat. "You know, it's probably best if I left you two alone. I'll be in the library if you-"

"And how did you expect her to react?" Sakuya asked. "We placed her younger sister in danger without her knowledge or consent. We used her house as a prison for an extremely dangerous monster. If you believe her treatment of us to have been unacceptable, then please consider this: if I were to force your little devil into a situation where she might be grievously harmed and use the library to contain a creature of Satsuki's caliber, all without you knowing, how would feel upon finding out?"

Koakuma winced. "Please, I would much rather not be involved in this."

Again she was ignored. "Of course," Patchouli said. "For as we recently found out, putting Flandre in danger for personal reasons is only acceptable when she does it."

"She is the Mistress of this house, and in here, her word is law," Sakuya responded. "If you wish to continue enjoying your comfortable life here, then you would do well to remember that."

Without waiting for a retort, Sakuya turned and headed for the door. "Continue your efforts as you've done," she instructed over her shoulder. "If there are any additional materials or other resources you require, please do not hesitate to ask."

With that, she marched past a visibly flinching Koakuma and into the library beyond.

…

Elsewhere, another discussion was taking place, just as tense but for completely different reasons.

Ran sat down suddenly in the chair opposite of Yukari. Between them was the space where the table had been. Her face had turned very pale.

"Yuuka Kazami?" she said, her voice barely more than a raspy whisper.

Yukari crossed her legs and clasped her hands over her knees. "I'm afraid so. It seems she's been attracted by the chaos and, as Mima so astutely put it, wants to play."

"And she has _Chen?"_

"For all intents and purposes, yes. Or rather, Chen is in the company of Cirno's gang, and Yuuka is currently keeping a very close watch on Cirno's gang."

"My gods," Ran closed her eyes. She swayed slightly in her chair. Then she gripped the armrests tightly and steadied herself. "We need to get her out."

"That's exactly-"

"No, no arguments. I'm sorry Master, I know you don't like to be contradicted, but Chen is my responsibility."

"Which is-"

"Please understand, I mean no disrespect, but we cannot allow her to remain in the clutches of that lunatic!"

"I know, I-"

"Yuuka's a _monster, _Yukari. A monster! And every second we leave Chen with her-"

"Silence!"

Ran shut up immediately, though her hands continued to tremble.

A prolonged period of silence passed between them, with both staring at the other. When Yukari finally spoke, her voice calm and even. "I have absolutely no intention of letting Yuuka keep Chen, which is why I summoned you as soon as I found out. Chen knows far too much to be allowed to remain with her for any period of time. That girl could easily be used as a weapon against me."

"Is that-"

"_Furthermore," _Yukari said. "Furthermore, you're right. Chen is your responsibility, and thus mine as well. And as…irritating as she can be at times, she is still a member of this family. And I am not in the habit of abandoning members of my family. But I think we can both agree that rushing in without a concrete plan would do more harm than good."

Ran looked relieved, though not by much. "All right," she said softly. "What do we do then?"

Yukari leaned back in her chair. "That does seem to be the question. If Yuuka's actions fall in line with our previous encounters, than we cannot expect her to be intimidated by a show of force. And any attempts to strike a deal with her would probably just be met with amusement. At the moment, she holds the power, and she probably knows it too."

"Then…then what do we do?"

"That is what I'm trying to figure out. Be quiet for a moment and let me think."

Yukari stared up at the ceiling. Her mind went back to her previous encounters with Yuuka. Though Yuuka had only recently relocated to Gensokyo, she and Yukari had run into each other numerous times over the centuries in a variety of different circumstances. As such, she had a fairly good idea how the mentally unstable youkai operated.

Yuuka was a being of unpredictability, pure and simple. Her domain, the Garden of the Sun, was a bastion of peace and order. Her manners were impeccable, her demeanor cultured and her tastes refined. She was a lover of the arts, could hold an intelligent conversation and loved children.

And on the flipside, she was also an unabashed sadist with an appetite for chaos and destruction. She delighted in causing pain and corrupting innocence. Though she had calmed down in the last few decades, there was once a time that she would gladly send a landslide to bury a village if she thought it was funny. And sometimes, it seemed that she loved children for all the wrong reasons.

This was a situation that had to be handled delicately, there was no question about that. Yuuka's message indicated that she was feeling nostalgic for the days of old, and one wrong move could send her on a rampage comparable to that of the Shadow Youkai's.

Yukari's fingertip tapped against her chin. Perhaps solution lay not within planning for Yuuka the monster. Perhaps they should instead concentrate on appealing to her better side.

"All right, here's what you'll do," Yukari said at last.

Ran leaned forward and listened.

…

"I dunno," Marisa said. "It just seems that she's spending more and more time with that freaky-ass poison doll thing."

"Well, she is a youkai," Reimu said. "It's not like Medicine poses any threat for her."

"Yeah, but it's still weird. I know she's got that whole 'Make Shanghai sentient' thing going, ze, but does she have to hang out with Little Miss Genocide?"

Sanae shot a wry glance over to her fellow shrine maiden. "Hmmm, sounds like someone's jealous."

Marisa shot her a poison look. "Hey!"

"Oh, I agree," Reimu said. "Maybe there is something to those rumors, after all."

Marisa folded her arms grumpily. "Stupid-shrine-maidens-who-need-to-shut-up-says-what."

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Does that ever actually _work?"_

The three Human girls were still hanging out in front of the citadel. They had finished their lunches, and were now killing the last few minutes of their break. At that moment, Marisa had taken control of the conversation and was using it to do what she did best: complain.

"If you ask me, you really shouldn't be spending so much time around youkai anyway," Sanae said. "Probably where you've picked up all those bad habits."

Reimu nudged her with her elbow. "Hey, we talked about the anti-youkai thing, remember?"

"What? I'm just saying."

"Ain't most of your worshipful donators youkai now?" Marisa said. "Way to exterminate the hand that feeds you."

"Oh, quit it. There's a big difference between those ones and the more uncivilized types that live in the Forest of Magic."

Marisa let out a sudden bark of laughter. "Say what? Oh _man. _Mossy, I would _love _to see you call Alice 'uncivilized' to her face!"

Sanae shot a look at Reimu. "'Mossy'?"

Reimu just shrugged. "Better than Armpits."

"No, not really."

"You three!"

The three human girls all turned in the direction of the new voice. Mima had just materialized in front of the citadel's entrance.

The ghost beckoned at them. "Lunch-break's over! Come on!"

"Well, back to hard seats and endless arguments," Sanae grumbled as she stood to her feet.

"Meh, could be worse," Marisa said. She took off her hat and ran her fingers through her hair. The three of them started walking toward the entrance.

"Really? Like how?"

"This is Gensokyo, ze. Use your imagination. You could end up as one of Flandre Scarlet's toys, or get caught by a youkai hunting party, or get caught by a youkai rape-gang, or have your shrine burned down by an angry mob of Tengu wanting their mountain back, or you might get turned into a stupid bouncing head, or Yukari might start liking you too much, or Yuuka Kazami might start liking you too much, or _I _might start liking you too much…"

They walked past where Mima was floating. Reimu and Sanae both nodded at her in acknowledgement while Marisa shot her former mentor a snappy salute. However, just before the witch walked through the front doors, Mima placed a hand on her shoulder, holding her back.

"Marisa, a moment please," she murmured.

Marisa blinked. She looked over at Reimu and Sanae, who were already in the tower's hollowed-out center, and then back at Mima. "Uh…what's up? Is something…Wait, what are you-"

Mima held up a green eight-sided crystal. She crushed it between her fingers, and there was a brilliant flash of green light.

…

Yukari bustled out of her private quarters, leaving Ran within. The kitsune had many preparations to make before setting off, and Yukari had several to make as well. As she stormed down the stone hall she began to compose a list in her mind, ordered from situations she needed to deal with immediately to ones that would have to wait until after the rest of the meeting.

First order of business would be to check up on Kotohime and her posse. Yukari had left a gap for them leading to one of the citadel's guest rooms, where they would be able to pull themselves together. She would need to give them the cliffnotes on the Marisa Kirisame situation followed by a full debriefing to take place later.

Meanwhile, there was the problem of Marisa's missing hakkero and spellcards to deal with. The identity of the culprit was no mystery. She just hoped that she wouldn't have to have a full confrontation with Mima. Time was wasting as it was, and Mima knew how to waste time like no one else.

After that came the meeting itself, during which she would have to hide the fact that one of Gensokyo's most dangerous players had already entered this very lethal game. Then there was question of the bounty, which was probably spreading further every minute. If there was a silver lining in that situation it was that Cirno's so-called illustration was obsolete, sending her little army of mercenaries looking for a monster that no longer existed. But the secret of Satsuki's new appearance couldn't be counted on to be a secret for long.

And then there was the problem of Marisa's arrest. And then there was Yuuka herself. And she would have to keep an eye on Remilia Scarlet as well. And that wasn't forgetting the overreaching problem of Rin Satsuki, on which everything hung. And then…

Yukari shook her head. Sometimes she truly envied Reimu's job. All that girl had to do was travel to Point A and beat up whoever she found there until the incident was declared resolved. But then again, she had made similar observations about Reimu's ancestors many times in the past. Yukari allowed herself a small smile. She was at least not without experience. As cluttered as the situation was becoming, she was sure she could handle it.

Still, she was getting the feeling that she was forgetting something, another issue that should have a place on the list…

Yukari turned a corner and came face-to-face with a thin girl with short lavender hair and heavy bags under her melancholy eyes. A large black cat with two tails was wrapped around her shoulders.

_Ah, that's right, _Yukari thought.

"Satori, hello," Yukari said, as if running into the underground's mistress had been planned from the beginning. "Glad I could find you. There's something I need to-"

"Cirno the ice fairy has placed a surprisingly large bounty on Rin Satsuki and Yuuka Kazami has directly challenged you," Satori said. "I know. I gleaned as much from Dr. Yagokoro when she interrupted our midday meal." She reached up to scratch her cat between the ears. The cat closed her eyes and purred appreciatively. "And no, I have not told anyone of this new development, nor do I plan to unless asked directly, which I judge to be an extremely unlikely happenstance."

"I see. Thank you. Oh, and regarding-"

"Any plans you have for the magician Marisa Kirisame are no concern of mine. There is no lost love between her and I, therefore I do not care what you do to her."

"Well, good to hear. And-"

"No, I have neither seen nor _read_ Mima on my way here. Kirisame had lunch outside with the shrine maidens, so it is likely she went straight there."

Yukari opened her mouth.

"No, none of the council is hiding any information concerning the Shadow Youkai's origins, location or goals. And yes, I still think that 'The Ringleaders' is a ridiculous name."

Yukari closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Satori. Look. I get that already knowing what people are going to say must makes you impatient, I really do. But _please _let me finish my sentences, because the constant interrupting is getting _really _annoying."

"A fair enough point," Satori said. "Very well."

"Glad to hear it." Yukari moved to push her way past her. "Now, if you'll excuse me…"

"Wait."

Yukari stopped. "Yes?"

"While I have no new information to give you," Satori said. She folded her hands in front of her. "I do have some suggestions of my own."

It took Yukari a moment to realize what Satori was saying. "Wait a minute, correct me if I'm wrong here, but did you just offer to _help?"_

Satori nodded once.

"Oh. All right then." Yukari shook her head. "Um, don't think me ungrateful or anything, but this is a little…uncharacteristic for you. May I ask why?"

"Yuuka Kazami's recent actions have changed the landscape. Before, the situation was indeed dire, but not beyond our accumulated capabilities. However, the introduction of this new chaotic element holds the potential to send things spiraling out of control. Things could become…disorganized."

Yukari's lips quirked in a small smile. "And you just hate disorganization, don't you?"

"Of course."

"Mmmm-hmmm. Satori, no offense intended, but I'm starting to get the impression that you're _scared _of Yuuka. Did you have a bad encounter with her?"

For the briefest of moments the ice of Satori's expression melted, and a troubled look passed over her face. "No, we have never met. However, I have heard…stories. Stories that I believe may be true."

"Trust your instincts on that one. They're true all right. So, you're worried about what kind of damage she might do. Very wise. What do you suggest?"

Satori's heavy eyes bored into her own. "Firstly, your current plan to hide these recent developments from the rest of the council is foolishness. Yuuka Kazami is bound to make both her challenge and the bounty as public as possible. They will find out in short order, and turn against you for concealing the truth."

_I must be more tired than I thought, _Yukari thought. _She's right._

"Of course I am," Satori said. "It is, after all, simple logic."

"Manners, Satori," Yukari said in a weary tone. "Okay, fine. So I should be up front with the fact that this already screwed up situation is about to get even worse."

"Yes, you should. However the others may feel about you, there is no question as to where Yuuka Kazami stands. This may be the catalyst that unites them."

Yukari grinned. "Common enemy and all that? Very good point. Never thought I'd say this, but thank you, Satori."

"I believe the proper response is 'You are welcome'. And you are correct: you _should _start listening to me more often. Now, regarding Yuuka Kazami herself…"

Yukari's ears perked up. "Yes?"

"I believe I can help with that as well. The issue of Marisa Kirisame and her missing weaponry-"

"I thought you didn't care about her."

"I do not. But one problem may very well solve the other. And there is additional assistance I may be able to give in that department."

Satori's cat turned to look at her. She _meyorrowwed _in puzzlement.

Yukari echoed the feline's sentiments. "Really now. And how is that?"

"It is simple, really. What you need to do is…"

Yukari leaned forward and listened.

…

"Whoa!" Marisa cried. She flinched back and covered her eyes. "Jeez louise, Master! Next time warn me before you-"

Mima seized her by her apron's straps. "Shut up and listen."

Marisa obeyed immediately. Though it had been years since she had heard Mima use that tone of voice, there had once been a time when ignoring it meant the rest of the day would be extremely unpleasant. Some lessons died hard, and other never died at all.

She looked around. They were still in the courtyard, but a pale green mist surrounded them, shot through with bright green sparks. Though Marisa wasn't familiar with the spell in question, she recognized it as some kind of shroud.

"You need to leave," Mima said. "Right now. This instant. The spell I just cast should buy you some time, but you need to go before it wears off."

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Marisa yelped. "What are you talking about, ze? What's going on?"

"It's Yukari."

"Yukari?"

"Yes. She's going to have you arrested."

Marisa gaped at her. "Huh?"

"Precisely. Which is why you need to be gone five minutes ago."

"Er...what?"

Mima rolled her eyes. "Okay, look. I'm being serious here. She just got done telling me, probably on the belief that keeping me in the loop would decrease the chance of rebellion. She obviously forgot who she was speaking to, but that's neither here nor now."

"But _why?"_

"Why? Apparently, she struck a bargain with Remilia Scarlet for her help. Your incarceration was the condition."

_"Remilia?"_

"Yes. Though if you ask me, that's just the excuse. More likely than not the fact that you got in her face when she was in a bad mood also has a part to play."

Marisa was reeling. She had expected to be on the outs with Yukari for a while, but she hadn't thought much of it. And she had never thought that Remilia would actually go so far as press charges. Obviously she had been underestimating the ridiculously overpowered inhuman creatures she hung out with.

"Which is why you must go, now," Mima said. "Before Yukari gets her hands on you. Because believe you me, so long as there's a crisis of this caliber at hand, Yukari is insanely dangerous. You may know her as an easygoing slacker, but that Yukari's gone. And the situation continues to escalate, you will cease to be a bargaining chip and become something else entirely."

"Uh, what is that?"

Mima's cold eyes bored into her own. "A resource."

The way that her former master said that seemingly innocent word sent a chill down Marisa's spine. She still didn't really understand what was going on, but it was apparent that she should start listening.

But still...

"Okay. I'm gonna trust you on this, but, uh, why?"

"Why?" Mima stared at her in disbelief. "Have you gone deaf? I just explained why!"

"No! No, I mean, why are you helping me like this? I mean, you'll probably piss of Yukari, and...Well, I'm just a human. Sure, you trained me and all, but you're immortal, ze. You've probably had _hundreds _of apprentices-"

"Eighteen thousand, nine hundred forty-eight minions, four-hundred seventeen students and ninety-six personal allies," Mima said curtly. "What's your point?"

"Well, uh, if you've had that many before, then I...I'm just one out many, so why risk-"

"Let me tell you something, Marisa. Yes, I've trained hundreds. Yes, I've commanded thousands. Some of the greatest mages the world has ever seen have bowed knee to me. Lords, legends, kings, a couple emperors, even gods. There are names on that list that would shock even you. Men and women of genius, traveling far and risking much just to learn from me. And you? When I found you wandering around in the forest, you were by far one of the most pathetic creatures I have ever encountered. An eight-year-old Human girl who ran away from her strict father, with no special abilities, no powers, no nothing. You couldn't even _fly, _Marisa! Even Satsuki could do that back before she became a nightmare."

Marisa felt her cheeks grow hot. She stared down at the ground. There were not many people in the world that could make her feel ashamed, but Mima was at the top of list. "Oh...I..."

"But!" Mima said. "But despite all that, despite starting off as the lowest of the low, despite coming from a nobody family with no real magical talent, you have by far surpassed everyone else I've trained. You've mastered spells that the best of the best couldn't even begin to comprehend, and you've created things that have surprised even me, all because you refused to be stopped. You even directly challenged Yukari herself _twice, _whereas most of those great mages I've trained have nervously counseled me against incurring her wrath. But you? You didn't back down for a moment. Certainly, I've had students, but you're the only one I've ever considered an apprentice."

"So tell me, Marisa. You ask why I would stick my neck out for someone like you. I say, how could I not?"

For what had to be the first time in her life, Marisa was at a loss for words. A lump started to form in her throat. She swallowed noisily.

"Here," Mima said, passing something into her hands. Marisa looked down. It was her hakkero and her spellcards, along with another green crystal, identical to the one Mima had just crushed.

"Use it only if you have to," Mima said. "It'll smokescreen Yukari's abilities for a short time, giving you enough time to get away. Hide somewhere until this is resolved. By then, she won't care enough to pursue."

Marisa shook slightly. "Master, I don't..."

"Then don't." Mima gave her a slight push. "Now go."

And she was gone. Marisa stood alone in the courtyard, holding her weapons in her hands. Around her, the anti-Yukari shroud continued to glimmer, though it was already starting to fade away.

Marisa stared at the items in her hands. For a brief moment, she found herself tempted to go find Yukari and settle this dispute personally. If Mima's countermeasures were as good as she said, then it might buy her enough time to get off a Master Spark or too.

But Mima had told her to flee. And Marisa couldn't think of a single time Mima had been wrong about anything.

She slipped the hakkero, the spellcards and the crystal in the pocket of her apron. Then she walked over to where her broom leaned against the chunk of rubble she had been sitting on. Without a word she mounted it and took off.

A moment later she was a distant speck on the horizon.

…

_It's a lot like life!_

_If you guys haven't caught it yet, the second chapter of Rhapsody of Subconscious Desire (wow, that's a mouthful) went up last week. Of course I can't tell you what to do, but I can emphatically suggest that you check it out, as our poor dreaming rivals just encountered someone...interesting._

_Anyway, this chapter would've been up last night, but hey my laptop's adapter died on me, and the battery wouldn't have lasted long enough for me to finish. So I'm making this update on my mom's computer. Ain't technology wonderful?_

_Until next time, everyone!_


	20. The Right to Remain Silenced

The Right to Remain Silenced

By the time Reimu and Sanae finally found their way back to the council chamber, most of the other delegates were already in their seats. The air was filled with the sound of their chatter and arguments.

Sanae nudged Reimu with her elbow and nodded toward the far end of the room. Yukari's elevated seat was empty.

"Somebody's late," Sanae whispered.

"Maybe she had to use the hole in the ground," Reimu whispered back. "And why are we whispering?"

"Because the acoustics at this end of the room are freaking crazy. If you cough everyone goes deaf."

Reimu glanced back and forth. Then she stuck her fingers in her ears and, quite deliberately, sneezed loudly. The Asakura sisters, who were sitting the closest, both winced and shot her dirty looks.

"Point," Reimu said.

Sanae winced as she rubbed her ears. "Yeah, I freaking hate you."

"Get over it, Mossy."

"Really not helping. Oh, and speaking of people missing..." Sanae glanced over her shoulder. "What happened to the Wicked Witch of the West? I thought she was right behind us."

"Marisa? I dunno, I think Mima wanted to talk to her."

Sanae pointed. There, in her usual place at the far right of the room, was Mima. The ghost's tail filled her seat like a translucent green beanbag, and she had her arm propped up on the armrest and was resting her head against it with a bored expression on her face.

"So, it was a short conversation and Marisa hasn't caught up yet," Reimu shrugged. "Mima can teleport, you know."

"Eh, maybe. Though if you ask me, she probably got lost. Anyways, I got to get to my seat. Talk to you after."

The green-haired shrine maiden hopped into the air to float over to Kanako's side. Reimu did the same, making her way over to Mima.

"Hey," she said as she reached her former arch-nemesis. "What happened to Marisa?"

"You tell me. She was with you, after all."

"Uh, no. You pulled her aside before we went inside, remember?"

"Only for a few seconds. To give her a book she had asked to borrow. She ran to catch up with you right after."

Reimu wasn't sure what to make of that. "Well, I haven't seen her since."

"Hmmm." Mima's eyes narrowed. "Well, it's possible she simply got lost. But in this place..."

Reimu was about to ask her what she was talking about, but right about then the doors swung open and Yukari entered the room. Conversation died down in response.

"There you are!" Eiki shouted. "Where do you get off, summoning us back early and coming in late? One wonders what you're up to."

Reimu leaned over to whisper in Mima's ear, "Is the whole accusation thing like a reflex for her?"

Mima waved her off.

Yukari ignored Eiki. She strolled down the center of the room, the hard heels of her shoes clicking against the stone of the floor. When she reached the other end she floated upward to settle into her chair.

Everyone looked at her expectedly.

Yukari adjusted herself into a more comfortable position, crossed her legs and took a deep breath. "The landscape," she said. "Has just changed."

…

One of Marisa's hands gripped the brim of her hat. The other was wrapped around the handle of her broom, a couple inches from the tip. Her body was pressed flat against the broom and her legs brought up, making herself as aerodynamic as possible. She was still a good distance from the Misty Lake and, beyond that, the Forest of Magic. Of course, she could only remain there for a short time, as that would be the first place Yukari would think to look for her. But if she was going to be doing this on the lam thing for any amount of time, then she needed to stock up.

Of course, that was assuming she even got there. Gensokyo didn't have much in the way of beaten paths, and traveling alone tended toward the dangerous side. As was demonstrated by the numerous fluttering dots in the distance that were slowly growing in size.

"Shit!" Marisa yelled as the first of the fairies blew past her. They were of the small fry variety: weak, stupid and less than a foot tall. But what they lacked in strength they made up with numbers and sheer enthusiasm.

"Buzz off, you flying toys!" Marisa said as she blasted a good dozen of them out of existence. "Get out of my way!"

They just laughed at her in their piping little voices and kept hammering at her from all sides with their tiny bullets.

"Screw this," Marisa muttered. She reached into a pocket and withdrew a spellcard. At her touch, it began to glow.

Marisa thrust the card in front of her face. "NON-DIRECTIONAL LASER!" she howled, and released the card.

The card vanished in a shower of sparks, and massive beams of energy shot out in all directions. Fairies disintegrated by the dozens as their tiny bodies were engulfed by the beams. Bits and pieces of them fell like ash, only to dissolve into base energy.

Finally, Marisa was left alone. Panting, she surveyed the scene. When she was satisfied that she had gotten them all, she started to move forward again…only to stop short when something seized on to the back of her broom.

Marisa looked over her shoulder. There, clinging to the bristles of straw, was one last fairy. This one was larger than the rest, nearly two feet tall, with a lime green dress and a matching wide-brimmed hat.

"_Imma kill you!" _it chittered at Marisa in its high-pitched voice. _"Imma kill you for that, witchy!"_

Marisa just stared at the angry little thing. Then she pointed a single finger at it and blew its head clean off. The fairy's now headless body slipped from the broom's handle and tumbled downward, dissolving away to nothing all the way down.

Marisa sighed. It seemed that no matter how many times they got themselves turned to smoke, fairies just never learned to not pick on things bigger than they were. She wouldn't be surprised if that same gang ended up killing themselves again before nightfall.

With that, Marisa brought her legs up, leaned her body forward and made a blur of the scenery.

…

A wave of murmurs rose up in response to Yukari's pronouncement. Confused, Reimu shot a questioning look over to Mima, who was staring at Yukari with intense eyes.

"Mima?" she said in a loud whisper. "What's she talking about?"

Mima didn't look at her, but she said, "We're about to find out aren't we? Still, if it's what I think it is…"

Before Reimu could question further, a voice that she was getting very tired of hearing rose above the rest.

"So!" Eiki Shiki shouted as she leapt from her seat. "You mean to distract us from the situation at hand by bringing up geographical disturbances? One wonders what sort of game you're-"

"Uh, boss?" Komachi said, taking Eiki by the shoulder. The tall Shikigami leaned in and whispered into her employer's ear.

"What?" Eiki frowned. "Oh, that's what it means? I did not know that. Thank you, Komachi." She whirled back to face Yukari, who was pressing her palm against her face in exasperation. "So! You mean to distract us from the situation at hand with confusing figures of speech! One wonders what sort of game you're…"

Reimu sighed. She glanced at Mima, hoping for a moment of shared irritation. But Mima was ignoring both Yukari and the Yamaxanadu. Instead, her razor-gaze was focused on Satori Komeiji, who had apparently just entered the room and was taking her seat.

"What's that cave-dweller been up to, I wonder?" Mima muttered under her breath.

Even though she was sitting all the way across the room, Satori still turned her head to lock eyes with Mima. The underground's master's expression did not change, but she did raise a single eyebrow. Coming from her, that was as good as an insulting gesture.

Back in her throne-like chair, Yukari shook her head. "Forget it, let's move on." She took a deep breath. "Okay, as some of you know, for the last couple of days I've been trying to track down Rumia's former associates, the fairy Cirno and her gang. Thus far, they've managed to remain out of sight, but just a short while ago I was informed that they have decided to crawl out of hiding and start wreaking their trademark havoc. Only this time, I'm afraid they've decided to cross the line from 'irritating' to 'dangerous'."

Reimu's head jerked back. She wondered if she had heard Yukari right. She certainly had never expected to hear her out of all people refer to Cirno and her friends as 'dangerous', Rumia's own special case notwithstanding.

"I know that this sounds impossible. Believe me when I say that probably wouldn't believe it either. But trust me when I say that the situation is-"

Yukari was cut off by a sudden outburst of high-pitched laughter. All eyes swung toward Tenshi, who had thrown her head back and was holding her stomach as she cackled.

"Oh, oh no!" she said. "Make it stop! The mighty Yukari is…_afraid _of a bunch of kids? Itty bitty Cirno had her quaking in her boots! Oh, Heaven preserve us! Could you possible get any more pathetic? I suppose you really were never all that-"

The room instantly plunged into darkness. Reimu gasped in surprise and had to clutch at her seat's armrests to make sure it was still there. Then she looked up and froze.

Yukari's golden eyes gleamed through the black, like the flames of two candles. Then, without warning, Tenshi appeared in the center of the room, floating in midair and illuminated by a faint aura. The Celestial girl's arms and legs were splayed out in four directions, and she seemed to be unable to move them. In addition, her mouth was covered by some kind of glowing golden gag.

Yukari's voice came out of the darkness. "Tenshi, I am in a foul mood today, and have had it up to here with your petty contention. Rest assured, I will be speaking to your parents about your behavior. But for now, another word out of you that does not contribute something I judge to be useful, and I will have you ejected from this court. Forcibly. Do you understand me?"

Tenshi stared wordless at the twin flames of Yukari's eyes. Sweat was starting to trickle down her face. She nodded once.

"Good."

The lights came back on. Tenshi was back in her chair, having somehow crossed the distance between there and where she had been suspended in the space of a nanosecond. Trembling, she curled her knees up under her chin and tried to make herself as small as possible.

Yukari's gaze swept over the stunned audience. "Sorry about that, ladies. As I was saying, while Cirno is not normally associated with deadly situations, this case is the exception. And to help explain, I present a witness to the event in question. May I present Captain Sonozika, the head of the Gensokyo Peacekeeping Force."

"What? Kotohime?" Reimu blinked. She looked over to Mima, whose terrifyingly intense stare was now focused on the brown-haired young woman in a loose-fitting black uniform who had just entered the room. Accompanying her were three other people wearing the same uniform: two tall dark haired men that had to be brothers, and a silver-haired fairy woman. All four had the blank expression of someone who was having an incredibly bad day but didn't want to let it show. Again, the room filled with whispers.

"Huh, looks like someone changed their mind in a hurry," Mima said in a low murmur. "Interesting."

"What is?" Reimu said. "Mima, what's going on?"

"Pay attention. I think you'll find what's coming next to be quite…fascinating."

…

Marisa was following the path of a river that wound its way between a range of gently sloping green hills when something heavy snagged onto her broom and threw it off balance.

"What the-?" she screamed as she was sent spinning and spiraling downward. Instinct took over, and she pulled up as hard as she could, barely bringing her broom up again only a few feet from the ground.

Growling in frustration, she looked down to see what had hit her. There, hanging with her arms and legs wrapped around the underside of the broom, was a red-haired youkai girl in a green-and-yellow outfit.

Marisa exploded. "CHINA? What the hell do you think you're doing, ze? Get OFF!"

"China?" the youkai girl shouted back. "Who's she?" She held up a long baton with one hand. "I've been waiting a long time to get my-"

Alas, whatever it was that the strange girl had been waiting for was never realized, as Marisa decided to skip the monologue and shove the heel of her boot right into her assailant's face. The girl's eyes bulged and her grip loosened. A second kick dislodged her entirely. This was followed by a Master Spark, which insured that she wouldn't be bothering anyone for quite some time.

"This is getting freaking annoying, ze," Marisa growled. Then she looked around and realized that the attack had turned her around and she had no idea where she was.

…

Kotohime marched forward, mentally forcing one leg in front of the other. She couldn't remember the last time she had been so frightened. As history often made a point of mentioning, messengers bearing ill news did not have a high life-expectancy rate.

No, wait, check that. There had been a time when she had been much more frightened, back when Yuuka Kazami had her tied naked to a tree and was treating her in a very…unpleasant manner. And soon after she was forced to watch as her fellow officer and friend was literally blown to disconnected atoms, just to make a point. Of course she had gotten better, but that didn't make it any easier to witness.

And now, not even an hour later, she got to explain all of that to some of the most powerful persons in all of Gensokyo, person who were reportedly in possession of some _very _volatile personalities.

For what had to have been the first time in her life, Kotohime wondered if retirement was in order.

Flanking her were the recently resurrected Officer Nyoron, who was not at her best at her moment, and Officers Blair and Kelso. Kotohime could tell that they were holding themselves together through sheer force of will. Nyoron especially had spent the last fifteen minutes in tears. Kotohime sympathized, as she planned on having an emotional breakdown of her own later on.

However, that was neither here nor now. Kotohime had a duty to uphold, and ragged nerves or no, she was going to honor it.

They reached the center of room and stopped. Fully aware of the eyes on her, Kotohime said, "Ladies. Lords…Uh, sorry. My Masters. I wish I had better news to bring here, to present before you, the council, but uh…"

She took a deep breath and continued. "Um, well. As Lady Yakumo just explained, my taskforce and I were tasked to locate and bring in Cirno and her fellow renegades for questioning in regards to the Rin Satsuki situation. For the last two days, there have been the odd sighting, but for the most part they have remained out of reach. But some hours ago, that changed."

Kotohime reached into a side-pocket, rummaged around and brought out a crumpled piece of brown paper. "The fugitives in question appeared in the Youkai Market early this morning, passing these out and offering a substantial money reward for anyone who was successful in fulfilling their task. As it seems, they've decided to take personal involvement in this incident." Kotohime opened the paper and showed it around, displaying the crude stick-figure and accompanying numerical amount. "In short, they've placed a bounty on Rin Satsuki."

There was a loud snort of suppressed laughter. Kotohime looked to see the woman she knew as Rika Asakura covering her mouth as her shoulders shook. Mortified, Rika's sister grabbed her and whispered something in her ear. Rika looked up to see Yukari staring at her. Her face turned red and she sank into her chair.

Kotohime nervously glanced at Yukari. Looking impatient, the ancient youkai motioned for her to continue.

"Uh, right. Anyway, like I was saying, the amount of twenty-five million yen has been offered as a reward for anyone who can, you know, who can find her. Satsuki I mean. And, uh, bring her down. Take her out. That sort of thing."

_My gods, I sound like such an idiot. _Sweat was starting to prickle the back of Kotohime's neck. She did her best to ignore it. "And from what I've been able to tell, there's been considerable, uh, well, a lot of people are interested, and…"

"I'm sorry to interrupt," said the goddess Kanako Yasaka. "But I really need to know something. While that sort of money may not be all that much to people like us, for a wild fairy or youkai it is a bit of a ridiculous amount to possess. How are they planning to pay this bounty at all?"

"They're probably not," said Shinki, whose presence Kotohime was trying very hard not to notice. "In the very off-chance of someone succeeding, they'll likely feign ignorance and try to weasel out of it."

Kotohime cleared her throat. "Well, uh, no offense, my lady, but it seems to be legit. At least one member of the gang was seen carrying a bag with a substantial amount of cash. While I didn't get a chance to examine it closely, it did seem to…uh…they have a lot?"

"Stolen, most likely!" shouted the Yamaxanadu, another person Kotohime was trying not to stare at.

"We'll determine the money's source later," Yukari broke in. "Kotohime, continue."

"Oh. Of course. Should I skip to the end, the part about-"

"No, pick up from where you left off."

"R-right. Of course." Kotohime closed her eyes for a moment and steadied her nerves. At least she had had the good sense to relieve herself before coming out here, otherwise there would probably be warm liquid trickling down her leg.

"Well, like I was saying, unfortunately there are a lot of youkai and fairies participating. But there is good news! From what I've been told, Satsuki's shape changes with each new victim she absorbs, right?"

"Yes it does," said the physician Eirin Yagokoro. "She takes on some of their physical characteristics as well as their power."

"Right. Uh, thank you. Anyway, as I understand it, the picture here" Kotohime's finger touched the angry stick-figure "is very much outdated, and she now looks very different. So everyone's going to be looking for a monster that doesn't exist anymore."

"But that doesn't mean there isn't danger," Yukari reminded everyone.

"Right." Kotohime wilted a bit. "Um, this'll buy you…erm, us some time, but they'll probably figure it out sooner or later. Especially since I've been told that Cirno was interviewed by none other than the Tengu Aya Shameimaru a few hours ago. You…probably all know her…"

The groans that filled the room told her that she was correct. Kanako said, "For goodness sake, if all this was going on, why didn't you stop it? The last thing we need is a mob of unwanted helpers!"

Kotohime glanced at her fellow officers, who were doing their best to stand at attention. "We, uh, tried. Unfortunately, it seems Cirno anticipated our interference and sought protection."

"Protection? Whose?"

Kotohime readied herself. This was it. She stood as straight as she could and said, "Yuuka Kazami's."

…

Marisa was officially lost. The Ruined City was located in a great big stretch of nothing with much more nothing surrounding it. As such, Marisa had never ventured this far out before. She supposed if she kept going forward she would eventually find something she recognized, but as far as she knew Yukari or one of her goons was only now in hot pursuit. She needed a way of getting her bearings.

As she continued to follow the river, something caught her eyes. She braked to a hard stop and swung around. As she had thought, there was someone lying on the riverbank. Finally.

Marisa swooped down toward the prone figure. "Hey! Yo, 'scuse me! I'm kinda lost, ze. You know how to get to…" Then she got a good look at the person in question. "Whoooooaaa!"

It was a young girl, one with fair skin and thick blond hair. She was lying in a crumpled heap next to the water, as if she had fallen asleep in mid-step. A pale yellow cat was pawing at her body and mewing worriedly.

Also, she wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing.

Marisa couldn't help but stare. Even in a place like Gensokyo, where things of bizarre and unexpected nature happened on a daily basis, this wasn't something you saw every day.

"Well," she said. "This day is starting to look up. Not usually into the whole lolicon thing, ze, but hey…"

Then she grimaced and slapped herself in the face. "Damn it, what am I saying? Maybe Reimu's right about hanging out with Aya too much."

She reached out with her broom's handle to prod the girl in the side. The cat finally took notice of her and whipped around. Its fur bristled and it hissed a warning.

Marisa glanced at it in annoyance. She flicked her fingers at it, sending out a handful of sparks. The cat yowled in surprise and bounded away.

"Hey," Marisa said as she jabbed with the broom. "Yo, wake up. Hey, Nudie! You alive?"

The girl groaned and opened her eyes. "Erp, huh?"

"Hey, you're awake, ze. Cool. Say, sorry to interrupt your skinny…nap, but can'ya point me in the direction of the Misty Lake? Like now?"

The girl sat up and sleepily rubbed her eyes. "Uh, do I know you?"

"Pretty sure you don't. Not really from around here, so I don't…" Then Marisa frowned. Now that she thought about it, the girl's face was starting to jar her memory.

"Uh, maybe. Don't usually hang out with nudies, but there is something…" Then her eyes brightened and she snapped her fingers. "Oh, wait, yeah! You're that one other witch chick, Ell…Elly? Eli? Elliot?

"Ellen."

"Right! Ellen! We met back at the whole thing with the fake ruins!"

The girl's face was blank with incomprehension. "Fake…ruins?"

"You know! A few years back, that stupid contest thing? With the race, and the spaceship?"

"Uh…"

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me you forgot…" Then Marisa rolled her eyes and growled. "Oh, that's right. Crappy memory problems. You told me. I forgot."

"Forgot what?"

"Never mind. Yeah, we met before, you just don't remember, ze."

"Sorry."

"Nah, no worries. Say Nudie Ellen, could'ja-"

"Why do you keep calling me 'Nudie'?"

Marisa blinked at her. "'Cause you's is a nudie. Duh."

Ellen looked down at herself. Her eyes suddenly went as wide as saucers and her face flushed deep red. "Oh my _gosh!" _she squealed. She hastily covered her intimate bits with her arms. "What did you do to me?"

"Me? Nothing! Found you like that, ze! What do you…Hey, where're you going?"

Ellen didn't answer. Instead, she had leapt to her feet and was running away. "Where's my clothes?" she cried. "And Sokrates? Where's Sokrates?"

Marisa scratched the back of her neck. "Dunno to both, but before you take off in embarrassment, could'ja point me in the direction of the Misty Lake? Like now?"

Ellen threw one finger down the river's path and kept running.

"Thatta way? Awesome, I had it right." Marisa waved goodbye at the fleeing girl. "See yah Nudie! Hope you find you clothes and whatever that second thing was!"

With that, Marisa mounted her broom and pushed off, leaving a very distressed Ellen far behind.

…

The effect Yuuka's name had upon the council was instantaneous, predictable and loud. Everybody began talking at once, demanding explanations, slinging accusations and nervous suggestions of compromising with the youkai in question. And of course, of all the voices, there was one that rose above the others.

"This is _ridiculous!" _Yamaxanadu Eiki Shiki shrieked. "Why would the Sleeping Terror of Endless Flowers choose to protect base _criminals? _What possible reason does she have?"

Reimu didn't add her own objections to the others. Instead she slumped back into her chair. She was starting to feel a little sick. There was a proverb she had once heard, about how people would gladly face an unknown danger to escape a known one. And as deadly as Satsuki and the Shadow Youkai were, she did not have much in the way of history with them. Yuuka however…Reimu had encountered her on a couple of occasions and was very much aware how lucky she had been to escape with her life.

Yukari spoke. "I can answer that question, Honored Yamaxanadu. It seems that she has been drawn out by the chaos Cirno's bounty would cause, much like a shark would be drawn by blood in the water. I'm sure you're all aware of how she used to amuse herself. In fact, she has already sent me a personal challenge, presumably for her own enjoyment."

"Oh?" Eiki's aquamarine eyes narrowed in suspicion. "One can't help but suspect additional motivations beyond a desire for a scrap! Tell me Yukari, is there any personal history that you have neglected to inform the rest of us about?"

Reimu frowned. She leaned close to Mima and said, "What's she doing? Didn't she see what happened to Tenshi?"

Mima looked annoyed but she said, "Eiki Shiki is a founding member of the council who has performed her duties faithfully for centuries and reportedly acts this way at every single meeting, to the point where it's practically expected. Tenshi is an upstart brat who has done absolutely nothing of worth and isn't even a real Ringleader. She doesn't get a pass."

"Yeah, but-"

"Hush."

"Yamaxanadu Shiki," Yukari said. "I assure you that while I have had…unfortunate encounters with Yuuka in the past, there was nothing personal about them at all. We aren't even rivals, at least not until now. If you doubt my word, you may consult your own records."

"Perhaps. But the possibility also remains that this whole story is a farce woven with the intention of controlling us!"

"It isn't," Satori said. Her voice was calm but still audible.

Eiki redirected her glare. "And I suppose you're willing to vouch for this nonsense?"

"Yes. I do not lie. Yukari is telling the truth."

Eiki muttered something under her breath but didn't retort.

"Thank you Satori," Yukari said. By this point, her voice wasn't much more than a tired monotone. "And Captain, thank you as well. You may retire."

Naked relief flooded Kotohime's face. She nodded and she and her entourage marched from the room, poorly hiding the uncontrollable trembling their bodies were suffering.

"Obviously, these new developments have complicated an already highly complicated situation," Yukari said. "Whatever you may think of me or our goals, there is no doubt as to where Yuuka stands. Her very presence threatens this entire-"

"No, it threatens only _you!" _Eiki bellowed. "She has challenged only you!"

This time, Yukari's patience with the Judge of the Dead snapped. "And what is your point?" Yukari demanded. "Or do you intend to lead this operation?"

Eiki glowered but she didn't answer.

Yukari continued. "As I was saying, I've already taken steps to deal with Yuuka, and I plan to do something about the bounty and the leak of information. But our timetable has still been escalated. I'm sorry, but we have no more time to debate this. Think of plan of action now, or I will do it for you."

Nobody said anything, though there were plenty of exchanged glances and nervous twiddling of fingers. Then Kanako said softly, "Well, I suppose I could instruct the Tengu and the Kappa to begin searching the sky and the water for any trace of Satsuki."

"And I can have Murasa and her crew do the same," Byakuren said. Just saying that seemed to cost her something.

Eirin leaned back in her seat. "While the damage to Eientei limits what aid we are about to offer, this is still our mess to clean up. We will assist in every way possible."

Reisen's eyes flickered uncertainly to her mentor. Her shoulders slumped and she stared at the floor.

"And I shall begin a thorough search of the underground," Satori said.

"Very good," Yukari said with a nod. "And what of you two?" This last question was directed toward Shinki and Eiki, who were sitting relatively in close proximity.

Eiki scowled. "Certainly not. My duties must be seen to, and if the Shadow Youkai is indeed loose, then my attention is required more than ever!"

"I see," Yukari said. She didn't sound surprised or even disappointed. "And what of you, Shinki? Where does Makai stand in this matter?"

The Queen of the Infernal Flames didn't respond right away. She leaned forward, hands clasped in front of her face, eyes focused on the marble floor. When she spoke, it was without emotion.

"This is an Overworld problem," she said. "Makai has no stake in this."

"What?" Kanako said. "So you'll just abandon us?"

"This isn't our problem."

"And if the Shadow Youkai were to show up at your front gates, wielding Satsuki's strength, do you think she'll be swayed by such logic?" Yukari said.

Shinki unclasped her hands and leaned back in her chair. "Makai has but one entrance to creatures of physical flesh. It is well guarded. She will not enter."

"Reimu did, more than once," Mima said.

Shinki glanced at her and then back to the ground. "We've improved our defenses since then. She will not pass."

The others looked like they wanted to argue further, but Yukari cleared her throat loudly, silencing further debate. "Very well then. I accept your refusal. And if she does show up, please make every effort to inform us immediately."

Shinki nodded once.

"Good. And as for the rest of you, we have yet to decide what we are going to do when we find her. Please come to a decision immediately."

Someone cleared their throat. Everyone turned to stare at Tenshi, who was sitting up in her seat.

"I could…uh…" The Celestial girl winced. "Well, like I was saying earlier, about Earth magic…"

"That would be useful, thank you. In fact…" Yukari's gaze swept the room to settle on Suika, who had been moodily refusing to take part in the discussion.

"Suika, I know it's a large favor to ask, but would you please accompany Satori back to the underground and seek the help of your former companions, the Devas of the Mountain?" she said. "After all, Satsuki may still be vulnerable to physical assault."

Suika shrugged. "Sure, if you can do something about the face that we can't touch her without dying a little on the outside."

"It shall be done. As for the rest of you, should you encounter Satsuki, I must insist that you do not engage her head on. To do so would be unwise at best, suicidal at worse. And in this instance, I believe it is best to assume the worst. Contain her if you can and alert the rest of us. Furthermore, many of you probably know creatures of strength who are not present with us today. Enlist their help in the search if you can, but again, please do not allow them to directly confront her. I would like to keep the death toll down if all possible."

"What about Yuuka?" Kanako asked. "She'll have no such reservations."

"And there's the bounty," Byakuren said. "Sooner or later, someone will figure out what Rin looks like and try to take her down. We can't just let it continue. Lives are at stake."

"Of course," Yukari said. "Let me worry about the bounty. As for Yuuka, like I've said, I've already taken steps to deal with her. In the meantime, should she show up unexpectedly as she likes to do, I suggest you flee immediately and inform me immediately. Attacking Yuuka rarely turns out well for the attacker. Understand?"

There was little disagreement.

"Good. And of course, I expect you all to keep in touch with each other and share information. Remember, this is a collaborative effort. This is not a contest, and you are not bounty hunters. Attempting to take the target by yourself will be treated as stupid rather than impressive, even if you're successful."

Yukari's gaze swept over those gathered. For the briefest of moments, her eyes touched Reimu's. The shrine maiden inhaled sharply. There was something about Yukari's expression that terrified her. The lazy, teasing and occasionally annoying youkai that Reimu had come to know the last few years was gone. This creature was something entirely different. While she had seen Yukari perform ruthless actions in the past, she had never seen her like this. This was a woman who wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice her dearest friend if she thought it would achieve her aims.

For the first time in her life, Reimu got the feeling that she had finally seen the real Yukari Yakumo.

"This meeting," Yukari said. "Is adjourned." With that, one of her gaps opened above her head and came down, enveloping her. Then it closed up, leaving behind an empty seat.

As soon as Yukari disappeared, Mima was already in the air and moving. Reimu leapt up and followed.

"Mima!" she called.

"Not now, Reimu," Mima said. "Please head back to the shrine."

"What? No, wait! Hang on a second! What's going on?"

"I'm afraid I have no time to discuss theories. Please, do what I say and-"

"Screw that! I'm not your minion, remember? Did you know the whole thing about Yuuka?"

Finally Mima turned to face her. "I did," she said. "After all, both Eirin and I were present when Yukari received the news."

Reimu blanched. "Then why the hell didn't you tell me immediately? I mean, it's _Yuuka!"_

"Because Yukari instructed us not to." Mima looked over her shoulder at the now empty throne. "It's strange she changed her mind so quickly. Something sneaky is afoot, and I'm not part of it. I don't like that one bit."

"Do you think that's what happened to all the missing people? Like Marisa, and Sakuya and Patchouli?"

Mima's face darkened. "More than likely. I don't know yet. But I intend to find out." She started to fade away.

"Yeah, okay. Fine. And-Hey, wait!"

Mima's nearly transparent form solidified. "What is it? Make it quick."

"You said you were talking with Eirin and Yukari when you got the message about Yuuka, right? What were you talking about?"

"Why?"

Reimu glowered. "Because I know you three. And I'm like you: getting just a little tired of secrets."

"Fair enough. And it's no secret: we were talking about how to kill Rumia and Rin Satsuki."

Reimu's eyes went wide. She opened her mouth to question further, but Mima had already disappeared.

"I am," she muttered. "Getting really sick of that."

Then she looked around. The court was clearing out and fast. The Asakura sisters had made a straight line for the exit as soon as Yukari had dismissed them, and a mercifully quiet Tenshi hadn't been far behind. Eiki Shiki and Komachi had left in a small whirlwind of smoke, and Shinki had left in a similar manner, taking her ever silent bodyguard with her. Satori was also moving for the door, her cat in her arms. Suika jumped up and sulkily followed. She didn't even bother yelling Reimu goodbye.

Eirin and Reisen were also on their way out. Reisen looked absolutely devastated. Reimu couldn't blame her. No matter how this ended, things weren't looking good insofar as the Lunar rabbit was concerned. She was caught in a double-bind, and she knew it.

For a brief moment Reisen glanced over her shoulder. She locked eyes with Reimu. Not really knowing what else to do, Reimu summoned up optimism she did not feel and shot her an encouraging smile and a wink. Reisen blinked in surprise. Then she managed a shaky smile in return and rushed to catch up with Eirin.

Reimu let out a slow breath. Not for the first time, she was starting to feel that she was in over her head. This was starting to become more stressful than that thing with the Watatsuki sisters a few months back, and that was saying something.

Across the room from her, Byakuren was descending the steps from where she had been sitting. Reimu wasn't sure why she didn't just fly down like everyone else, but if it would delay her she wasn't complaining.

"Byakuren!" she shouted as she ran over to her. "Hold on a second!"

Byakuren turned to face her. The elder magician was clearly troubled, which was no surprise. She hated violence at the best of times, and even if she was willing to fight when necessary, this entire situation would offend her sensibilities on many, many levels. Which was exactly why Reimu needed to speak to her.

"Yes, Reimu, what is it?" Byakuren asked.

Reimu skidded to a stop. "Hey, sorry to bug you, but do you got a minute? There's something important I need to talk to you about."

Byakuren's mouth set in a straight line. "Reimu, I really hope you're not trying to bring me into some sort of under-the-table scheme. I've had quite enough of those."

Reimu shook her head. "Believe me, you'll want to-"

"Hey, Reimu!" she heard someone say.

She turned to see Sanae run up to her, with her goddess in tow. "Oh, hey guys."

For her part, Kanako was looking impatient. No doubt being dragged along by her subordinate to speak to a competitor at the end of an extremely stressful meeting had put her in poor temper. "Sanae claimed that you wish to speak with me," she said shortly. "Please make it quick. I have a great deal of work to do."

"Right. Sorry. Actually, can we go to your shrine? I'd really prefer it if it were someplace private. Byakuren, could you come along too?"

Byakuren's eyebrows rose. "Reimu, that would take much longer than 'a minute'."

"I know. I'm sorry, but it's kind of important."

Kanako folded her arms. "Shrine maiden, I really hope you're not going to waste my time here. I'm not in the habit of inviting the competition into my shrine."

"Huh?" Sanae goggled at her goddess. "But Reimu comes over all the time!"

"I wasn't talking about her."

Byakuren sighed and shook her head. "Kanako, we've been over this. I have no interest in moving in on your territory. Your subjects are your own, and I'm fine with that."

Reimu was starting to grow impatient. _You owe me one, Reisen, _she thought grimly. "Look, we can waste time fighting about this or we can get it over with."

Kanako stared down her nose at the shrine maiden.

"Uh, please?"

Byakuren sighed. "You might as well give in, Kanako. She's used gone as far as to say 'Please' without sarcasm. You know it's important if she does that."

Kanako's lips drew even tighter but she said, "Fine. But it had better be important." She inclined her head toward the door. "Come on ladies, let's get going."

…

Marisa's heart leapt when she finally saw the telltale veil of pale blue mist that was the Misty Lake's namesake. With a triumphant grin, she redirected her broom. Finally she was in more familiar territory. Let the annoying obstacles come! She now had the home court advantage, and with her hakkero and spellcards they would be quickly taught better manners.

Almost as if her boastful thoughts had conjured them up, as soon as she entered the cool vapor, she had to quickly redirect course to avoid colliding with six Humans in black clothing who were circling the lake at a leisurely pace.

"Hey!" snapped their leader, a sharp-looking lady with short blue hair. She ducked just in time to keep from getting decapitated. "Watch it!"

Even though it probably wasn't the wisest course of action for a fugitive, Marisa's temper was already strained. She whirled around and shouted back, "You watch it, you shrew-faced old hag!"

The woman stiffened. She snapped her fingers, and her subordinates immediately fell into position behind her. "What. Did. You. Call. Me?" she growled, her eye twitching.

Marisa frowned. _Ah, brilliant, _she thought. _Another fight with…who are these guys again? Those outfits look kinda familia-_

Then her eyes bulged. She yanked her broom hard, rolling out of the way from a focused blast of bullets.

"You're gonna need to learn some respect for your elders, young lady," the group's leader said. "Even if I have to beat it into-"

"Uh, sheriff?" said one of companions as she took the woman by the shoulder. "Isn't that…" She whispered the rest of the sentence into her leader's ear.

"Huh?" the leader glanced at Marisa. "Wait, you may be right. But what's she doing here? Kotohime said she's supposed to be at the Ruined City!"

_Kotohime? What? What are…_ Then she finally recognized those outfits. _Oh…right. Those GPF tools. Didn't they have some tie to Yukari…oh crap._

A second blast told her that she was correct. Marisa cursed herself for her stupidity and shot over the patrol's heads. As she did so, she could hear their leader shouting, "Contact Kotohime immediately! Tell her that Marisa Kirisame is at the Misty Lake and on the run!"

…

Yukari stalked through the twisting hallways of the citadel, leaning forward ever so slightly with her hands clasped behind her back. She wasn't heading for anywhere specific, she just felt like pacing. And the seemingly endless corridors were certainly accommodating.

A few paces behind her walked Satori Komeiji. Despite the woman's short frame, she didn't seem to be having any trouble keeping up with Yukari's restless gait.

"…was sent ahead of me, as was Suika. According to Orin, preparations are already underway," Satori said in her trademark monotone. "She should be ready within three days' time."

"Three days?" Yukari said. "Why so long?"

"The reactor is not yet completed, and remains primitive in design. It will take some time to safely deactivate."

Yukari grunted. "Of course, of course. Just make sure she remains on her leash. I don't want to accidentally kill Gensokyo when we're trying to save it."

"It shall be done," Satori said with a nod. "Of course, your own contributions will be finished by then."

Yukari noted the lack of a question mark. "Of course," she said. "Remilia and her cronies are more-or-less ready. I just need to tell them."

"But the witch remains missing."

Yukari frowned. "Still working on that. Still, it's only a matter of time. She isn't exactly-"

Yukari's voice trailed off. She heard someone running to catch up with them. She turned around to see who it was.

A nearly breathless Kotohime came rushing around the corner, followed by her equally harried posse. Yukari wasn't surprised in the slightest.

"Lady Yakumo!" Kotohime gasped. "Ma'am!"

Yukari quirked an eyebrow. Then she looked at Satori. "Please tell me she has good news."

"Good…ish," Satori said.

"Ish?"

"Yes. Ish."

"Better than bad. All right, Captain. What is it?"

Kotohime skidded to a stop. She braced one hand against the wall and doubled over as she panted. Behind her, her posse was in similarly bad shape.

"Easy, don't overexcite yourself," Yukari said.

Kotohime straightened herself up. "Ma'am, we've found her! We've found Marisa!"

"What fortuitous and extremely unlikely timing," Satori said.

"You have?" Yukari grinned. "Great! Where?"

"One of my patrols spotted her following the Lilac River, near the mouth of the Misty Lake," Kotohime said. "They are engaging even as we speak."

Yukari rubbed her palms together. Maybe she would be able to salvage this after all. "Excellent! How's that going?"

"Uh…"

…

A blinding white beam of pure destructive force slashed its way through the mist and cut through the lake, sending a geyser of scalding hot steam into the air. The GPF patrol's tight formation broke immediately as its members scattered in all directions. Then they scattered even further when hissing sparks the size of beach balls and in every color under the sun rained down from above.

Elias Ooishi, GPF sheriff and currently the one in charge of the Misty Lake Patrol, was saved only by quick reflexes and a healthy measure of dumb luck. However, two of her men weren't so lucky and were knocked senseless, requiring her and another officer to snatch them up before they hit the lake's water.

"Where's Captain Sonozika?" she screamed at one of her remaining subordinates. She banked hard to avoid being struck by a pink fireball. "Did you get ahold of her?"

"Yeah, she said she's getting help now!"

Elias cast a fearful look at the angrily glowing figure of a girl hovering over the lake. Marisa hadn't taken their attempt to arrest her well, and was now in the process of demonstrating her displeasure in the most disproportionate manner possible.

"Tell her to hurry!" Elias shouted. The lake's normally calm waters were now disturbed by the various energies being hurled into them, and Elias found herself soaked when a swell burst right beneath her. "I don't think we can take much more of-"

"Sheriff, look!"

Elias looked up. Her eyes went wide and she gasped. Marisa was floating with one blazing hand thrust to the sky. Behind her, several huge objects were starting to appear through the mist.

"Jesus Christ," Elias whispered. "Are those asteroids?"

…

"Poorly."

"Well, that's unfortunate," Yukari sighed.

"And unsurprising," Satori added.

"I'd tell you to be quiet, but you're kind of right." Yukari pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. "Okay Kotohime, I'm going to give your guys a bit of an edge, but I need the exact coordinates of the battle."

Kotohime's eyes filled with a desperate hope. "You're going yourself?"

"I won't need to. I'll just open a gap at her location and suck her in."

"B-but the patrol is still there!"

Yukari shrugged. "Well, then they'll go for a little ride. Don't worry, it's non-fatal. Just surprising."

Satori cleared her throat. "I believe I shall be going now. The situation at hand will require your full attention, and I have things I need to see to myself."

"Right, keep in touch," Yukari said.

Once Satori was gone, Kotohime lunged forward. She grabbed Yukari by the sleeve. "Ma'am, please!" she pleaded. "The patrol's made up of humans, they could be hurt!"

With a scowl Yukari pushed her off. "Stop that. And I told you, it's non-fatal. It's not even-"

Kotohime jumped to her feet. "Send me!"

"Come again?"

"If you're not going yourself, then let me be your eyes. You can apparition your illusion-self to my location, correct? It'll give you more control and allow me to get my people out of the way."

Yukari stared at her. "Let me get this straight: you want me to _send_ you right into the lap of an angry Marisa Kirisame? Captain, I know you fought her back during the ruins incident, but she's kind of stepped up her game since then."

"My people are already down there! I need to get them out of the way!"

"Captain, are you sure you're up to this? You've had a bit of a rough day."

Kirisame straightened. "I am. And to be honest, even with all that Kirisame's learned since our last encounter…" The princess' left eyelid developed a noticeable twitch. "Words cannot express how much I need to hit something right now.

"Even if that something is the Mad Witch?"

A slow smile parted Kotohime's lips. "Even if? Lady Yakumo, she hurt my people. The word I'd use is _especially."_

Yukari couldn't help but smile in return. The girl probably didn't understand what she was getting herself into, but damn it, you just had to admire spirit like that. "Okay, fair enough. Just remember: when she starts yelling, you start running." She leaned in close, so that she and the Human woman were eye-to-eye. "Now, where's the battle?"

…

At that moment, Elias was considering calling in a full retreat. Despite their five-to-one odds, they were hopelessly outmatched. Marisa Kirisame was packing firepower of the kind that popped up in the dreams of deranged violent maniacs, and she wasn't shy about using it.

Elias and her remaining conscious officer had managed to get their fallen over to the Misty Lake's shore and were taking cover among trees that lined the water's edge. But as a shelter it was purely temporary and somewhat useless. Marisa was capable of melting rocks if she was of a mood.

Elias peeked around the side of the tree she was pressed up against. Marisa was still hovering over the lake, having just ripped house-sized rocks from orbit because she was upset. Elias wouldn't be surprised if the lake's water level had risen as a result, though she wasn't about to go out and measure.

"Anastasia," she said to her remaining officer. "Did Kotohime say what kind of help she would be sending?" She got no answer. "Anastasia?"

She looked. Anastasia, a brown-haired girl barely out of her teens, was huddled up with her back to the tree, knees drawn up, eyes closed tightly and hands clasped in front of her face. "Oh gods, please don't let her get us, please don't let her get us," she whispered over and over.

Elias frowned. She was tempted to reprimand her for unprofessional behavior in the face of an emergency, but seeing how the girl had been on the patrol for barely a month she decided to cut her some slack. She had just survived an asteroid strike, after all.

But still, she needed her up and alert. "Officer Littleton! Snap out of it!"

Anastasia jerked. "What?"

"Kotohime!" Elias shouted. "What did-"

"I'm here, sheriff."

Now it was Elias' turn to jerk in surprise. Kotohime Sonozika was indeed crouching next to her.

"Captain!" Elias gasped. "How did-"

Kotohime lifted a finger to her lips. Behind the captain were the officers Elias recognized as Nyoron, Blair and Kelso. From the look of things, the day they were having was much like her own.

"What's the situation?"

Elias had to repress a bitter laugh. "The situation? Eight kinds of screwed up." She gestured toward the unconscious forms of her patrol, who had been dropped a few feet away. "They're not going anywhere, we don't have the firepower to fight back, and I give it thirty seconds before she figures out we're not out there anymore and starts to deforest."

Kotohime frowned. She gave a curt nod. "Okay." She peered out at Marisa Kirisame.

"Do you see her?" she said.

"Um, yes?" Elias said. "She's kind of noticeable."

"Not you. Her."

Kotohime held up her right hand. Elias blinked in surprise. There, standing in Kotohime's palm, was a miniature woman, semi-transparent and staring out at the lake with evident interest. Furthermore, it was a woman that Elias found to be _frighteningly_ familiar.

"Captain," Elias said in a low tone. "Is that-"

"Yes. Quiet now."

"To answer your question, Kotohime," the tiny form of Yukari Yakumo said. "Yes, I do see her. Now, you and your companions should take cover. Things are about to get…windy."

Through the eyes of her conjured-up form, Yukari watched as Marisa evaporated several liters of water. Such a waste of energy, all spent on a temper tantrum.

She smiled. Well, she could play the overcompensation game as well. She reached out with her mind, feeling the wind currents over the Misty Lake. Then she slowly began to stir the air with her finger, making slow, lazy loops.

…

Marisa ceased her attack and looked around. There was no one else there. Which either meant she had gotten them all or they had taken off.

She had to make sure. If they reported back to Kotohime, and Kotohime reported to Yukari, then all her running had been for nothing. She turned to regard the shore and the trees that bordered it. It was the beginning of the Forest of Magic, her home. If those GPF punks had fled into there, then they were as good as hers. Few people knew the forest better than she did.

She grabbed onto her hat's brim and prepared to move forward. That was when she noticed how much colder it was getting, and how much stronger the wind was growing.

Marisa frowned. Her attack had stirred things up a bit, but for the most part the weather should still be calm.

Thunder boomed across the lake. Marisa looked up and her jaw dropped. Storm clouds were forming, large black ones that swirled in an ever tightening spiral.

This was no natural phenomenon. Magic tingled in the air around her. Someone was causing this, someone with a lot of power. There was no way those flunkies Marisa had just schooled were capable of this, so that meant a third party had just gotten involved. Marisa quickly reviewed the list of people she knew who were capable of this sort of thing. It was a depressingly large number. So she restricted it to people who had some sort of grudge against her. Still too many.

Though come to think of it, hadn't Rin Satsuki pulled something similar? Marisa's eyes narrowed. Maybe a search was unnecessary after all.

"Is that you, Satsuki?" she called. All around her, the wind was growing strength, so she raised her voice to be heard over the howl. "Well, come on! I'm itching for another go!"

…

Satsuki? Really? Was that who she thought was behind this? How amusing. At another time, Yukari might have been tempted to have some fun with that. But unfortunately time was of the essence.

Yukari wrapped her fingers into a fist. She squeezed.

…

There was a blinding flash of light. A bolt of lightning split the sky and slammed into the lake, causing the rolling water to leap up in response. The center of the cloud's spiral followed, shooting down and tightening to form a twisting whirlwind, dark and monolithic.

Marisa growled as the winds doubled, and then tripled their strength. She strained to keep her broom from being swept away. "No fair, ze!" she cried. "That's cheating!"

That was when her hat flew from her head. Marisa yelped and desperately grabbed for it, but she was too late. It flew away toward the funnel cloud, twisting and fluttering on the winds' currents.

"Aw, hell no!" Marisa roared. Now she was mad. Attack her, shoot at her, beat her up, fine. She could deal. But no one messed with her hat!

With one hand she struggled to pull the broom around, so that she was facing the whirlwind. It was no easy task. The broom bucked and fought against her, but she forced it to obey. With her other hand she pulled out her hakkero, which began to glow with energy.

"You want so of this, Satsuki?" she yelled. "Fine! Let's do-"

Then a tear opened up in the vortex's center, revealing a lavender world filled with endlessly blinking eyes.

Marisa gaped. "YUKARRRRRIIIIIIII!" she screamed.

…

"Took her long enough," Yukari muttered. She reached up with one hand and caught Marisa's hat as it flew out of the portal that hovered before her. Partially out of amusement, partially out of spite, she stuck it on her head.

"Now I have you, my pretty."

…

Marisa's face twisted into a grimaced of pure frustration as she tried to turn her broom around. This was insane. There was no way she was going to get out of this. The pull was just too strong.

That's when inspiration struck. She blinked and began to grin. Marisa shoved her hakkero back into her pocket and fished around. When she withdrew her hand, it was holding a small green crystal.

She held it up. "You think you got me, Grandma Gappy?" she called out. "Well, then say hello to my little-"

The wind snatched the crystal from her fingers and sending it flying toward the whirlwind.

"-shit."

Marisa tried not to panic. Okay, so she had lost the crystal. She could still get out of this. Maybe she could break it from afar? Long-ranged attacks were her specialty. Master Spark? No, too powerful. It might disrupt the smokescreen. But she had used up most of her other spellcards. What was left?

_Use old-fashioned bullets, dummy._

Still trying to keep her rebellious broom under control, she stuck her arm out, fingers pointing straight forward. She cocked her head, closed one eye and stuck out her tongue. Then, praying to anyone who might still like her, she fired.

It was a shot in the dark. The crystal was too small for her to see, and the air was filled with too much energy for her to track it. So she simply launched as many stars, magic missiles and any other projectiles as she could and hoped she got lucky.

For a second, nothing happened. The bullets sailed past where the crystal should have been and kept right on going. Marisa's heart fell. Well, with any luck they'll go through the gap, come out the other end and hit Yukari in her big, ugly-

Then there was the sound of a crack, audible even over the wind. This was followed by a blinding flash of green light.

…

Yukari cried out as she recoiled. Sharp pain lanced through her brain, and it felt like someone was squeezing her eyes with a nutcracker. She doubled over as she clutched at her face.

…

"Ma'am?" Kotohime stared down at her now empty palm. "Lady Yakumo? Are you there?"

"Captain, what happened?" Elias said in a hushed tone. "Why did the storm stop?"

"I don't know," Kotohime said with a frown. "Kirisame must have done something. But I can't see how-"

"Captain, look out!"

Blair grabbed Kotohime behind and yanked right off her feet. Seconds later, an angry red beam cut right through the place she was standing, searing through trees, dirt and even stone with intense heat.

Dumbfounded, she watched as several identical rays shot out from Marisa's body to demolish the rest of the shoreline.

"Did she see us?" squeaked Elias' remaining officer, whose name Kotohime could not remember for the life of her. "She saw us, right? Oh gods, she saw us!"

"Quiet!" Elias snapped. "Help me move them!" She indicated the still unconscious forms of the rest of her patrol.

"Why? What does it matter? She saw us, and now she's going to kill us, and there's nothing we can-"

"Shut up, and do what your commanding officer says," Kotohime said.

The girl flinched. Her body was trembling with fear, but she obeyed. Together, they picked up the fallen GPF officers and carried them deeper into the woods. As they worked, Kotohime said, "If she had seen us, she wouldn't have used such a wide-ranged attack. A simple fireball to our position would have done it. That attack was likely just an 'in-case'."

"So she tears up the whole fucking shore just because something _might _be there?" Kelso grumbled. "Jeez, talk about overcompensating."

"I've run into Marisa before. Believe me when I say it's just what she does."

Elias spoke. "Captain, there's something about that last attack that's just doesn't seem right to me." Before anyone could respond with a witty remark, she was quick to add, "Beyond the obvious, I mean. I don't think that spell was spellcard regulation."

Kotohime grunted. She and Elias set down the lifeless man they were carrying. "It wasn't. I'd bet money on it."

The scared girl started to freak out again. "W-wait, you mean it was fatal? Life-threatening? She was really trying to kill us?"

"Looks like." Kotohime allowed herself a bitter grin. "Which means I can add 'attempted murder' to the list of charges."

"Wait."

Everyone turned to Blair, who was looking around in confusion. "Where's Nyoron?" he asked.

Kotohime frowned. "Nyoron? She's right over…" Her voice trailed off when she realized that Nyoron was very much absent. She quickly did a headcount. Counting those Marisa had rendered unconscious, there were currently nine GPF officers huddled together.

"She was with us, right?" Kotohime asked. She looked from one tired face to the next. "After the attack? Does anyone remember?"

Kelso cleared his throat. "She was crouching next to you right before Kirisame decided to go all harbinger of the apocalypse on us."

Kotohime turned around and squinted. She could still see the spot where she had taken cover upon her arrival. A gaping black wound had been torn right through it, searing everything in the beam's path to ash.

"She got out of the way, right?" Kotohime said. "When Kirisame did that heat beam thing, she got out of the way?"

Blair shook his head. "Sorry Captain, I was focused on you. I didn't see."

"Me neither," Kelso added.

"Captain," Elias said in a low voice.

"What?"

"Look."

Kotohime's eyes followed the direction Elias' finger was pointing. There, lying along the side of the beam's path, something was sparkling. Something silvery, almost as if someone had ground a small amount of silver ore to powder and sprinkled it over the leaves.

"Oh," Kotohime said. Her stomach was twisting into knots. "Fairy dust. I see."

A long silence passed. Kotohime stood stock-still, staring at the leaf-covered ground. The others exchanged uncomfortable glances but said nothing.

Then Kotohime said softly, "Well, I guess I'll be dropping the 'attempted' part from that murder charge."

"Well, at least it was her," Elias said.

Kotohime's head whipped around and her eyes bored into her subordinate's with laser-like intensity. "And what was that supposed to mean?"

Realizing she had made a mistake, Elias quickly said, "N-nothing! No offense intended. It's just…"

"What? Just what?"

Elias started to fumble for words. "Well…I'm only say…she is a fairy, it's not like…well, you know…"

Kelso took the opportunity to sidle up to her and whisper, "Seriously, stop before she discharges you."

Elias' face turned red. "Right. Apologies, Captain."

Kotohime stared at her for a moment longer. Then she slowly nodded. "Very well."

She turned her attention back to Marisa. The Mad Witch had seemed to tire of spreading senseless destruction and was now on the move, fleeing into the forest. Although Kotohime supposed that it was a good thing that the attack was over, having to watch someone get away after assaulting her people rankled her deeply. But what could she do? She had four officers lying unconscious and another…temporarily unfit for duty. It would be impossible to get them back to their headquarters in the Human Village and she just couldn't leave the injured patrol by themselves in the youkai-infested forest. Reinforcements would take some time to arrive. She supposed she could leave Kelso and Blair to help take care of them, but that would mean going after Kirisame alone, and as angry as she was she wasn't so bad as to attempt something so stupid.

Except…maybe it wasn't so crazy…

"Okay, here's the deal: Blair, Kelso, stay and help with the wounded. Keep them out of sight, and make sure that hungry youkai are properly discouraged. Elias, call the HQ for help, have them send a recovery team, and make sure they bring a medic. You…uh, sorry, I've forgotten your name…"

The scared girl stiffened. "M-me?"

"Yes. You."

"Uh, Anastasia, Ma'am. Anastasia Littleton."

"Is that right? All right Anastasia, you've got lookout duty. Get up into that tree," Kotohime pointed to the tall pine in question "and keep an eye out for anything that looks like it wants to cause trouble. And when Nyoron…" Kotohime hesitated for a fraction of a second and then continued "…when she, uh, wakes up, tell her to stay put until I get back."

"Get back?" Blair said. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going after Kirisame."

This announcement brought forth a flurry of questions and objections, the dominant theme being that taking on Marisa Kirisame alone would be suicide.

"Enough!" Kotohime shouted. "Enough. I'm not planning on attacking her, just trailing her. I'm not about to let her pull something like that and just fly away."

"But, Captain!" Elias said. "It's still reckless! If she sees you she'll attack! And even if she doesn't, what could you do? All of us together couldn't do anything."

"Seriously, at least let me come along," Blair said.

"No. If she didn't have any problem taking out all of us, then having one more along won't make any difference. Besides, I won't be without backup."

"Huh?"

Kotohime turned to stare in the direction Kirisame had headed. "Yukari Yakumo wants that girl, and she wants her bad," she said. "Whatever it was that Kirisame used to stop her didn't appear to have any kind anchor, so it's almost certainly a temporary effect. So it's going to wear off, and when it does…" Kotohime's fist clenched at her side. "…when it does, I can't imagine Lady Yakumo is going to be in a good mood."

…

Yukari was collapsed on the floor, hands clutching at her face. Her eyes were still squeezed shut from the pain, and it seemed that she was unable to seal it off. That told her a number of things. First, whatever Marisa had used on her had been specifically designed to counter her control over borders as well as her gaps. Also, since Marisa lacked the experience and finesse to put such a thing together, she had to have gotten it from someone else. And given how incredibly powerful it was, that meant that the most likely culprit was…

Ah, what was she doing? She had figured it out as soon as Marisa had set it off. The flash had been green, after all.

Fortunately the effects were starting to fade. With a grunt exertion, Yukari pushed herself up on her palms and used the chair as a brace as she shakily rose to her feet. She squinted through half-closed eyes. Everything was cloudy and swam around confusingly. She shook her head and stumbled her way to the door.

"Well. Yukari, while I appreciate the interest, shouldn't you take me out to dinner first?"

Yukari blinked. Enough of the haze cleared for her to see that her hand, stretched out for the door handle, had passed through the left breast of a green-haired specter that had somehow gotten into her private chambers.

"Mima," she said, withdrawing her hand. "Good. Just the spirit I wanted to see."

"Yes, I gathered as much from your…groping."

"Stop it," Yukari snapped. "I'm in no mood for jokes."

"Neither am I." Mima folded her arms across her breast. "In fact, I'm here to finish our conversation earlier, but it seems you've already jumped the gun on that one."

"You're…what?"

"Marisa. Where is she?"

Yukari rubbed her forehead. She wondered if her headache was planning on going away any time soon. "And how should I-"

"Yukari, please don't play that game. Not three hours ago you told me you were planning on having her arrested. Soon after, your personal spook arrives with a bunch of her minions. Then Marisa turns up missing during the meeting this afternoon. It does not take a genius to put two and two together."

"Oh? All right then, let's talk about you. Marisa's hakkero and spellcards went missing from my person right after our conversation, there was a large window of opportunity for you to go warn her when I was busy with Kotohime and Satori-"

"Oh yes, I was wondering what that was all about."

"-and then there's the fact that Marisa failed to show for the meeting, like you said, despite the fact that I specifically told you that I was going to arrest her _after _it was over. It does not take a conspiracy theorist to draw some unfortunate conclusions."

"And since when is anything you say trustworthy? Besides, I think the evidence far more supports my side than yours."

"Really? And how do you figure?"

Mima pointed up, toward the top of Yukari's head. "You're wearing her hat."

Yukari blinked. She turned her eyes upward. "I am?" She reached up and pulled off a pointed black hat tied with a large white bow. "Oh. I guess I am. Huh."

Mima's eyes flashed. "Now, mind explaining how you got that?"

Yukari sighed. "All right, you got me. Fine. After you snuck behind my back to warn Marisa of my intentions and rearm her with her usual cache of obscene firepower, the girl ran into one of Kotohime's patrols over the Misty Lake. Naturally, violence ensued."

"Get to the point."

"The point? The point is that I stepped in to end the fight right then and there, but as it seems your little witch had gotten her hands on a counter-spell, one designed to act against me specifically. It killed my influence in that area and temporarily numbed my power. What's more, it _hurt."_

Mima's poker face remained steady, though she had to be fighting a smile. "That doesn't explain what you're doing with her hat."

Yukari shrugged. "You ever hear those fables where a fox or some other large animal is nearly caught in a hunter's trap but manages to escape, leaving a bit of their tail behind?"

"Yes."

Yukari waved the hat back and forth. "More or less the same situation."

This time Mima did smile. "So. The almighty Yukari, outwitted by a mere Human. I must have trained her better than I thought."

"You're taking this remarkably well," Yukari said.

"Why shouldn't I?" Mima floated forward, passing through Yukari's body like moisture through a sheet. Yukari winced and shook her head.

Mima made her way across Yukari's new table and settled down in her chair. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the wood surface. "After all, I just learned that you were defeated by my girl. Right now, it's hard to feel anything beyond pride. Well, there's also amusement, smugness and just a bit of contempt. But all in all, this news puts me in a good mood."

"So you're not angry?"

"Angry? Why should I be angry? You took a chance, lost, and admitted it. That's just how the game works." The spirit idly ran a finger over the sanded-down surface of the table. Her face darkened just a bit. "Oh, I admit I did come ready to scrape your face across the walls had you been successful, but I don't think the circumstances merit those sort of measures."

"I see."

"Of course, you will have to call off this silly witch-hunt. I mean, what were you thinking? Honestly Yukari, you should know better than that."

Yukari closed her eyes. Her headache was starting to fade. "I suppose I should."

"So, we're agreed? You'll abandon this course of action? No more of you swooping down to try to snatch Marisa out of the sky?"

"I won't need to."

"Good!" Mima chuckled. "So glad we were able to…Wait, what was that again?"

Yukari tossed Marisa's hat onto a nearby chest of drawers. "I said I won't need to swoop out of the sky or become personally involved in any way. It's no longer necessary."

Mima's finger paused. "And why is that?"

"Because last I heard, Marisa was making a beeline for the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

Even though Mima did not possess legs, she still managed to convey the motion of jumping to her feet. "What!"

"You…did warn her about Remilia Scarlet's hostility, didn't you? Let her know that the mansion would be inadequate as a safe house?"

"Of course I did!"

"Then perhaps she intends to take the matter up with Remilia personally. She never did think clearly while angry." Now it was Yukari's turn to smile. "Unfortunately, Remilia has already been informed of Marisa's intentions, and is preparing to meet her. And seeing how Marisa has already spent a large fraction of her power fighting off Kotohime's people…Well, let's just say I expect that the vampire will deliver her into my hands within the hour. That is, assuming there's anything left to deliver. Remilia hasn't been in the best of moods lately."

Mima stiffened. Her fingers started to shake. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, when it comes to people overstepping their bounds and pissing me off, you'll find that I am very serious indeed. You out of all people should know this."

"You…I'll…"

"You'll what? Attack me? Here, in the heart of my domain?" Yukari shook her head and tsked. "Mima, you should know better than that. I have so many safeguards in place that even if you do win, you'll never leave-"

Yukari realized that she was speaking to empty air. Mima was gone.

With a smile, Yukari rolled her eyes. She walked around the table to sit down in her chair. "Guess she wasn't up to it. Well, never mind then." She held out a palm and concentrated. Over her hand Kotohime's form began to take shape. It was still indistinct and shot through with static, but that would wear off soon enough.

The princess in question was flying forward. She appeared to be in a great hurry. Knowing her, she was probably in pursuit of Marisa. Good, it made things simpler.

"Captain?" Yukari said. "Captain Sonozika! Can you hear me?"

Kotohime looked up at her. She started in surprise, and then her mouth parted in a relieved smile. _"Ma'am, you're back!"_

"I am. And I have to say, that was _really _unpleasant. So tell me." Yukari leaned in close, so that she and Kotohime's tiny form were eye-to-eye. "Where is Marisa Kirisame?"

…

An open book sat on Alice's desk, its revealed pages empty. Alice dipped the feathered quill she was holding in the inkwell. She began to write.

_Yet another dead end today, _she jotted down in her fussy, precise handwriting. _While Shanghai's reactions continue to develop, she has yet to display any semblance of freewill. Everything she does is something I've preprogrammed, and anything that isn't is simple mimicry. I suppose I should be glad that there has been any progress at all, but I fear that this path will only gift me with a highly advanced puppet. If I had wanted a robot, then I'd have commissioned one from the Kappa._

Alice paused. She glanced over to Shanghai, who was sitting propped up on the desk. She waved her fingers in front of the little doll's face. Shanghai lifted up her hand and copied the motion. Alice sighed and went back to her journal.

_It would be helpful if Medicine could remember the exact circumstances of her own change, but like most youkai born from inanimate objects her memory of the change itself remains inaccessible. One cannot fail to see the irony in all this. Becoming a youkai has granted me immortality and her sentience and independence, and yet despite all our efforts, neither of us are able to replicate this effect in a single doll. And it really begs the question: if we are unable to do this, then of what point is all my research?_

Alice frowned. The hand holding the quill was starting to tremble. She stopped writing and stared at it until it steadied. She took a deep breath and resume.

_I must admit, I now regret that Mother and I parted on the terms that we did. After all, it was through her knowledge that my own change came to be. How foolish of me to believe that once my own evolution was complete I would have no more use for the formula. And now I fear I am running out of time. Every day Marisa grows older, and I may not be ab_

Suddenly the front door slammed behind her, startling her so bad that she nearly slashed right through the page.

"All right, what is this?" she growled as she slammed the book shut and jumped out of her chair. She turned around. "I thought my warning was clear: I don't care who you are, anyone who enters my house without permission will-"

Alice stopped talking. Marisa stood with her back pressed against the door. Her arms were outstretched to either side and her hands were clutching the doorframe. Judging by the sweat that covered her beet-red face and how heavily she was breathing, she had had a rough time making it to Alice's place. But strangest of all, her head was completely bare. Alice couldn't even remember seeing her without her hat, and they saw each other every week.

"Marisa?" Alice said as she cautiously approached. "What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be at Yukari's meeting! And dear gods, what happened to your hat?"

Despite her disheveled state, Marisa managed a shaky smile. "Hey Alice, how's your day been going? Good? Glad'tah hear it, ze. Say, you wouldn't happen to have any kind of secret hiding places around here, would you?"

"Secret hiding…Marisa, what in the _world _are you-"

Marisa pushed right past her and started rummaging through her shelves.

"Oh, and if you've got any spare spellcards lying around, I'd really appreciate it if I could borrow them. Also regular spells too. Especially the blowing-things-up kind."

"What? What do you…Hey, leave that alone!"

Marisa had gotten behind a chest of drawers and was now shoving across the floor until it was right in front of the door.

"Okay, quickly go and close and seal all the windows," the young witch said. She started pulling the drawers open and rifled through their contents. "And while you're at it, do you got any heavier furniture, like one of those big-ass safes or something?"

"Okay, that's enough!" Alice grabbed Marisa and twisted her around so they were facing each other. "Have you completely lost what little mind you have left? I don't care how you treat everyone else, you do _not _just burst into my house and start messing with my stuff!"

Marisa pushed her away. "Sorry Alice, this is kind of an emergency, ze. Yukari wants to arrest me."

Alice almost tripped over herself. "I-I'm sorry, could you please repeat that?"

"What are yah deaf?" Marisa went back to her rummaging, talking as she worked. "Yukari Yakumo, AKA psycho _bitch_ who we should have gotten rid of years ago, decided to cut a deal with Remilia Scarlet, AKA whiny crybaby who needs to grow the hell up, and put my ass in jail!"

Alice stared. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"No, it's not a freaking joke, ze! You see my head? Notice the lack of hat? Yukari just tried to suck my ass up and got my hat instead! And now she's got Kotohime's goon squad on my tail, trying to…Are you laughing?"

Alice was indeed trying to fight off the giggles that were now threatening to rise up and escape. "I'm sorry, it's just so…I mean, we were just _talking _about this! Remember what I said about karma?"

"Hey, you know what?" Marisa around to jab a finger at Alice's face. "Screw karma, and screw you too! I'm being serious here. Mima said that Yukari's gone nuts and wants to, uh, resource me or something, whatever the hell that means."

Alice blinked. "Wait, Mima?"

"Yes! Em-Eye-Em-Ay! She pulled me aside and told me to haul ass before Yukari caught me! And then I ran into Kotohime's bunch of tools and they tried punching my ticket. And then what do you know? Good old Yukari herself tried to make a grab for me, and-"

"Wait, slow down," Alice said, holding up her palm. "Who's Kotohime again?"

Marisa looked like she was about to pull her hair out. "You know, that crazy cop girl! The Leader of the Human Village's weirdo niece that no one really wanted to talk about, ze? Used to go around annoying people and picking up weird shit? Then Yukari got her hands on her and did something to make her less crazy and yet somehow even more annoying! She's like the head of that Gensokyo Peacekeeping Force thing that's been popping up everywhere!"

Alice scratched at her chin. Now that Marisa mentioned it, she had heard something about that. "Is that where all those irritating patrols in black are coming from?"

"Yes! And now they're after me! Do I need to get out the blackboard and make you some graphs?"

Alice wasn't entirely sure what to make of what she had just been told. She didn't doubt that Yukari would be capable of such a thing, and she certainly didn't doubt that Marisa would find herself being pursued by some sort of law enforcement agency. But Marisa was a notorious liar. And Mima even more so. Despite her more-or-less constant companionship, Alice didn't trust Marisa any further than Shanghai could throw her. And even if she was telling the truth…

"Uh, Marisa?"

"What? What is it? Are you gonna help me now, or are you gonna keep standing around like a lump?"

"I really hate to point this out, but aren't you actually guilty of numerous felonies?

Marisa whirled around and thrust her finger at Alice's face. "Don't you start with me, Alice. If Fangs wants to sue me, then let her! But I'm not about to let the Mistress of all that is Holey-"

Someone started banging on the door. Alice and Marisa stopped their argument and stared. The intruder tried jiggling the door handle but, finding the door blocked, resumed their pounding.

"This is Captain Sonozika of the GPF!" shouted a young woman's voice. "I know you're in there, Marisa! Don't make this harder than it has to be!"

Alice raised an eyebrow. "That would be her?"

"Yeah." Marisa's shoulders slumped. "That's her. So...about that hiding place?"

"You know, there's a phrase I recall hearing something Mother used to say to me. 'Your sins will find you out'. I'm thinking maybe-"

"That was very well spoken, Miss Margatroid. I couldn't have put it better myself."

The voice was not Marisa's. A new person had joined them in the house, striking woman with long, golden hair and eyes of the same color.

Rage ignited a fire in Marisa's tired eyes. "Yukari!" she shouted.

"Why do people keep jumping in without permission?" Alice wondered. "Also, I'm getting really...Wait, Marisa, don't!"

It was too late. The Mad Witch had already yanked out her hakkero and thrust it before her. Dazzling white light began to gather in its core as the room filled with a shrill whining.

"Master Spark!" Marisa howled, and pure, destructive power leapt forward to envelop Yukari.

Yukari didn't so much a flinch. She merely waved a hand, and one of her gaps opened directly in front of her like a shield. The Master Spark was swallowed up without even touching her.

Marisa snarled, "Oh, that is jusAAAHHHH!" Above her, a second gap had opened, and her own attack poured down like a waterfall and flattened her to the floor.

Given the sort of materials Alice usually worked with, her house was reinforced against violent magics. However, once glare had faded, there still was a shallow bowl-shaped indentation of scorched wood in the floor. Marisa lay in its center, similarly damaged.

Alice gaped. "Marisa!" She spun around to face Yukari. "Yakumo, you go too far! That was-"

"Entirely self-defense," Yukari said, her eyes not leaving Marisa. "She shot first, I reacted."

"But still, you have no business being in my house in the first place! I must insist that you-"

"Of course I do. Marisa chose to take shelter here, so here I am. I will leave with her."

"But this is trespassing! And-"

Yukari didn't seem inclined to let her finish any of her sentences. "And your situation can be described as harboring a fugitive. Honestly Margatroid, are you anyone to throw stones?"

One eye closed in pain, Marisa pushed herself up on shaky arms. "Back off, Yukari," she growled. "This is between you and me."

Yukari glared down at her in contempt. "Normally I'd agree, but I'm not the only one with a score to settle with you."

She motioned with one hand, and the heavy set of drawers suddenly lurched away from the door, screeching as it scraped its way across the floor. The door burst open and in burst a woman in a black uniform with brown hair tied back in a ponytail.

Marisa reacted immediately, bringing her hakkero once again to bear only to realize that her hands were empty. Less than a second later Kotohime hit her with a punch that slammed right into Marisa's chin and sent her flying backward.

Alice looked around desperately. This was madness. She had to put a stop to it.

Her eyes fell upon the spools of puppet-string on a nearby shelf. That should do the trick. She reached out with her will, intending to animate them and tie up both combatants. But too her surprise, nothing happened. It was as if her power was being blocked off.

Yukari laid a hand on her shoulder, confirming her suspicions. "Don't interfere," Yukari said.

"But this is my house!" Alice said.

"And believe when I say I intend to be out of it as soon as possible. Now, watch and wait. This will be over soon."

Feeling completely helpless, Alice could only do stand and do as Yukari said as Marisa staggered to her feet. With a cry of rage, she swung her fist at Kotohime, who neatly sidestepped the blow and grabbed the witch's arm as it passed by. Using the witch's momentum against her, Kotohime lashed out with one leg and swept Marisa's legs out from under her. The witch hit the ground. Hard.

"You're under arrest," Kotohime hissed as she twisted Marisa's arms behind her. She pulled out a short length of cord and pressed it to her opponent's wrists. As soon as it touched flesh, it immediately wound itself around Marisa's arms, binding them tightly together. She stood to her feet and glowered down at her prisoner. "And trust me when I say you'd better stay down."

Grunting, Marisa twisted her head around and told Kotohime where she could shove her warrant.

"There, you see?" Yukari said to Alice. "All done. We'll be out of your hair and-"

Kotohime lashed out with a vicious kick that drove the metal tip of her boot into Marisa's stomach. Marisa gasped in pain as the wind was driven from her.

"That was for Nyoron, you stupid little bitch!" Kotohime cried. She drew back her leg to kick her again.

A strong arm slapped across Kotohime's chest, holding her back. "Captain, that's enough!" Yukari snapped. "We've won here, it's over!"

Kotohime was shaking with rage, but she stood at attention and did not protest.

Alice, however, did. "Yukari Yakumo, this has gone too far!" she shouted. "This isn't an arrest, this is police brutality! You have no right-"

Yukari turned her head to look at her. "If you wish to file a complaint, then take it up at the GPF headquarters. Kotohime, pick her up and get her out of here."

Kotohime nodded. She bent over and grabbed Marisa by the cords that bound her arms. The Mad Witch was yanked roughly to her feet.

"Walk," Kotohime said, pushing her toward the door.

Marisa glared at her from over her shoulder. "This ain't over, ze," she hissed. "The scales need balancing. I owe you one, police-girl."

Kotohime gave her a sudden shove, making her stumble. "Wait until I kill one of you friends, then look me up."

"Captain, I'm not going to repeat myself," Yukari said. "Take the prisoner and leave. We've caused enough trouble here."

Kotohime started to force a struggling Marisa Kirisame toward the door. Alice took the opportunity to jump in front of their path.

"All right, this has gone on far enough!" she shouted. "I don't care what she's done, you just can't-"

Alice suddenly realized that she was no longer standing between Kotohime and the door. Instead, she was now at the other of end of the room, in front of her desk. She turned around to see Yukari looking at her.

"I understand why you're upset," Yukari said. "I'm sorry you had to be brought into this, and I apologize for the disturbance to your house."

She gestured with one hand. The chest of drawers lifted off the ground and floated over to settle in its original position. Meanwhile, the scar left behind from Marisa's Master Spark shuddered and began to smooth itself out, the burnt wood becoming whole. Soon Alice's house had healed itself.

"We're going now, Captain," Yukari said. Kotohime nodded and directed a still-angry Marisa toward the door. Yukari snapped her fingers, and one of her bizarre gaps opened right outside. The three of them walked through, leaving a very confused Alice behind.

…

_This update delay is brought to you by a combination of schoolwork, a new job, some personal stuff and the letter P! Sorry about that. Extra long chapter to make up for it._

_Anyway, if you'll remember way back in "The Gods Must Be Lazy", I mentioned that one of my reasons for writing this fic was to do attempt a darkfic that still retained at least semi-realistic plot progression and character development. The other was to also see if it was possible to do one that kept the setting and generally agreed upon character personalities more-or-less intact, in which while some changes would be made, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say this story could very well take place within the actual world of the Touhou Project._

_Well folks, that is no longer possible. Because as I was browsing through the Touhou wiki, I found not one, not two, but _three _places in which Imperfect Metamorphosis contradicts Touhou canon, with probably others that I haven't spotted yet. _

_1. In chapter eight it is stated that the Scarlet Devil Mansion was in Gensokyo several decades before this story's beginning, long enough for Sakuya and Patchouli to have become involved in the Satsuki incident. But according to Perfect Memento, it didn't appear in Gensokyo until the mid-nineties, and even if it was still present and just hidden, there would be no way the isolated members of Eientei would have been able to known that they were there, much less gotten in contact with them. This was purely my mistake, and I actually _knew _this before starting the story, and just plain forgot. Though it still raises the question of where Patchouli came from, because if this is correct, she could have only known Remilia for less than a decade. Unless, of course, she was one of the last youkai hiding out in the Outside World and…You know what? I'm just going to let that one lie._

_2. Throughout the story, especially in chapter thirteen, there have been references to Gensokyo and the Hakurei Border being several centuries old. Except as it turns out they've only been around since 1884. This is kind of justifiable, as I simply didn't know that at the time, but it's still a little embarrassing. _

_3. The spellcard system was not devised by Yukari, as was stated a number of times, but by Reimu. Okay, now this change I am going to defend, because to me it doesn't make sense for Reimu to be the system's creator. Throughout the series, she encounters a number of creatures who have never so much as heard of her and in fact have had very little contact with the majority of Gensokyo but use spellcards anyway. How exactly did Reimu establish this rule? How does she enforce it? How did all these people learn of the rule and why do they go along with it? So to my mind, it makes much more sense for Yukari to have been the one to put the system in place. _

_So…yeah. It's not really that big of an issue, but it's still irreconcilable. I guess we're officially in Alternate Universe territory now. Ah well._

_Anyway, moving on! The next update will probably be a new RoSD chapter._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	21. Praying For a Miracle

Praying For a Miracle

_Remilia Scarlet is dreaming._

_It is a dream she had often, but never could fully recall upon wakening, save for the end. What she can remember the suffocating feeling of being locked into a tiny space. She can remember being surrounded by complete darkness and bitter cold. She can remember the overwhelming terror that rises up to envelop her as she screams and begs to be released._

_Then someone takes her by the hand and squeezes it tightly. Remilia squeezes back. Though she can never see the other person, their presence does give her some measure of comfort, small as it may be, though at times she's unsure who is comforting who._

_It doesn't last though, because that's when the monster arrives, a snarling, creeping thing. Just like her companion, it is impossible to see, save for the burning fires of its eyes. It slowly approaches, taking its time as it stalks through the black. It's crawling on all fours. She can hear its long and filthy fingernails scraping against the cold stones. _

_It's almost upon her now. Remilia and her companion try to move away from it, but there is nowhere to go. So they press themselves against the wall and clutch at each other tightly. The monster looks down at them, its red eyes gloating. Drool drips down as it opens its mouth and it speaks._

"Wake up, vampire."

Remilia jolted awake. Hard stone and ragged chill were replaced by the soft sheets and comforting warmth of her room. She sat up in bed, blinking as she tried to banish the clinging tendrils of the dream.

She peered through bleary eyes. There was someone hovering at the foot of her bed. Someone with green hair and a blue outfit…

"Mima?" she said. "What are you doing in my bedchamber?" She had of course seen the ghost dozens of times during her visits to Hakurei Shrine, but she couldn't fathom why Mima would appear in her bedroom.

Mima looked down at her, arms folded in displeasure. "Let's cut to the chase, shall we? Where is Marisa?"

The small vampire shook her head. Her mind was still fuzzy and, to tell the truth, she wasn't entirely sure if she was still dreaming or not. "Wait, what? Marisa…"

"Yes. Marisa. Marisa Kirisame. Where is she?"

"How should I know?" Remilia scowled. She kicked off her bedclothes and dropped to the rich red velvet carpet. "And you do realize that you're trespassing, don't you? I don't enjoy being woken-"

Mima held out a single finger and muttered a word. Remilia's eyes widened as an invisible force grabbed her and started to lift her off the ground.

She grimaced in frustration. Oh no, she wasn't going to take this again. Not in her own home. She mustered her own power, drawing strength from the mansion itself, and sent it outward.

Mima's eyes bulged. She made a small _hrryk _noise of surprise and was propelled back five feet before regaining control. Remilia landed in a crouch, fangs bared and crimson energy dancing around her hands.

"I don't know what your problem is," she spat. "But no one assaults me in my home, _especially _not in my bedchamber!"

"And I'm not interested in resorting to fisticuffs. I'll ask you again: where is Marisa?"

"I don't know where the witch is! Why would I know? That last time I saw her was when you two showed up earlier this week to harass my household!"

"Don't lie," Mima hissed. "Yukari told me…"

The ghost's voice trailed off. Her face was blank for a moment, and then she inhaled sharply as her eyes widened. "Oh, you sneaky _bitch!"_ she whispered.

"I-I beg your pardon!" Remilia sputtered.

"Not you!" Mima said in a cross tone. She turned around, flicking her hand in a shooing gesture. "Wrong house. Go back to sleep."

She started to fade away. Remilia was more than happy to let her go. She turned around, intending to see if she could catch a few more minutes of sleep (though she seriously doubted it) but something suddenly struck her.

"Hey!" she called as she whirled back around. "Wait a minute."

By this point Mima was little more than an optical illusion. However, at Remilia's call she returned to full solidity.

"I'm sorry, did you just call me back?" Mima said, her voice laced with disbelief. "Don't you realize that most people would be on their knees thanking whatever gods they believed in if I were to simply leave without causing trouble?"

Remilia smiled her most disarming smile. "I've never been the sort to let an opportunity slip by. And I believe we have the opportunity to help each other."

"Don't try my patience, vampire. I have little enough as it is."

"Oh, I'm not. If I am to understand you correctly, you are currently having some friction with Yukari Yakumo, is that right?"

"That is my business. Go mind your own."

"Oh, but I am. You see, Yukari and I haven't exactly been getting along lately either. And if you also have reason to dislike her, then-"

"Wait, stop." Mima held up a hand, palm out. "What are you talking about? Yukari said that you offered your help and demanded that Marisa be arrested as payment, and she accepted."

Remilia growled from the back of her throat. "Oh, _did _she? How unsurprising. No, what happened is that I extended my offer of assistance and asked only that she do _something _about that witch's constant harassment in return, and she not only threw it back in my face but blackmailed me and my sister into helping out anyway!"

"Oh? That's interesting. If it's true, that is."

"Oh, it is, believe me it is. And if you're on the outs with her as well, then…" Remilia's smile returned "…I believe there is a great deal we can offer each other."

Mima unfortunately looked unimpressed. "Huh. So you said you'd chip in and got coerced instead. Why don't I believe that?"

"It's the truth!"

"Even if it were, you just admitted that you got suckered by Yukari and are at the end of your rope. Sorry, little corpse. I'm not interested in working with the incompetent."

Remilia opened her mouth to defend her skills at conspiracy, but it was pointless. Mima had already vanished. Remilia stared at the empty air as feeling of shock, anger and frustration welled up within her.

"Why," she said "doesn't anybody want to conspire with me? I'm a vampire, for Vlad's sake! Subterfuge and trickery are what I do! Just because I had one plan go awry doesn't mean-"

Then she leapt back with a cry of alarm, her wings instinctively folding around to cover her face. Mima had suddenly reappeared with a disgruntled look on her face.

The ghost massaged her forehead and glanced at Remilia. "Yukari blocked me from reentering her tower," she grumbled. "Clever girl. Oh, I am _so_ making her life miserable for this."

With that, she vanished again, leaving Remilia alone in her room. The young vampire gaped as her brain tried to catch up. Several high-pitched squeaking noises came out of her open mouth, but none of it resembled articulate speech.

Then she shut her mouth and straightened up. So, the ghost wasn't taking her seriously either? Well, fine. She was still an incredibly powerful (not to mention wealthy) vampire with an entire mansion of resources at her disposal. She had Patchouli and her knowledge, Sakuya and her prowess, Hong Meiling and her strength, Flandre and her overwhelming power, hundreds of magical artifacts, more money than most gods, her own hereditary cunning, as well as numerous outside connections. She didn't _need _these self-important natives. She could solve this problem on her own if need be. She didn't need…

Remilia became aware of dampness forming around her eyes. She also became aware that her nostrils were starting to fill with snot.

She scowled and pulled out a handkerchief. _Oh, for crying out loud, _she thought as she dabbed at her eyes. _This is just embarrassing. _

There came a sudden knock at the door, startling her. "Lady Scarlet!" Sakuya shouted from the other side. "Are you all right? The wards detected an intruder! Please, is everything all right?"

Remilia sighed and blew her nose. "Ye-" she started to say, only to have her voice crack. She cleared her throat and tried again.

"Yes, yes, everything's fine," she said as she walked toward the door. "It was just that damned Mima working off some false information. Annoying, wouldn't you agree? She's gone now."

She gripped the cold metal of the handles and pulled the door open. Sakuya stood on the other side, knives held between the fingers of her right hand and a worried expression on her face.

"Mima?" Sakuya said. "She was here? What did she want?"

"I don't know. Yukari did something to Marisa and tried to pin it on us. Very annoying. Anyway, it's all been cleared up. She's gone now, so there's no problem."

"But…"

Remilia was already closing the door. "Thank you for your concern. Let me know if Patchouli finally comes through. You may leave now."

The door clicked shut.

Sakuya remained standing on the other side for several seconds afterward. Remilia could smell her, which was annoying. The maid's concern was commendable, but at that moment Remilia just wanted to be left alone.

Fortunately, Sakuya seemed to finally get the hint and walk away. Remilia sighed and returned to her bed. Sniffling, she wiggled herself under the covers and pulled them up over her head.

On the whole, she reflected, this week sucked.

…

Even though the Ringleader meeting had ended in the early afternoon, the Ruined City was still a long way from the Youkai Mountain. And given that this was Gensokyo, Reimu and her traveling companions had to deal with more than one roaming gang of hungry youkai and over-confident fairies. Of course, seeing how their party consisted of a physical god, a magician who might as well be a god and two professional youkai exterminators, they suffered little more than temporary inconvenience. Still, by the time their journey came to its end, the sun was starting to set.

Reimu felt a rush of relief when she saw the towering monolith of the Youkai Mountain appear on the horizon. It felt good to finally arrive. For one thing, it meant that she could finally stop flying and shooting down those foolish enough to attack them. Also, the Moriya Shrine was situated only a short distance from the Tengu Village. And Reimu just plain _liked _the Tengu Village. Among all the youkai, the Tengu, along with their closest neighbors the Kappa, were the friendliest to humans, which was ironic considering how much tension had existed between the two people back in the Outside World. And Reimu was one of the few who, despite her job as a youkai exterminator, was one of the few humans who was more comfortable associating with youkai. At least when she wasn't on duty. And unlike her own "people" back at the Human Village, the Tengu had no problem with her visiting either. In fact, on more than one occasion she had been told that, due to her skills in flight and refusal to take gruff from anyone, she would have made a good Tengu. She thought it safest to take it as a compliment.

Plus there was the village itself. While the Human Village was certainly a decent settlement in its own right, the Tengu had inhabited that mountain since the earliest days of Gensokyo, and therefore had more time to develop their civilization. And so by now their civilization was nothing short of impressive. The town, which sat on the gentle slope of the mountain peak, was so large that it could possibly be called a city. The buildings were thin but very, very tall; multi-tiered structures with pointed roofs that curled up at the edges. Ropes stretched across the buildings, holding up a variety of banners, signs, lights and other decorations. At the far end of the Tengu Village was the mansion of Boss Tenma, the Tengu leader. Before Kanako's arrival, he and his counterpart among the Kappa had sat among the Ringleaders in representation of their respective societies. However, once Kanako had established herself as the goddess of the Youkai Mountain, it was decided that she would represent both peoples. Neither leader had protested the decision, and reportedly Tenma had immediately declared an entire week of drinking and partying in celebration. Reimu had only met him on a couple of occasions, and had declared him to be friendly and jovial, even if he was rather full of himself and a little too fond of the bottle.

In fact, despite the seriousness of her reason for visiting, Reimu couldn't help but hope she would be able to spend at least a little time in the village afterward. There was this fantastic bathhouse Sanae had taken her to once…

Reimu's wistful musings were suddenly cut off when she saw several figures rise from the shadows and head upward to intercept the party. Reimu recognized them as members of the Tengu's Hanataka caste, identified by the long, bladed staffs and round shields they carried. Like all Tengu, they all wore _tokin _on their heads, small box-shaped hats with pointed tops. But while this might appear to be comical on any other species, the scowls on their faces and naked weapons in their hands sent a clear message that this group was not to be laughed at. Even though the Tengu were counted among the friendliest of the youkai races, they still didn't much care for unwanted visitors. And it was the Hanataka's job to discourage such people.

The leader of this specific patrol was a grim looking woman with short grey hair. Unlike her fellows, she had neglected to arm herself with a polearm in favor of a large scimitar, the blade of which was painted black, save for a the razor-sharp edge. Also noteworthy were her ears, which despite her humanoid appearance were large and pointed, like a wolf's.

Momiji Inubashiri bowed low. "Lady Kanako, praises unto your name. May your miracles forever be celebrated. And Lady Kochiya as well, I bid you welcome. Forgive us; we were not expecting you for another three days. Had we known you would be returning so soon, there would have been an honor guard waiting for you a mile ago."

"Don't worry about it," Kanako said. "The meeting ended much earlier than expected, thank faith."

Momiji nodded. "Indeed. I am glad you were spared further discomfort. I pray that your time was not wasted."

Kanako's face darkened ever so slightly. "Wasted? No, I wouldn't say that it was. But the news was…" She shook her head. "Never mind, I'll fill you in later. In the meantime, my…companions and I need to return to the shrine as quickly as possible."

"Of course. But my Lady, it would be wise if you-" Momiji's gaze finally flitted off of her god's face and caught glimpse of Reimu and Byakuren hovering toward the black. Her eyes narrowed to slits. Reimu wasn't paranoid, but she got the distinct impression that Momiji wasn't happy to see them. The two of them didn't exactly get off on the right foot during their first meeting, and while Momiji had never pressed the issue, passing her to enter the Tengu Village was always an awkward experience.

"Are these your guests, Lady Kanako?" Momiji asked. Though she tried to keep her voice neutral, there was still a hint of disapproval.

"Yes, I suppose the title applies," Kanako said. "Would you mind providing an escort?"

"Of course not! But, ah, I must suggest that you find a more…discrete road of travel. Going through the village now would be unwise."

"Unwise?" Sanae broke in. "Why's that? Is something wrong?"

Momiji shook her head. "No, nothing's _wrong, _per se, but you might still be inconvenienced. You see, that…reporter, Aya Shameimaru returned earlier today." The way she said the intrusive Tengu's name almost made it sound like a dirty word. "And, well, she was in one of her moods."

Reimu exchanged a look with Sanae and they both sighed. Kanako's shoulders slumped and she groaned out loud. Only Byakuren looked unconcerned.

"I take your point," Kanako said. "Can you lead us around so we don't wander into her warpath?"

"Of course!" Despite not having a solid beneath her, Momiji still managed to stand stiffly at attention. She snapped a salute. "Leave it to me! She'll never see us coming!"

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Good grief. We're evading the paparazzi, not going to war."

Sanae shot her a sidelong look. "Is there a difference? Look who's in the paparazzi."

Reimu considered this and conceded the point.

"Okay, but keep it down," Kanako told Momiji. "Your voice kind of carries."

Momiji saluted again. "Yes, my Lady!" She whirled around to face her men. "All right, you heard her!" she barked. "We're going in low, and we're going in quiet! So I don't want to hear aMMMPHH!"

Sanae had swooped up behind her and thrown her arm around Momiji's mouth. "Okay, now that?" she hissed. "That was the opposite of keeping it down."

"Mumphy," Momiji said by way of apology. Sanae released her.

Momiji and her patrol led them down out of sight and around the village, keeping to the shadows. Byakuren took the opportunity to sidle up to Reimu.

"Reimu, I know I'm still a little out of touch with the modern world," she said in a low voice that was not quite a whisper. "But isn't all this sneaking around a little…unnecessary? I mean, it's just a reporter. Granted she's an annoying one, but like you said, it's not like we're going to war."

Even though Reimu was the one she had addressed, it was Sanae who answered. "Trust me, reporters can be really scary," she said. "Back in the Outside World? They're like the last people you want to meet if you've done _anything. _People have actually been killed trying to get away from them."

"Besides," Reimu said. "Sanae's right. It's freaking _Aya."_

Byakuren pursed her lips, but she didn't object further.

The Moriya Shrine was located at the mountain's peak, about a mile north of the Tengu Village. It sat upon a small hump of land, with steps leading down to the path that would take people down to the village, provided they didn't just fly instead. Over the foot of the steps was a wooden rectangular gateway, from which hung a thick braided rope.

The four travelers and their Tengu escort touched down at the hill's foot. Of course, they could have simply went all the way to the shrine's doorway, but doing that just felt disrespectful to the god of the shrine, even if the god of the shrine happened to _be _one of the travelers.

Not for the first time, Reimu noted that certain aspects of her life were a bit _strange. _

Kanako brushed off the spare detritus gathered from their journey off of her dress. Then she turned to Momiji and her patrol.

"Thank you," she said. "You may return now."

Momiji and her comrades bowed low. "Yes, my Lady! I will inform Boss Tenma of your return immediately."

Kanako started to nod, but caught herself. "Oh. Ah, better let me take care of that. That man couldn't keep his mouth closed even if it were welded shut. And I really rather we didn't get any visitors tonight."

"B-but, my Lady!" Momiji protested. "I have to! It's my duty!"

"Momiji," Kanako chided gently.

Momiji shuddered but she didn't further object. "O-of course, my Lady. I apologize."

With that, she lifted into the air and soared off, her silent companions close behind. Reimu and the others watched them go.

Then Kanako sighed. "I really hope she doesn't go spill the beans," she said as she headed toward the steps. "She's great at what she does, but that girl can't tell a lie to save her life."

The other followed her up the steps, toward the shrine. Reimu wrapped her arms around herself, glad that they were almost there. Nights on top of the Youkai Mountain tended to be cold, and the last tinges of winter had yet to be dispelled from the air.

They reached the top. Kanako bypassed the main shrine building and headed right for one of the side-buildings, which acted as the home for her, Sanae, and her co-goddess Suwako. Sanae however quickly stole up the shrine's steps and peered into the ornately carved donation box that sat before the door.

A grin split her features. "Ha!" she said. "Even when we're gone, they still love us. Score!"

Reimu scowled. "Good for freaking you."

Sanae looked up to smile sweetly at her. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Go jump off a mountain."

"Girls…" Byakuren said in disapproval.

"Yeah, yeah," Reimu muttered. She put her head down stomped off after Kanako. Then she had to stop suddenly to avoid running right into the elder goddess' back. Kanako had stopped short and was staring at the shrine's living quarter with an expression that did not look much pleased.

The lights were on in the small building, which was to be expected. After all, Suwako was still home. However, rather than a single light from whatever room she was currently in, _all _the lights could be seen shining through the windows and on the porch. Inside, the sound of young voices could be heard talking and laughing, mixed in with some noises that sounded downright alien to Reimu's ear.

Sanae came up to stand next to them. Her jaw was open in disbelief. "Oh no," she said. "She didn't."

"She didn't what?" Reimu asked. "What's going on? It sounds like some sort of…weird dark magic ritual or something."

"Oh, she did," Kanako said. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but even so: I'm still angry."

"Why?" Reimu said. "What's going on?"

Kanako turned to look at her. "It seems that Suwako was unaware that we would be returning early. And so she decided to throw a _party."_

"A…Wait, that's a party?" Reimu twisted her face into a frown. "Really? What're those strange sounds again?"

Sanae was gritting her teeth. "Music. _My _music. She got into my CDs again!"

"…music? Really? That noise is _music?"_

"Shut up, Reimu," Kanako said. "Sanae? Come with me please."

Reimu and Byakuren watched as the goddess of the Youkai Mountain and her green-haired shrine maiden marched into the Moriya Shrine's living quarters. The children's voices stopped immediately, though the music kept playing.

And then the shouting began.

Reimu winced as she heard Kanako explain in full detail her displeasure that Suwako had allowed such a social gathering to happen. As someone who had been orphaned at a fairly early age, Reimu did not have much experience with angry parent figures. And, as the goddess' tirade continued, she was somewhat glad about the fact.

"She's uh…" Reimu tried to find the right words. "She's really playing the whole 'angry god' thing to a hilt, isn't she?"

A small half-smile crept over Byakuren's lips. "That's one way of looking at it, though the deities in most sacred texts aren't usually shown scolding naughty children. Mostly, they eat them."

"I would guess-"

"Well, no. There was one I remember reading about. An Egyptian sect whose principle deity was fond of lengthy lectures. They weren't very particular about who they were directed to either. If I recall, the sect was eventually wiped out by its neighbors because their god was too annoying."

"Huh. No one told me Eiki Shiki had her own cult."

Byakuren slapped her hands across her mouth to keep from laughing. She quickly composed herself, cleared her throat and said, "Reimu, that was not very respe-" The rest of the sentence was cut off by an attack of giggles.

Reimu licked her finger and drew an imaginary one in the air. "And score one for the shrine maiden."

"Stop it," Byakuren snorted. "And you are _not _to tell anyone I laughed at that."

"Of course not."

"I'm serious here, Reimu."

Reimu bowed low. "As you wish, Youchrist."

Before Byakuren could fire back, the door to the living quarters opened and several young Tengu, Kappa and even a fairy or two rushed out as fast as their legs or wings could carry them. One little boy wolf Tengu wasn't watching where he was going and ran right into Reimu's legs.

"Ah!" he cried as he fell back over onto his rump. He shook his head and stared up at Reimu with terrified eyes.

"It wasn't my fault!" he wailed.

Reimu stared back. "Okay."

The boy didn't seem interested in pleading his case further, as he was on his feet and leaping into the air moments later.

Reimu watched the children go. She didn't know whether to be amused by their terror or irritated by the delay their party was going to cost her. She also couldn't help but note with a feeling of depression that the youngest of them was probably older than she and Sanae put together.

"Looks like that's over," she remarked. "Should we go in?"

Byakuren frowned. "I think they're still yelling at Suwako. We should probably-"

"No, too cold. And my back is starting to hurt. C'mon."

Reimu walked over to the small building. With a sigh, Byakuren followed.

…

Alice had been pacing back and forth for the last hour or so and showed no sign of stopping. She marched forward, fingertips pressed against her forehead, until she reached the end of the room. Then she would turn around and head back the other way, over and over again. Shanghai dutifully followed her master, remaining about half a foot behind Alice's shoulder.

"Fix, I need to fix this," Alice was muttering to herself. "Too far. She's gone too far this time. Come on, Alice. Think. Break her out myself? No, _baaaaaaad_ idea. Really bad idea. File a complaint? Maybe. Would it work? Probably not. Get help? From whom?"

She paused near one of the walls. Her hands fell to her sides, where they clenched and unclenched in frustration.

"Gah, damn it!" she cursed. "Damn Yukari!"

"Be glad to. Why?"

Alice's heart almost stopped. She whirled around to see Marisa's ethereal one-time master hovering nearby, watching her.

Alice stared by. _"Mima?" _she cried. "What are you…What _is _it with people just barging in today?"

"Oh, has that been happening? Looks like I chose correctly."

"What?"

"Never mind. At any rate, I'm looking for Marisa, and it seems you may know something about that." Mima folded her arms and glowered down at Alice, her emerald eyes flashing with cold anger. "Please, do disclose."

…

The living room was an absolute wreck. Half-eaten food and their containers lay strewn around the furniture, mixing with several open books, pillows and blankets. Scraps of multi-colored paper were scattered everywhere, the purpose of which Reimu could only guess. Maybe the children had decided that no party should be without scraps of multi-colored paper.

At the far end of the room, opposite the couches was that large, flat rectangular…thing that Sanae and Kanako had brought with them from the Outside World. On it were moving illustrations of five girls playing some unusual instruments before a room filled with people. Reimu had always been suspicious of that thing, especially since Sanae explained to her that it did not work using magic.

Suwako herself was gone, having been banished to her room right after Reimu and Byakuren had entered the building. Reimu was still a little weirded out by that, especially considering that the girl was not only the shrine's original goddess but also Sanae's direct ancestor (how that worked, Reimu had never worked up the courage to ask). But as Kanako had put it, "If she's going to keep acting like a child, then she's going to be treated like one. Can't have it both ways".

At the moment, Kanako was standing and glowering at the mess while Sanae tiptoed her way toward another one of her Outside World toys, this one a medium-sized silver box with several buttons and a black screen at either end. The strange noises that Reimu had heard were coming from the box, and stopped as soon as Sanae pushed one of the buttons.

"I've told her once, I've told her twice, I've told her a million, billion times," Sanae grumbled. "Don't touch my CD's without permission. Don't touch my books without permission. Don't touch my manga without permission. Don't touch my DVDs without permission. Is that really so difficult?"

Reimu found an untouched cupcake and started munching on it. It was delicious. "'Parently," she mumbled around a mouthful of pastry. "An' why's them picter bookz cwalled manguh anyway? What that even mean?" She swallowed. "I mean, why not just call them picture books and be done with it."

Sanae stared at her. "Reimu, I like you and all, but you are about two seconds away from a very painful death." She picked up a small, flat, grey box and pointed it at the rectangular thing. She pressed a button and the animated illusions of girls playing music disappeared, replaced with a plain black surface. Then she started to pick up her scattered manga.

"Oh, leave it for Suwako," Kanako said crossly. "This is her mess, she can clean it up."

"I'm just getting my stuff out of the way. She can do the food and the confetti."

"Fair enough." Kanako glanced at Reimu and Byakuren and sighed. "Sorry you had to see that. It's an ongoing problem we have with her."

Reimu hastily finished the rest of her cupcake. "Uh, don't worry about it. You want we should get this out of the way so we can…get out of your way?"

"Yes, might as well." Kanako indicated the door to her room. "Follow me."

"And Sanae too," Reimu said.

"Fine, fine. Sanae, you too."

Reimu and Byakuren followed her inside, with a grumbling Sanae close behind. As would be expected, Kanako had the largest room of the three, with a large four-poster bed and several old and quite possibly very rare objects hanging from the walls and displayed on the dresser. Reimu wondered how many of them had been gifts and how many she had acquired through more forward means. Being a goddess did mean fighting the occasional battle. After all, she had acquired her shrine that way.

Kanako waved her hand at the bed. It shuddered once and then started to break apart into smaller pieces. These pieces elongated and formed themselves into dozens of snakes, all hissing and slithering over each other. Reimu shuddered and took an instinctive step backward.

The snakes twisted together at the center of the room, form a column that expanded outward at the top. Then they seemed to simply melt together, becoming a single-legged table with four chairs surrounding it.

"Show-off," Reimu muttered as she gingerly sat down on one of the chairs. To her relief it didn't move.

Kanako smirked but she didn't contradict her. "Well Reimu, and Byakuren too, I'd offer you all refreshments and the opportunity to clean yourselves up, but this strikes me as a matter of some urgency. And seeing how you insisted that we speak here instead of in Yukari's tower, I must assume that it concerns a matter that you don't want her learning about. And I generally do not like being involved in things that attract her ire. So Reimu, would you like to explain yourself?"

…

The Hakurei Shrine was empty, and Mima was growing frustrated.

She had begun her search with a wild-goose chase to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which put her in a foul mood. Her next stop at Marisa's friend Alice's house had born more fruit, but the news had not been good. Yukari had suckered her and snatched up Marisa right under her nose. Not only that, she had been beaten down and arrested by Yukari herself and her pet human. And in Alice's own house, no less. That settled it. This had gone beyond revenge for a slight or paying off a cranky vampire. Yukari was up to something, and Mima was starting to think she had an idea what.

Unfortunately, she couldn't simply teleport in and whisk Marisa away. She had been taken into custody at the GPF headquarters, and they had suddenly been quarantined with the same blocking spell that had shrouded Yukari's citadel.

However, Mima was far from exhausting her options. Yukari had few real weaknesses. It was just Mima's good fortune that she so happened to live with one of the biggest ones.

Unfortunately, by the time Mima had materialized at Hakurei Shrine, Reimu had still yet to arrive. Of course it was a long way to travel, but even after waiting another two hours the shrine had still failed to show up.

Mima frowned. She floated back and forth over the grass in front of the primary shrine building, hands clasped behind her back. Something was keeping Reimu, and if it was Yukari then the elder youkai had definitely been thorough in cutting off Mima's options. Despite her irritation, Mima had to give her credit. Yukari was good at what she did.

Mima briefly wondered if she should go over to the other side. While Rin Satsuki or the Shadow Youkai (whichever so happened to be in control at the moment) were probably not reliable allies, there still was Yuuka. The flower youkai probably wouldn't object to having Mima on board, especially if Yukari were the target. But even Mima was wary of joining forces with Yuuka. In fact, she might be even more unreliable than the other two.

But that led to another thought, one more discouraging: Yuuka was likely to be very protective of that gang of stupid pranksters. And despite pissing off just about everyone who was so much as capable of being pissed off, Cirno and her friends still had their allies. And Yuuka would not be above using those connections for her own ends.

Especially since three of those connections so happened to live in the cherry tree grove that grew behind Hakurei Shrine.

Mima turned and floated toward the grove. The fairy Sunny Milk and her two friends were coming and going at all hours, and since it had been long made clear that being allowed to take residence in the cherry tree grove would come with certain conditions, foremost being that mischief making directed toward the Hakurei Shrine and its inhabitants would be _severely_ frowned upon, the three fairies had displayed greater common sense than Cirno and took their troublemaking elsewhere. While it did mean that things were more peaceful around the shrine, it did make the odds of actually finding them at home in the rare instance of needing them diminish significantly.

And it appeared that tonight would be no exception. The tree that the fairies had made their home in was empty.

Mima scowled as she rapped her knuckles against the crude wood door once again. "Hey!" she shouted. "Come on out!" No answer.

Sighing, she turned to the grove at large. She muttered a quick vocal amplification spell under her breath. Then she began to shout.

"ATTENTION LITTLE FAIRIES! SUNNY, IF YOU AND YOUR PARTNERS IN CRIME ARE WITHIN THE SOUND OF MY VOICE, THEN GET YOUR ASSES OVER HER IMMEDIATELY! OTHERWISE, THIS VERY FINE TREE HERE JUST MIGHT MEET WITH AN UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT! AND WE WOULDN'T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN, NOW WOULD-"

"Death and damnation! _Confound_ it all, woman! What's all this racket? Some of us are tryin' to sleep!"

Mima looked down to see the weathered form of Genji grumpily floating toward her. The elderly reptile settled down on the ground about five feet away.

Mima's relationship with Genji had always been a weird one. When she and Reimu had finally buried the hatchet, she had expected him to protest her presence. After all, Mima and Hakurei Shrine had been mortal enemies for generations, and he had been there for every battle. All things considered, he should have considered her to be an irredeemable monster.

But to her surprise, he not only did not bear her any ill will, he seemed to be rather fond of her. When she had finally gotten around to asking him about it, his answer had surprised her.

"Are you kiddin'?" he had said. "You were the best trainin' source a mentor could ask for! Some of the best shrine maidens got tough by fightin' you all the time! Hell, I'm almost sorry you're switchin' sides, means I gotta find some new why to knock 'em into shape!"

At any rate, he didn't seem to object to her being around all the time, though upon her appointment as Hakurei Shrine's official representative he had snorted and called the whole thing "One big load of shrimpshit, but better you than me". She still wasn't sure how to react to that.

Mima started to speak. "OH, LOOK WHO-" Then she grimaced and flicked her throat.

"Right, try this again. Oh, look who just woke up. So sorry, was my bellowing too loud?"

Genji, who was still wincing, said, "Gee, yah think? What're doing lookin' for those fools anyway? They done cleared out hours ago!"

"Really?" Mima sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "And where did they go?"

"Don't know, don't care. All I'm concerned 'bout right now is some smartass spirit bein' bound and determined to strip these here trees of their leaves with the power of her voice alone!"

"Well, sorry, but I have too many problems to worry about a cranky old lizard who's up past his bedtime."

A heavy silence fell between them, during which Genji just stared up at the ghost. Then a deep rumbling sound came from within his shell. The color of his eyes changed, going from a rheumy yellow to an almost crimson fire. "Young lady," he said, his voice even lower and gravellier than before. "Call me a lizard again and you'll be taught better matters. Instantly. Got it?"

Mima's nostrils flared and her eyes widened. She reflexively floated back a foot. Even if it was for just a second, she sensed an _incredible _amount of power radiating from the ancient turtle.

"I…" Mima considered her next words and decided to go with caution. "…apologize. I've just been a little stressed."

Genji snorted. With that, the terrifying creature's shadow that Mima had sensed was gone, and he was back to being the grumpy old keeper of Hakurei Shrine's lore. "Yeah, you'd better. And what the hell are you even doin' back, anyways? Thought those piss-parties usually went on for weeks. And why ain't Reimu with you?"

Mima shook her head. Her mind was still reeling. "Uh, Reimu and I left separately," she said. "I was actually hoping to find her, but I guess she's not back yet. And Yukari ended this meeting early."

"Oh?" Genji's eyes began to gleam again, only this time it was with craftiness. "And why's that?"

Doing the best she could, Mima summarized the events of the last few days, starting with their arrival at the Ruined City and ending with her returning to the shrine and waiting for Reimu. While she talked, Genji listened without interrupting, though the cunning look in his eyes only grew stronger.

"Huh," he said when she finished. "Now ain't that interesting. Yukari's up to her old shenanigans again, I see. And that Yuuka…Even if I live for another century, I'll still not understand why in the hells Yukari let that…_creature _into Gensokyo."

"An opinion shared by many," Mima said diplomatically. She never thought she would ask advice from the old turtle, but their prior confrontation made her revise her opinion of Genji. "I don't suppose you have-"

Genji snorted. "Yeah, figure that one out on your own. If you ask me, that damned witch shoulda got clamped in irons years ago."

Mima stifled the protest she felt rising. "You…may be right, and if this was just human justice I probably wouldn't care." A lie, of course, but a small one. "But Yukari wants her for a reason. Such things rarely turn out well."

Even with the massive shell on his back Genji still managed to shrug. "You're tellin' me. Girl knows her job…sorta, but she can get a mite crazy about doing it right." Then he slowly turned his body and started to plod back to the lake. "Still, this ain't no bother of mine, so as far as I'm concerned, little witchy is just gonna have'ta work this out herself."

Mima's eyes narrowed. "I…see."

"Still, if it's Reimu you're lookin' for…" Genji paused. He turned his body just enough to look at her in the eye. "You're right, she shoulda been back by now. Which means that either somethin' happened to her on the way back, which is hogwash. I woulda known instantly. Or she decided to go somewhere else instead. Now, think Mima. Where's the one place Reimu would be likely to go in a time like this, if it ain't here?"

…

"Right. Okay, let's see." Reimu took a deep breath and did her best to put her thoughts in order. Making articulate arguments before an audience had never been a strength of hers. One-on-one arguments, sure, but in those she was usually taking a position she felt more comfortable with. Besides, she much preferred making her point through aggressive action. Unfortunately, that method would probably not work here.

"Well, it's like this," she said. "Last night, someone visited me in my room, one of the guys from Eientei. Reisen Udongein."

Kanako frowned. "That would be Eirin Yagokoro's assistant, right? The rabbit girl that spent the whole meeting looking like she was about to soil herself?"

"Yeah, that's her."

"Nervous girl. I was wondering why Eirin decided to bring her along. I suppose she had a message from the doctor for you. And for us, by proxy."

Byakuren said, "If so, I wish she had just asked us in person. People do way too much sneaking around, if you ask me."

Reimu shook her head. "No, I don't think Eirin had anything to do with it. It was all Reisen."

"Uh, what?" Sanae said.

Kanako raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? Reimu, explain."

"Okay. See, here's the thing. She told me that despite everything…" Reimu involuntarily glanced over her shoulder, even if it was a pointless gesture. She lowered her voice. "…everything that Yukari said, Rin Satsuki's more of a victim than a monster. Apparently they were really close back in the day. And she said that we should be trying to help her instead of kill her. And…I think she may be right."

Byakuren smiled.

The Moriya Shrine residents were less than pleased, however. Sanae was staring at Reimu with her eyes bulging out and jaw hanging open. In contrast, Kanako's face was like a stone slab. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs.

"Wh-whaaaaat?" Sanae gaped. "Wait, huh? Help…her? Okay, sorry, but I heard all the speeches, yours included I might add. And as far as I can tell, majority vote has it that Rin Satsuki is a _menace! _I mean, come on Reimu! She almost killed you! And Yukari, and Marisa, and Suika, and a bunch of rabbits. Oh, and did you forget the part where she ate the Moon Princess girl, Kaguya Houraisan? And that other girl, forget her name…"

"Mokou," Kanako said. Her cold eyes were locked upon Reimu's. "Fujiwara no Mokou."

"Right! I mean, what's next? A…Gendo Ikari Was Framed movement?"

"I, uh, don't know who that is," Reimu said.

"I don't care!" Sanae shouted. "He was bad, Rin Satsuki is bad, so why the hell should we be helping her?"

"Sanae, that's enough," Kanako said evenly. "Control yourself."

Sanae shut her mouth and slumped back, through her eyes still smoldered.

Kanako leaned forward. She put her elbows on the table and spread her arms. "Reimu, I do believe I asked you not to waste my time. Do you remember me saying that?"

Reimu scowled. "Hey, I'm not-"

"I am still speaking. Now, please understand that I do know where this is coming from. Even when filtered through…the _very _heavy biases of those I've been listening to for the last two days, it is obvious that Satsuki has ended up with the short end of the stick. Perhaps the word 'victim' would apply. But the same could be said for just about every other monster in history. There are literally thousands of swindlers, murderers, rapists, tyrants, despots and other such scum who have experienced nothing but misery. Unfortunately, that doesn't make them any less of a monster. The same applies to Satsuki. And she is not any less of a threat. So tell me, Reimu. Why should she be treated any differently?"

Reimu grimaced. This was the problem with taking up a position she was not used to. Usually she would be in full support of taking Rin Satsuki down. But of course, Reisen had to show up all teary-eyed and make her actually start to use her conscience. While she was now committed, it did leave her without a rational argument, at least one she could confidently argue.

Fortunately, she had brought along someone who could pick up the slack for her. "Actually," Byakuren said. "I agree with the shrine maiden."

Kanako's eyelids dipped down. "Excuse me, I believe I was talking to Reimu."

"And I am answering for her. Kanako, I sat through that same meeting. And I heard all of the same arguments. And while I agree that Rin is too dangerous to be left alone, I don't think she is quite the monster you've made her out to be."

"Oh really?"

"Yes."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"All right then, Byakuren." Kanako leaded back in her chair and spread her hands. "Enlighten us."

"Of course," Byakuren said. "Now, according what I've been able to gather, Rin's actions aren't driven by maliciousness. They're driven by desperation. If you'll recall, she only snapped the first time around when she was offered the possibility of release from an elongated period of horribly unnatural isolation. Which, while still terrible, is quite understandable. And if you'll remember Eirin Yagokoro's testimony, she seemed like she was actually about to surrender only to change her mind after being ambushed, making her second 'rampage', for lack of a better word, the result of a massive misunderstanding."

Reimu winced. "Hey, uh, thought you were supposed to be helping me here. That ambush wasn't my-"

"If Rin were truly evil, as you seem to be suggesting, she would have continued her attack until Eientei were destroyed and all were dead," Byakuren continued. "Instead, she only responded to force with force and fled at the earliest available opportunity. To me, that speaks not of a crazed killer, but a desperate child who has no idea what to do."

Kanako glowered. "I never said she was evil, I said she was dangerous. Child she may be, but she has entirely too much power of the wrong variety, and all it will take is for the wrong person to stumble across her for her to commit her first act of murder. And given the things she's endured and reports of her apparently having a changing personality, it doesn't take much of a stretch to believe her to be deranged. I'm sorry for what happened to her, but I'd rather end her life and give her the peace of death than allow for someone else to be hurt due to hesitation."

Which was almost exactly the same argument that Reimu had given Reisen. Again she wondered if she was on the right side.

Byakuren, however, was not about to be deterred. "That's a lot of speculation, Kanako. Too much to execute a little girl on."

"Byakuren, please spare me the heartstring plucking. You and I both know that it's not going to work. If I could simply wave my hand and make her all better, I would. But I can't. You can't. Even Yukari can't. And you're forgetting this 'Shadow Youkai' of Yukari's. I think we can all agree that she, at least, is a complete monster. Who's to say that she isn't influencing Satsuki's actions?"

"True," Byakuren said. "The Shadow Youkai is a problem. But to my mind that's all the more reason to help her, to bring her out of Rumia of the Darkness's influence. Attacking her will likely just cause her to retreat further and further into the Shadow Youkai's grasp."

Reimu leapt upon that instantly. "There! There, that's right! I mean, she's invulnerable, invincible, and a whole bunch of other words that start right with 'in'. So trying to kill her will probably just make her angrier, right? And if Evil Rumia's…uh, sorry. Brain fart. Uh, if Evil Rumia's whispering into her…head and all, pissing her off is just going to be what Evil Rumia wants, right?"

Despite her lack of oratory skills, Reimu felt that she was making some good points. In fact, upon finishing, she allowed herself a little flush of pride. Even though she kept tripping over her words like an idiot, she had managed to make a decent case.

Kanako, however, did not agree. "All the more reason to eliminate them both as quickly as possible. Her immortality is a problem, yes, but I hardly think that it is beyond the collected power of Gensokyo's best."

Byakuren leaned back in her chair and folded her hands in her lap. "And what of her captives? Disintegrating her will likely kill them as well. I for one don't care for murdering a fellow…do I really have to use the name 'Ringleader'? It seems a little silly."

"Keep to your point, please," Kanako said evenly.

"My point? I think I just made it. The method you're suggesting will almost certainly result in the death of Kaguya Houraisan. Her status as a Hourai Immortal may preserve her life under normal circumstances, but we have no way of knowing if the same still holds in her present condition. And in addition to the ethical problems of callously murdering one of our number, it runs the risk of alienating Eientei and the rest of the Bamboo Forest against us. She is popular among the rabbit tribes and acknowledged as the representative of their interests. Killing her will likely turn them against us, resulting in a civil war. And then there's the additional problem of the Lunarians. Relations with them are strained as it is. And while Kaguya is no longer really considered part of the Royal Family, it's possible that they will use her death as an excuse to reopen hostilities."

Kanako frowned. "Okay, so you may have a point there. I suppose it would be logical to take Satsuki alive to begin with. But afterward-"

"But if we're going to take her alive anyway, why not just restrain her until a cure can be found?" Reimu said. "I mean, we can't take her out on the battlefield, right? So we capture her, flush out Kaguya Houraisan, and I guess Fujiwara no Mokou as well, wipe out the Shadow Youkai and keep Rin contained until, uh, we figure something out."

"That doesn't fill me with confidence, Reimu," Kanako said. "Satsuki has already slipped away from confinement numerous times. And even with all of us working together-"

"It's not impossible," Byakuren said softly. "After all, this isn't the first time this land has seen an incident like this. This isn't the first time a foolish young girl has been driven mad by being shoved into power."

Kanako reacted as if she had been slapped. "Byakuren, what exactly are you implying? Those were…this is _entirely _different."

"Was it? A naïve girl is convinced by and older and wiser being to agree to something incredibly dangerous, and as a result she undergoes a drastic power increase."

"Stop it," Kanako whispered.

"But while the reason for the change may have been driven by good intentions, it turns out to be more than she can handle, and she loses her sanity as a result.

"Byakuren, that's enough."

"Soon, Gensokyo itself is threatened when she starts to lash out at the world. Some believe she is too much of a threat to handle, and decide that she should be killed."

"I said that's enough."

"But others, those who knew her and loved her, turned to outside help out of desperation, even though they knew it would probably get them into trouble. Because they didn't want to see the one they cared about come to-"

"_ENOUGH!" _Kanako shouted. She slammed her palms against the table as she leapt to her feet. Her face was a crimson mixture of emotions: outrage, fury and, surprisingly enough, regret.

Sanae was on her feet as well. "Lady Kanako!" she cried as she rushed to her god's side. "Are you okay?" She turned to Byakuren. "Where do you get off bringing that up, you bitch? Don't you think she's suffered enough over that incident? I don't care how important you are, you have no right-"

"Sanae," Kanako said in a throaty growl. "Sit down."

"But I-" Sanae caught the look in Kanako's eyes. "Okay." She quickly returned to her seat and sat with her face down and her hands folded in her lap.

A heavy silence descended on the room. Kanako stood where she was, staring across the table at Byakuren, who calmly returned the gaze. For her part, Reimu was quite taken back. She had expected that there would be fireworks during this discussion, but nothing like this. She couldn't help but feel that Byakuren had gone too far, that she had reopened a very painful wound.

Then again, Reimu did have a very good idea as to which incident Byakuren was referring to. Much like the one they found themselves in, that one had also threatened the lives of thousands. Reimu herself had been deeply involved, and for a moment it seemed like the world really was about to end. But things had turned out all right in the end. The confused girl had been shown the error of her ways, and a peaceful resolution had been achieved. Of course, Reimu and Marisa had to spend the next day or so in Yukari's care as she had given them a _highly _thorough detoxification, a task that the elder youkai had seemed to enjoy entirely too much, but it was miles better than death by radiation sickness. At least she hoped it was.

Still, Kanako had a point too. As much as a victim as Rin Satsuki was, that did not mean her life was worth more than anyone else's. And if it came to a choice between hers and some innocent who was unlucky enough to cross her path, it wouldn't be right to sacrifice them to save her. Reimu sincerely hoped it that such a choice would never present itself.

That was when Kanako spoke. "I only did what I thought was right. You are in no position to judge me. After all, you weren't even there."

"I was," Reimu said. "Right in the thick of it. And yeah, it sucked beyond the telling of it and sometimes I felt like my skin was going to start melting, but we still managed to fix that problem and save the crazy girl at the same time."

"I'm not judging you, Kanako," Byakuren said. "What happened, happened. Sometimes the best of intentions can result in the most grievous of harm. No one understands that better than me. But I do wish to point out that cases similar to Rin's have happened before, and in those cases the child with too much power was saved. It is not impossible."

Kanako's eyes dipped down. She said nothing.

"Kanako," Byakuren said softly. "What if it was Sanae?"

The eyes of the shrine maiden in question bulged out. "Um, what?" she said. "Why are we talking about me now?"

Kanako's head snapped up. Her pupils narrowed, and small but strong sparks of power could be seen flashing in her eyes. "What was that?" she hissed.

"What if it was Sanae who had been forced to become a monstrous creature? What if it was her that was loose in Gensokyo, frightened and alone, in possession of a horrible power with no one so much as willing to try to help her?"

Sanae grimaced. "You know, this is really making me feel uncomfortable. Can we not bring me into this?"

Kanako seemed to agree. "How dare you, Byakuren?" she whispered. "How dare you?"

Byakuren's eyes remained steady. "And everyone was ready to end her life without a second thought. How would you feel then, Kanako?"

"Okay, seriously!" Sanae shouted. "This has nothing to do with me, so stop-"

"Sanae," Kanako said. There was no anger in her voice, no implied threat. But the authority was there. Sanae stopped talking immediately but she continued to stare daggers at Byakuren.

"Byakuren, there is persuasion, and there is cruelty," Kanako said in a low, even voice. "Bringing Sanae into this was cruelty. Despite our status as competitors, I had thought better of you, I really did."

"I understand," Byakuren said softly. "And I can only hope you'll forgive me. But maybe now you'll see things differently, that there are people who care for Rin like you do for Sanae. And that pain you feel, the pain my words elicited? They are drowning in it."

Kanako didn't answer her. Instead, she straightened up and walked briskly out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

As soon as she was gone, Sanae erupted. "The _fuck _is wrong with you?" she screeched. "I thought we were on the same side!"

"Hey, we are!" Reimu said. "It's not like-"

"Shut up, I'm not talking to you!" Sanae swung a trembling finger at Byakuren's face. "Look, I don't care how important you are, how popular you are or how wonderful people think you are, you don't come to _my _shrine and insult _my _goddess in _my _house! We invited you in as guests and this is how you repay us?"

"You're right," Byakuren said. "And I must admit, I do not have an answer for you, beyond the fact that I-"

"Stop," Sanae growled. "Don't you dare pull that 'Did what I had to' shit. Because I am two seconds away from throwing your overrated ass out of here."

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Oh, for the gods' sake, calm down Sanae! It's not like-"

"I told you to shut up," Sanae said to her. "I mean, what's wrong with you two? Don't you get what's it's like, to sit there and listen to my freaking _goddess _get talked down to? I'm a shrine maiden, for goodness sake! Don't you have any idea how much that means to me?"

"Uh, yes?" Reimu said. "I'm one too?"

Sanae's fingers curled into shaking claws. "Oh yeah? And who's your god, Reimu? What deity does Hakurei Shrine have to its name?"

Reimu was struck speechless. Sanae's words had felt like she had just been slapped. Certainly, her shrine's lack of a patron deity was unusual, but since it acted as the gateway and capstone of the Barrier, she had been satisfied with its importance in the scheme of things. But Sanae's accusation had struck deeper than she would have thought.

"Sanae, I know you're angry, but please direct that anger toward me," Byakuren said, half-raising to her feet. "It was my words that upset Kanako, not-"

"That's _Lady _Kanako to you," Sanae hissed. Without another word she stormed from the room, much as her goddess had a short moment ago.

Reimu stared at the closed door. She was at a loss, which was not something she was used to.

"Reimu, I'm sorry, I took it too far," Byakuren apologized. "I just meant to upset her bit. I had no idea that-"

"No, no, it's okay." Reimu shook her head. "I mean, it's not like you knew they would flip out."

Byakuren shot her a long look. "Yes, I did. Just not at you."

Reimu shrugged. "Yeah, well. Occupational hazard. Can't go around hanging out with gods and demons all the time and not expect to get hit by a few lightning bolts."

Byakuren smiled, but it didn't last. She straightened fully. "I'll go talk to them," she declared as she started toward the door. "Apologize for my words. Maybe we can start this thing over fresh."

Reimu quickly grabbed her by the sleeve. "Uh, no. Really bad idea. Just leave them alone for awhile."

"Are you sure?" Byakuren bit her lip as she looked at the door.

"Byakuren, I know you're kinda super powerful yourself, but we're in Kanako's place of power. Piss her off more and she's likely to go all angry god on your ass. And mine too."

Byakuren raised a single eyebrow. "I have to hand it to you, Reimu. Your colorful ways of describing things never ceases to impress."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Would that be how you, ahem, ran out of your other two cheeks?"

Reimu scowled. "Shut up, Youchrist."

…

Sanae stormed out of the small house into the chill of the night. The gravel of the pathway crunched under feet as she stomped away from the house. After a hundred feet she realized that she had left both her shoes and her jacket in the house. And as her home was on a mountaintop and it was very early spring, it was freezing outside. The sharp stones were biting into her bare feet and her breath was clearly visible.

She didn't care. She was too angry.

Shaking her head, Sanae wrapped her arms around herself and kept walking. She still couldn't believe that Byakuren had brought up that subject. Lady Kanako's involvement in that incident was known only to a select few, and there had been an agreement not to bring it up. Yes, Lady Kanako had made a mistake, no one was denying that. But her intentions had been good, the problem had been fixed without anyone being hurt (at least not too badly), Kanako had been clearly remorseful and had done what she could to make reparations to the Underground, so why bring it up again to hurt her? Even those who lived at the shrine and were closest to her knew better not to remind her about it.

And then to go and use Lady Kanako's relationship with Sanae against her! Now that had just been low. Sanae had been under the impression that there had been an unwritten rule about using one's family against them. Okay granted, she and Lady Kanako weren't exactly blood relation. Heck, even her relation to Suwako was ridiculously long. But they were still part of the same household. Kanako had helped raised her, eventually taking over as full parent after Sanae had lost her parents some years ago. And then later on she had learned about Suwako, who had provided the single _strangest _relationship Sanae ever had. But strange or not, blood related or not, she loved her goddesses dearly, both the one she served and the one she was descended from, and she knew they loved her back. That made them family as far as she was concerned.

And then, to watch as Byakuren took advantage of that bond and use it to manipulate Lady Kanako, all to save a lunatic who would kill them all given the chance…Sanae's trembling fingers clenched and unclenched as she wondered how Byakuren's neck would feel between them.

Rugged gravel was replaced by smooth stone as Sanae realized she had wandered right to the steps of the shrine itself. That really wasn't surprising, considering that it was the first place she went to every day. So it made sense that her wandering feet would instinctively take her there.

Just as well. She often came to the shrine when she was feeling upset. She found the ancient structure with all of its quiet dignity to be soothing. Maybe it was the familiarity, maybe it was the knowledge that it had stood watching shrine maiden after shrine go through their own problems and yet still endured, but she always found that it was the place to go when she needed to be by herself and pray.

It was a strange thing, she knew, that she even prayed after all. After all, she not only was on speaking terms with her deity, she lived with her. If she ever had a request to bring before her goddess, all she had to do was walk into the living room and ask her. But even so, she still liked to pray when she felt the need, if for no other reason than to remind herself that Kanako was so much more than a roommate. Of course, her prayers weren't exactly ritualistic in nature, but Kanako had told her long ago that she didn't mind. In fact, she much preferred that Sanae didn't keep saying the same thing over and over again. So even before she finished climbing the steps Sanae was already silently praying.

"_My Lady Kanako, praise be unto your name," _she thought._ "May your miracles forever be celebrated. I pray for your strength and patience, for without them I just may strangle somebody. I also ask for forgiveness for lashing out in anger against your…guests, and therefore misrepresenting your shrine. I pray that-"_

"Goodness gracious child, are you sure it's my 'strength and patience' you want?" a wry voice answered. "After all, I stormed out first."

Sanae started in surprise. Kanako was there, standing within the shrine. But rather than being in her usual position, that is, sitting crossed-legged on the slightly raised platform in the middle of the room, she was standing near the far wall. The interior walls of the Moriya Shrine were covered with line after line after line of text, all in a dialect no longer commonly practiced. Though she was looking over her shoulder to smile in amusement at Sanae, Kanako's body was facing the wall, with her hand light brushing over the endless inscriptions, suggesting that Sanae had interrupted her while she was reading them.

More than one person had mistaken the words for sacred doctrine or important history. While they got the history part right, the truth was much simpler. The rows of text were a list, a list of names. Every shrine maiden to have served the goddess of the shrine had her name etched upon the wall, all the way back to when it had been Suwako's shrine. She had started recording their names as a way to remember her family and honor them, and Kanako had continued the tradition. One day, Sanae knew, when she was gone and her daughter serving in her place, her own name would join that of her ancestors, forever a part of the shrine's history. She sometimes wondered if people would know that she had been the first shrine maiden to serve the goddess in Gensokyo. Probably, if Kanako had anything to say about it, which she obviously did.

Slightly chagrined to have interrupted her goddess in what appeared to be a private moment, Sanae flushed scarlet and bowed down low. "Lady Kanako, forgive me. I did not know you were here."

"Where else would I be?" Kanako said. "But there is no offense. Come here."

Sanae straightened and walked to Kanako's side.

"So," Kanako said as her fingers brushed over the names of those long dead. "It seems you lost your temper."

Sanae couldn't meet her gaze. "Yes, I'm sorry. I just got so angry. It won't happen-"

"Calm down, Sanae, it wasn't an accusation." Kanako shrugged. "Okay, if you had blown your top at a worshipper or something I'd probably chew you out. But like I said, I did angrily storm out first, and I do not prefer a 'Do as I say, not as I do' way of running things. Also, that was a meeting of equals over a very sensitive topic. There's no shame in expressing your opinion."

"Equals, huh?" Sanae said. The distaste was evident on her voice.

Kanako's smile quirked up again. She looked back to the rows of names on the wall. "Yes, Byakuren did go for the jugular there. I'll have to remember not to underestimate her in the future."

Sanae's cheeks were burning. "She was wrong, Lady Kanako. I'm sorry. She was wrong to have brought that up."

"Was she? It certainly was less than polite. But was she wrong? Ah, that is the question."

"My Lady?"

"Do you know why I forbid you to become involved in that little incident, Sanae? Why I did not permit you to go after the Hell Raven?"

Sanae faltered. Given all that had happened during that incident and Kanako's own involvement in starting it, Sanae had been given to understand that one simply did not Bring It Up. She had strictly adhered to this rule, and on more than one occasion had gone out of her way to make sure others did not Bring It Up. Which had been one reason she had been so furious at Byakuren for Bringing It Up. But now, Kanako herself was Bringing It Up and asking her about it. This formed a paradox in her mind, one that threatened to make her brain start hemorrhaging.

Kanako noticed. "Sanae, there's no one here but us, and we both know what happened. It's okay to answer the question. Believe me, my honor is not at stake."

"Oh, uh…" Sanae struggled to wrap her tongue around the subject. "Well…I always just, uh, assumed that, you know, that I wasn't ready yet. Since, you know, we had only been in Gensokyo for a few months, and my training wasn't finished yet, and…yeah."

Kanako nodded. "That's part of the reason. But there are others. What do you think they are?"

"Er…" She grimaced. Shit. "I…thought that…you didn't want me to see what had happened that you were…" Sanae's voice trailed off.

"That I was too ashamed?" Kanako finished for her.

Sanae couldn't meet her eyes. "Yeah, I guess."

"I see. Well, that's actually pretty accurate, though not entirely. I actually didn't want you involved because I didn't want you to encounter that girl and see what I had turned her into. I didn't want you to think that I may one day do the same to you."

Sanae's head snapped up. "Wait, say what?" she gasped. "My Lady, I-I'd _never _think that! I know you didn't mean for all that to happen, and I never even so much as thought that you'd do anything to hurt me, I swear!"

"I know, I know," Kanako said with a small laugh. "But still, the fear was there. Yes, even gods can feel fear at times. I was afraid, then, afraid that you would start to distrust me." At Sanae's shocked look she added, "Foolishness, I know, but it was there. And when Byakuren brought you up back there? It brought it all rushing back."

"That bitch," Sanae muttered. "I should've hit her harder when me and Reimu and Marisa when after her. And come to think of it, I should've hit Reimu for bringing her too."

Kanako gave her a look. "Oh, don't you start thinking like that. Starting a wrestling match with those two won't accomplish anything."

"Sure it would. It would make me feel a whole lot better."

"Sanae…" Kanako said in that exasperated tone that said that she wasn't mad but Sanae should still stop teasing. Sanae obeyed.

"Anyway," Kanako continued. "As much as I hate to admit it, Byakuren's word did get me thinking if the same mistake was about to be made again."

Sanae blinked. "Wait a minute, you're not…Lady Kanako, are you saying that they were _right? _But what about all that stuff about Rin Satsuki being dangerous and the Shadow Youkai and protecting innocent people and stuff?"

"Oh, that part still hasn't changed. But still, I can't help but wonder if I'm becoming too used to taking the practical road. As you know, I've always prided myself as a realist, but maybe I've lost a little too much idealism. After all, aren't gods supposed to help the downtrodden and save the wicked from themselves?"

Sanae wasn't sure if those questions were rhetorical or not, so she didn't answer.

"Maybe it's time to try to save the unsaveable, to see if we can work a little miracle. What do you think?"

"Me?" Sanae gulped. "Well, uh, you know. Whatever you decide, you know I'll be happy to-"

"Sanae, that's not what I asked. I asked what _you _thought."

"B-but it doesn't matter what I think! I'm your shrine maiden. I exist to serve you! My life is yours, now and…" Sanae's throat constricted. She turned away so Kanako couldn't see the tears forming in her eyes.

Kanako smiled. She gently put her arms around Sanae and drew her in close. "You're a good girl, Sanae," she murmured as she stroked the girl's hair.

Unable to speak, Sanae just nodded and allowed Kanako to hold her. Not for the first time, she reflected on how lucky she was. There were many people who talked of finding comfort in the arms of whatever god they served, but she was one of the few who could do it literally.

"I promise you, I'm not going to allow anyone to get hurt," Kanako said. "Not you, not anyone else. And I'm definitely not going to turn into a bleeding heart hippy like Byakuren, so you don't have to worry about that either."

Sanae had to let out a hiccupping laugh at that.

"Come on," Kanako said as she slowly released Sanae. She took the shrine maiden by the hand. "I think our guests deserve their answer.

…

Reimu sat in Kanako's room. Her upper body was sprawled over the table and her head was impatiently lolling back and forth. Byakuren sat across from her. Neither of them was feeling especially comfortable at the moment.

With a sigh Reimu straightened up. "So," she said, breaking the heavy silence that had been sitting upon the room. "How are things?"

Byakuren started in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"Come on, I haven't really seen you for months. What's been happening?"

"Small talk? At a time like this?"

"I. Am. _Bored!"_

Byakuren eye's rolled up. She ran her fingertips through her hair. "Good point. Well, things are all right, I suppose. The temple's doing well. We've been receiving a lot of support from the Human Village. And we've started a program to reach out to the local youkai tribes. That…still has a few kinks to work out, but I think we can-"

"Uh-huh, that's great. What about your buddies?"

A ghost of a smile curled Byakuren's lip. "Oh, fine. Let's not talk about my little projects. And they're fine as well. Well, mostly. Shou's unfortunately taken ill, which is why she didn't accompany me. To tell the truth, I didn't much care to leave her, but she insisted that I go. Something about not giving Yukari a reason to visit."

"Huh. I didn't think youkai got sick."

"Most of them don't, but those that came from animals can still catch diseases unique to their species. It's nothing serious though, just a nasty cold. Nazrin and Kyouko are taking care of her, though I don't think they're enjoying it. In Nazrin's own words, 'I never knew one cat could produce so much snot'."

"Ew, that's disgusting. What about the others?"

"Not much to report. Murasa started to get restless so she and her crew went out adventuring earlier this week. Oh, and Nue and Mamizou disappeared a few days ago."

"They what?" Reimu sat up straight in her chair. "What do you mean, 'disappeared'?"

Byakuren pursed her lips. "Well, perhaps 'disappeared' is a poor choice of words. Went out without telling anyone would be closer. They does it all the time though, wanders away and comes back after a week or so. I think they just get bored."

"Oh." Reimu's concern started to wane. "Well, just so long as they doesn't try to start trouble I don't have a problem with-"

The door to the room opened and Kanako entered with Sanae close behind. Reimu shut up immediately.

Both the goddess and her shrine maiden looked grim. Also, Sanae's eyes were red and puffy. Reimu frowned. "The hell happened to y-ow!" she squeaked as Byakuren kicked her under the table.

Kanako ignored the comment. She looked from one guest to the other. She took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. "All right, let's get one thing straight: I am not willing to place anyone's life at risk for this endeavor. If I must end Satsuki's life to protect another, I will do it without hesitation. And if she does cross over from victim to murderer, then I will support her execution. Oh, and if either of you mouth off to me again, then you will experience a long line of unhappy coincidences. Are we clear?"

"Clear," Byakuren said. She started to smile.

Reimu was grinning as well. "So you're in?"

Kanako eyes lingered on Reimu's own. "Provisionally. Don't expect me to hold up a sign at any 'Leave Rin Satsuki Alone!' rallies. And understand that if I meet her on the battlefield, I will shoot first and worry about putting hers back together later. But if you think a miracle can be accomplished, then I suppose I can pitch in."

"Really? For real for real?"

Kanako's lips stretched in a thin line. "Please don't make me think twice about this."

"That's close enough. Great! So now all we gotta do is figure out…" Reimu frowned. "Uh, wow. Okay, so I really didn't think much past this point."

"I can answer that for you," Mima said. The shadows in the far corner of the room shivered and fled, revealing the Evil Spirit of Hakurei Shrine.

Everyone reacted instantly. Kanako's eyes hardened to steel as powerful energy surrounded her hands. A sound like distant thunder began to rumble. At her side, Sanae gasped in surprise. She immediately reached for her ofuda charms, but they slipped from her trembling fingers, spilling all over the floor. She grimaced and hastily gathered them up. Byakuren stood sharply to her feet, the muscles in her face tensing up.

For her part, Reimu just raised her eyebrows. "Mima?" she said. "What the hell are _you _doing here?"

"Looking for you, actually. You never showed up at the shrine."

"That's because I went here! What are you, my mom or something?"

Mima sniffed. "Hardly. But there are still things I need to discuss with you. And hunting you down was rather inconvenient, let me tell you. Oh, hello there Kanako, Sanae. And long time no see, Byakuren. I meant to say hi at the meeting, but never got the chance."

"Mima, how long were you hiding there?" Kanako asked.

"Long enough." Mima's eyes flitted from one person to the next. If she was concerned about being outnumbered should violence erupt she didn't show it. "And I have to say, seeing the four of you working together and acting so altruistic toward something that could rip out your hearts without a second thought is oh so very sweet." A cruel smile spread over her face. "I love it."

At her goddess' side, Sanae's face had gone pale. "Y-you're not going to tell Yukari that we were sneaking around behind her back, are you? I mean it's not like we were doing anything wrong, we were just trying to-"

"Sanae!" Reimu, Kanako and Byakuren snapped in unison.

"Tell Yukari?" Mima said. She laughed. "You mean, turn you in? Oh, no, no, no. Even if she did care, I wouldn't bother. Go have a teaparty with the Shadow Youkai for I all care."

Reimu frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that Yukari and I are not exactly on the best of terms at the moment. There have been some interesting developments since you four left Yukari's citadel. And if you are planning to plot against Yukari's wishes, you should probably know a few things." Mima leaned in closer. "Marisa Kirisame has been arrested."

"What?" Sanae squeaked.

"I don't understand, what do you mean 'arrested'?" Byakuren asked.

Reimu didn't say anything at all. Her mind was dealing with the opposing reactions of "Wait, she did _what?" _and "Well, that was inevitable" and really didn't know how to reconcile them.

"Exactly what I said. I spoke with Alice Margatroid a few hours ago. She apparently witnessed the whole thing. Marisa's being confined at the Gensokyo Peacekeeping Force headquarters right now."

"Interesting," Kanako mused. "What are the charges?"

"It doesn't matter. What _does _matter is that Yukari now, for all intents and purposes, _owns _Marisa. And this has got me rather upset. But that's not all. Apparently Remilia Scarlet has also been convinced to, ahem, _assist_ Yukari as well. And by convinced I mean blackmailed, by the way."

"Remilia?" Reimu said. "What?"

"Exactly. And to top it off, I noticed that Yukari had been speaking to Satori Komejii in private as well. So now girls, pop quiz. What do Remilia and Satori have in common?"

The four conspirators exchanged a look. "Uh, they've got really creepy mansions?" Sanae suggested.

"And their food sucks," Reimu put in.

"Power," Byakuren whispered. "They both control beings of incredible power."

"That was going to be my next guess."

All the blood left Kanako's face. "No," she whispered.

"Precisely. A gold star for you," Mima said. "And Marisa would make a third. So now, let's sum things up: Marisa Kirisame. Flandre Scarlet. Utsuho Reiuji. All of them in possession of overwhelming destructive power. Is it a coincidence that they've fallen into her lap? Maybe, but considering the timing and the great lengths Yukari went through to acquire Marisa, I highly doubt it."

"But what could she want them for?" Byakuren asked. "I thought it was established that such beings are useless against Rin Satsuki?"

"Precisely. Another gold star for you. Which got me wondering: if she wasn't gathering these flying powerhouses together for the purpose of bringing poor little Rin down, what does she want them for?" Then Mima's smile widened, though there was no humor in it. "Then I realized that the answer was quite obvious."

"Yuuka," Kanako said. Her eyes widened in realization. "That's what she was talking about at the meeting. That's how she's going to stop Yuuka Kazami. She's not planning on fighting her herself, she's making others do it for her. She's going to use them as assassins."

Reimu's heart leapt into her throat. "Wait, _what?" _she squealed. "She's doing _what?"_

Byakuren closed her eyes. She swayed slightly on her feet. "Oh no, not this."

"Um, excuse me? 'Not this'? What do you mean, 'not this'? Because I'm really not liking the sound of that 'not this'!"

"Um, excuse me?"

Everyone's eyes turned to focus on Sanae, who was looking both confused by the conversation an uncomfortable with the attention. She cleared her throat.

"I…know I'm still kind of new around here, but I'm not getting why this is such a bad thing. I mean, I've heard that Yuuka Kazami is bad and all, but is she really that bad? And you know, Marisa specialized in blowing things up, Utsuho Reiuji is a flying nuclear arsenal, and while I really don't know much about Flandre Scarlet, everyone tells me that she can disintegrate things just by looking at them. So surely they'll be able to take Yuuka Kazami out without any problem, right?" She spread her hands. "Sorry, I just don't see why everyone is so worried."

Byakuren shook her head. She walked off toward one of the corners, her eyes closed and one hand pinching the bridge of her nose.

Mima answered, "The problem is that yes, Yuuka Kazami really is that bad. Maybe even worse than popular opinion, if my theories about her are correct. And while Yukari's makeshift hit squad is incredibly powerful, Yuuka will not go quietly. And as powerful as Marisa is, she is still a mortal. So you can understand why I'm a bit upset right now."

The ghost floated over to the table. Everyone instinctively moved away from the piece of furniture. Mima placed her hands on the table's surface and leaned over it to glower at those assembled.

"And if you're wondering what this has to do with you, then you're not thinking hard enough. At the moment, Yukari is at her most ruthless. She wasted no time bringing Marisa down, despite Marisa's close ties to both me and Reimu. She also didn't hesitate to blackmail an extremely powerful creature of the night, despite the fact that Remilia will likely seek revenge after all this is over. And now the possibility exists of her unleashing both Flandre Scarlet _and _Utsuho Reiuji?" Mima shook her head. "Kanako, Reimu and Sanae, I know you haven't known her all that long, but I have, both as an ally and as an enemy. And Byakuren also knew back in the old days. We've both seen her do this sort of thing before. Yukari may prefer to deal with problems personally, but she isn't above using others to solve them for her. And it's been my experience that once she's reached that stage, she doesn't take well to people getting in her way. So let me ask you something: seeing how she's dead set on killing Rin Satsuki, will this little mission of mercy get in her way?"

Nobody had an answer.

"I see. Well then, you'll be needing all the help you can get then."

"Excuse me," Byakuren said. Her voice was low and cautious. "Did you just offer to…help us?"

Mima shrugged. "Well, I _was_ thinking of kidnapping Reimu and using her as leverage to get Marisa released-"

"_What?" _everyone shouted with one voice.

"-but that's a stupid idea, so I decided not to. Calm down, shrine maiden. I have no interest in reigniting _that _feud. Besides, I've just stumbled upon a ready-made conspiracy, which is much more useful." Mima floated about three feet into the air so that she was towering over everyone. She folded her arms over her chest. "So here's the deal, ladies. You help me get Marisa out of this pickle alive, and I'll see what I can do about Rin Satsuki's unfortunate condition."

"Really?" Reimu said. "You'll do that?"

"No reason why not. Sure, she pasted me and Marisa in the face, but we smacked her down for it. I bear her no ill will. As far as I'm concerned, our score is settled. However, I'm afraid you will have to come to a decision quickly, because Yukari is going to move quickly to crush Yuuka." Mima's eyes glittered and the room seemed to darken. "And if I know anything about Yuuka, it won't be long before she starts to move as well."

…

Ran Yakumo stood at the far end of a wide, open field. The sun had nearly set, casting long shadows from the surrounding forest. A cold breeze was blowing, causing the tall grass to wave back and forth.

The field was mostly empty, save for a tree the size of a small castle set in its center. Its branches were spread far and wide, and numerous twinkling lights could be seen within. Even from her place at the field's edge, Ran could hear the babble of several voices, carried by the wind.

According to her sources, this was where Cirno and her gang were now. This was where she was going to find Chen.

And Yuuka.

Taking a deep breath, Ran set off.

…

_You know, if this keeps up, then Suwako's going to rival Hong Meiling as the character who has the most mentions without actually appearing onscreen._

_Anyway, before I get into anything else, I've got some bad news. Unfortunately, since the fall semester is coming to a close, the time has come for all my school projects to be due. As such, I'm going to have to put Imperfect Metamorphosis on a temporary hiatus to concentrate on school. It won't be very long, only about a month-and-a-half or so, but don't expect any new chapters until January. I'll try to get something out in the meantime though._

_On a lighter note, I see with great pleasure that Usually Dead's _Touhou Ibunshu _has gotten its own TV Tropes article (or rather, it's had one for some months now I'm only just getting around to mentioning it). Seeing how _Ibunshu_ is not only the best Touhou fanfic I've ever read but a fantastic story period, this makes me all kinds of happy. So yeah, if you're a troper and have read _Ibunshu, _then go find that article and pimp that sucker (already added a few tropes myself)! If you are a troper and haven't read _Ibunshu, _then google Usually Dead and look it up for yourself. Oh hell, what am I saying? _Everyone _go check out _Ibunshu. _Seriously, it's awesome._

_And speaking of TV Tropes, Imperfect Metamorphosis has also gotten some positive attention. Looks like the recommendation has grown quite a bit (thank you Sect and A Guy You Met Online!), and the Suika vs. Rin fight was mentioned in the CMoA: Fanfic page! Thank you too, mystery editor person! Happy TakerFoxx is happy. ^_^_

_Oh, and just to let you guys know, this site does have its own Touhou forum, which is fairly active. Granted, we only got maybe around 5-7 regular members, but we're always looking for new faces! And said members include Willie GR of the Sukima series and occasionally Heraklinios of Human of the Other Side, which are names that some of you are probably familiar with. Also, it's the best place to go to keep in the loop on when to expect the next chapter as well as receive little previews while it's in progress. So…yeah! Just go to Forums-Games-Touhou-Let's Danmaku! and say hi!_

_Also, to answer some points that were brought up in the reviews:_

_Anonymous NEET: Heh, believe it or not, I'm not too fond of the Ringleader name either. That was a result of me being completely unable to think of a cool sounding name and finally going "Screw it, this is a series that has names like 'The Human Village' and 'The Youkai Mountain'." Still, it did always strike me as kind of cheesy, which is why I keep having the characters make fun of it. One little point though: it actually wasn't to set up the circus thing. More of the other way around, as all the talk of Yukari being the leader of the Ringleaders gave me the image of her in a Ringmaster outfit, which I just had to use._

_And in regards to the unnamed review after that: actually, Marisa _does _have the Master Spark in Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil. It's the bomb-type for her B-Shot. Also, by then it's long after her first encounter with Yuuka, whom she stole the spell from. The way I figure, Cirno and Daiyousei jumped Reimu and Marisa for the heck of it only for Dai to get taken out pretty quickly. Cirno then got mad and started mouthing the girls off, only for Marisa to get annoyed and pull out her hakkero and…Yeah, you know the rest. Obviously, Cirno's built up more of a resistance since then._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	22. The Things We Do For Love

The Things We Do For Love

The bounty idea had succeeded beyond Cirno's wildest dreams. In the space of only a few hours, they had mobilized the entire Youkai Market to their cause, and it wouldn't be long before the word spread to the rest the fairy/youkai community, if the word could be said to apply. True, they were a long way from getting Rumia back, but with so many people working to bring the blob monster down, it wouldn't be long before they were a full gang again. As such, Cirno was in a celebratory mood. So at the end of the day, she had taken everyone to the Falcon's Fist at Center Tree for a round of drinks, Mystia's treat.

Center Tree was something of an oddity in Gensokyo. Like the Youkai Market, it was a highly commercial place, with dozens of shops that sold any number of things. However, it wasn't only a marketplace, as there were several people who lived there, not all of them merchants. It also wasn't exactly a town, either. It was more of an outpost, stuck in the middle of a large wilderness. It was also one of the few places that was equally welcoming to Human and nonhuman alike, and had residents and visitors from both camps.

But what made Center Tree truly unique was Center Tree itself. Like many places in Gensokyo, it took its name from what it literally was. And in this case, it was a tree in the center of a large field. An exceptionally large tree. A _ridiculously_ large tree, with a trunk wider around than a city block and well over a thousand feet straight up. Its many branches stretched far and wide, often intertwining together. The sheer scope of the tree was a breathtaking sight.

It was universally agreed that Center Tree had been artificially created by magic. Who and why were no longer remembered, nor did anyone care. They were too busy erecting a complete settlement in its branches.

Dozens, if not hundreds of platforms stretched from branch to branch, connected by a series of rope-bridges, wooden staircases and twisting ramps. Upon these platforms numerous structures had been set up, ranging from stores to inns to guild sleeping quarters to the local GPF station. And where there wasn't room to build, the trunk and branches themselves had been dug into to accommodate any number of businesses and dwelling places.

The Falcon's Fist was one such business. Carved into the side of one of the branches, it was a combination inn and restaurant run by a falcon youkai named Estelle, with the best stocked bar to be found for miles. This made it a popular place for both locals and visitors. Cirno and her friends made it a point to stop by every time they were in the neighborhood.

The restaurant itself was, like its once-beaked owner, built around an avian theme. The seats were padded with carefully woven straw, designed to have the appearance of a bird's nest while still remaining comfortable. The walls were lined with the feathers of a thousand different species, from the minute pinfeathers of sparrows to the brilliant plumage of peacocks. And the ceiling had an enchantment that caused the tree to grow several specially placed branches that twisted around each other and stretched to the floor in some places, giving the place the feel of a forest canopy. Of course, this was somewhat redundant considering that it was already inside a big honking tree, but it was the atmosphere that counted.

Cirno, Mystia, Wriggle, Daiyousei and Chen had taken control of a long table in the restaurant's center. Of course Estelle had been hesitant to surrender such a prime seating location to a bunch of kids who were without a reservation, but she had taken on look at Yuuka and conveniently lost the reservation of the group who were supposed to have the table. Estelle herself was now huddling under her desk in her office, emerging only to tell the servers that yes, they had to keep serving that table.

Cirno herself didn't care. She was on the top of the world, ordering round after round and supplementing it with enough food to feed an entire football team. The rest of her friends were somewhat less enthused, but Cirno just marked that up to worry and because they didn't yet see the genius of her plan. Once Rumia was back with them safe and sound, then they'll admit that she was right all along.

And to make things even better, they were still getting prospective bounty hunters! Chen had put together a second batch of fliers, but those were running low as well.

"Um, exsqueeze me…" said a scratchy voice from behind Cirno's chair.

Cirno turned around to see a blue-haired Kappa girl with pigtails, a green hat and oversized goggles. A small golden key hung on a silver chain around her neck. She was holding up one of Cirno's fliers.

"Hi!" Cirno said brightly. "What's up?"

The Kappa held the flier toward her. "Um, is dis the monster thing?" she asked. "The one dat dere's a bounties on?"

"You got it!" Cirno said. "Twenty-five million yen to the person who nabs that bitch, and…a whole lot more if you do it quickly!"

"Uh-huh. I sees, I sees." The kappa twisted the right lens of her goggles, causing it to telescope forward to a narrow point. She studied Cirno's stick-figure carefully. "So, what cans it does?"

"Huh?" Cirno said in confusion. Kappa speech patterns were notoriously hard to follow.

Wriggle, who had been listening on the conversation, nudged her with her elbow. "She asking what it can do."

"Oh! You mean the monster?"

The Kappa nodded. "Yesh."

Cirno shrugged. "Uh, I actually don't know except for that it can eat people with its whole body and make itself look like a scary them afterward. Oh, and don't touch it. It's like painful cold."

"Ah-hey. Anyplaces be willings to talks to me more?"

"Anyplace that be…Anyplace you can go to learn more?"

"Yesh."

Cirno shrugged again. "I dunno. Try that big-ass mansion in the Bamboo Forest. They seem to know something."

"Eientei?"

"Yeah, them."

"Kays. Whats about its weaksies?"

"Weaksies…?" Cirno looked again to Wriggle for help.

"She's asking if it has any weaknesses," Wriggle whispered.

"Oh. Sorry, don't know that either."

"Uh, ah-heys." The Kappa squinted her eyes at Cirno's stick-figure. She twisted the right lens of her goggles, making it telescope forward and focusing the eyepiece into a narrow point. "Yeahz, I cans does this bugger for you. Twenny-fize, you says?"

"Yep!"

"Cool. I gets right into this! It be scrippy times!"

After she had left, Wriggle said, "Look, I'll admit that your bounty idea is working way better than I thought it would-"

"About freaking time!" Cirno said in triumph.

"-but don't you think it's a little dangerous to be sending these people after this thing when we don't even know what it is?"

Cirno rolled her eyes. "Hey, no one's forcing them to take the bounty, okay? And we did tell them that we don't know what it can do. Besides, it's not like it can kill them permanently."

"You'd be surprised, little fairy," said a new voice. "There are many monsters in this world, ones that can do a great many things."

Cirno turned to find that another woman had walked up to their table. She wore a shapeless brown robe with a weather-stained hood pulled over her head. Her hair, where it poked out around the hood's sides, was red and strangely, and her pale skin was covered with so many freckles that Cirno almost mistook them for an infestation of parasites. Her eyes were strange though: a dull maroon color with unusually large black pupils. Definitely not human, but her exact youkai species, if she was one at all, was impossible to pinpoint.

"Who are you?" Cirno asked.

The woman smiled a thin smile. "Another prospective hunter, looking for some worthy game."

"Yeah?" Cirno held up a flier. "Well, this here monster's as worthy as they come!"

"That remains to be seen."

Cirno scowled. "Whaddya mean, 'Remains to be seen'? It ate one of my friends-"

"That doesn't sound so difficult."

"-_and _it fought off a bunch of really super strong people, like…like Yukari Yakumo! And Reimu Hakurei, and that one oni person, and that damned Marisa Kirisame and that scary ghost lady, Mima! If that's not a scary badass then I don't know what is!"

"Another debatable point. Still, it does catch my attention." The hooded woman snatched the flier from Cirno's fingers. She hummed idly to herself as she studied the picture. "Hmmmm. And you say that Eientei might have more information?"

"They'd better. I think they _made _the thing."

"Interesting." The woman stared at the flier for a second longer before nodding to herself. She placed the flier somewhere in her bulky robes. "Very well, little fairy. I'll take your bounty. Provided, of course, that you have the money to pay."

"Of course I do! You think I'd start something like this and not have the cash to back it up?"

"Yes."

Before Cirno could come up with a retort, the woman spun around and marched out the door, her heavy robes swishing appropriately.

"Dumb jerk," Cirno muttered to Wriggle as she turned back to the table. "She wouldn't be so mean if Yuuka were here. Where'd she go, anyway?"

Cirno's hired bodyguard had disappeared soon after getting them their table, claiming that she "Didn't want to upset people unnecessarily". Even Cirno didn't buy that excuse. Upsetting people seemed to be what she enjoyed best.

Still, she was gone, and Cirno couldn't honestly say she was relieved. After seeing her so easily dispatch the GPF captain and her goons, Cirno had come to realize just how useful of an ally Yuuka was. In fact, after this was over and Rumia was back, Cirno was considering seeking out her help for their mischief making. Perhaps then they might be able to step up their game.

In answer to Cirno's question, Wriggle said, "Don't look so disappointed. Believe me, the less of her around, the better. And it's like the Market: she'll appear if she thinks she's needed. So _please _don't give her a reason."

At Cirno's other side, Daiyousei cleared her throat. If anything, the day's events had made the green-haired fairy even more nervous looking, if such a thing were possible. "Uh, I agree with Wriggle. _Please _don't make her come back!"

Cirno scowled. "Okay, fine. Scaredy-cats. Nice to know my gang is so brave and all…" Cirno's voice trailed off. She shook her head and looked again. "Wait, what happened to everyone?"

"What?" Wriggle said.

"Chen and Mystia! Where'd they go?"

"Jeez, you just now noticed they were gone?" Wriggle said. "Way to be observant. You even said 'Bye' to them when they left!"

"I don't remember that!"

"No, you wouldn't." Wriggle rolled her eyes. "And calm down. Chen just went out to check out the shops. She said there was this cool pet store she wanted to visit, which is kind of creepy if you think about it."

"She's already the Shikigami of a Shikigami," Daiyousei pointed out. "It's not like it'll make things any weirder."

"Yeah, it will."

Cirno sighed. "Okay, fine. What'ta 'bout Mystia?"

"She's right over there," Daiyousei said, pointing. Cirno looked and relaxed. There was a small stage carved to look like a tree stump in one corner. Mystia was onstage and had drawn a small crowd of drunken fairies with her singing. They were all swaying back and forth and attempting to sing along, though their level of inebriation was drastically interfering with their success. They didn't seem to care though, and judging by the smile on Mystia's face she didn't either.

"Okay, cool," Cirno said. "She ain't going anywhere. And hey, you two should be following her example. Liven up a little! The plan's actually _working! _Heck, I'll bet we have Rumia back by the end of the week!"

Wriggle's already sallow face darkened even more. "Yeah, that's real likely."

"Come on! Cheer _up, _buggy!" Cirno pressed. "Things are going great!"

"Sure they are. And then something goes wrong, and we start going crazy trying to fix it, only to have everything go to shit."

"What makes you think that'll happen?" Cirno demanded.

Wriggle turned to face her. "Because it's one of _your _plans!" she snarled. She shoved her chair away from the table and jumped up to storm out of the restaurant, pushing her way past a couple of waitresses on her way out.

Cirno scowled. She stuck her tongue out at Wriggle's retreating back and turned back at the table. "Stupid bug," she muttered. "Not my fault's everything's so screwed up. I'm just trying to fix things. 'Sides, I don't see _her _coming up with any bright ideas."

Daiyousei looked at her friend with uncertainty all over her face. "Um, C-Cirno, are you…okay?"

"Yeah, sure. I'm fine." Cirno grabbed her bottle of sake and drained it in one long draft. She slammed it back onto the table. Then she leaned back in her chair and smiled. "And hell, why shouldn't I be? _Everything's _going according to plan! All according to my _perfect _plan! According to plan, accordion-o-planning, hehehe."

She got up from her seat. "I'm a-gonna find…something," she declared to Daiyousei. "Need some fresh air. Yeah, that's the ticket! Some fresh air is what I need, I do I do." She took two steps and nearly fell right into a nearby booth and upsetting the meal sitting on it. The occupants were less than amused.

Daiyousei was at her side in less than a second. "Uh, here," she said, taking Cirno by the arm and guiding her toward the door. "Why don't I go with you?"

Cirno grinned at her. At least one member of her gang still harbored loyalty. "Great idea!" she said as Daiyousei directed her around the hostess' podium. "That way, if the fresh air's missing, we can work together to find it! It can be an adventure!"

"Uh, sure. We'll do that."

So intent were both fairies on successfully navigating toward the door, that they didn't notice that the Falcon's Fist had fallen silent. Even Mystia and her new fans had stopped singing. Every eye except for the two fairies' was focused on the door.

Then Cirno and Daiyousei nearly ran into a pair of legs standing in the doorway. Confused, they looked up to see (from their perspective at least) a ridiculously tall blond woman wearing a white robe with large sleeves. She had on a white hat with two jutting spires, presumably to accommodate her pointed ears. And if that was not enough to give away who she was, the nine bushy fox tails arrayed like a peacock's plumage behind her told everyone that Ran Yakumo, the Shikigami of none other than Yukari Yakumo, had entered the room.

The two fairies stared up at the monolithic youkai. Cirno rubbed her eyes, shook her head and blinked several times before looking again. It was still her. "Oh," she said. And then, "Well, crap."

For her part, Ran didn't seem too pleased to see them. "Well. Cirno and…forget your name. And over there…" Her head swung over to the stage, where Mystia was still standing dumbstruck. "The eel-girl. Good. Just the troublemakers I wanted to see."

Cirno tried to backpedal but ended up tripping over her own ankles. She tried to grab at Daiyousei for support, but ended up dragging the other fairy down with her. They quickly untangled themselves and sat up to see Ran kneeling down, staring at them.

The face of Yukari's Shikigami was without emotion, which in Cirno's experience was far more dangerous than blind rage. "Cirno. When we spoke last you told me that you had no idea where Chen was. Do you remember that?"

"I don't have her!" Cirno shouted. She hastily scrambled to her feet.

"That's not what some very reliable sources tell me. I don't appreciate being lied to, Cirno. And I don't appreciate people putting Chen in danger."

The hostess, a small Human woman with her dark hair in a tight bun, approached Ran with her palms held out. "Okay, let's just calm down here," she said. "There's no need-"

Ran's head whipped up, her teeth bared. She snarled. The human quickly backed off, as did every else standing nearby.

Ran turned her attention back to Cirno. "Okay Cirno, here's the situation: I'm upset, but willing to let your falsehood go, so long as-"

"I told you, I don't have her!"

Ran closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and said, "Still with the lies. I am trying to remain calm here, but you're making it very-"

"I don't!"

"-difficult. And if you continue-"

"Go away! Leave us alone!"

"-to feed me BS, I am going to lose my temper. And if-"

"I said go away!"

"-that happens, then I can't be held responsible for what-"

"GO AWAY!"

"She came later!" Daiyousei blurted out.

"Dai!" Cirno shouted.

Daiyousei clamped her hands over her mouth. Her cheeks turned red.

Ran, however, had noticed. Her eyebrows knitted together, and she leaned forward so that she and Daiyousei were almost nose-to-nose. "What did you say?"

Evidently realizing that there was no further point in hiding it, Daiyousei said. "Uh, i-if you're t-t-talking about when you, um." She swallowed nervously and tried not to look the kitsune in the eye. "Uh, talked to Cirno earlier, Ch-Chen wasn't with us then."

"Dai, shut up!" Cirno shouted.

Ran reached over with one hand and grabbed Cirno by the face, covering her mouth in the process. She lifted the struggling fairy off the floor and held her in place. To Daiyousei, she said, "Talk."

The implied threat did its job. Daiyousei started babbling. "She was waiting for us in the cave! After Cirno got back from Eientei, _waaaay _after talking to you! Cirno didn't know, we didn't know, I swear! We weren't trying to…Wait Cirno, don't!"

It was too late. While Daiyousei was desperately trying to explain things to Ran, Cirno had taken a more direct approach to her predicament. That is, forming a small but sharp blade of ice in her hand and jabbing it straight into Ran's hand.

It broke off without penetrating the skin. Still, Ran hissed and rose to her feet, carrying Cirno with her. "You," she said. "Just made the biggest mistake of your-"

"No, she didn't. But you are close to making yours."

Before Ran could see who was talking, something seized her by the ankles. She was then yanked off her feet and dragged roaring out of the restaurant, dropping Cirno in the process. Daiyousei quickly helped Cirno to her feet, and the two fairies watched as Ran was shoved roughly against the underside of a large branch and securely tied in place by twisting vines that slithered over her like snakes.

The room filled with gasps and exclamations of fear. Cirno and Daiyousei turned to see Yuuka standing on their table. She held her closed umbrella with one hand and was irritably thumping it against the other palm. The frown on her face spoke clearly of her displeasure.

Then her face relaxed. She shook her head. "Oh, girls, girls, girls," she said as she stepped off the table. The floor trembled and heaved upward, forming steps for her to walk on. "Come now, it's only been a few hours since I last got you out of trouble, and here you are picking fights again? As much as I enjoy the occasional bout of chaos, please try to restrain yourself!"

Cirno pointed out the door. Her entire arm was shaking. "Sh-sh-she attacked us first!"

"Did she? Well, that's incredibly rude. And why was that, if I may be so bold as to ask?"

Cirno told her. Yuuka listened with a surprised look on her face. Then she smiled.

…

Ran growled and strained against the vines that held her in place. She tried to bite her way free, but then a thick mass of leaves shoved itself into her mouth. She coughed and bit, but could not dislodge the gag.

Stupid. She had been so stupid. Yuuka had made it clear that she was taking the protection of Cirno's gang seriously. But Ran had let her emotions get the better of her, and now she was paying the price. If Yuuka were to kill her now and somehow make it permanent, it would be no less than she deserved for her own idiocy.

Except…no. Ran was not going to let that happen. She was not going to leave Chen in the hands of that monster.

There was a small commotion from inside the restaurant, and Yuuka Kazami emerged into the night, her umbrella hanging on her arm. Keeping a safe distance were Cirno and her two friends: the other fairy and the bird. Though they were definitely curious as to what would happen, they did not look like they wanted to be caught in the middle of it.

Yuuka flicked her umbrella up to her grasp and reached up with it to poke the vines restraining Ran. They shivered and slithered away. Ran dropped to the wooden platform and landed in a crouch. She warily watched as Yuuka smiled down at her.

"So you are Ran Yakumo," Yuuka said. "How…_interesting. _Little Cirno here tells me that you are the personal servant of none other than the magnificent, the amazing, the all-powerful Yukari Yakumo. And not only that, you are her familiar as well! There's probably no one in all of existence that's closer to her than you." A deep red tongue snaked out to pass over her lips. "That is very, very interesting."

"Really?" Ran said. Her voice was polite but guarded. "And how is-"

She was cut off when Yuuka suddenly slammed the umbrella against her skull and flattened her to the ground. Most umbrellas would have snapped in half without her even feeling it. But as nothing was ever as it should be when Yuuka was involved, Ran's face hit wood with brain-rattling force while the umbrella remained perfectly intact.

"Don't," Yuuka growled. "Don't you dare play stupid. You know very well that I just issued a personal challenge to your master. And now here you are, Yukari Yakumo's familiar. In the flesh. And you have the gall to pretend not to know why this is significant? How _dare _you!" She shoved the toe of her boot under Ran's stomach and flipped her over to her back. Ran tried to rise but Yuuka shoved the tip of her umbrella into her stomach, driving her back down. "Insult my intelligence again and you will be shipped back home in multiple packages. Do I make myself clear?"

Ran's first impulse was to lunge up and tear Yuuka's face off with her claws, but she beat that back down. "Clear," she coughed.

"Good. Very good." Yuuka removed the umbrella and offered her hand. Ran hesitated, and then took it.

"There we are, no harm done," Yuuka said pleasantly as she helped Ran to her feet. "Now, may I ask what you're doing here, and why you were harassing those children? And I really hope that it wasn't on Yukari's behalf. Because really, responding to a personal challenge through pawns is really unsportsmanlike."

Meanwhile, a small crowd was forming. Most of the bolder customers of the Falcon's Fist clustered around the doorway to watch the proceedings, while several passersby watched from either side and from the platforms above. Ran did her best to ignore them and said, "No, this has nothing to do with my Master or the challenge you issued. I am here entirely on my own business."

"Oh?" Yuuka raised an eyebrow. "That's intriguing. Does Yukari even know you're here?"

"She does, but only insofar as to grant permission and…offer advice."

"Advice. Really. Do disclose."

"I was told to mind my manners and be respectful."

Yuuka let out a bark of surprised laughter, causing the gathered onlookers to flinch back. "Oh, you were, where you? Well, you certainly fouled that up quickly! But I could be forgiven your brief lapse of judgment, provided that your reason for seeking me out doesn't end up wasting my time."

"It won't," Ran quickly assured her. "I need to speak to you about Chen."

Yuuka frowned. "Chen. Chen? Chen…" She looked down at Cirno and her friends. "Chen?"

Cirno spoke up. "Uh, you know. The catgirl?"

"Oh! Right, Chen! How could I forget delightful little bundle of fun?" Yuuka turned back to Ran. "But whatever could you want with her? You are, after all, a canine by heritage. And canines and felines do not traditionally associate with one another."

"That's because she is my Shikigami, just as I am Yukari's," Ran said simply. There was no point in concealing the truth from her. Creatures like her were uncannily good at picking out lies. "I am responsible for her, and the longer she remains involved in this business the longer she remains in danger."

Judging by the sharp breath Yuuka took, it was evident that she was unaware of this piece of information. Ran braced herself as she waited for Yuuka's answer.

Then Yuuka said, "You are telling me the truth, yes? Chen is your familiar?"

"I am."

"I…see." Yuuka mused over this new revelation for a moment longer. Then she said, "Follow me", and whirled around to march back into the Falcon's Fist. The gaggle at the doorway parted as quickly as they could in their haste to make way. Yuuka ignored them and walked back up onto Cirno's table.

She reached up and tapped her umbrella against the foliage-covered ceiling. In response to her touch the woven branched part parted and the ceiling opened up to the room above. The branches themselves stretched downward diagonally and twisted into the shape of a leafy staircase.

"Cirno? Honey?" Yuuka said.

The little fairy stiffened immediately. "Um…huh?"

"Would you be a dear and go find Chen for me?"

"Oh, um, sure. Why not? I'll get right on that…"

Cirno bolted toward Center Tree's maze of walkways. Her green-haired friend was quick to follow, and after a moment's hesitation the bird shot after them.

"They'll be back soon with the feline in question," Yuuka told Ran. She gestured up the stairs. "In the meantime, I believe we have a few things to discuss. Won't you step into my office?"

…

Cirno started off at a run, her feet pounding against the wood slats of the platform as she picked up speed. She then leapt and took flight, zipping along the twisting walkways, ramps and staircases of Center Tree and dodging her way through the people going about their business. Several of them cursed and either ducked or jumped out of the way as she darted past, and more reflexively tried to shoot her down. Cirno of course didn't care. She was too busy frantically trying to find Chen.

Behind her Daiyousei and Mystia were trying to keep up. Daiyousei wasn't that much bigger than Cirno, so she was having an easier time with it. But Mystia, who was closer to human-size, was quickly bogged down and left behind.

Cirno didn't have time to go back for her. She had to find Chen, and fast.

"Where'd she go?" she shouted over her shoulder.

Daiyousei, who was doing her best not to upset the abnormally tall hats of a group of rabbit aristocrats, shouted back, "What?"

"Chen! Do you know where she went?"

The pause allowed Daiyousei to catch up. "The pet shop! Remember?"

"Right!" Cirno looked around. "Uh, where's that?"

"I don't know, I've never been there!"

"Great. How the hellsicles are we supposed to find a single store in this place?" Cirno moaned.

"I don't know, stop yelling at me!"

"I'm not! Mysty, where's the pet shop?"

That last question was directed toward Mystia, who had just frantically managed to shove her way up to the pair. "W-what?" she panted.

"Pet shop!" Cirno repeated. "Chen! Where?"

Mystia looked at her like she had blown a gasket. "_What_ pet shop?"

"Argh!" Cirno was coming dangerously close to tearing out her own hair. "This is insane! We gotta find a dumb cat who may or may not be in a store that we don't know where it is in a ginormous tree filled with stupid stores! And if we don't, Yuuka is gonna kill us!"

"Unless the fox-lady gets to us first," Daiyousei muttered.

"Exactly! This sucks. What did we do…" Cirno then spotted someone. "Wait a minute, hey!"

"What, do you see her?" Mystia asked as Cirno started power-walking over to a covered balcony with several tables and chairs.

"Nope!" Cirno pointed. "But it's a start!"

Wriggle was sitting at one of the table, staring sullenly out at the empty field beyond Center Tree. She had a chocolate shake sitting on the table and was sipping at it through a straw.

"Wriggle!" Cirno shouted as she ran up to her. "We need your help!"

Wriggle turned, and her frown dipped even lower. "Oh, lookee here. The master strategist herself. What's up, chillybutt? Got another brilliant plan brewing in that empty head of yours? What's next, staging an armed invasion of Makai? Trying to tame the Great Dragon and riding it against Yukari?"

"Shut up and listen! We need to find Chen and fast!"

"Oh?" Wriggle raised an eyebrow. "Why's that? Did she pee all over your bed again?"

"No! She…Wait, does she still do that?" Cirno shook her head. "No, wait, I don't care. Look, Chen's fox-lady just showed up and threatened to take my face off-"

"Mine too!" Daiyousei said.

"-Right, Daiyousei's too if we didn't give Chen back! And then Yuuka did that come-out-of-nowhere thing and tied her up and let her go and hit her a lot! And then I guess she felt bad about it because she took the fox-lady somewhere to talk to her and told us to find Chen! Except we have no freaking idea where she is and need help!"

Wriggle rolled her eyes and let out an irritated sigh. She sucked up the rest of her shake with one long inhale, burped and stood up. "Should've seen this coming," she muttered. "And I told you. Chen's at that one pet shop."

"But we don't know where the pet shop is," Mystia pointed out. "And it won't be long before Yuuka starts getting impatient."

Wriggle's look of sullenness softened. "Okay, point. And it's not that far. Only a couple levels up."

Cirno felt a rush of hope. "You know where it is?"

"Yeah, it's next to this really kick-ass candy store. Come on."

Wriggle jogged over to the edge of the balcony and kept going, stepping into open air and soaring upward. Cirno, Mystia and Daiyousei hurried to follow, and the four of them flew upward and swooped in to reenter the labyrinth of Center Tree.

Despite her assurances, Wriggle actually didn't know exactly where the pet shop was located, and they ended up taking a couple of wrong turns in the process. However, they came across a directory carved into a branch's side (which Wriggle sulkily insisted they didn't need as she knew exactly where they were) and were able to bring themselves to Portnoy's Pets and its cavity-causing neighbor, Wizzlers.

Cirno wasted no time charging straight into Portnoy's and swooping around the various cages and bags of feed, calling out Chen's name. For their part, Mystia and Wriggle went for a more rational solution and floated up at the center of the store and looked down, searching for any sign of the catgirl. It was pointless though. Chen had left. And the shop's owner was not amused by Cirno's frantic search and how it was upsetting the animals. Nor did he buy her frenzied explanations, and the whole gang found themselves kicked out.

"It's not fair!" Cirno shouted as she banged her fist against the store's wall in frustration. "He could at least have told us where she is!"

"He can't. He doesn't know," Wriggle said. The firefly stuck her hands into her pockets. "He told us, remember?"

Cirno grimaced. "Bet he would tell us if Yuuka was around. We shoulda brought her."

Wriggle and Mystia exchanged an exasperated look and rolled their eyes. Mystia said, "She's the one that _sent _us, remember?"

"Oh, right. And hey, where does she get off telling us to do anything? We hired her, _I _hired her! It's my plan, I should be in charge!"

"Cirno, just shut up already," Wriggle said.

Cirno whirled to shove a finger against Wriggle's nose. "Don't tell me to shut up! You shut up! I don't see you thinking of anything!"

While this was going on, Daiyousei kept backing further and further away from the argument. This hadn't been the first time such disagreements had broken out, and she knew better than to get between them, especially since this one looked like it was going to be a bad one. Unfortunately, as it was happening in a public place, all their yelling was starting to attract attention. A small crowd was gathering to stare at the confrontation, with some of them shouting words of encouragement and rooting them on.

Someone tapped Daiyousei on the shoulder. "What's going on? Why are they fighting?"

Daiyousei turned to see a young confused-looking youkai girl, not much taller than a fairy herself, with short red hair and a plain dress of the same color, except for the sleeves, which were white and exceptionally long. Unlike most non-animal youkai, this one's origins were easy to pick out, if the large mushroom cap she wore as a hat was any indication.

In reply, Daiyousei whispered back, "Cir…the fairy's mad because our friend's missing and we can't find her, the firefly's been mad at the fairy all day and the sparrow's mad because if we don't find out friend, then someone else is going to get mad at us, someone very scary."

The mushroom girl still looked confused, but she said, "Okay. That sounds complicated. But okay."

Daiyousei sighed and nodded. "Yeah, very…complicated. Hey, maybe you can help us. Have you seen a cat youkai girl, about yea tall" Daiyousei held her hand about half a foot above her own head "with short brown hair and a red dress? And two tails?"

The mushroom girl frowned. "Yeah, maybe. Did she have a green hat, an earring in one ear and…really, really hyper?"

Daiyousei felt a rush of hope. "Yeah, that's her!" she said excitedly. "Where'd you see her?"

"I think most people have seen her by now! She got a job a level down as a restaurant's mascot."

Daiyousei stared. "…she got a what?"

"Yeah," the mushroom girl nodded. "Over at the Nyan Nyan."

"…at the _where?"_

…

The room Yuuka led Ran up to was one the rooms the Falcon's Fist rooms for rent. As least she assumed so, given its location, but it was difficult to tell for certain, mainly because in the short time Yuuka had inhabited it, she had turned it into a miniature jungle.

The walls were covered with thick stalks, green branches, vines and enormous unfurling leaves. Roots twisted over the floor, making it difficult to walk. And like the ceiling of the Falcon's Fist dining area, the roof was thickly clustered with hanging foliage. However, the restaurant's illusion, while impressive, had about as much in common with Yuuka's as a child's finger-painting had with a master artist's magnum opus. A mist filled the room, so dense that Ran's robes immediately clung to her body. And everywhere there were flowers.

Little blue bell-shaped ones that clustered the hanging vines. Huge white exotic-looking ones that looked like birds. Dark crimson ones that looked like water pitchers. And (Ran nervously noted), purple buds the size of a person's head with predatory teeth lining the thick petals. And each and every one turned their faces toward Yuuka and Ran as they entered the room, though the purple buds seemed more interested in Ran. She just hoped that they weren't hungry.

Strangely enough, remnants of the original room could still be seen. The bed was still against the wall and surprisingly plant free. As was the large oak wardrobe, though tendrils still clung to its sides and a mass of orchids nested at its peak. The nightstand and accompanying lamp, however, now more resembled an oddly shaped mossy boulder. And the table and the chair were covered with wild grass and fungi.

"I must say, Ms. Yakumo, I do not care much for your manners, or lack thereof," Yuuka said. She held her umbrella up and allowed a vine to snake down and take it from her. She then walked behind the table and sat down the chair, completely ignoring the fact that it would not look out of place as a garden ornament. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the grassy tabletop, her hands clasped in front of her face.

Something bumped against Ran's backside. She looked over her shoulder to see that a giant black mushroom had grown up behind her. Taking the hint, she sat down on its cap. It sagged under her weight but held.

"I hear a commotion and come down to investigate," Yuuka continued. "And what do I find but two of the children I told Yukari to stay away from being threatened by none other than her familiar, caught in the very act of trying to do them bodily harm? This upsets me, kitsune. This upsets me a great deal."

Ran was about to reply, but Yuuka was still talking. "However, I can understand why you would act in such a manner. Love often makes us do strange things, behave in ways that we may later regret. So I'm willing to overlook your less than courteous behavior and allow you to speak your piece."

Nodding her understanding, Ran opened her mouth to begin, but Yuuka cut her off once again. "However, I should point out that you already have a couple of marks against you, and should you decide to anger, annoy or displease me in any way, I will reduce you to fertilizer. That…wasn't hyperbole, by the way. I will indeed feed you to my babies."

Yuuka turned slightly and gestured with one hand. A beam of light fell from the ceiling to illuminate one of the water pitcher flowers. Ran frowned. There seemed to be something poking out of the top of the pitcher itself, something…

Ran's face paled. It was a hand, drained white of blood. It hung limply out of the pitcher, presumably still attached to the rest of the arm within.

The pitcher jerked once, and the hand slid fully within.

"This room's original inhabitants," Yuuka said by way of explanation. "There were no empty rooms, and they were hesitant to accommodate my babies and I. Quite inhospitable. A simple 'no' would have sufficed. But they decided to scream and throw things. So very rude." She shrugged. "Oh, and one more thing you should be aware of. During our meeting together, you are alone. Don't count on your master to save you, unless she wants to come here in person and tear her way in with her fingernails. I direct your attention upward."

Ran looked up. Yuuka was pointing at the blue bell-shaped flowers that clustered on the hanging vines. Now that she was paying attention, Ran saw that they were glowing with a faint luminescence.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Yuuka said, admiration in her voice. "They're not native to Gensokyo. I had to bring the seedlings with me when I moved here. They now grow everywhere in my house. But their purpose extends beyond mere ornaments. It seems they also have the added effect of interfering with foreign magics that might be sneaking around in the air. Up to and including your master's nasty little spies and gaps." Yuuka flicked one such cluster with her fingers. A wave of light ran up the vine in response. "I've found them to be useful friends to have. In fact, everything you see here has its own unique uses. It just takes a patient hand and a listening ear to learn how to use them." She turned her head so that she and Ran's eyes were meeting. Her lips were spread with a smug smile. "But all that to say this: these are all my friends, kitsune. And my displeasure is theirs. Keep that in mind."

Ran just stared. She had of course seen people do terrible things before. In fact, she had done a few of them herself, as had Yukari. And she had seen monsters as well, cruel creatures that caused pain and misery for no discernible reason. She had walked among the mangled bodies of their victims and stained her clothes on spilled blood. Yuuka's behavior was nothing new.

But this time it was different. This time, the monster had Chen in her grasp. That changed everything.

Yuuka noticed Ran's unease. "Good. You understand your predicament." She smirked. "Or perhaps you fear that I will do the same to your cat. I suppose that would be understandable, but your fears are ungrounded. I swore to keep those children from harm, and it would hardly be keeping with that vow if I were to harm them myself, now wouldn't it? But I know that love is not always a rational creature. And despite what you might think, I am well aware of my…reputation, in certain circles. So I don't begrudge you your discomfort."

"Then you understand my reason for coming," Ran said.

"Of course, to get little Chen back," Yuuka said. She sounded slightly irritated. "I thought we had established this already."

"No, I mean…" Ran's brain raced as she tried to think of the best way to explain herself. "You understand my…concern, and how worried I've been. She's been missing for about five days now, and she disappeared right when…Well, when certain things happened."

"You mean the Shadow Youkai," Yuuka said. "Yes, I know. Rumia of the Shadows is once again whole. Good times, all around. I was unfortunately in the Dream World at the time of her last rampage, so I missed out on all the fun. But the nightmares she inspired…Ah…" Yuuka closed her eyes and sighed deeply. Her nostrils flared in ecstasy.

Ran had to force her face to remain neutral. Yuuka didn't know the full story. That was very useful information, but it wouldn't do for Yuuka to start asking questions. So, rather than confirming or denying Yuuka's statement she said, "Right. Exactly. And it was right where Rumia was unleashed too. For all I knew she might have been found by that creature, and…" Ran's voice trailed off.

"And you spent all this time worried that she had been slashed to ribbons by one monster, only to find her in the claws of another," Yuuka finished for her. "And it's causing you untold amounts of stress. Why my dear Ran, I'm flattered. So glad to hear that you take me seriously."

Ran nodded. "Yes. And while I have no doubt that you fully intend to, um, back up your words, the fact remains that there does seem to be something that the children need to be protected from. And I'm not just talking about the Shadow Youkai."

"You mean the bounty hunters," Yuuka said. "You're worried that fairy's bounty will attract negative attention. However, you do realize that this was exactly why I was brought into this delightful little mess. To discourage such attention."

"Yes, but even you cannot watch each one of them at all times. They have a history of getting into trouble, and as I can personally attest to, accidents can and do happen under the most watchful eye. And if something were to happen to Chen because of this…"

Ran didn't have to fake the emotion in her voice. It was all she could do to retain her calm façade. Which was just as well. Yukari's words kept playing in her head. _"Don't challenge her, don't insult her, don't attack her in any way," _her master had said. _"Avoid making yourself out as an enemy. Rather, appeal to her better side, if such a thing could be said to exist. Yuuka is a creature of emotion, and if my encounters with her are any indication, she does strongly feel such things as affection, attachment, perhaps even love. Play up these feelings. Have her empathize with you. Beg if you have to. Plead, humble yourself, whatever. Because despite public opinion, Yuuka does have a heart, twisted as it might be."_

And it seemed to be working. Yuuka's face was softening. "Well," she said. "I should be insulted by your lack of faith in my abilities, but I'm not. Your concern for your cat is…surprisingly touching, Shikigami. I can detect no falsified emotion within you."

"Then perhaps you will grant my request?" Ran said hopefully. "I don't care what you want with Yukari. That business is between you and my Master. But I would rip out my tails before I stood by and let Chen be caught in the middle of that."

It was then that Ran did something that anyone who knew her would find surprising. She served Yukari and Yukari alone. Things such as royalty, authority, even deification meant nothing to her. She bent knee to no one but her Master.

But still, she found herself sliding down from the mushroom and prostrating herself before Yuuka. She stretched out her arms before her and brought her face within an inch of the root-covered floor.

"Please," she said. "Don't let Chen's absence torment me any longer. Let me do my duty as her protector. I swear that once I leave with her our business will end and I will do nothing to hinder your machinations. Just let me take her home."

Ran held her breath as she waited for Yuuka's answer.

…

"Where is this Nyan Nyan place anyway?" Cirno shouted as the four of them raced through the crowd.

"The mushroom girl said it was this way," Daiyousei shouted back. "She said we can't miss it!"

"What kind of place calls itself Nyan Nyan?" Wriggle asked. "Seems kind of silly if you ask me."

"I dunno, maybe some place with a cat theme?" Mystia said.

"It still sounds silly. I mean, I might as well open a place called the Buzz Buzz if that's the sort of…"

They rounded a corner and Wriggle's voice trailed off. There in front of them was a hut-shaped building. Set in front of the building's entrance was a large flat board, painted to resemble a smiling cat's face. The door was set in the cat's mouth, and people were walking in and out.

That in itself was strange enough, but what was even more bizarre was what was taking place in front of the building. There a yellow box, about a foot high, had been set up. A small crowd of people were gathered around the box. And on top of the box was Chen herself.

Chen was evidently having a good time. She was holding her hands in front of her face like the pars of a cat and jumping from one leg to the next.

"Nyan, nyan, ni hao nyan!" she sang. Then she stood on both feet and stretched one arm into the air.

"Gorgeous-"

The other arm went up.

"-delicious-"

Chen spun around and spread her arms wide.

"-deculture!"

This strange dance and song routine was then repeated over. And over. And over again. Meanwhile, the crowd laughed and cheered. Cirno's gang, however, just stared.

Wriggle was the first to recover. "Okay," she said slowly. "Everyone's thinking it, I'm just saying it. What exactly is she doing?"

"Uh, dancing?" Cirno said.

"Yeah, I can see that she's dancing. The question is _why _is she dancing? And singing? On a box?"

"I think it's some kind of promotional thing," Mystia said. "For that restaurant over there."

Wriggle gaped. "That's a _restaurant? _Gods, I thought it was some kind of demonic cat shrine."

"What does 'ni hao' mean?" Daiyousei wondered. "And deculture?"

Cirno scowled. "Well, freaky dance or no, we need her to come back. Come on."

The four of them made their way toward the catgirl. Chen spied them coming and paused in mid-dance.

"Hey guys!" she said, waving at them. "I was in the pet store looking at this really cute bird except I don't think it liked me very much because it kept going all crazy every time I came near but anyway this really nice man came up and said that I was perfect for his restaurant and that he'd pay me to dance in front so I did and it's a lot of fun you should try it maybe he'll let you guys-"

Wriggle stomped up to her. "Yeah, that's great. Sorry Chen, time to go." She reached up and pulled a confused Chen off the box. To the increasingly disgruntled looking crowd, she said, "Sorry folks, show's over. We need to get this catgirl somewhere else, and fast."

"Huh?" Chen said. "But I'm not done yet! I haven't gotten paid and I only danced for a couple minutes and why do we need to-"

Cirno broke in. "Your fox-lady's here. Yuuka sent us to go get you." Then she scowled. "And come to think of it, what's Yuuka doing giving orders anyway? I thought I-"

"Shut up, Cirno," Wriggle said.

Chen's eyes widened. She pulled back. "Wait, Ran's here? I'm not going back!"

Cirno grabbed her by the arm and pulled. "Yeah, you are. It's for our own good."

"No way! The last time I saw her, she tied me up, put a gag in my mouth and stuck needles into me!"

"Yeah. Been there," Wriggle said.

An uncomfortable silence fell. Mystia and Daiyousei exchanged awkward glances while Cirno stared slack-jawed at Wriggle. Chen, true to form, just looked confused.

Wriggle sighed. "Okay, just forget I said that."

"I'm not going back!" Chen insisted. "Ran's too much of a meanie! She can come find me if she wants me so badly!"

Mystia cleared her throat. "Uh, remember the part where it was actually Yuuka that sent us after you?"

"Yuuka?" Chen said in a small voice.

"Yeah. She's talking to Ran right now."

"And did she look mad?"

"Which one?"

"Yuuka."

Mystia nodded. "Kind of, yeah. She took Ran upstairs and told us to go find-"

Chen was suddenly off like a shot. She didn't even bother with the walkways or flight, but leapt into the trees branches and jumped and swung her way back toward the Falcon's Fist as fast as her arms and legs would carry her. "Hurry!" she yelled. "We need to save Ran!"

Mystia blinked. "Wow, she sure changed her mind in a hurry."

"Yuuka will do that to you," Wriggle said. "Besides, she's right. Let's get out of here before Yuuka starts wondering where we are or the creepy cat-guy notices we stole his mascot."

…

"No."

Ran felt her blood turn cold in her veins. Her muscles clenched up immediately. Going into this, she hadn't known exactly what to expect from Yuuka. Laughter, maybe. Mockery. Mindgames, emotional manipulation. Violence. Perhaps even a "Yes", but with conditions, or nasty surprises to be discovered later.

But not a "No". Not like the way she had said it. Cold, definite. Final. Yuuka wasn't making fun of her. She wasn't relishing Ran's distress. She had heard Ran's plea and had given her answer in all seriousness. For some reason that was even worse than her usual flighty cruelty.

"No," Yuuka said again. "Of course not. No, and-Will you get _up?_ Honestly, reverence is all well and good, but you're just being overdramatic. I can't stand it when people are overdramatic. It feels like they're trying to outdo me."

Ran stood up.

"Sit down."

Ran sat down.

Yuuka sighed. She leaned back in her grass-covered chair and kneaded the flesh of her forehead with her fingertips.

"Look," she said at last. "Don't think me unsympathetic. I understand very well where you're coming from. After all, if someone were keeping my babies away from me, then…Why, I don't believe there is anything I wouldn't do to get them back. Your words moved me, they really did. And if things were different I might be compelled to give her a cookie and a pat on the head and send her off with you. But I can't."

Ran's lips moved. "Why?" she whispered.

"Because my hands are tied in this matter. Perhaps Yukari forgot to inform you? I made a promise. A vow. A vow to protect dear Wriggle and her darling friends, both from those who would seek to do them harm and to keep them away from Yukari. And as unfortunate as it is, Chen was among those friends when I made that vow. And seeing how you would take her back to Yukari were I to release her, doing so would be contrary to my promise."

"That's it?" Ran said in disbelief. "That's your only reason? But Chen's part of Yukari's household! She'd never do anything to hurt her!"

"I doubt that, I truly do."

"She wouldn't!" Ran protested. "And even when she was angry with her, she usually just settles for a lecture! Chen's discipline is left up to me! Besides, if it's Chen's protection you're worried about, then there's no safer place for her than with me!"

Yuuka chuckled. "Oh? You seem to lose track of her with distressing ease. But even so, I did not know that Chen was part of Yukari's household when I said what I did. Pity, as it would have opened the door for any number of possibilities."

Ran's hair stood up on end.

"But even so, even though the spirit of the promise will remain intact, the letter will still be broken. A vow is a very heavy matter, kitsune. Especially among the Old Ones. Once our word is given, we cannot go back on it. You know this, don't you?"

Ran sagged. She nodded.

"And so I cannot simply just abandon Chen into your care. To do so would be to violate my word, and that _simply _won't do." Then a cunning glint shone in Yuuka's eye. "Unless…"

Ran's head snapped back up. "What?"

A bit of Yuuka's trademark mischief had crept back in her voice. "Well, I was just thinking…if you were to challenge me for possession of Chen and overcome me, then there would be no problem with you taking her. A guard who fights valiantly but is defeated in fair combat has not forsaken her duty. So how about it, kitsune? Are you up to doing a little work for Chen's safe return?"

Of course Ran was. And normally she would not give it a second thought. But still, Yukari had warned her about this sort of situation as well.

"_If Yuuka wishes to fight, do not let her," _Yukari had said. _"Do not challenge her, and do not let her challenge you, not to anything at all. I don't care if it's a danmaku duel or beer pong. If it comes down any kind of contest for Chen, deny her and flee immediately. I'll handle things from there. It'll make her angry, yes, and there probably will be collateral damage. But it's preferable to letting her keep Chen. And it's far more preferable to letting her get her hands on you."_

Ran could only wonder what Yukari had meant about that. Did she mean snatching Chen away in one of her gaps? That would solve the problem. But what of the collateral damage Yukari had mentioned? They were in the middle of Center Tree, a highly populated area. If Yuuka were to lose her temper here, then many people would be hurt, maybe even killed. And there were too many to evacuate in time. Of course, they could always just transport Yuuka away as well, but doing so would give her temporary access to the Borderlands. And Yukari was quite adamant about denying her _that _opportunity.

No. She couldn't run now. She couldn't leave Chen in Yuuka's hands, and she wasn't about to let Yukari use one of her methods. Her Master may be a strong believer in the end justifying the means, but in Ran's mind, such solutions were only sought out after all others had been exhausted.

And so she said, "What kind of work?"

Yuuka grinned. "Ah, now that's more I like it. I was thinking something down the lines of a friendly contest." At the look Ran gave her Yuuka said, "Oh, and don't worry. I have no intention of pitting my full power against yours. Have to give you a fighting chance at least. But I have heard that the kitsune are creatures of great physical strength. Is this true?"

"It is."

"Good, good. And among them, you are considered exceptionally strong, are you not?"

Ran nodded.

"Well then, it's settled!" Yuuka said as she spread her arms wide. "We'll decide this in a contest of strength. You physical power versus mine, winner takes all."

"I…see," Ran said. "And what exactly will this contest consist of? Hand-to-hand combat?"

Yuuka laughed. "What an unintentionally accurate way of describing it! Yes, hand-to-hand combat it is!"

She tapped the top of the table sitting between them. At her touch, the grass receded and the fungi shriveled away. The worn wooden top soon became visible as the table returned to its original state. Something was rattling against the floor. Ran peered under the table to see grass seeds falling to land among the roots covering the floor.

"I just wanted to ensure that we were on equal footing here," Yuuka said. She leaned forward and placed her right elbow on the table's top, with her forearm sticking straight into the air and her fingers open and waiting.

Ran gaped when she realized what Yuuka was proposing. "Wait, you want me to _arm wrestle _you?" she said. "Arm wrestle?"

"Outrageous, isn't it?" Yuuka said. "But it is also simple, straightforward and completely devoid of tricks. Strength versus strength."

Ran hesitated. Then she placed her own elbow on the table and slipped her hand in Yuuka's. The flower youkai's flesh was unusually warm to the touch.

"And what exactly does 'Winner takes all' mean?" Ran asked.

"Ohhhh, caught that, didn't you?" Yuuka said with a laugh. "And exactly what I said. If you win, you win Chen. I'll let you take her home, alive and well, and will do nothing to stop you. But if I win, well…" Yuuka's tongue briefly flicked out. "…then I keep you."

Ran inhaled sharply. "What?"

"You honestly didn't think I would allow myself to take part of a contest in which I stood to lose something without there being the possibility of gain?" Yuuka's perfect teeth gleamed, "If I win, I keep Chen, as we agreed. But I also keep you. I will be your Master from here on, and you will serve me with the same loyalty you gave Yukari." A low chuckle rumbled out of Yuuka's throat. "Granted, you are a bit…older than I would prefer, but that is a temporary problem at best. The physical body is so easily changed. As is the mind."

Ran almost released her hand then. Yuuka noticed.

"Oh, having second thoughts, are we? Now that your own well-being is on the line, you're not so eager to continue. Disappointing, really."

Ran gritted her teeth. She tightened her grip.

"Very good," Yuuka said approvingly. "And if it helps, look at it this way. Win or lose, you will still remain with Chen. The only difference is that with my way, it will be as a playmate instead of an authority figure. But that's not so bad, is it? And now, let us begin. In three. Two. One."

Yuuka started to move her hand. Ran gasped and strained. Yuuka's strength was _immense. _Of course Ran had expected her to be strong, but this was ridiculous.

_It's for Chen, _she thought as she squeezed her eyes tight. _I can't let her win. I won't. For Chen._

Ran threw every ounce of strength she could into her right arm. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she grimaced and pushed. It was like trying to move a mountain, but she pushed on. And pushed. And pushed. And…

Yuuka's hand began to move back.

Slowly but surely, inch-by-inch, Ran pushed Yuuka's arm back the other way. The flower youkai was surprised. She stared at the turn of events with disbelief all over her face. "What is…" she whispered. Then she frowned and pushed harder against Ran's slowly descending arm.

The force was incredible. Ran felt like her muscles were about to tear themselves to shreds. But she didn't let herself stop. She couldn't even think now. Everything in her was focused on making that arm move.

Yuuka's arm was now less than a fourth of the way there. The flower youkai was grunting and growling, but the leverage was against her. "This is impossible," she hissed. "How are…argghhhh…"

Relief coursed through Ran's body. She was almost there. Less than a foot to go. Eight inches. Six. Five. The back of Yuuka's hand was so close to the table. Three inches to go…

And then, when Yuuka's hand was but two inches from touching wood, it stopped. Ran pushed down, using every bit of leverage she had, but it was like trying to push the Earth down. It simply wouldn't budge.

Ran looked up. Yuuka was smiling. The kitsune's heart fell when she realized how completely she had been suckered.

And then Yuuka's hand began to move in the opposite direction.

This time, there was no sign of stress on Yuuka's face. She was completely at ease, with a smile of complete satisfaction on her face. Ran, however, was nearly beating herself to pieces to keep her arm from moving any further back. Any willpower she had left was thrown into her arm. Any strength that hadn't been sapped was being burned away at a furious rate. She pushed, she growled, she cried out in pain and frustration. When her hand was at the halfway point she even reached up with her other hand to give the nearly dead one some assistance, only to have a vine snap out of the ground and hold it down.

"Ah, ah," Yuuka admonished. "No cheating."

Now it was Ran's hand that had less than a foot to go. Nine inches. Eight. Six. Four. It was nearly there. Three. Two…

Once again their arms stopped. Ran's hand was trembling from exertion but Yuuka held it in place, keeping it from falling the rest of the way. Ran looked up with bleary eyes to see Yuuka studying her with an interested look on her face.

Baring her teeth, Ran choked out, "Do what you want with me. But don't you dare hurt her."

"Interesting," Yuuka muttered. "Well then, kitsune. I do believe we understand each other now."

"Wha-"

Moving fast and unexpectedly, Yuuka swung her arm back the other way to smash through the table, taking Ran's arm with it. As she did so, she gave Ran's arm a swift twist. Pain exploded as her forearm was wrenched from the elbow socket, muscles and ligaments, already weakened from the strain, tearing right off. Ran cried out in pain and surprise as spots covered her vision.

When her eyes cleared, her forearm was hanging limp and useless at her side. The table lay broken in two, snapped where the back of Yuuka's hand had slammed into it. Panting heavily, Ran looked up to see Yuuka still sitting in her seat, a smile of satisfaction on her face.

Spreading her arms wide, Yuuka said, "Well fought, Ran Yakumo. My congratulations on your victory!"

Ran's whole body was trembling. She wrapped her left hand around her right forearm and, with a grimace, twisted it back into its joint. Sharp pain blossomed up in response, making her gasp, but she got it to pop into place. She still couldn't move it much, but at least it wasn't flopping about. And the kitsune did have highly effective healing abilities.

Then she met Yuuka's eyes again. "Why?" she said in a voice so low it was almost a growl.

"Why what?" Yuuka seemed to be genuinely surprised at the question. "You won. Chen is yours, as we agreed. But I must say, you are a _very _impressive specimen, Shikigami. Even when faced with the imminent obliteration of your identity, you still only thought of her. That is a very noble quality indeed. I would so hate to see such a spirit become tarnished." She snickered. "Okay, so that was a lie. But not today, and not in that manner."

Yuuka hopped to her feet, taking her umbrella as the vine handed it to her. "Now finish putting yourself together. Those little girls should be back with Chen, and I need to see her off!" She paused to look down at the trembling Ran. Laughing, she gave Ran an encouraging pat on the back that nearly dislodged her from the mushroom. "Oh, don't look so down! It was well fought, and a dislocated arm is a small price to pay for victory. You came off lucky, I must say. There are many who have wished they had lost so little. Now come. Your girl is waiting for you."

…

Most of the diners and staff had evacuated the Falcon's Fist by the time Cirno's gang returned with Chen in tow. A few of the bolder patrons were clustered a safe distance around Cirno's table and staring up at where Yuuka had disappeared with Ran. Four GPF officers had been summoned to the scene, two of which were interviewing Estelle and a barmaid while the other two were discussing whether or not they should wait for Yuuka to reemerge or go up the stairs after her. Her makeshift staircase remained, but the ceiling had closed up.

Chen was already there. She ran toward the table and hopped onto the staircase. She then clambered up to the top and started scratched at the ceiling.

"Up there?" she asked Cirno when she was close enough. "Is that where they went?"

Cirno nodded. "Yeah."

Chen rolled her way back down to the floor, landing in a sitting position. "How do I get in? I need to save Ran!"

"Excuse me," said a large GPF officer with a big black beard. He bustled over to Chen. "Sorry kid, you're going to have to get off that table. This is a crime scene, and-"

"But I can't go!" Chen shouted at him. "Ran's up there! She needs my help!"

"Who ran where?"

"Ran! My Ran!"

"Your what?"

One of the other officers sidled up to him. "We think that's the name of the woman Kazami took up with her."

"Oh yeah? That's a weird name…" Then realization struck him and his eye popped wide open. "Wait, they're not talking about _the _Ran, are they? The one the works for the Founder?" He looked down at Chen. "Which would make her…"

At that moment, a slit of light cut its way through the ceiling. It then opened, revealing Yuuka Kazami at the head of the stairs.

Everyone stopped talking immediately.

"That really isn't your concern, officer," Yuuka said as she descended the steps. "And I'd thank you to leave the poor girl alone. I've had enough of your kind harassing these children for today."

The bearded officer swallowed nervously, but he managed to stand his ground. "You!" he said. "You…you attacked our Captain and three other officers not ten hours ago!"

"I did."

"You humiliated them, abused them and threatened our Founder!"

"Also true. My, news travels fast."

"You…You can't just…"

"It's okay, officer," said a weary voice. Ran appeared at the top of the stairs and slowly made her way down. "This is out of your hands now. Seriously, don't endanger yourself over this."

"Ran!" Chen cried. She bounded back up the stairs, shooting right past Yuuka and threw herself at Ran, who caught her with her left arm.

"I'm sorry, Ran!" Chen sobbed. "I didn't mean to run away, I really didn't! I mean, yes I did, but I'm sorry I did and made you come here and she didn't hurt you did she oh please don't scold me because I didn't mean anything by it I really didn't!"

For her part, Ran didn't seem to be in the mood to scold. Instead she settled for for stroking Chen's hair while mumbling "You're safe. Oh, thank the Maker, you're safe."

"And you!" Chen shouted. She leapt out of Ran's arm and climbed up the front of Yuuka's dress to point accusingly at her face.

"What did you do to her, you big bully?" Chen demanded. "Did you hurt Ran? You better not have hurt Ran because if you did I'll claw your eyes out and bite your fingers off and chew up your-"

Yuuka kissed her.

It wasn't a passionate kiss. There was no tilt of the head or use of tongue. It was more akin to the sort of kiss that an embarrassing aunt might give a chagrined child. But it was still on the lips, and it was still held for five whole seconds before Chen's startled brain realized what was happening and she fell back, sputtering and wiping her mouth with her sleeve.

Yuuka laughed. "Oh, you are just the most _adorable_ thing ever! So concerned for your Mama…figure." She knelt down and playfully ruffled Chen's hat. "Now, you be a good girl now. Remember to listen to Ran, and don't forget to write to Aunt Yuuki!"

Ran took a threatening step forward. "Get your hands off her, you miserable-"

"Oh, calm yourself," Yuuka said. "I was just saying goodbye." She stepped off the table and swung her umbrella toward the doorway, like a showman presenting his latest surprise. "There's the exit, and there's the girl. Just as promised."

Without another word Ran scooped up Chen and power-walked toward the door.

"Bye-bye now! Take care of that girl for me. I'll be checking!" Yuuka called after them. "Oh, and do give my love to Yukari. I hope to hear from her soon."

Ran and Chen disappeared through the doorway.

Yuuka turned to face the stunned crowd, or what was left of them anyway. A good number had taken the opportunity to clear out while Yuuka was busy with saying her goodbyes.

"Now then," Yuuka said as she surveyed those still gathered. "Where is…" Her gaze fell upon Cirno, Wriggle, Daiyousei and Mystia, who were hiding under a booth.

"Ah, there you are!" Yuuka walked over to them and tore the booth free from the wall. She tossed it over her shoulder, where it crashed into a table loaded with half-eaten food. This act convinced those still remaining to leave in a hurry, including the restaurant staff and the GPF officers.

"Now, that went well, don't you think?" Yuuka said to the cowering troublemakers. "Such a nice young lady. Pity she's so devoted to…But no, I will say nothing further about that." Then her face turned serious. "Still, this encounter has shown something to me, something…distressing."

Cirno gulped. "Wh…what's that?"

"That it's simply too much of a chore to watch over you when we're out in the open like this. You four seem to attract trouble like maggots to a decaying corpse."

Daiyousei gagged.

"Precisely," Yuuka said. "Which means I'll have to take you some place safer. Some place where I can watch over you with ease, and ensure that no harm comes to you."

"Shit," Wriggle whispered.

The sides of Yuuka's smile turned down. "Language, Wriggle. At any rate, it seems you four will just have to come home with me, to my mansion."

"What?" Cirno, Mystia and Daiyousei said all at once. Wriggle just planted her face in her hands.

"Exactly!" Yuuka clasped her hands in excitement. "Oh, it'll be so much fun. We'll have tea parties, and tell stories, and I'll show you all my wonderful toys. It will be grand!"

The Falcon's Fist filled with the sound of Yuuka's gleeful laughter.

…

Yukari sat in her favorite armchair in her home's common room. Any other time she would be happy to be back. As useful as her citadel was, it was far less comfortable, and deliberately so. The citadel was intended for business, not pleasure. It would not do for her to grow lax on the job.

In fact, she would probably still be there, but the situation at hand was a domestic one, and she didn't much care for the idea of transporting Chen into the citadel. And so she sat and stared at the fireplace. There was no fire lit, but it was still filled with smoke that did not rise into the chimney or billow past the grate. Within shapes and figures could be seen moving about. The scene displayed was that of the entrance to the restaurant Yuuka was reported to be staying in. Yukari had been watching it ever since Ran had disappeared inside. Yukari, of course, had tried to have the view follow her, but apparently Yuuka had been expecting that. Yukari was unable to make it go further than the front door.

And so she had waited and tried not to fret. She trust Ran's abilities of course, and it had been her idea for Ran to go and plead with Yuuka for Chen's release. But it was impossible not to worry. This was Yuuka they were talking about.

Then things had become interesting. Cirno and two of her friends had rushed out of the restaurant, only to return a few minutes later with the insect-girl and Chen in tow. Yukari had almost snatched the catgirl away right then and there but had restrained herself. She would not act until she had gotten the signal from Ran.

Fortunately she didn't have to wait long. Ran came out of the restaurant with Chen clinging to her neck. Breathing a sigh of relief, Yukari opened a gap for them. Moments later they were in the house with her.

"Well," Yukari said as she stood to her feet. "You were successful."

Ran looked exhausted (unusual, considering her stamina), but she smiled triumphantly. "Yes. I was. I-"

"Just a moment, please."

Yukari closed her eyes and concentrated. Even though she had detected no trace of Yuuka's magic while her Shikigami had passed through the Borderlands, no curses or hexes, it never hurt to be thorough. Fortunately, as far as she could tell, both Shikigami were free of Yuuka's little surprises. There was no alien magics on them to be found.

Then Yukari looked down at Ran's right arm. She frowned. Even though it was covered with her sleeve, she could still feel something wrong with it, the faint traces of pain leaking across the bond.

"What happened to your arm? Did Yuuka use it to make a point?"

Ran didn't meet her eyes. "No, Master. Well, yes, but-"

"She challenged you, didn't she? And you accepted."

"Yes, Master. Well…"

Yukari arched an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"More of she suggested that I challenge her," Ran admitted.

"Ah. And you did this, why?"

Ran didn't answer.

With a sigh, Yukari said, "Very well, we'll discuss this later. In the meantime…" Her gaze slipped off of Ran to settle on Chen, who immediately tensed up and pressed her body harder against Ran.

"I…" Yukari began. "…do not have words for how upset I am right now. You abandoned your Master at an extremely stressful time, ran about with degenerates, allied yourself with the absolute worst person you could have, and drove us nearly insane with worry. And now Ran is hurt because of your behavior. Do you have any idea the trouble you caused?"

"Yukari," Ran said. "I don't think-"

"Put her down, Ran."

"But-"

"I'm not going to hurt her. We're a bit beyond that now. I'm just going to make a few things clear. Put her down."

Ran reluctantly set Chen down on the floor. She had to shake her arm to dislodge her from her sleeve. Once she was there, Chen sat in place and stared downward.

"Fortunately for you, I am both too tired and have too much to concentrate on to give your transgressions the attention they deserve. But rest assured, they _will _receive that attention. Understand?"

Chen shuddered.

"But I believe it goes without saying that you're grounded. For an _extremely _long time. Furthermore, you are never to see that fairy or her deplorable friends again. Are we clear?"

Chen's body just shook harder.

Yukari frowned. "Chen, I would appreciate it if you looked at me while I'm speaking to you. I just asked you a direct question. Do you understand what I-"

Chen pitched over on her side and started to convulse violently.

With a cry of alarm, Ran immediately swooped down at the catgirl, only to have Yukari snap, "Don't touch her!"

"What?" Ran screamed. "But look at her!"

"I am. Back up. _Now."_

Even though she clearly hated it, Ran had no choice to obey. She stood to the side while Yukari knelt to examine Chen.

The catgirl's skin had broken out into grey spots, as if she had caught a strange pox. But the spots were moving, writhing…Yukari frowned and looked in closer.

The spots were tendrils. Dozens of tiny, writhing grey tendrils poking out of Chen's skin, and growing by the second.

Ran gasped. "What…what are those? Yukari, what did that monster _do _to her? What…"

"Shhh," Yukari murmured. "I need to concentrate. I think I recognize this-"

Chen's body suddenly stopped trembling. Yukari and Ran fell silent immediately.

Then Chen sat up, but not in a natural manner. It reminded Yukari uncomfortable of a marionette being drawn off the ground by its strings.

Chen then smiled. She opened her eyes. They were blood red.

"Hello Yukari," she said. It was not Chen's voice.

Yukari tried to keep her face a blank mask. "Yuuka."

"_You!" _Ran roared. The sound of her voice shook the house. She lunged at Chen, claws bared and grasping. No doubt she intended to tear Yuuka right out of Chen's body. Yukari glanced at her and hissed a word of command. Ran froze in mid-leap, her body incapable of moving.

"Ran, would you kindly relocate yourself to the back of the room and let me handle this?"

The look in Ran's eyes said that no, she would _not _prefer to step aside, but she had no choice in the matter. She moved to the back of the room as instructed.

"She's quite the impressive specimen," Yuuka said through Chen's mouth. She stood up fully and dusted herself off. "You really ought to treat her better."

"Get out," Yukari said.

"No, I don't think so. Not yet, at least."

"You said you wouldn't hurt her!" Ran shouted. "That was our agreement! I though you never went back on your word!"

Yuuka laughed, a most disconcerting sound coming from Chen's diminutive form. "Oh, I'm not going back on it. Chen's fine, she just fell asleep for a little while. She won't even remember this happening. I'll say my piece and leave in peace."

"Then say it," Yukari said through clenched teeth.

Yuuka smirked and bowed. "As you wish, mine host. And let me again offer my compliments to Mistress Ran over there. Our battle was well fought, one of the best I've had in a while. And should you ever find yourself in need of other employment, my household could always use-"

"Fuck you!" Ran snarled.

"Very well then. Though should you really be using that language in front of your ward? But I digress. Anyway Yukari, I'm afraid my words for you are not nearly so positive."

"You wound me."

"Not yet. But still, while I do appreciate the prompt reply to little Chen's supposed peril, I am _quite _disappointed that you didn't come yourself. I always thought of you as the kind that would meet the danger head-on. To crush it or out-manipulate it or whatever you prefer to do. But instead, you hide behind a servant, one whom I now believe might be your better." Yuuka shook Chen's head. "Really Yukari, I expected better of you."

"Is that all you came to say?" Yukari demanded. "If so, then message received. You're disappointed in me. Now, leave."

"Oh, no, no, no. I am far from done." Yuuka clasped Chen's hands behind her back and slowly stalked forward. All the while, the tiny grey tendrils continued to squirm over her skin. "I assume you got the message I sent with that police-girl. And rest assured, I meant what I said. I want you, Yukari. It's been too long since I got to stretch these muscles of mine."

"I don't care," Yukari snapped. "I am too busy to bother with your stupid desire for a scrap-"

"Then you'll just have to deal with me quickly, won't you. Don't keep me waiting, Yukari. I get impatient oh so very quickly. It would be unfortunate if I were to grow bored while waiting. Someone might get hurt. A lot of people might get hurt."

Yukari didn't answer.

"Right then, glad you understand. Oh, and one last thing: if you send any more toys after me instead of facing me yourself, any more pawns, I will break them. Every. Single. One. Remember that, Yukari."

With that, Chen's body winked and blew a kiss. "Hugs and kisses! Be seeing you!"

Then her eyes rolled back and she once again pitched over on her side, where she lay motionless. The grey tendrils slowly shrunk back into her flesh to disappear.

Ran immediately darted forward, but Yukari grabbed her by the wrist and held her back.

"Wait," she said.

"But-"

"_Wait."_

Then Chen began to cough weakly. She gagged, and a small seed the color of burnt wood fell out of her mouth. Yukari pulled out a handkerchief and picked it up.

"Blackgrass," she muttered to herself. With a sigh, she levitated the seed into the air, where it caught fire and burned into nothingness.

She glanced over to Ran, who was staring in shock. "Nasty little weed from a world known for its lush vegetation and many, many ways to die. Blackgrass is one of the more dangerous specimens. It's a parasitic weed that allows it to possess its prey, turning it into a mindless drone. Some of the more talented herbomancers can use it as a way to remotely control someone. Leave it up to Yuuka to use it as a way to get past my scans. Tell me, did she touch Chen at any point?"

"What? Oh, oh yes. She kissed her."

Yukari's eyebrows shot up. "She…what?"

"She kissed Chen. I thought she was just trying to send me a message, but…"

"What it on an orifice? Such as her ear, or…"

"The mouth. It was on the mouth."

"I see. Yes, that would do it." Yukari felt thoroughly disgusted, though she didn't let it show.

Chen propped herself up on her arms. She blinked tiredly at the room around her. "Ran?" she mumbled. "I feel funny…"

Ran shot Yukari a pleading look. Yukari hesitated, and nodded her permission.

Ran scooped up the still recovering Chen into her arm. She walked toward the door, pausing only to look her Master in the eye.

"You're going to stop her, of course," she said. "Yuuka. You're going to stop her."

"That is my intention," Yukari said with a nod.

"Kill her. I don't care how. Just find a way to kill her and make it stick."

"Also my intention," Yukari responded. Ran and Chen left without another word.

After they were gone, Yukari sat back in her armchair. She pondered this new turn of events. Well, to be precise, it wasn't exactly new, more of an escalation of the events that were kicked into motion that afternoon. But they did bear consideration.

Yuuka needed to be dealt with, and fast. In many ways she was more dangerous than Satsuki or the Shadow Youkai. She was intelligent despite her madness. And she was impossible to predict. The blackgrass had taken Yukari by surprise. Yukari didn't like being taken by surprise.

Yukari stood to her feet and walked over to a wood cabinet with a glass door. She touched its side and it swung open, giving her access to the treasures displayed within. She selected a squat dark green box and closed the cabinet. Then she took the box over to a nearby table and set it down. She lifted the lid.

Inside were ten black spellcards.

Yukari picked them up, one-by-one, and looked at the incantation inscribed on each with red ink. "Break my toys, will you?" Her golden eyes narrowed. "Not if they break you first."

…

It was just as well that Yukari was so sure of her abilities to handle the Yuuka Kazami mess, because another one was about to put in its bid for importance. Miles away from the Yakumo home, Reisen Udongein was feeling absolutely wretched. She had already been upset when she and Eirin had left the Ruined City, but several miles of travel and enduring the obligatory youkai and fairy (and surprisingly enough, one human) ambushes had done nothing to improve her mood.

To begin with, there was the fact that Gensokyo's best and brightest were rallying to hunt down and destroy someone she cared very deeply for. The fact that she had been forced to abandon said person and was now apparently hated by them was definitely making things worse. Her only hope in that matter was that Reimu Hakurei would think of something clever. Reisen had never been much of an optimist and she wasn't overly compelled to start now, but it was Rin's only chance.

Secondly, there was the problem of her master, Eirin Yagokoro. Despite her exceptional recuperative abilities and no small amount of medical knowledge to use on herself, she was still in bad shape, which the stressful meeting and being forced to defend herself against the usual perils of travel had done nothing to improve. Even though she kept her condition carefully hidden behind a mask of indifference, Reisen knew her master well enough to know that she was holding herself together through sheer willpower and an unhealthy amount of drugs.

And then there was the issue of Princess Kaguya, to whom Reisen had sworn fealty, being the captive of the aforementioned Rin Satsuki. Having her princess taken away was bad enough, especially with Eientei being in the state that it was, but to have Rin be the one to do it was nearly driving Reisen mad. Kaguya's hatred for the little Kirin had been legendary, and by now it had to be reaching murderous levels. Even if they managed to rescue her from Rin's grasp or if Rin agreed to release her, Kaguya would not be offering any support in Rin's favor. She had strongly advocated Rin's execution the first time around, and would probably do so again. And despite the turmoil she was feeling, Reisen was finding it difficult to say that she was wrong.

Not for the first time Reisen envied mortals such as the humans. At least they had the option of taking their own lives.

Instead, she just had to pray that Reimu would come through for her. And that Eirin wouldn't collapse. And that Kaguya could be mollified. And…

"Reisen, wake up."

Reisen's head jerked up. "Huh?"

Eirin, who was flying a few feet in front of her, was looking back at her. Her expression was odd. She looked annoyed, but she seemed to be trying to hold it in. Sympathy, perhaps.

"You were starting to drift off course," Eirin said. "Pay attention to where you're going."

Reisen looked down. To her surprise, they were already over the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Quite far in, in fact. Eientei was only a few minutes away.

Reisen nodded quickly. "Right. Sorry." She adjusted her direction.

Eirin squinted at her, lips pursed. She looked like she wanted to say something, but instead just sighed and turned her attention forward. Reisen breathed a sigh of relief. She was in no mood to discuss her feelings.

However, as it turned out she wouldn't have to whether or not Eirin asked. Soon after, the grey bracelet Eirin was wearing started to flash. The Lunarian doctor blinked in surprise and pressed the fingers of her other hand against it.

"Tewi?" she said. "Yes, we're almost there. Can it wait…Wait, slow down, I can hardly pick out what you're saying. Are you at the mansion? Then where are you?" Eirin listened for a moment longer, and then her eyes bulged out and her jaw dropped.

"Wait," she said. "Are you serious? It's there, it hasn't vanished or anything? Are you sure…Right, sorry. Oh, for the gods' sakes, don't touch it! Don't even get near it! Just…post a guard around the clearing, I'll be there shortly. Send up a signal flare so I can find you."

With that, she terminated the conversation and turned to face Reisen, who was listening in confusion.

"Reisen," Eirin said in that voice she used when she was upset but trying very hard to hide it. "Do you remember your last encounter with Rin?"

Reisen gulped. "Um…yes?"

"Specifically, the bit after she absorbed the Princess and Fujiwara no Mokou and attacked you. According to you, she was uncharacteristically cruel but then reverted back to her previous personality, claimed ignorance of what had happened, and fled. Is this correct?"

Despite her discomfort at discussing that very painful memory, Reisen said, "Yes. Why?"

"Now tell me, and I need you to remember, as you and Tewi were the last to leave the scene and Tewi was in no condition to recall anything: prior to fleeing, _did she drop anything?"_

"Drop anything?" Reisen repeated. "Rin? I…uh…What do you-"

Then she got it. The realization was so sudden and so significant that Reisen felt like she had been physically punched. "Oh my gods."

"Exactly," Eirin growled. "And you _really _could have told me earlier."

"I…I was distracted! Rin was flipping out, and Tewi was hurt, the Princess was gone, and I-"

"Quiet and follow me."

Eirin immediately shot in the opposite direction of Eientei, heading toward the forest's borders. With no choice available, Reisen followed.

In time they saw a glittering green spark hovering above a clearing blackened by fire. A ring of the Guard circled the clearing in the air, and more were likely hidden within the trees. Tewi was in the clearing, jumping up and down and waving at them. Eirin and Reisen directed their course toward her.

As they touched down, Tewi rushed up to them. But before she could say anything Eirin said, "Skip everything you were about to say to me and just tell me where it is."

Tewi shut her mouth and pointed to a small ring of the Guard. Eirin stormed past them and looked. Her face went stone-cold.

"Well," she said. "That changes things." She held up her wrist and touched her bracelet again. "Yukari, it's me. I need you…I don't care what time it is, you're nocturnal anyway. Listen to…Of _course _it's important! Do you think I'd be contacting you otherwise? No, I don't! Now shut up and get your eternal ass down here immediately! I honestly don't care about what you think of my tone, and I don't care what you're working on. Get. Down. Here!"

Then she grimaced. "All right, here's a hint. What's pitch-black, looks like something out of a blade fetishist's wet dream and is lying at my feet _this very second? _Glad to hear. See you soon."

Reisen pushed her way forward to her master's side. She stared down at the object. It was lying in a patch of black ground, partially covered by dead grass. But its shape was unmistakable.

It was a sword, and a large one at that. It was made of some sort of pure black material with what looked like wisps of smoke rising from it. The blade was large and curving, with several smaller blades sticking out in odd places, as if someone had grabbed up a handful of knives, cleavers and hooks and welded them on. Set in the cross-brace was a black stone that might have blended in with the rest of the sword were it not for the pulsing red light within, growing fractionally stronger with each flare.

…

Shinki stood on a balcony that jutted out of the great tower of Pandemonium. Below her, the vast expanse of Makai, the world of demons, stretched before her. A land of stone and fire. Not much to look at, she had to admit, but it was hers. And she took her duties as its sovereign very seriously.

Which was one of the many, _many _reasons her meetings with Yukari annoyed her so much. She had her hands full enough running her own kingdom when Yukari was perfectly content to do nothing and let her own domain fall apart. And when things did go wrong, who was knocking at her door and both accusing Shinki of being at fault and in the same breath asking for help? Okay, so the thing with the tourists was her fault, but that had been more misguided than anything. Could Yukari claim the same for her mistakes?

Well, the meddler was just going to have to dig herself out of her own hole. Shinki had her own problems, and had no intention of concerning herself with those of the Above World.

She sensed someone coming up behind her. _"You're brooding again," _said a voice that was ethereal, crystalline and not entirely real.

Shinki sighed. "I'm not brooding."

"_Yes you are. You have that look."_

"I'm not…Okay, so I am brooding a little. There, are you satisfied?"

The newcomer laughed, a strange tinkling sound similar to the chiming of dozens of tiny bells. _"You really need to not let that woman get to you, my sibling. The mood she puts you in is becoming dull routine."_

Shinki turned and started to walk back inside. "Fine," she said to the other as she passed it. "If it annoying you so much then you can go to those forsaken meetings and deal with her. I'd like to see how you'd enjoy it."

The other laughed again, and a hand touched Shinki's shoulder. Her skin tingled at the touch. _"You know I only jest, sibling. You must learn to stop taking everything so seriously. Now come. Some tea will do you good."_

"How would you know, you don't even drink?" Shinki shot back. But she allowed herself to be led back into the tower.

Like Shinki, the other person had six magnificent wings spreading from its back, but instead of lavender and leathery they were feathered and of the purest white. It wore a simple blue robe and had silver hair that fell past its knees. It was not a man. It was not a woman. It was very beautiful.

And attached to its hip was a thin curving sword with an elegant silver blade, inscribed with graceful runes. The hilt was gold and set with precious stones. Set in the cross-brace was a blue stone that shone with a pulsing white light.

…

_Imperfect Metamorphosis is back baby! Thanks for your patience, guys. Finals week was as mad as predicted, but I got everything done and passed all my classes, so yay on that! And thanks to everyone who read and/or commented on the Christmas story! Also thanks to Lunaoh for the nice words! :D _

_Anyways, I'd like to take back what I said back in All's Fair about all this being part of the Hide-and-Seek arc. The whole Ringleader bit and associated scheming seems to have grown quite a bit, but not a whole lot of actual hunting has gone on, Kotohime's pursuit of Marisa notwithstanding. So in a bit of retroactive changing of canon, all that was the Strategy arc, and the next chapter begins the Hide-and-Seek arc. I hope. We'll see._

_And while writing this chapter I've noticed that Anonymous NEET made a good point about Yukari's powers seeming to be plot-based. Despite seeming to be all powerful, there are an unusual number of creatures that can block her out or turn her abilities against her at improbable moments. The reason for this is the problem inherent of having a ridiculously powerful person like her play a major part, in which I do want her to give her all but can't have her just swoop in and end the conflict by gapping it away. So here's the official explanation: Yukari created Gensokyo and is therefore top dog within the canon of IM. However, there are a number of creatures such as Yuuka, Ex-Rumia and few others who did not come to being in Gensokyo and are close or equal to her power level. As such, they are more resistant to her control over borders and can, with some preparation, counter her abilities. As for Rin, she not only absorbed Ex-Rumia's natural resistance but in her natural state is a creature without any real borders, thanks to her physical "body" being a completely consistent mass. So while Yukari might be able to do something to her mind, trying to fix her body would be much more difficult. Of course, now that I've said all that there's going to be a whole bunch of places in the story that directly contradict all this! Ah, such is the joy of trying to infuse logic into the Touhou Project. :(_

_MST3K mantra, Takerfoxx. MST3K mantra. _

_Until next time, everyone! _

_Note: Masha Kinoko's blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo comes thanks to permission from Kimiko Muffin. Go read his comic. _


	23. To Serve and Protect

To Serve and Protect

Officer Nyoron sat alone at the front desk of the Gensokyo Peacekeeping Force's headquarters. Thanks to the events of the previous day, she had temporarily been taken off active duty and reassigned to desk work, specifically in the capacity of receptionist. Captain Sonozika had broken the news to her earlier that morning.

"Look, just so we're clear, this isn't a demotion," the Captain had said. "You've performed above and beyond your duty as far as I'm concerned, and you'll definitely be getting a commendation for this, if not a full promotion. But still…you've still…well, you've been through a rough time, and…"

Captain Sonozika had been convinced that Nyoron would take the news personally, causing her to dance around the topic of Nyoron's two deaths within a couple hours' time. However, Nyoron hadn't been offended. Quite the contrary, she had been downright relieved. While she enjoyed patrolling and actually doing something important, she really needed a break after the previous day. Constant deaths were a way of life for younger fairies, but they got tougher the older they got. Any more unfortunate incidents and she would probably be reduced to a gibbering mess.

Still, as peaceful and nonthreatening as she found receptionist work, it did come with certain disadvantages. For one, the chair was too big for her. Captain Sonozika had folded up some blankets and piled them onto the seat so she could reach the desk, but it still felt awkward. And for another, receptionist work was _boring_. People rarely came into the GPF headquarters of their own volition, and today things were downright dead. Three hours had passed since they had opened, and no one had come in through the doors beyond the building's staff and a weathered old rice farmer coming to complain about rat youkai eating his crops. Nyoron wished she had brought something to do. There were a couple of books, but while she could read well enough to handle official paperwork if she had to, following a printed story was too much of a headache.

Nyoron leaned back and stared at the ceiling, watching the blades of the fan go round and round. The day outside was beautiful, without a cloud to be seen. Nyoron's fairy instincts were screaming at her to get out into the open air.

_This is stupid, _she thought to herself. _I should've told the Captain I'm fine. I'm going to go crazy if nothing-_

The front door swung open. Nyoron jolted in surprise, nearly upsetting the blankets she was sitting on. She hastily righted herself.

"Hi, welcome to the main office of the Gensokyo Peacekeeping Force!" she said brightly. "How can I help you?"

Two people had just entered. One of them was a small fairy with long hair and a black dress. The second appeared to be a human girl in her mid-teens. She had golden hair that ended a few inches above her shoulders. She was wearing a long blue dress with short sleeves and decorated with frilly pink ribbons. But despite her seemingly youthful appearance, the look on her face was one of someone who was used to being taken seriously. Nyoron gulped when she realized why. Even though the girl looked human, she didn't _feel _human. There was a faint humming in the air, almost undetectable, but in the quiet of the office Nyoron was able to pick up on it. It was the sort usually given off by the energy fields generated by magician youkai.

But what would one be doing here? Youkai didn't much care for the GPF, and even if they did, magicians were notoriously self-reliant. It was possible that the girl had a bone to pick with one of the officers, but if that were the case, why was she coming in through the front door? Youkai preferred stealth, and magicians had a taste for trickery.

Nyoron was on her guard. If this was some kind of magician trick, then anything could happen. Though the headquarters had its fair share of magical defenses, Nyoron had yet to hear of a spell that couldn't be overcome.

Fortunately, the magician didn't look like she was here to start slinging spells, though she looked plenty annoyed. She turned her glare toward Nyoron and marched right up to the desk, the fairy following. That was when Nyoron got a bit of a surprise. The creature she had taken for a fellow fairy was made out of wood, with its eyes and other features painted on.

A doll? But who would need a flying doll to follow them around? Was it a familiar of some kind? Or a cleverly disguised bomb? Nyoron was starting to regret agreeing to take desk duty even more, though she had to acknowledge the twisted humor if she were to be killed here, in the GPF's lobby. Not that it would be much comfort though.

The magician glowered down at her. "My name is Alice Margatroid. I assume you know that name?"

Nyoron hesitated, and then she shook her head.

"Typical," Margatroid muttered. "Absolutely typical. What does one have to do to get some kind of…But never mind. I'm here because I wish to file a complaint."

"A…complaint?"

"Yes. One of your officers overstepped her bounds. In my home, no less. I expect something to be done about this."

So instead of dealing with some kind of sorcerous terrorist attack she instead had do something as routine as filing a complaint. This was such a downgrading that it took Nyoron's brain a full five seconds to catch up.

"Oh! O-of course!" Nyoron hastily pulled out the appropriate form from a nearby stack. She slid it over to Margatroid. "Here…just fill this out…"

"I will, thank you," Margatroid snapped as she snatched the form out of Nyoron's hand. She bent over the desk and started putting in information. "And I must say, for an organization that claims to be the protector of the people, I am not at _all _impressed with how you go about it."

"Yes, ma'am," Nyoron said automatically. Being ranted at by angry people was nothing new, so she adopted the SAI procedure for dealing with it: Smile at the complainer, Agree with everything they say, and Ignore the abuse. If nothing else it helped keep them sane.

"I mean, to arrest someone is one thing, but that? That was just plain despicable."

"I understand."

"Do you really?" Margatroid straightened up. "I truly doubt that. Because if you did, you wouldn't tolerate such a woman, much less have her as captain."

"Yes, I…Wait, what?"

Margatroid flapped the complaint form in Nyoron's face. "Your captain and your precious 'Founder', as I believe you call her, broke into my home last night and brutally beat down a friend of mine before dragging her off. Honestly, it was behavior I would expect from common thugs! And the charges were rather vague as well."

"I see," Nyoron said guardedly. "And who was your friend?"

"You don't know? Your organization's informational structure is severely lacking. I'm talking about the Human witch Marisa Kirisame."

Margatroid tossed the complaint onto the desk. "I expect this to be taken care of right away. Otherwise, I just may have to deal with this matter personally. Understand?"

"I understand, Miss Margatroid. And I will personally make sure this complaint goes where it needs to."

"See that you do," Margatroid said haughtily. Without another word, she turned and stormed out of the office.

Nyoron sat motionless for a full minute, holding Margatroid's complaint in her hand. When she was certain that the magician wasn't coming back, she slowly ripped the piece of paper into small pieces and dropped them in the trash.

…

At that moment, Kotohime Sonozika was in the headquarters' spacious gym/training room. All around her, other officers were lifting weights, sparring with one another, or participating in the self-defense class that took up one corner. Directly outside was a large field where those wishing to improve their danmaku and spellcard skills could duel one another. Originally that had been done inside the training room as well, but after Kotohime had been handed that month's repair bill that idea had been quickly dropped.

As for Kotohime herself, she was by herself in a corner with a red leather dummy with a tightly wound spring for a neck and was doing her best to make it bleed.

Her taped fits slammed into its torso again and again, the rhythm of the punches almost in synch with her racing heart. She quickened her attack, sending a brief flurry at its midriff before going after the blank, red face. The dummy's head flew back with every blow only to bounce right back in time for the next. Admittedly, it wasn't her preferred method of working out, but this was her first bit of significant free time since yesterday and she really needed to hit something repeatedly. Especially considering what she had to go do in a few minutes.

Someone behind her cleared their throat. "Uh, Captain?"

"Just a sec," Kotohime grunted. She spun around and drove her heel into where the dummy's ear would be. The spring whirred as the head leapt back and forth, becoming a blur. Panting, Kotohime wiped the sweat from her forehead as she turned around.

Officer Blair was standing there, his full uniform in stark contrast to the loose grey shirt and sweatpants Kotohime was wearing. He saluted as Kotohime faced him.

"Sorry to bother you Ma'am, but it's almost twelve."

Kotohime grunted. "Thanks," she said, though she was far from thankful. "Go get your brother and meet me in the lobby. I'll be there shortly."

Blair saluted again and walked off. Kotohime grabbed a nearby towel and used it to wipe off her face and forearms. Then she sighed and made her way toward the showers.

Along the way there she kept being greeted by encouraging smiles, thumbs up and the occasional verbal congratulations. It had been that way all morning. Even though neither she nor Yukari had told anyone the full details of what had happened during Kirisame's arrest, somehow everyone seemed to know. Of course, Kirisame screaming at the top of her lungs until Yukari had lost her patience and sealed off her mouth probably had something to do with that.

Kotohime honestly had no idea how to feel about the unanimous show of approval. She had been expecting whispers, dirty looks, and the occasional show of disrespect. After all, she had pursued a fleeing suspect through the Forest of Magic without the required two additional officers backing her up, Yukari's own assistance being a non-issue. And then, after the suspect had been arrested, she had lost her temper and attacked Kirisame. That was two major violations of the very rules Kotohime had written up herself. Given that she had chewed out more than one officer for breaking those rules, it would only make sense that the others would resent her for her hypocrisy. But by her calculations, one third of the GPF wanted to buy her a drink, another third had offered to exchange high-fives, and everyone else was considering lifting her on their shoulders and leading the headquarters in a rousing rendition of "She's a Jolly Good Fellow". Granted, Marisa Kirisame had been a particularly annoying thorn in their side ever since the GPF's creation a few years ago, but still…

Kotohime shook her head. She couldn't afford this confusion, not now. Especially since her upcoming visit would probably provide her with more confusion than she needed.

After Kotohime had showered and changed into her uniform, she returned to her office. There, she opened the filing cabinet and took out a file that Yukari had given to her to pass on. On it was a large red X. Then made her way to the lobby (uncomfortably dodging more enthusiastic signs of support along the way). Blair and Kelso were already there, waiting for her. At her arrival, they stiffened to attention.

"At ease," she said. She nodded at Nyoron, took a deep breath and said, "Okay, let's get this over with."

Despite close associations with the Human Village, the Gensokyo Peacekeeping Force was an independent entity. Not even its Founder, Yukari Yakumo, had much to do with it besides provide funding and use them to remove the occasional pest. As such, their headquarters was located in the center of a large clearing, well outside the borders of all settlements. Kotohime had hoped that by doing so, it would discourage the nonhumans from considering it to be an oppressive Human organization and treating it as such.

Unfortunately, they still had a long way to go. The majority of the members were Humans, and Kotohime herself was the niece of the Leader of the Human Village. In addition, most of the demand for such an organization had come from the humans, with everyone else preferring to look after themselves or the chaos of the wilds. Even though Kotohime had gone to great lengths to ensure that the protection offered by the GPF would extend to everybody, Human or youkai alike, the fact remained that youkai simply did not need protection the same way Humans did. Granted, they had put a stop to a few fairy abuse cases and arrested a handful of wannabe youkai exterminators, but most of their cases were in the Humans' favor.

However, that didn't mean things were fine and dandy with Gensokyo's Human population either. Since the GPF did help nonhumans on occasion, that was enough cause for some of the most anti-youkai voices to loudly proclaim them to be traitors. And Kotohime's policy of hiring prospective fairies and youkai, few as they may be, did not win her any supporters with that crowd, nor did her refusal to locate the headquarters in the Human Village. And seeing how Master Sonozika, Kotohime's uncle, was among the most vocal of those voices, she was not looking forward to seeing him on Yukari's behalf. Kotohime and her uncle's relationship was not friendly, nor had it even been.

Still, she had a job to do, as unpleasant as it was. Kotohime wasn't about to let something as trivial as bad blood get in the way of her job, even though she knew the conversation she was about to have was not going to be fun.

Though the distance to the Human Village was not long, it was silent and uncomfortable.

In time the village's towering wall came into view, on which guards patrolled endlessly, ready to shoot down anyone and anything trying to enter without using the main gate. As Kotohime did not fancy entering as a flaming missile, her party touched earth about twenty feet from the wall and walked the rest of the way. The guards on duty recognized them and waved them through, though Kotohime could swear she saw a brief flash of resentment on their faces.

Once inside, Kotohime led the other two on a determined path toward Master Sonozika's home. Though she tried to keep her eyes forward, her eyes kept following the people they passed. It might have been her imagination, but it seemed like most people were quickly looking away, rolling their eyes, sneering or any other such expressions of contempt. She wondered if it was due to the usual dislike the GPF garnered from the anti-youkai squad, if word of the disaster at the Youkai Market had reached them already or if it was just her base insecurities at play.

Or maybe, as Kotohime glumly reminded herself, it had something to do with how, not too long ago, she had been the black sheep of the Sonozika family. A delusional madwoman that embarrassed everyone, who was now sane only by the intervention of a nonhuman that wasn't exactly popular around here.

"Um, is it just me, or do these people not look happy to see us?" Kelso whispered.

Well, that eliminated option three at least. "Ignore them," Kotohime said out of the side of her mouth.

"Yeah, but I know a lot of these people. Seriously, why are they-"

Blair elbowed him in the ribs. Kelso shut up.

In time they reached the Sonozika residence at the village's center. A U-shaped building with a garden between the arms, it had been where Kotohime had grown up, cared for by her aunt and uncle ever since she had joined the many, many children who had lost their parents to youkai attacks. Her life there had been all right, she supposed, even if she didn't particularly like the place. She didn't remember most of it, but that was probably due to her being insane at the time. Even so, she had never much cared for her uncle. Which was just as well, as he had never really cared for her as well, which her association with Yukari and current status as the GPF's head did nothing to alleviate.

She took a deep breath and lightly rapped her knuckles against the front door. A servant girl that Kotohime didn't recognize answered and, after being told that they were there to see Master Sonozika, bade them enter. The three officers slipped out of their shoes and entered.

The place was much as Kotohime remembered; elegant in design but surprisingly bare of decoration. Maybe that was one of the reasons Kotohime had always felt uncomfortable there. It just felt too _empty. _She had tried to make up for it by collecting whatever strange odds and ends she could find to decorate her own room, but her uncle had always been angry when he caught her in the act, berating her for bringing trash into his home. It didn't make much sense to her then, and even though she was now fixed she still didn't understand what the big deal was. One would think that the home of the leader of an entire race would look at least a little pretty.

"Please wait here," the serving girl said, indicating the next room. "I'll go inform Master Sonozika of your arrival."

She bowed to them and they dipped their heads in response. Then they walked into the room. Then Kotohime got her first pleasant surprise of the day. There were two people in the room, both sitting at a table and poring over a scroll. One of them was a middle-aged woman with exceptionally long white hair. The other was a frail-looking girl in her very early teens whose purple hair sat in an awkward bob on her head. Both were wearing pale green kimonos and seemed to be in deep conversation. As the officers entered they automatically looked up. A surprised but very pleased smile appeared on the face of the older woman.

"Miss Keine!" Kotohime blurted out at seeing her childhood tutor. Then she remembered herself and quickly said, "I…I meant Teacher Kamishirasawa, I wasn't expecting-"

She never got to finish, as Keine Kamishirasawa had jumped to her feet and thrown her arms around Kotohime.

"Kotohime!" Keine cried. "My gods, I didn't know you would be coming today!"

Feeling very awkward and completely aware that Blair and Kelso were watching, Kotohime gingerly returned the hug. "Right. I'm, uh, glad to see you too."

Grinning widely, Keine pulled back. "Hold still, let me look at you." She quickly glanced up and door. "Wow, my goodness. You've certainly become…"

"Embarrassed?" the young girl suggested.

"Actually I was going to say impressive. I mean, look at you! Captain of the first decent law enforcement this country has seen. Seems like just yesterday you were running around in that oversized purple robe of yours, getting it all muddy and bringing me shiny rocks from the river."

Kotohime heard snickering. She glared over her shoulder at the brothers, who were doing a piss-poor job of standing innocently at attention. She rolled her eyes.

"Wait a minute," Keine said. She frowned and looked closer at Kotohime's face. "What…Kotohime, what happened?"

"What?" Kotohime said in confusion. Then she remembered the bruises sustained when Yuuka's sunflower had smashed her face against the ground the day before.

"Oh, those. Had a rough day yesterday. We all did." She indicated Blair and Kelso's similarly bruised faces. "But we're fine."

Keine did not look "Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes, happens all the time," Kotohime said quickly. To change the subject, she said, "Well, I guess introductions are in order," she said. She stepped aside and motioned with her hand. "Teacher Kamishirasawa, these are Blair and Kelso Kida, two of my-"

"Oh don't worry," Keine said. "We've met." She clasped her hands in front of her waist and bowed. "Gentlemen, it's good to see you again."

"The same, Teacher," Kelso said as they bowed in return. "Likewise," Blair said.

"Their children are among my students," Keine explained to Kotohime. "Kelso's son Shinra is in my middle-school class, and Blair's daughters are nearly ready to graduate."

"Oh," Kotohime said, feeling stupid for not realizing this before. "Of course."

"Don't beat yourself up too much, Kotohime," the young girl murmured as she rose to her feet. "With everything that's going on, it's okay to forget a few small things."

"Especially if one doesn't have a photographic memory," Kotohime noted. "And it looks like I'm not the only one who's grown. You couldn't have been much more than seven the last time I saw you."

"Nine and three months," Hieda no Akyuu corrected. "Physically, at least."

Among the many strange people Kotohime had met in her life, Hieda no Akyuu was certainly unique. She was the Human Village's official record keeper, and had been so for a very long time. Known as the Child of Miare (whoever that was), she had lived several lives, dying only to be reborn anew once a century had gone by, with her memories and personality intact. No one was quite certain how she pulled it off, but there was no denying that she was handy to have around. Personally Kotohime had always felt uneasy about the whole arrangement. Not about the reincarnations themselves, but because each lifespan never lasted much longer than a couple decades, just long enough to update her records and, at the end of it all, die once again. It seemed to be a raw deal in her opinion, not to mention _incredibly _disturbing, but Akyuu herself seemed to be fine with it. Some people just really seemed to enjoy childhood. Over and over.

"Of course, I highly doubt your reason for being here has anything to do with comparing our respective progress," Akyuu continued. "Would I be correct in assuming that it has something to do the attack on Eientei?"

Kotohime's shoulders sagged. Behind her, Kelso could be heard to groan out loud. "You've, uh, heard about that, huh?"

"I believe everyone has," Akyuu said. "Rumors have a way of spreading." She picked up a folded newspaper off a nearby chair. "Of course, when it's in print it tends to spread even faster."

Kotohime raised an eyebrow. Wordlessly she took the paper from Akyuu and looked at the front page story.

_**A Bounty is Placed Upon Strange New Monster**_

_Yukari Yakumo possibly involved?_

_At approximately 12:15 yesterday afternoon, I became aware of a commotion taking place within the Youkai Market. Upon investigation, I discovered that the source was the ice-fairy, Cirno, and her gang. _

_Cirno's Gang is well-known in Gensokyo for playing pranks and causing trouble. However, in this case their reason for causing a commotion was not to cause mischief, but to rescue one of their own._

_According to Cirno, one of her friends was devoured by a strange amorphous creature, which then proceeded to assault Eientei in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. It is Cirno's belief that this creature might have been created by the residents of Eientei and attacked them out of revenge, or perhaps preemptive self-defense._

"_They really weren't making much sense," Cirno states. "And they kept yelling at each other and me. But yeah, they definitely had something to do with it. I think they fought it before and tried to hush it up, because they didn't want anyone knowing. And now my friend's in trouble because of it!"_

_Cirno of course was quick to run for help, seeking the aide of the shrine maiden Reimu Hakurei. Reimu went to investigate, taking with her a posse composed of some odd names, such as Suika Ibuki, Yukari Yakumo and, perhaps most distressing, the ghost known only as Mima._

"_Seriously, why does Reimu keep her around?" wonders Mystia Lorelei, member of Cirno's Gang and owner of the renowned Lorelei's Lampreys. "I thought she was supposed to be a bad guy!"_

_Reimu and her associates soon engaged the monster, but were unable to defeat it, suggesting that it is unusually powerful. It eventually escaped and is presumed to be loose in Gensokyo._

_Interestingly enough, Cirno encountered the monster a second time, in which it had taken on a form that closely resembled her friend Rumia. This may indicate that it is some kind of reverse-chameleon, changing its shape to resemble those it has devoured._

_At any rate, Yukari Yakumo has already taken steps to cover up this incident, going as far as threaten Cirno with physical harm and possibly cannibalism. This may have something to do with Princess Kaguya's recent acknowledgement as the official regent of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Perhaps Yukari does not want someone she has openly supported to be disgraced so quickly. When questioned, several attendees of the Youkai Market expressed similar sentiments, believing that Yukari may be abusing the authority she holds. The establishment of a strictly Human-biased "Gensokyo Peacekeeping Force" only a few years ago and her tolerance of Mima's close proximity to the Hakurei Shrine are other such signs. _

_Yukari Yakumo, along with nearly everyone else involved in the incident, were unavailable for comment._

_In the meantime, Cirno Gang has earnestly sought help in rescuing their friend, whom Cirno insists is still alive. A sizeable bounty of twenty-five million yen has been offered to anyone who can capture the monster._

Kotohime's eyes narrowed as she put the paper down. "Well, isn't that just great," she muttered. "The one-woman paparazzi's treating Cirno as a reliable source and running her mouth off about stuff she doesn't even understand."

"'Human-biased'?" Blair said. "Come on! We've been trying to recruit more nonhumans from day one! Heck, we've got a fairy doing receptionist duty and a panther youkai as our self-defense instructor!"

"Well, at least she doesn't know all that crap about Yuuka Kazami," Kelso said. "Though knowing our luck, it'll probably pop up in the late edition."

Kotohime whirled around. "Kelso!"

He blinked in confusion. "What?"

It was too late. Keine gasped and took a step back while Akyuu's head perked up in interest.

"What," Keine said slowly. "Stuff about Yuuka Kazami?"

"Good going," Blair hissed at his brother. "Way to make things better."

"It's nothing!" Kotohime said. "Nothing you need to worry about, seriously! Yukari's looking into it personally, should be taken care of pretty soon, so…"

"Captain," Blair muttered under his breath. Kotohime fell silent. The serving girl had reappeared at the room's entrance. Giving no indication that she had heard the conversation, the girl bowed low.

"I apologize for the wait," she said. "Master Sonozika will see you now. However, he expressed his desire to speak with the Captain of the Gensokyo Peacekeeping Force alone."

"Not surprising," Kotohime muttered. To the brothers, she said, "All right, you two wait here. And please try not to induce mass panic while I'm gone."

"Sorry," Kelso muttered. Blair rolled his eyes.

The serving girl led Kotohime to Master Sonozika's private study, where she left her at the door. Kotohime took a deep breath and walked in.

Her uncle sat cross-legged behind a low desk made from a rich red wood. His robe, open to his thickly muscled chest, was so black that light seemed to fall into it. The top of his head was bald, save for a long tail held in place by a series of silver beads. A thin goatee sat upon his perpetually frowning face. And, despite being indoors, he was wearing a pair of thick sunglasses.

Once Kotohime had found her uncle intimidating. However, in the last few years (particularly yesterday afternoon), she had learned what truly intimidating people looked like. Now he just looked like he was trying too hard.

At the moment, her uncle was signing his way through a series of papers, no doubt intending to give off the impression that he was too busy to bother greeting her immediately. Kotohime stood at attention and waited.

Finally he glanced up at her. "Kotohime."

"Uncle," she said with a nod.

His scowl deepened. "I believe you mean 'Master Sonozika'."

"Of course. In which case I must insist that you call me 'Captain'."

"Insolence," he snorted. "I know for a fact that I taught you better manners."

Kotohime bowed her head. "Your forgiveness, Master Sonozika. The last few days have been hard."

He made a noise that was not entirely unlike a growl. "What are you doing here, Kotohime?"

"Yukari Yakumo sent me."

Her uncle's face twisted in disgust, as if he had eaten something bitter.

"Of course she did," he said.

Kotohime pressed on. "There was an emergency meeting of Gensokyo's leaders the day before yesterday. You weren't there. Yukari wishes to know the reason."

"What business is that of yours? Or…that creature's?"

"The meeting revolved around information that might be vital to the Human Village's survival. Surely your…strained relations with Yukari would not get in the way of that."

Her uncle unfolded his legs and stood to his full height. Kotohime was not a short woman, but her uncle towered a half-a-foot over her. Irritated, she returned his glare and waited.

"I had things I needed to do," he said. "More important than indulging the delusions of authority of a mad youkai woman."

Kotohime resisted angry remark that danced down her tongue. "More important than the safety of the Human Village?"

He crossed his arms. "I've been to exactly two of those meetings. The first time I had to endure weary four days as youkai and self-stylized gods shouted at each other. The second time…" He made that not-quite-a-growl noise again. "The second time that thing you just love so much appointed that monster Mima as the head of Hakurei Shrine! One of the worst enemies humankind has ever know, and Yukari thinks she can just wave her hand and make it all right?"

Kotohime actually winced at that. To be truthful, she also did not understand why Mima had been so easily forgiven. She assumed that Yukari had her reasons, but she for one could not see what they were. Still, that was an issue for another day.

"Perhaps," she said evenly. "However, in this case there was an actual emergency, one which may require all of Gensokyo's cooperation."

"All the more reason not to go," her uncle said with a shrug. "Her problems are not mine, but if I were there she would probably force me to become involved."

"Then you don't know what happened at Eientei earlier this week. Or yesterday at the Youkai Market."

"Those are two places that I make a habit of having absolutely nothing to do with."

"Keine Kamishirasawa and Hieda no Akyuu knew what I was talking about, when I spoke to them."

He shrugged again. "They're historians and record-keepers. It's their job, not mine."

Kotohime felt like rolling her eyes. She refrained. "Well, fortunately that was my other reason for coming. To bring you up to speed."

"I do not care," her uncle said. He turned away from her and walked to the other end of the room. "Yukari can go hang herself for all I care. In fact, go tell her to do just that."

_Oh, you don't, do you? _Kotohime allowed herself a half-smirk. _All right, tough guy. Try this one on for size._

"Six days ago, Eientei was destroyed," Kotohime said.

Her uncle paused. He glanced at her over his shoulder.

Kotohime continued. "The attacker was some kind of new monster, a genetically engineered youkai that can adapt to, absorb and even turn back virtually any attack. Also, apparently it can absorb people and add their power abilities to its own. It managed to fight off the Eientei Guard, the Hakurei Shrine maiden, the oni Suika Ibuki, Mi…a couple others and even Yukari herself before fleeing, leaving everyone injured and the place in ruins."

"Witnessed this yourself, did you?" her uncle said.

"I saw the devastation," Kotohime replied. "My people are assisting in the recovery efforts, and I went there in person to supervise. I was also shown records of the monster's creation. Everything matches up."

"So you say. Or rather, so Yukari says. And of course, you believe her unconditionally."

This time Kotohime did roll her eyes. "Contrary to popular belief, Yukari does not-"

"Spare me. I know that woman better than you ever could."

"I doubt that. But that's beside the point. I've brought along with me" Kotohime placed the file she was carrying on the table "a fully detailed report on the monster. All of Gensokyo's leaders are getting a copy. Apparently, the monster was created by Eientei as an experimental defense, but the experiment went horribly wrong. As I understand it, they created it some decades ago but it was subdued and imprisoned. Unfortunately, it was accidentally set loose earlier this week and, well, revenge ensued."

Her uncle turned back around to face her. "Now that I can believe. And it only goes to prove my point. These are the sort of people you associate with and defend. Creators of monsters!"

"Oh?" Kotohime idly scratched her face. "And what about those things created and set loose by Rika Asakura a few years back. I don't remember you having much of a problem with them. Was it because she set them loose on Hakurei Shrine, in youkai territory?"

"Watch your tongue, girl," he snapped. "I don't care what sort of youkai-loving organization you're running, you will remember who you are speaking to."

Kotohime folded her arms. "The GPF keeps people safe, human and youkai alike. And as I recall, you were loudly clamoring for such an organization to be established for years. Are we not doing a good enough job, uncle? Youkai-related deaths are down forty percent ever since we began patrolling!"

"Is that right? And what of those boys you personally arrested last Thursday?"

"Boys?" Kotohime said with a blank stare.

Her uncle gestured impatiently. "Yes. Last Thursday you abused your so-called power and had the gall to arrest two human adolescents for an incredibly flimsy reason."

Now Kotohime remembered. "They were trapping newborn fairies and pulling off their wings!"

"And?"

Kotohime had to close her eyes and count to ten before responding. "I believe my point is self-explanatory. Besides, I'm not here to debate the GPF's procedures. I'm here to make sure you're up-to-date on the current situation."

"A situation caused by your youkai friends!" her uncle exploded.

A heavy silence passed between them, as both niece and uncle glowered at each other. Kotohime was not at all surprised at the direction the conversation had taken. It seemed that ever since she had been cured and given the reins of the GPF, she couldn't even see her uncle without him launching into another tirade about her supposed loyalties. While she could understand on some level why he was distrustful of youkai, sometimes it seemed like he cared for nothing else but his pro-Human campaign. It was wearying.

At any rate, getting into another argument wasn't going to accomplish anything. "Like I was saying," Kotohime said. "The creature can absorb people and use their abilities along with its own. So far we know of at least three people that have been devoured. One of them is Kaguya Houraisan, the Princess of Eientei."

Her uncle's eyebrows rose high over the frames of his sunglasses. "Princess Kaguya?"

The same," Kotohime said with a nod. "We have reason to believe that the creature is now in possession of her immortality, which will likely complicate further attempts to bring it down."

"Wait, say that again. Kaguya is gone?"

Kotohime blinked. "Yes. She is gone, which you would already know if you had attended the meeting."

"Watch it," her uncle warned.

Kotohime ignored him. "In addition to Kaguya, the monster also took her rival, Fujiwara no Mokou. We don't know if that means their respective regenerative abilities will stack, but it's best not to take chance. But they're secondary compared to the third person it has acquired."

"Please tell me that it's Yukari herself."

"If it had been, then she wouldn't be calling meetings or sending me to go see you, now would she?" Without waiting for an answer, Kotohime plowed on. "No, the person in question was Rumia of the Darkness."

"Is that name supposed to mean something to me?"

Kotohime decided to refrain from mentioning her uncle's previous encounters with Rumia and her now former friends, specifically one instance that had resulted in their heads being emancipated from their necks. "You probably know her better as the Shadow Youkai."

Her uncle shook his head. "Again, that name means nothing."

Kotohime raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"I can't be expected-"

"The genocidal maniac who cut a bloody swatch across Gensokyo sixty years ago until Yukari brought it down and sealed it up?"

"It seems she didn't do an adequate job of that, if it's loose again," her uncle snapped.

"Perhaps," Kotohime said in an even tone. "But even I knew about it, back when I was…unstable. Kids used to try to scare me with stories."

"And you expect me to listen to children's stories?"

Kotohime felt a massive headache developing. _"Anyway!_ Like I was saying, the same creature that destroyed Eientei also managed to find and absorb the Shadow Youkai."

"Of course," her uncle said. "More youkai terrors. It's always youkai terrorizing us, hunting us, frightening us and _eating _us."

Well, there he went again. Kotohime took a deep breath and said, "I understand-"

"No. No you don't," her uncle interrupted. "Or you wouldn't be working for those monsters."

"Not all youkai are man-eaters," Kotohime said, drawn back into the argument despite herself. "And I don't work for them!"

"You work for their Queen. It's the same thing."

"Yukari isn't their-" Kotohime stopped herself. She forced the anger back down. "If you want to piss on me for my life choices, feel free to make an appointment at my office. But that doesn't change the fact that there is an extremely dangerous monster on the loose. At this moment, there is an operation underway to bring it down. If you don't wish to participate, that's your decision. But you still need to prepare and protect your people."

"So they're not your people anymore?"

Kotohime's eyes narrowed. "I am doing my part. I am simply suggesting that you forget your petty grudges and-"

"Petty!" her uncle roared.

Kotohime stopped talking. Her uncle had passed from irritated and disproving to outright furious. Provoking him further would probably be a bad idea, so Kotohime remained silent and waited.

When her uncle spoke again, his voice was low and dangerous. "Petty. They murdered your father. Your mother! I led the expedition to go find them, only to discover the torn up remains of my brother and his wife. Those are the things you're defending.

"Uncle, they're not-"

"Do you know what the ones that killed them did after we drove them off? Do you the sort of things they were calling at us, the taunts? They mocked their death!"

Kotohime angrily chewed the inside of her mouth. The problem was that there literally was nothing she could say that would change his mind. She had tried to explain on many occasions that while there were bad youkai out there, there were just as many decent ones as well. She had tried to cite the ones she worked with, but it had all fallen on deaf ears.

And really, could she truly blame him? When her parents had been killed, she had been too young to understand. But if she had been older, it was entirely possible that she would have developed the deep seething hatred for nonhumans that her uncle had. It made it difficult to work up any kind of righteous anger.

"I truly thought you would understand," her uncle said. To make things worse, he didn't sound angry anymore. He just sounded disappointed.

"Unc…Master Sonozika, you already know my reasons," Kotohime said. "I have explained them to you many times, and if need be, I'll be more than happy to explain them again."

Her uncle snorted.

Kotohime continued. "But not now. Neither of us have the time to debate this. I came to warn you of danger. What you do now with that information is up to you."

Her uncle glowered at her. Then he wordlessly picked up the file.

Sensing that the conversation was over, Kotohime bowed. "Farewell, Master Sonozika," she said. She turned on her heel and walked toward the door.

And then she remembered something. "Oh, I almost forgot," she said, turning back around.

Her uncle's lips curled at the edges. "What? Another message from your beloved youkai queen?"

"The opposite, actually. Yuuka Kazami has also become involved, with the intent of sabotaging any efforts to contain Eientei's monster. At the same time, she has also sponsored a large bounty on the creature. We believe the contradictory behavior is simply to cause as much chaos as possible for her own…" She paused when she saw that her uncle's face had gone completely expressionless. "Master Sonozika, you do know who she is at least?"

Her uncle didn't immediately respond. When he did, his voice was very, very small. "Yuuka Kazami? Are you sure?"

Kotohime nodded. "Yes. Yesterday she captured me and the two officers I came in with, along with one other, and tortured us with the intention of sending Yukari a message. So I am very certain." There was another pause, and then Kotohime said, "I trust I don't have to tell you to avoid attracting her attention at all costs?"

Her uncle didn't say anything. He just gave one weak nod.

"Good. Please, prepare the village as soon as possible. My office is always open should you need assistance." With that, Kotohime left the room.

Kelso and Blair were still waiting for her in the other room. From the look of things they were in the middle of a conversation with Keine and Akyuu. Kotohime hoped they hadn't spilled anything they shouldn't have, but at that moment she was too tired to care.

As she entered the room, the brothers stood up immediately.

"Captain!" Kelso said. He snapped off a quick salute. "How'd to go?"

"We're leaving now," was all Kotohime said.

Kelso winced. "Wow. That ba-ouch!" He jumped away from his brother, who had decided that now was not the time to question their Captain and had expressed his decision through driving his boot onto Kelso's toes.

Kotohime ignored them. She nodded to the two historians. "Teacher Kamishirasawa. Recorder Hieda. Good day."

"What happened?" Keine asked. "What did he do?"

"Nothing," Kotohime said. "I informed him of the situation, as I was sent to do."

"Don't worry," Akyuu said. She clearly wasn't buying Kotohime's evasiveness. "We'll make sure he doesn't screw this up."

"Of course." Kotohime turned toward the door. "Now, if you'll excuse me."

"Wait!" Keine said suddenly.

Kotohime started to turn, but Keine wasn't interested in waiting. She leapt up and grabbed Kotohime by the sleeve and dragged her to the far corner of the room. Confused, Kotohime stared at her former tutor.

"Kotohime, this…thing that attacked Eientei," Keine said. "Are the rumors true? Did it take Fujiwara no Mokou as well?"

Kotohime blinked. Why would she be bringing _that _up? "Yes, it did. Do you know her?"

"We've…met," Keine said vaguely. "You are going to rescue her, right?"

Kotohime considered questioning her further about her concern, but decided against it. in the end, it was none of her business. "Rescuing all the victims devoured by the creature is one of our top priorities," she said diplomatically. "Fujiwara no Mokou is among their number. So…yes."

Right," Keine said. She sounded relieved. "Thank you."

Kotohime studied Keine's face for a moment longer. Then she shrugged. "You're…welcome."

She nodded toward the brothers, who were watching them curiously. "All right, let's go. We've got a lot of work to do."

The way back, while not long, was almost as uncomfortable as the trip there. Kotohime kept running the argument with her uncle over and over in her head, wondering if there was something else she should have said. She also kept coming back to Keine's strange question. What did she have to do with an isolated renegade?

Such was Kotohime's confusion that she didn't notice that there was someone waiting for her in her office until she had collapsed into her leather chair and wearily rubbed her face. Then she opened her eyes and jerked back in shock.

"Hello Captain," Yukari Yakumo said. "I apologize for surprising you, but something has just come up, so my time is short. I would like to speak to the prisoner now."

…

The worst part about being in jail, Marisa decided, was not the humiliation. It was not the lack of freedom. It wasn't even the bare cell with the too-thin mattress and the cold floor and the loud drunk in the next cell over who, by the smell of things, was suffering from a severe gastric problems.

No, the worse thing was the nothing. The hour after hour of absolutely nothing happening and an inability to break up the nothing by doing something. All of her equipment had been taken from her and anti-bullet manacles had been placed on her wrists, so she couldn't blast her way out. She was shackled to the cot, so she couldn't move. And to add insult to injury, Yukari had sealed her mouth shut, so she couldn't even amuse herself by messing with the guards' minds.

And to top it off, her embarrassing fight with Kotohime had loosened a tooth that had fallen out about an hour ago. It was now sitting on the bottom of her mouth with no way to dispose of it save for swallowing. Also, her nose was running.

Marisa wondered how long she would have to stay here. She wasn't about to bet on Yukari just letting her go, and there was probably no chance of bail. Maybe someone would break her out, like Mima. Or Alice. Or even Reimu. Maybe a combination of the three. If that were the case, Marisa wished that they would hurry up, because if she had to sit on a hard cot trying to breathe through a stuffy nose while playing with her own tooth with her tongue for another minute, she was going to lose what little sanity she had left.

There was a rattling of keys. Marisa looked up. Her eyes narrowed. That crazy police-girl was there. From the look of things, Kotohime was also having a bad day. Good.

Kotohime unlocked the cell and opened the door. Seeing how she couldn't talk, Marisa just sat and glowered, conveying the high number of violent things she wanted to wreak upon the bitch through her eyes alone.

And then Kotohime stepped aside, allowing for someone else to enter. Someone very tall with blond hair, golden eyes and carrying a suitcase. Marisa let out a muffled roar and tried to leap at the newcomer, only to be jerked back by the chains.

"Thank you, Captain," Yukari said. "Now, some privacy please."

"Ma'am…" Kotohime said, clearly uncomfortable with leaving Yukari alone with Marisa.

"It's okay. Honestly, what is she going to do to me?"

Kotohime reluctantly left the cell, closing and locking the door behind her. As soon as she was gone, Yukari said, "Well now, Kirisame. Would you just look at yourself. This could have all been avoided, you know."

The noises Marisa made expressed her disagreement.

Yukari put the suitcase down on the floor. Then she held her hand in the air, index finger and thumb pressed together, as if she were holding something. She made a sudden swiping motion, and Marisa felt the skin of her mouth part. Marisa spat out the tooth, along with a considerable amount of phlegm, and shouted, "You stupid fucking bitch! When I get my hands on you, I'm gonna tear out you-"

Yukari swiped her hand the other way. Marisa's mouth closed up again.

"Got it?" Yukari said. Marisa's eyes shot daggers, but she nodded.

"Good." With that, Yukari reopened Marisa's mouth.

The young witch opened and closed her mouth, moving the jaw around and stretching her muscles. When she was satisfied that everything was in working order, she said, "What the hell do you want, Yukari?"

"That does seem to be the question," Yukari agreed. "Let me turn that around on you. Why do you think you're here?"

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" Marisa snarled. "I'm here because you and that stupid-ass wannabe cop threw me in here, ze."

"That's the _method, _dear. Not the reason."

"What, are you talking about those charges Kotohime rattled off at me? Fine." Marisa sniggered. "Theft, aggravated assault, public nuisance, endangering Gensokyo through recklessness, violently resisting arrest and murdering a GPF officer. And to be honest, that last one kinda scared me, until I found out she was talking about a fairy, ze. I mean, come on. Mothers squish them when they're doing their spring cleaning, for Chrissakes."

Yukari folded her arms. She smirked.

"Except that's not the real reason I'm here, is it?" Marisa said. "That's just the excuse."

"Only partially. Though you have to admit, it makes for a good one."

"This is about that Remilia Scarlet thing, ain't it? Yeah, that's right," Marisa said with a cocky smile. "Mima told me all about it. You want Princess Fangsalot to help out, and she says she'll only do that if you bust my ass."

"Not quite," Yukari said. "It's true that Remilia did offer her assistance in exchange for your incarceration, but I was planning on doing it anyway. It just made for a convenient story to tell Mima. Though obviously _that _backfired."

"Huh?" Marisa twisted up her face in confusion. "Then what am I doing here then?"

Yukari walked closer to the fettered witch, so that she was standing directly over her. "Because I don't like you," she said.

Marisa grinned. "Well, hey. At least you're honest. Fuck you too."

Yukari rolled her eyes. "Well, maybe that was the wrong way to put it. Let me put it like this: I am trying to organize a seek-and-destroy operation targeting an unholy conglomeration of two of the most deadliest creatures I have ever had the misfortune of meeting. The people I have to work with cannot discuss the weather without breaking into open war, the target in question is gifted with the ability to kill anything while being unkillable itself, there is a myriad of political and personal grudges threatening to tear my little team apart at any second, and it seems I can't even use the bathroom without running into yet another insanely overpowered person wanting to settle some sort of score with me."

"And yer point was…?"

"And in the middle of that, there's you. Brash, cocky, reckless, completely unable to take orders from anything save for Mima, likely to lose your patience and blow the whole operation, and given Rin Satsuki's adaptability, completely and utterly useless."

"Hey!" Marisa protested in indignation. "What's that about? Me and Mima were the only ones to actually beat the thing, ze!"

Yukari flicked a stray strand of hair out of her face. "And there is nothing you can do that others can't do as well, only more effectively. And your impulsiveness makes you not so much of an ally as a loose cannon. Now, I have no problems with loose cannons, most of the time at least. Most, if not all, of my friends are loose cannons. And I'll admit, I spend a great deal of time as a loose cannon. It's fun. But when a situation like this pops up, where my country is threatened…well, let's just say it stops being endearing."

Marisa snorted. "Fine, you don't want me screwing shit up and wanted me out of the way. Why didn't you just tell me to take a hike then?"

"Two reasons," Yukari said. She held up a single finger. "One, it wouldn't do any good, especially since you have a grudge against Satsuki." A second finger rose up. "Second, those charges Kotohime gave you are actually quire valid. We are in this mess thanks to your kleptomania. You needed to be taught a lesson."

"Hey, I didn't know what was in that box!" Marisa shouted.

"Really? Really, Marisa? Really? It's a magically sealed box that you found in a secret room belonging to a highly accomplished sorceress. What were you expecting it to hold?"

"I dunno," Marisa said with a shrug. "I was kinda hoping for pornography."

Yukari blinked. "Wait…porn…huh?"

"Hey, it's where I would keep it."

"I…" Yukari shook her head. "I really don't want to talk about that. But the bottom line is, your recklessness is endangering Gensokyo. I can't have that."

"What? People do that all the time!" Marisa yelled. "Hell, your buddy Yuyuko almost deep-froze the place a couple years back, and you were helping her!

"That wasn't exactly intentional," Yukari said sullenly. "I was half-asleep at the time. And she made up for it."

"So? And I don't recall you slapping Utsuho Reiuji in chains."

"Had she persisted after having sense knocked back into her, I would have done worse. But incidents of foolishness, carelessness or mental instability aren't the issue here. When you factor in an openly malicious creature like the Shadow Youkai, things stop being annoying and become a little more…serious."

"Fine, whatever," Marisa said. She rolled her eyes. "I screwed up, so you beat me down and locked me up. Lesson learned. Can I go now?"

"No."

"Okay, whatever. I'll stay here until you finish up with Satsuki and the Shadow Youkai. Try to hurry up, will you?"

Yukari shook her head. "Marisa, you and I know that isn't going to work. I've got a rap sheet on you as large as your ego."

"Ha!"

"You were arrested for legitimate reasons. I'm not going to let you go just like that."

Marisa snorted. "Oh, give me a friggin' break. The GPF ain't a real law enforcement whatever, they're over-glorified park rangers. They've got no real power except to keep people from killing each other out on the roads. You've got nothing."

"That would be where you're wrong," Yukari said. "The GPF may not be part of any official government or community, but neither are you. So I highly doubt I'll hear much complaining should you conveniently disappear."

Marisa started to feel a little less sure of herself.

"And I should mention that while your constant thieving was not my main reason for locking you up, Remilia Scarlet still does have a valid complaint against you. As does Eientei, for that matter. And probably a half-a-dozen more. Should they decide to press the matter, well, I might have no choice but to release you into their hands."

Marisa was starting to feel a lot less sure of herself.

"However, there is an alternative. A way to get out of facing their ideas of justice and walking away from all of this."

"Yeah?" Marisa said suspiciously. "And what's that?"

"I would be willing to let the matter go and let you walk free, no string attached, in exchange for some community service."

Marisa was baffled. "Community service? What? You want me to clean up parks or work at the homeless shelter?"

"No, nothing so ordinary. I want you to kill someone for me."

For a brief moment Marisa thought that Yukari was joking. It was such a ridiculous notion that she literally had no way to respond. And then she said, "Wait, wait wait wait wait. Hold up, Gappy. Did…did you just say you want me to kill somebody?"

"Yes," Yukari said.

"Are you kidding?"

"No," Yukari said. "You left the meeting too soon. After you left, I received word that a new player had entered the game, with the intention of fouling everything up. I need this person removed, and unlike the situation with Satsuki, you just might have a chance of pulling it off."

"Yeah right! Look Gappy, I may be a little crazy, sure. And okay, so maybe I'm not much of a saint either. But I sure as hell ain't no murderer, ze! I'm not just gonna kill someone just to get out of jail! And how the hell does that equal community service anyway?"

"The situation at hand threatens any number of communities," Yukari said calmly. "And this person wishes to escalate it. So eliminating her would be a service to those communities."

Marisa laughed. "Grandma, you are one twisted bitch, anyone ever tell you that? No deal. Get lost and do it yourself, ze. Oh, and tell this other person that I'm rooting for them, okay?"

"You don't even know who it is," Yukari pointed out.

"Like there's anyone worse than you!"

"Not even Yuuka Kazami?"

Marisa sucked her teeth. That was not an answer she had been expecting.

"Wait," she said. "Y-Yuuka? Really?"

"Yes. Really."

"What does she want?"

"I told you, to screw things up for her own enjoyment. She has fallen in league with Cirno's gang-"

_"Bwaaahhh?"_

"-and is using them as a way to stir up chaos. At this moment, they've posted a bounty on Satsuki, one that leaves out a great deal of information and potentially endangers the lives of the bounty hunters. And I have it on good authority that she killed at least three Humans and blew up two youkai yesterday, presumably without cause. Furthermore, she has hurt one of my Shikigami, possessed the other to taunt me, and challenged me to a duel to the death." Yukari's eyes narrowed. "At another time, I might take her up on it. But even if I were to win, it would both weaken and distract me too much from bringing the Satsuki and the Shadow Youkai down. So I've decided to invest in a little backup."

"But…but why me? I mean, sure I've fought her before, but I'm pretty sure she was just messing. I'm nowhere on the level-"

"I never said you would be alone," Yukari said. "I am assembling a team of individuals who specialize in doing incredible amounts of damage in a short amount of time. You will operate as a part of this team and work together to bring her down before she can hurt anyone else. And I will also be doing most of the work. You'll just be there to tip the odds in my favor in a big way."

"Yeah, but still…I mean, I'm only Human…"

The edge of Yukari's lip perked up. "Self-deprecation? From you? Still, human you may be, you are a human with an incredible talent for quickly mastering offensive spells and absolutely no trepidation for using them. And speaking of which…"

Yukari held up one hand. Behind her, the suitcase lifted off the floor and floated around so that it was hovering directly in front of her. Yukari undid the clasps and opened it up. From within, she extracted several small objects and held them up.

"Do you know what these are?" she said.

Marisa squinted. "Black…spellcards?"

"Yes. To be exact, these are the spellcards that I had created specifically for emergencies such as these. They operate under the same principles of normal spellcards, but the effect they have…Well, let's just say that in a normal duel calling them cheating would be a gross understatement."

"Yeah?" Marisa said, her interest perking up. "And are you saying I'll get to play with those babies?"

"Don't get too excited. They'll be modified for use against Yuuka and that renegade Shinigami she has as a servant alone. And of course I'll be taking back whatever ones are left afterward. But yes, you will get to play with some very, very powerful spells. So how about it, Marisa?" Yukari reached into the suitcase again and pulled out another object. Marisa's eyes went wide when she saw what it was.

It was Marisa's hat.

Yukari held the hat out to her. "Are you in?"

"Huh." Marisa's eyes narrowed as she thought. It was a crazy offer, not to mention insanely dangerous, but she had to admit that participating in a throw-down of this level was much more appealing them spending an indefinite amount of time in this hellhole. And while she was definitely not comfortable with the idea of killing anybody, Yuuka Kazami was someone who might just deserve it.

And speaking of which, when they did win, that would mean all those enchantments she had put over the Garden of the Sun would collapse. And her mansion would be then be empty and unguarded. Marisa had already profited from one trip there, though she had to fight for her life to get out. And if Yuuka was no longer a problem…

Marisa's lips parted in a wide smile. "So let me get this straight: I join your little deathsquad and shoot shoot shoot those things at her, and I go free afterward?"

"Yes," Yukari said.

"No strings attached?"

"No strings attached. You will be released to continue your incredibly annoying crime-filled life." Then Yukari scowled. "Though I should point out that this only extends to the current set of charges. If you get caught by anyone else again, I will look the other way while they teach you better manners. And if you step over the line, then I will be there. Count on it."

"Eh, that's no big," Marisa said with a shrug. "I can deal. And hey, just so we're clear, ze. You said Yuuka had already killed people, right?"

"At least three Humans that we know about," Yukari confirmed. "Apparently she wanted their hotel room."

"Yeah, that sounds like her. And just out of curiosity, what happens if I say no?"

Yukari shrugged. "Then I find someone else. I don't see that being a problem. You, on the other hand, will have to get used to prison gruel."

"I see," Marisa murmured. She thought about it a moment longer. Then she said, "You know, you have just asked."

"I could have," Yukari agreed.

"Yeah, I bet." Then with a grin, Marisa took the hat from Yukari's hands and put it on her head. She then shot off a mocking salute. "Well, guess I don't have much of a choice here. When do we start?"

…

_Unown300? You still there, buddy? :(_

_Anyway, it's kind of amazing how important (relatively speaking) the whole Kotohime and the GPF thing has become, because they originally weren't going to be in the story at all. The GPF was only made up so that Kotohime would have some actual authority rather than being the lone crazy person she is in PoDD. Kotohime herself was only introduced because she's the closest thing the games have to a cop character, and I needed one for the "Marisa Gets Arrested" plot. And _that _was thought up at the last second while writing _Bits and Pieces_ so that Yukari's promise to Cirno that she would deal with Marisa wouldn't be empty words. Funny how a story can go in new directions unexpectedly. Kind of makes me excited to see what other unplanned things will happen._

_That being said though, I still really, really hate this chapter. Okay, so maybe that's overstating things a bit, but I'm still not at all fond of it. It's not so much a quality issue (though it is somewhat shorter and much less exciting than the previous updates) or a case of disliking the characters or direction. Rather, I don't think any of the chapters, up to and including ten and thirteen, have given me this much trouble. The Kotohime part was especially difficult, in that it wanted to fight me at every turn. The scene in the gym ended up being scrapped and rewritten entirely, while the conversation with Master Sonozika was one pain in the ass. I guess the main problem was that I realized that there were so many issues in regards to culture, family history, and so on that it was difficult to figure out how those two characters would react to each other. The first draft had Kotohime being much snarkier, but that just didn't feel right. I also had planned to have Kotohime's eccentric cousin make an appearance, but he annoyed me and felt unnecessary, so that whole bit got cut entirely. Plus, there was the whole going over information that the reader already knows, which I've already expressed a dislike for, even if it's necessary story-wise. Factor in random bouts of writer's block and an unfortunate amount of procrastination, and you get me averaging maybe about half-a-page a night. Maybe in a few weeks I'll look back on this chapter more fondly, as I have with chapter ten, but for now I'm just glad to get it done._

_Though weirdly enough, I got the Marisa and Yukari bit knocked out in a couple of days. Go figure. _

_Until next time, everyone!_


	24. Messy Day

Messy Day

_Location: The Garden of the Sun_

_Time: 6:41 PM_

Cirno had never been to Yuuka's mansion. In fact, she had never so much as seen the Garden of the Sun. When they had first met, Wriggle had made it clear that it was a place better left avoided and, after coaxing a handful of stories out of the firefly, Cirno had displayed uncharacteristic wisdom by agreeing. As such, she really didn't have any idea of what to expect from the dwelling place of the infamous Yuuka Kazami.

In her imagination, it was an intimidating place, similar to the twisted gothic style of the Scarlet Devil Mansion but even more so. Spikes, horrible gargoyles, chains, sputtering torches, the works. And covering it all would be endless vines of a variety of deadly plants, both carnivorous and poisonous, like something out of a demonic greenhouse.

But as she and the rest of her gang followed Yuuka into the flower youkai's realm, she realized that nothing could be further from the truth. The Garden of the Sun was exactly as its name described: a vast expanse of perfectly normal sunflowers, their huge dials following the disc of the sun as it traveled through the cloudless sky. And where there weren't sunflowers there were huge grassy fields filled with wildflowers. Certainly she had expected a ton of the flowers, given Wriggle's descriptions, but she had always expected the garden to look a little more…menacing. This looked too peaceful to be the domain of someone so feared. In fact, it more resembled an excellent place to stop and have a picnic.

And then there was Yuuka's mansion. While it was certainly large, it wasn't unusually so, being only about half the size of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's exterior. And like the garden that surrounded it, it was a surprisingly pleasant place: a rectangular building of white marble lined with three stories of large windows, all of them open. Curving around one side was a circular sundeck, and behind it was a spacious swimming pool. The only part that Cirno had gotten right was the large amount of plants covering the walls, and even those looked inviting, with lime green vines adorned with flowers in cheery colors.

Almost a full day had passed since the encounter with Ran Yakumo at Center Tree. They had left Center Tree early the following morning. Cirno had expected to be in the Garden of the Sun by the afternoon, but she soon discovered that while Yuuka was certainly one of the strongest and scariest people she had ever met, her flight speed was far below average, forcing the girls to slow down to her pace. Cirno wasn't sure whether this was due to a legitimate handicap or Yuuka just liked to take her time. She certainly liked to make stops along the way, whether to admire a particularly vibrant bed of lilies or to harass just about everyone they came across. She didn't hurt any of them. Watching them run away screaming seemed to be delight enough. It was strange that someone who considered slapping Yukari in the face and challenging her to a duel to be an amusing diversion would be so amused by such silly pranks. That was the sort of thing that Cirno and her friends usually did. Perhaps to her it was all the same.

"Ah, home again!" Yuuka cried happily. She turned in the air to face the children. "Now, I know it isn't much, but it is quite comfortable. Feel free to use the pool or play in the field, just so long as you remember to treat the flowers with respect. You all are guests here, so be on your best behavior and we'll get along swimmingly!"

Then she smiled and reached over to pinch Wriggle's cheek. "Though for Wriggly here it's not so much a visit as it is a homecoming. Isn't that right, my little morning star?"

Wriggle pulled away from Yuuka's finger. Her expression was anything but thrilled.

Yuuka laughed. "Oh, don't you worry yourself, dearie-oh! I promise your stay will be much more pleasant than last time. Ah, there's Elly!"

Everyone looked down. There, standing at the front gate, was someone who appeared to be a little girl, though in Gensokyo the appearance of youth didn't count for much. She had blond curls under a white sunhat and adorable dimpled cheeks. She wore a yellow sundress that left her shoulders bare and was waving enthusiastically at the approaching party.

"Master!" the person introduced as Elly said as they touched down on the marble path leading up to the mansion's steps. She rushed forward to tightly embrace Yuuka. "I've missed you so!"

Yuuka smiled as she affectionately returned the hug. "Aw, but I was gone for only a couple days!"

"It felt like a week," Elly said, pulling away. She stuck her lower lip out in a pout. "Don't leave me for so long!"

"And deprive the rest of the world of my presence? You are so selfish sometimes." Yuuka turned to Cirno and her gang, who were staring at the reunion with wide eyes. "Everyone, this charming girl is Elly, no last name needed. She's been my faithful helper for so many wonderful years, even before I moved to Gensokyo. If you ever need anything, just ask her."

"I'm very glad to meet you all," Elly said as she bowed her head and curtsied. "Please, never hesitate to-"

Elly's voice trailed off as she rose her head and caught sight of Wriggle. Her overly cheerful expression immediately melted into a blank look. "Oh. It's you." She paused. "Hello Wriggle."

"Hello Elly," Wriggle said in an unhappy monotone.

"Aw, isn't it just wonderful when old friends reunite?" Yuuka said. She gave Elly a gentle nudge from behind. "Now run along dear one. I believe it's time to start supper."

"Yes Master!" Elly said. She ran back into the mansion.

"All right now!" Yuuka said as she turned back to the girls. "Shall we continue?"

Once again, the interior of Yuuka's home completely contradicted how Cirno had pictured it. The rooms and hallways were open and well lit, and the decorations consisted mostly of artwork depicting lush landscapes and playing children. The floors were unusual in that most of them had been torn up to make way for several indoor gardens, but there still were a few areas paved with stone on which sat small clusters of furniture, though vines still creeped their way across the tiles.

Cirno leaned over to Mystia, who was eyeing a bed of roses as if it might lunge for her at any moment. "Okay, this isn't what I pictured at all," she whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"I dunno. I just thought this place would be a little…scarier. More…"

"Intimidating?"

"Yeah, that's the word."

Yuuka was several meters ahead of them, presumably out of earshot. However, this presumption was dashed when she said, "It has been my experience that those who feel the need to rely upon threatening architecture and gruesome imagery in order to inspire fear do so because they feel their own strength is inadequate. In my very personal opinion, all one needs to do in order to intimidate is to cultivate the appropriate reputation and do one's best to live up to it." She smiled at them from over her shoulder. "Everything from there on tends to take care of itself."

Mystia shied back while Cirno gulped nervously. "Oh. Uh, sorry…"

"Whatever for? It was a legitimate observation. Ah, here we are!"

She had led them to a large circular room. Unlike the rest of the mansion, most of the stone floor remained, with only the circumference being converted to soil in order to make room for the small trees and shrubberies that lined the walls. Directly overhead was a glass dome edged in gold. Covering one half of the room was a shallow pool, the center of which was taken up by a marble statue of a woman wearing a hooded robe pouring water from a pitcher.

On the other side of the room were four lectus arranged in a diamond-shape around a table. There were a number of smaller tables and chairs surrounding the diamond. Arrayed among the furniture were several objects that Cirno's gang were surprised to find that they recognized.

"Hey, that's my record player!" Mystia said.

"And my snowglobe!" Daiyousei added. "What's it doing here?"

Cirno's eyes boggled when she noticed one piece of furniture in particular. "Holy crap, is that our grandfather clock?"

"I took the liberty of having your personal possessions brought over," Yuuka said. "I want you to completely at home during your time here."

Cirno, Mystia and Daiyousei all exchanged glances. None of them were sure what to make of that. Wriggle, it should be noted, didn't look surprised at all. She just looked bitterly resigned.

"Now then!" Yuuka said. "While you're here, my home is yours. Feel free to go anywhere you like, so long as you remain within the mansion or the garden. This place is very well protected, but that protection does not extend beyond my land's boundaries. As I said, should you need anything, simply ask me or Elly, depending on who happens to be around. However, I must insist that you refrain from entering my private quarters unless I personally invite you in. Poking around someone else's business is just plain rude, and if there is anything I simply cannot abide, it's weedkillers and those black licorice jelly beans. But rudeness is also undesirable. And on that note, feel free to help yourself to any fruit that has ripened and fallen from the vine. But be sure to preserve the seeds. And the plants themselves are not to be harmed. They here are here to bring us joy and comfort. Forget this, and I will know. Understand?"

Cirno and her gang quickly nodded their agreement.

"Excellent! Oh, we'll have such a splendid time together. And now," Yuuka said, clasping her hands. "There's still some time until Elly treats us with her delicious supper. Who would like to play a game?"

…

_Location: The Yakumo Home_

_Time: 6:12 PM_

"Ran?"

"Yes, Chen?"

"Are they gonna be okay?"

"Who?"

"My friends!"

Ran paused. She was just straightening up from setting the tray with Chen's dinner down on the dresser. Yukari was gone, having departed for the Tengu Village on business, leaving Ran to keep a handle on things.

Per Yukari's orders, Chen was confined to her room for the foreseeable future, a sentence that was driving her absolutely crazy. Ran was doing what she could to keep her amused, but the catgirl's usual inexhaustible well of energy was about to hit critical mass. If it continued to escalate at the rate it was, she would be clawing out the walls in short order.

Still, Ran bore it gladly. Having a bored and frustrated Chen to take care of meant that she had Chen in the first place. And after having endured a long week of being frantic with worry, the relief it brought her more than made up for any inconvenience.

However, she didn't know how to answer Chen's question, at least not in a manner that she would find satisfying. They were still in the hands of Yuuka Kazami, who was currently doing her darnedest to start a war with Yukari. People in that position did not last long. Even the immortal ones.

"Ran?" Chen said. "Ran? Are you listening? What about my friends? You know, Cirno? Mysty? Wriggly? Dai? They're in big trouble. And Rumia! Can't forget Rumia. She's in _really _big trouble! How are you going to save them? Will it be soon?"

Ran hesitated a moment longer, and said, "Well, Yukari has a plan to save everyone right now. And I know she's going to do it as soon as possible."

"And it'll work, right?" Chen pressed. "They'll be okay, right? They'll be okay, and we can play together like we used to, right?"

That's right, she had been under Yuuka's control when Yukari had forbidden her from ever seeing her friends again. Ran considered breaking the news to her now, but instead she just said, "I don't know, Chen."

"Why don't you know?"

"Because I don't. I don't know everything, especially not the future. Nobody does."

"Not even Yukari?"

"Not even Yukari," Ran confirmed. Then she smiled. "Don't tell her I said that though. We don't want to shatter her fantasies."

They both laughed at that, though it felt awkward and didn't last long. To be truthful, Ran wasn't expecting Chen's friends to come out of this unscathed. In fact, she would be surprised if any of them managed to survive. However, she wasn't about to tell Chen that.

"Ran?"

Ran braced herself for another hard question. "Yes?"

"I did a bad thing, didn't I?"

Ran relaxed. "No Chen, you didn't do a bad thing. Maybe a little…unwise, but you were just trying to help your friend. And that's not bad."

"But you got hurt!" Chen protested. "Yuuka hurt your arm and…a lot of other people too and now she's trying to hurt Yukari and I didn't know about that last part but she is and I was helping her and-"

"Shhh, shhh, shhh." Ran sat down on the bed next to her and put her good arm around her. "Calm down, little one. It's all right. My arm's almost better. See?" She held up her damaged arm as far as it would go. It still would not extend all the way, but it was almost there. "And I'd gladly endure worse if it meant making you safe. Besides, Yukari can handle herself. Don't worry."

"But-"

"Look at me, Chen." Ran touched Chen's chin and drew her head up so that their eyes met. "Listen: it's not your fault. Remember that, it's not your fault."

Chen hesitated, and then she nodded. She drew her legs up and lay her head down on Ran's lap. Believing that her ward had taken her words to heart, Ran allowed herself to relax just a bit. She hummed as she stroked Chen's hair.

And then Chen asked a question. _The _question.

"Ran?"

"Hmmm?"

"What about Rumia?"

Ran grimaced. She could lie and make Chen happy, only for Chen to be hurt later. Or she could tell the truth and hurt Chen now. There was no way to win in this one.

Fortunately she was spared from answering when someone started banging on the front door.

…

_Deep Within_

_Location: ?_

_Time: 3:58 AM_

Several sleepless hours had passed since Rumia had been sent through a literal nightmare and Rin had been tortured to death. They had spent that time running, moving from one place to the next, avoiding people at all cost and doing their best not to leave a trail, all with varying success. Personally, Rumia was all for digging a deep, deep hole and staying there until everyone forgot about them, but Rin had vetoed that idea, claiming that it would only delay the inevitable and they needed to solve the mystery before them first.

Rumia did not like the sound of that. Just based upon what she had seen in her so-called dream and Rin's account of her fight with Rumia's darker half, she was starting to get the feeling that this was something she was better off not knowing about. Learning that you had some kind of evil past life was not something that made your life easier, and learning more about said evil past life was the sort of thing that drove humans to suicide.

However, as much as Rumia hated to admit it, Rin was right. They needed to find out exactly what Rumia had used to be and somehow prove that she was not that person anymore. Rumia honestly didn't have the slightest idea how they were going to go about doing that, but they had to start _somewhere._

Unfortunately, on top of the problems she was already dealing, Rumia found herself adding another to the list. And that was that Rin was _seriously _starting to creep her out.

If it were her usual brand of creepiness, Rumia would be able to deal with it. The sing-song manner of speaking, the rambling explanations that never ended up explaining anything, the short attention span and the occasional bouts of extreme scariness were, while bothersome, all things that Rumia had been getting used to.

But no. Just as the nightmare that had been Rumia's life for nearly a week had started to form into something resembling a routine, Rin had gone and switched things up on her. Now instead of just being confused and a little loony, she was now _unbearably _cheerful. It was Rumia's experience that when someone had suffered through and experience like Rin's, there followed a period of dealing with the trauma. But Rin had apparently to skip right past that becoming encouraging, enthusiastic and looking on the bright side of things. It was pissing Rumia off to no end.

"So the way I see it, we may have not gotten the answers we wanted," Rin was saying. "But it was still a win for us. A big win."

The mutated Kirin girl was rapidly pacing back and forth as she talked. Her body was trembling with excitement and she kept gesturing with her hands, pointing upward and punching the sky. Rumia sitting cross-legged and watching her all the while, all the while growing more and more irritated.

"A win?" Rumia said. "I was forced through a nightmare. You were tortured to death. And the only thing we learned is that I have and evil alter-ago-"

"Ego. And had."

"Yeah, okay. That, and if that awful dream adventure means anything, I need to start seeing a psychoalatricist-"

"Psychiatrist."

Rumia threw her hands up. "Whatever! I'm messed up in the head. Okay! And hey Rin, guess what? We still have no idea why, beyond that everyone wants to kill me for it!"

"Aha!" Rin stuck a finger up and thrust her hand into Rumia's face. "That's where you be wrong!"

"Don't do that," Rumia said as she pushed Rin's hand away. "And what are you talking about?"

"We now know who took Rumia the…um…"

"Psychopath? Serial-killer? Bloodthirsty monster?" Rumia suggested.

"Sure, if you want."

"I _don't _want, but let's face it. My evil twin was an evil bitch."

"No arguments here," Rin said with a shuddered. "But okay. We know who took her and turned her into you."

Rumia snorted disdainfully. "Fat lot of luck that does us." She uncrossed her legs and stood to her feet. "One is Miss Yukari. Let me take this time to say 'hell no' to any plan that involves asking her for anything."

"Are you sure? She might-"

"_No, _Rin. No way. Not happening, so just forget it. She's the one in charge of the people trying to kill us, remember?"

"Okay, okay. But there's still-"

"Miss Mima?" Rumia rolled her eyes. "Oh that's a whole lot better. Hey, let's go talk to one evil bitch about another evil bitch so we can save ourselves from a third evil bitch who's hanging out with the first evil bitch and leading a bunch of other people who are just plain bitches."

"Right, also a bad idea," Rin said. "But I wasn't talking about her."

"What, that shrine maiden? Miss Reimu's mom or grandma or whatever? She's dead! And if those memories you showed me mean anything, Miss Reimu don't know anything either!"

"I know! But there still might be something to find at the shrine she lives at! Some kind of record or evidence or something!"

"That's it?" Rumia groaned. "That's you're big win? Look, I've _been _to Hakurei Shrine before. And if there's some big book of all the monsters the Hakurei have fought, it must be both huge and freaking well hidden."

"Hey, it's worth a shot. Definitely gonna be easier to find and get into than Yukari and Mima's places, wherever they are. And I can get into a lot of places most people can't."

"Yeah? Did'ja forget that Reimu is one of the people that are trying to hunt us down? Or that Mima's bunking with her now? Or that it's become Yukari's favorite hangout? I'm just saying, it's filled with people that hate us."

"Who are currently out looking for us right now," Rin pointed out. "Which means they're probably not at the shrine." She smiled encouraging and put her hand on Rumia's shoulder. "Come on, Rumia. Don't be so pessimistic. This'll work, promise!"

Rumia, who was starting to get an idea of how much Rin's promises were actually worth, shook her off. "What is it with you?"

"Huh?" Rin looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Why are you so confident about this? It's crazy dangerous!"

"We can pull it off."

"That'll take a miracle, and all the people who do miracles are on the other side. But that's not what I was talking about. Why are so suddenly so sure of everything? What's with all the cheerfulness? You got your mind ripped apart from the inside out!"

"Oh. That." Rin frowned. "I'm, uh, not really sure. I mean yeah, that…was a really bad day. And coming back wasn't any fun either. But ever since we regenerated, it's been…I don't know, I've just felt better. About everything. Like all the crap I've been carrying around all this time's been melted away." She scratched her chin. A thoughtful look gleamed in her eye. "You know, maybe it has something to do when the evil you cut into my emotions and they all came pouring out. Maybe it was sort of an emotional cleansing."

"One that _burned _you to death!"

Rin winced. "…okay, it did do that. And it hurt. A lot. But still, maybe since they weren't all stuffed in one place anymore, they got all…taken care of when I rebooted? Defragmented? I don't know." Then Rin smiled. "It's just that I have a really, really good feeling now. Like I've been covered with all this gunk that I didn't even know about, but now it's been cleaned off. I really think everything's gonna be okay."

"And I think you're a complete loony," Rumia shot back. She turned and sulkily walked away. "And I'm telling you, you better not let this good feeling make you ever more stupid."

"You know, I could probably do the same for you," Rin called after her. "It might make you less of a sourpuss."

"I hate you!" Rumia shouted over her shoulder. She stormed off, unable to take anymore of Rin's teasing.

That was when she felt two warm arms suddenly throw themselves around her stomach. "Aw, don't be that way," Rin said, her body pressed uncomfortable close. "You know you love me, deep down inside!"

Rumia froze as her brain tried to process this unexpected action. Then her instincts took over.

"Get off me!" she screamed as she whirled around and shoved herself away from Rin. "What the hell's _wrong _with you?"

Rin, who was grinning like the loony she had been called, just said, "What? It was just a hug."

"Just a…Rin. Seriously, don't do that. I don't like people touching me, and this whole being naked in your mind-thing is bad enough as it is. So just don't, okay?"

Rin's smile died. "Oh. Okay, sorry. I was just in a really good mood and wanted to mess with you a little. I didn't think. Sorry."

"Yeah, okay. Just don't do it again," Rumia grumbled. "Or I'll make you feel even better than you are now."

A moment passed, and Rin said, "Wait, you're going to do _what?"_

Rumia sighed. "Um…you said that you're in a good mood because everything got broken and put together better when you died," she explained. "So I was threatening to kill you again. It…sounded better in my mind."

Rin stared at her. "Yeah, that analogy…really doesn't work at all."

"Shut up," Rumia muttered as she turned to walk away again. "Just don't touch me again, and we'll be fine. Got it?"

Rin smiled as she watched Rumia wander off. She hadn't been fully truthful with Rumia. While the draining of all her negative emotions had played a big part of her recent rejuvenation, she had also recently figured something out, something that was making her feel incredibly relieved. She didn't need to be afraid anymore. Not of Yukari, not of Eirin, not even that glowing vampire girl. They couldn't do anything to her anymore. Well, okay, so they _could, _but it didn't matter. Things were simpler now. All that mattered was finding some way to save Rumia, and everything would be over. All the fear, the pain, the guilt and loneliness.

It all made sense now. Despite being a cruel, manipulative liar, the dark voice had been right. There was no place for her in this world. But instead of filling her with despair, the knowledge just made everything fall into place. She knew what she had to do now. It had just taken death for her to finally figure it out.

Life was funny that way sometimes.

…

_Location: Moriya Shrine_

_Time: 7:25 AM_

"Funny?" Mima said. "Is that what you think of it? Because funny is not the word I would use."

Kanako folded her arms across her breast. "And how exactly-"

"Maybe under normal circumstances I'd find it funny," Mima continued on. "But right now, I'm a little hard pressed to find the funny. Especially since the current population of that place is currently zilch. There's no fun in scorching dead rock. But again, I speak only for myself. Personal it's your personal brand of humor that allows you to find something funny about my suggestion."

"Forgive me," Kanako said icily. "It's just that when I heard the phrases 'Yukari's citadel' and 'nuke it from orbit' used not only in the same sentence but in conjunction, I have to assume you're making some kind of joke."

"I'm not. I'm just presenting it as an option."

"I'm trying to help you save Marisa, not piss off Yukari just because you feel like it," Kanako pointed out. "So please rein in your homicidal impulses."

"Agreed," Byakuren added. "No plans that end in bloodshed, please."

"Especially if it's our blood," Kanako said.

The three of them were sitting at the top of the steps that led from up to the Moriya Shrine. Or rather, Kanako and Byakuren were sitting while Mima was doing that green beanbag thing with her tail. For convenience's sake, Byakuren and Reimu had spent the night while Mima had gone off elsewhere while they slept, though it had not been a pleasant experience. Thanks to the situation at hand and tension still lingering between the Moriya Shrine's residents and their guests, no one had gotten much sleep. Sanae was sweeping out the shrine while Reimu was helping Suwako clean up the breakfast dishes. Byakuren had decided to stick around a bit longer to discuss possibilities with her fellow Ringleaders. Unfortunately, they were discovering that their personal favorite problem-solving strategies were incompatible. Kanako's far-sighted pragmatism was clashing with Byakuren's idealistic diplomacy, while neither of them were willing to consider Mima's traditional method of doing things.

Mima leaned back on the steps. She allowed the transparent green blob that her tail had become to spill out to its full length. "Well, if you're that opposed to getting your hands dirty…"

"I have no problem with getting my hands dirty," Kanako said. She took a sip from the steaming mug she was holding. "But I really prefer not to dip them in the dirt until cleaner solutions have been exhausted."

Mima spread her hands. "And we just spent fifteen minutes exhausting clean solutions. If you have one that actually has a chance of working, then say so already."

"All right. Try this one on for size: we help her."

"Wait, what?" Byakuren said.

Mima blinked. She slowly turned her head so that she was staring straight at the goddess of the Youkai Mountain. "I'm sorry, could you run that idiocy by me again? I don't think it burned enough IQ points away the first time around."

"Idiocy?" Kanako said. "And what would you call your holocaust? But hear me out: instead of trying to break Marisa out of Yukari's grasp, why don't we help them take out Yuuka? End result, Marisa's safe, Yuuka's not a problem anymore and Yukari will be thinking more fondly of us."

Byakuren looked ill. "That would be murder."

"No, it would be an execution. I've seen Yuuka's records. She's definitely guilty of murder herself. Lots and lots of murder."

"That doesn't mean we should just callously-"

Kanako sighed. "Oh, save it Byakuren. It's too early for this."

"I'm shooting that idea down anyway," Mima muttered. "There's no way I'm working with Yukari on this."

"Well, I guess you'll just have to decide which is more important to you," Kanako said. She took another sip. "Your girl or your pride."

"Right now, they're roughly about the same. Which elevates Marisa pretty damn high, come to think about it."

Byakuren stood up and brushed off her knees. "Maybe we should continue this…distasteful conversation later. I think you have customers, Kanako."

The three of them looked down. There, coming up the path, were two adult Tengu accompanied by three children, presumably a family.

"Right, duty calls," Kanako said. She straightened up with a grunt.

"I suppose I'd better be off as well," Mima said. She floated about a foot into the air. "There're some leads I need to follow. And I'm sure you two have your own preparations for the great Satsuki hunt to make."

"I don't suppose those leads of yours involve massive property destruction and loss of life?" Kanako muttered.

"With any luck," Mima said with a smile. "See you around, ladies."

She faded away.

Byakuren shook her head. "Can I take this moment to say how much I dislike the idea of working with her?"

"Beating a dead horse with that one," Kanako grumbled. The two started back toward the shrine. "Besides, it might be more dangerous to turn her down."

"Kanako, I'm serious. That woman is treacherous. It's what she does. I've seen it before, back before I was sealed away. And I for one am less than ready to accept her retirement as genuine."

Kanako gave her a sidelong look. "I thought you were all about redemption and forgiveness."

"That doesn't mean I have to discard my common sense. She'll turn us over to Yukari or join up with Yuuka Kazami in an instant if she thinks it'll get her what she wants."

"Well, maybe," Kanako admitted. "Still, she does seem to think that working with us is the best way to save Marisa. And I don't think she's interested in turning on Reimu. That might turn Marisa against her."

Byakuren looked over her shoulder toward the shrine's steps. Specifically, at the spot where Mima had been before disappearing. "Words cannot express how much I hope you're right," she said.

…

_Location: Forest of Magic_

_Time: 1:40 PM_

Marisa sat on an old stump, feeling absolutely glum. Her wrists were shackled together and a third shackle was snapped around her left ankle. From this snaked a chain that led to a steel post in the ground. The shackles themselves were enchanted to prevent her from doing anything other than sit in place. If she tried to move too far away from the stump or use magic of any kind, she would receive a sudden electrical shock that would render her senseless for a full minute. She had found this out less than three minutes after being chained in place. Though in fairness, she had been warned ahead of time, but there was nothing lost by trying, saving for a temporary loss of all coherent thought.

However, that wasn't why she sulking. The stump she was sitting on was only a few feet away from her house. The entire area was sanctioned off by yellow tape, and the place was crawling with those GPF tools. They were currently going through her stuff and dividing it into separate piles on what passed for the front lawn. Apparently it was a lengthy process, as they had been working for nearly three hours and had yet to categorize a third of the items. And every second that had them pawing their clumsy hands through her property made her blood boil all the hotter.

She cast a rueful glance at one of the piles. Each of the piles was labeled, and some smartass had named that particular one "Stuff That's Actually Hers". It wasn't even a third of the size of any of the others.

Marisa then turned to the person who had made this invasion of privacy possible. Kotohime Sonozika was standing nearby, arms crossed and eyes fixated upon her subordinates' attempts to impose order upon Marisa's customary chaos. Earlier she had forced Marisa through the place to disable any and all booby-traps and other nasty surprises. It had taken a rather long time.

"Hey!" Marisa snapped.

Kotohime turned her head toward her. She didn't say anything, but her eyebrows went up.

Marisa tilted her head toward the ever-growing piles. "Just so we're clear, I'm getting all this back once this is over, right?"

"Certainly," Kotohime said. "The stuff you can prove are yours, that is."

"That would be all of it," Marisa said.

"Really? And how do you figure?"

"'Cause it's in my house, ze. Possession is nine-tenths of ownership."

Kotohime just shook her head and went back to watching her officers work.

A grin on her face, Marisa sat up straighter and slowly stretched out her cramping muscles. "This must really be eating you up."

Kotohime glanced at her.

"This whole deal Yukari's got going with me. Guaranteed freedom. A chance to play in the big leagues and blow shit up. All your pretty charges flushed away. All that trouble you went through to bring me in, and your boss is just gonna make it all for nothing. How's that sitting with you, police-girl?"

This time a ghost of a smile appeared at the corner of Kotohime's lips. "Is that what you think? That you're getting the better end of the deal?"

Marisa laughed. "Hells yeah! I'd probably do this for free! And there's not a damned thing you can do about it, ze!" She held up her middle finger. "So suck on that!"

Kotohime rolled her eyes. She chuckled. "You know, I had the pleasure of meeting Yuuka Kazami myself just the other day."

"Yeah? Crazy lady, ain't she? Did she stick things in inappropriate places?"

"You could say that." Kotohime turned and walked toward Marisa. She touched her face. "You probably can't see them now because of the makeup, but yesterday there were some very nasty bruises up here."

"Wait, you actually picked a fight with her?" Marisa laughed. "Man, that's best thing I've heard all day! I mean, hell, even Yukari's getting some major backup before going after her!"

"Yes. Yes, she is. To take down someone who not only challenged one of the most powerful beings in Gensokyo to a fight for fun, but has gone out of her way to piss Yukari off as much as possible. And from what I've been able to gather, that backup you mentioned will contain some people whom even gods would fear. Ones that aren't known for their self-control." Kotohime's small smile spread to full length. "And in the middle of it all is you. A little vanilla mortal." She shook her head. "I really don't think you're getting the better end of this deal. In fact, I'd say you were better off just staying in that cell." She turned and walked back to where she had been standing.

Marisa scowled at her. "That's what you think? You don't think I can handle this, ze?"

"Not for me to say," Kotohime said over her shoulder. "But since you asked, then no. I don't think you can handle this."

"Ha! You're gonna be eating those words, police-girl. Just wait until I show up on your doorstep afterward. Can't wait to shove it in your big ugly face."

"Please do. It'll make putting you back in the cell so much easier."

Marisa snorted. "Good luck with that. And can I just say how much I love your serious new personality? For reals, I liked you way better the old way."

"I'm sure you did. Some people find insanity endearing. Perhaps you had thought you had found a kindred spirit."

Marisa grinned. "Oh, you were way worse than I've ever been. Hey, remember that one time you ran through the market in your pajamas?"

Kotohime's lips tightened.

"And you kept throwing rocks at things? And those siren noises you made the whole time? WOOOOOOOOOOO! Priceless! Why don't you do fun stuff like that anymore? Maybe then people will stop pretending to like you just to make your boss happy."

Before Kotohime could retort, the forest filled with a piercing whine. Everyone in the house starting shouting and running out. Then a there was a loud bang and blinding light shot out of the windows and the door. Less than a second later, one of the GPF officers flew through the roof and limply soared over everyone's heads to crash head-over-heels in a bush.

Kotohime and the others immediately rushed to help him. As they helped the smoking and dazed officer disentangle himself, Kotohime shot a venomous glare at Marisa, who was watching the whole thing with a big toothy smile.

"Oops," Marisa said with a shrug. "Guess I forgot about that one."

…

_Location: The Scarlet Devil Mansion_

_Time: 5:19 PM_

No matter where you are, there are certain constants that will be in place. It didn't matter how far you traveled or what strange new places you found, toast will always land butter side down, it will always rain the day of a planned outdoor activity, the address you are searching for will always be the one most well hidden and young children will always believe that they can get out of unpleasant situations by pouting and repeating the word "no" over and over, no matter how many times you explain the situation's necessity, even if said children are almost half a millennium old.

Of course, Remilia was finding it difficult to explain to Flandre why they had to go see Yukari again, because to be quite frank she didn't want to go either.

"We _have _to go," Remilia said. "We don't have a choice! What part of that isn't clear?"

"No. I don't wanna."

"Flan, please be reasonable."

"No."

"If we don't go, there's every likelihood that Yukari will become angry. Do you remember what happened last time she got angry?"

Flandre, who was sitting cross-legged on her bed, folded her arms and stuck out her lower lip. "Still not going."

Remilia closed her eyes and counted to ten. When that failed to produce the required patience, she doubled it to twenty. Fortunately Sakuya, who was standing dutifully behind her and keeping a ready hand on her pocketwatch, chose that moment to step in.

"Young mistress Flandre," she said. "Please reconsider. If we do not honor Yukari's request, she will become displeased with us, as mistress Remilia has just pointed out."

"I _said _I _don't care!"_

"And if she becomes angry, she might seek to punish us."

"I'll blow her up!"

Remilia rolled her eyes. "You tried that already! And that didn't exactly work out as planned, now did it?"

Flandre jumped up and leapt onto the brass knob of one of the bedposts, which she clung to like a blond, crystal-winged cat. "It'll work this time!" she hissed. "I'll blow her brains out! Splatter them like pudding!"

"Perhaps," Sakuya said in a diplomatic tone. "But that is only if she chooses to confront you directly. Yukari is a wily one, young mistress Flandre. She may do something else."

Flandre looked dubious. She let herself slowly slip forward until she flipped over and hung upside-down, hanging onto the bedpost with her legs. "Like what?"

"Like gap us both straight into the _sun!" _Remilia snapped. "And don't do that, it's indecent."

Flandre just stuck her tongue out at her sister.

"She might do that," Sakuya agreed. "Or she might do something worse."

"Worse?" Flandre said. She released her legs and turned over to land in a sitting position in front of the bed, her legs splayed out before her. "Like?"

"Like stealing all the sweets from the larder," Sakuya said. "And making it impossible to make more."

Flandre's jaw dropped. "She can do that?" she whispered.

"Yes. Or she can change the days of the week so that every day is bath day."

Flandre curled up into the fetal position and grasped her head. She whimpered.

"Or she could turn your wing-crystals into ugly grey rocks. Or she could remove your ability to fly. Or she could take away Laevatein and refuse to give it back. Or she could replace all of your underwear with-"

"Okay, okay!" Flandre screamed at her. "I'll go! But don't expect me to be nice to her!"

Sakuya bowed. "Very good, young mistress Flandre. Mistress Remilia, I do believe it is time for your inspection of Miss Knowledge's work?"

Remilia, who was staring at Sakuya with an expression akin to awe, shook her herself and said, "Oh. Of course. We wouldn't want to keep her waiting, now would we? Um, thank you for understanding, Flandre. I'll see you tonight."

She quickly hastened down the basement's corridors with Sakuya following. Behind them, Flandre could be heard muttering to herself.

"I'll pick out her eyes and squish them like boogers. I'll crack each of her teeth in half, one-by-one, and jab them into her tongue. I'll tie all of her hairs together and yank them out all at once. I'll reduce her to a mountain of pain. She will regret her foolishness, oh yes she will, love. She will become like unto Sodom and Gomorrah. Heheheh, salt. I will ravage her mind until her very thoughts are but a bleak wasteland that nothing can-"

The murmurs continued even when Remilia and Sakuya were well out of earshot. Remilia quickly hastened through the heavy door and, as soon as Sakuya was through, slammed it shut. Flandre's voice cut off immediately.

"Well, that could have gone worse," Remilia said as she ran her hand up the door's side, causing the locks to snap into place and the chains to reattach themselves. "Have you ever noticed that the creepier she gets, the more articulate she becomes?"

"Your sister's madness does manifest itself in a variety of ways," Sakuya said.

"Yes it does, doesn't it? Interesting means of persuasion, by the way. Surprisingly effective."

Sakuya folded her hands over her waist. "I have found that it is often best to approach the target on their level."

"Hmph. A hangover of your old hunting days, no doubt," Remilia said. She started up the stairs to the ground level.

"Actually, it was my highschool debate team," Sakuya admitted.

Remilia stopped short. She slowly turned to stare at her maid.

"Your…highschool debate team?"

"Yes, mistress."

"…Sakuya, I truly hate to further complicate your long and murky past, but did they even _have _debate teams back then? Or highschools for that matter. Because I was under the impression that…You know what? Forget it. Let's just go."

They left the lower levels and made their way through the mansion to exit out the back. The mansion's grounds stretched before them, an expanse of green grass, neatly trimmed bushes, bright flowerbeds and white marble. Paved paths wound their way through the gardens, passing by graceful statues and around tinkling fountains.

Though the sun had almost reached the end of the horizon, there was still enough daylight to be uncomfortable. Sakuya automatically picked up an umbrella from a nearby umbrella stand, unfolded it and held it over her mistress. Together, they walked outside to find Patchouli.

Patchouli had set up her base of operations at the far end of the property, in a small field that was well kept but otherwise free of decoration. Her purpose for being outside sat a few feet away from the pavilion. A large contraption was being constructed. The centerpiece was a low black dome that sat on circular silver platform, about five feet in height and twenty feet in diameter. Surrounding the platform with about six inches of grass in between was a flat circle of the same metal, toothed along its edge like a gear. The end of each tooth was topped with a disc. Sitting in the middle of about two-third of the discs was an iron pillar topped with a large floating crystal, each one a different color. Some of them were normal colors such as purple, blue and green, but others hurt Remilia's eyes just to look at them.

Patchouli herself was sitting in a folding chair under a pavilion. Apparently the day's labor had been taxing on the librarian, though it was doubtful that she had contributed much physically. Still, sweat glistened on her face and matted her hair to her neck. She had left her customary star-and-moon studded sleeping hat behind in favor of a purple visor and a pair of sunglasses so large and thick that they could have served as goggles. She had an open blueprint open on her lap and was sipping from a glass of lemonade. Judging from the cluster of empty glasses sitting on a small table next to her, it was not her first of the day.

Remilia walked up to her, followed by both umbrella and maid. "Hello Patchouli. Working hard as usual, I see."

Even through her ridiculous sunglasses the look Patchouli shot the little vampire was downright venomous. She folded up the blueprint and stood to her feet. "Well, look who's crawled out of her coffin. Come to grace us with your presence?"

Remilia ignored the comment. Instead, she wandered over to look at the strange, large object that was sitting nearby. "So this is your light-barrier generator? It looks expensive."

"You wanted something that could stop Rin Satsuki," Patchouli said as she walked up to her. "That's not something you'll find in a discount bin."

"Yes, what an effective monster you've created." Remilia nodded toward the generator. "Though correct me if I'm wrong, but that thing seems to be incomplete. I've never known an incomplete device to work properly before."

"It's under construction."

"Oh, is it? And pray tell, how does sitting in the shade sipping cool drinks finish its construction. Now, I know I'm not a mage, but unless this is some strange wizard thing, I fail to see how…"

Patchouli pointed toward the far end of the field. Blinking, Remilia turned to see what honestly appeared to be one of the crystal-topped pillars slowly trudging toward them. It was leaning back at an angle and swaying back and forth, and it seemed to be unsure of its way. Backing up in front of it were Patchouli's two assistants, that bird whose name Remilia had never bothered to learn and the devil-girl Koakuma. They were keeping pace with the pillar and shouting instructions and words of encouragement.

"Forward, forward, keep going," Koakuma said. "That's it, just keep going."

"Okay, you're starting to wander a little, move a little to the right…Okay, that's good," the silver-haired bird added.

The pillar let out a grunt of acknowledgement and continued to bob its way toward Patchouli's generator. "Am I almost there?" it called out in an accented voice.

"Almost," Koakuma said. "Okay, come around this way. That's right, just keep following my voice. Okay, you're…No, you're wandering again. This way, to the right! No, wait, left!"

The pillar turned in both directions in succession. "Make up your mind!"

"My right, your left! Okay, you've got it. Okay, you're right over the circle. Just set it down…right there…Got it!"

The pillar lowered itself until it was sitting right over one of the flat discs. It landed with a thump and turned a few inches as the person doing the carrying adjusted it. Finally it seemed to click into place. A woman walked out from behind it and looked up at the crystal in satisfaction. She was a full head taller than Sakuya and had long copper hair with two braids hanging at either side of her face. Her robe was mossy green and she had on a hat of the same color, the center of which was adorned with a golden five-point star.

"All good, Patchouli?" Hong Meiling, the Scarlet Devil Mansion's gate guard, called over to Patchouli. "Oh, and good evening mistress Scarlet!"

Patchouli gave the pillar the briefest of glances. "Perfect. Now, the next one?"

"You got it!" Hong turned and sprinted back over the field, with Koakuma and the bird rushing to keep up.

Remilia glanced up at Patchouli. "You conscripted China?"

"She was the only one strong enough to carry the pieces. Don't worry, I set up sentry wards to temporarily take her place. It might actually be more effective, if you ask me."

"Why not just levitate them with magic? The pillars, I mean."

Patchouli actually looked a little embarrassed. "I, uh, tried that."

Remilia raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I passed out after the third one."

Remilia tsked. "Well, whatever. Just have this…thing up and running by morning."

Patchouli looked down at her reproachfully. "As you wish, _sire."_

"Patchouli," Sakuya said with a hint of warning.

Remilia just turned toward the mansion. "We're leaving now, Sakuya."

"Don't let the sun fry you on the way out," Patchouli sniffed. Then something caught her attention and she scowled. "Oh, for the love of…No!" she shouted as she half-ran, half-limped across the field. "Not that one! The orange one, you're supposed to get the orange one!"

As they walked back toward the mansion, Sakuya said to Remilia, "Mistress, forgive me, but I don't think she should be allowed to speak to you like that. It's disrespectful."

Remilia shook her head. "I've known Patchouli for decades. This isn't the first fight we've gotten into."

"Even so, that was…"

"Words, nothing more. Considering what I've had to put up with this week, a bit of cheek is nothing." Remilia's expression darkened. "So long as she can make that idea of hers work, that is."

"Do you believe it is wise? Trusting the mansion's safety to one of Mima's discarded experiments?"

Remilia tapped her lower lip with one sharpened fingernail. "For all her faults, I must admit Mima's genius. And for all her rudeness, Patchouli is somewhat of one too. So yes, I'd rather trust one of Mima's failures in Patchouli's hands than most people's successes. Though it's a pity Mima rejected my offer. Her help would be invaluable."

They reached the mansion's back door. Sakuya dutifully held it open for the small vampire. Once they were inside and the umbrella replaced in its stand, Sakuya said, "Does Patchouli know? Of Mima's surprise visit, that is."

"Of course not," Remilia grumbled. "And believe me, that's for the best. I need her focused on the task at hand, now don't I? The last thing I need is her to be distracted by fangirlish squealing."

"Mistress, if I may be so bold, if you were to consider the crises we currently face, there are problems that we need even less than Patchouli seeking an autograph."

"Enough of that, you know what I mean," Remilia snapped. "Besides, I trust her to figure this problem out on her own."

"And if she doesn't?"

Remilia paused for a moment. She looked up at the high ceiling overhead. A highly detail mural was painted there, depicting a violent confrontation between the angels of heaven and the forces of hell.

"She will," Remilia said. "She always does. And even if there is no way to make it work, she'll find something else. She has to."

Sakuya said nothing, obviously deciding that questioning her mistress' faith in a friend that she was currently on the outs with would not lead to anywhere good. Instead, she said, "Very good, mistress Remilia."

…

_Location: The Tengu Village_

_Time: 5:58 PM_

"You're still pissed at me, aren't you," Reimu said. There was a distinct lack of a question mark in her tone.

Sanae's lips tightened. "No, I'm not."

"Uh-huh. I've caught fairies going through my food who lie more convincingly.

"I'm not! And even if I were, acting all sarcastic about it really isn't going to help."

The two were walking what passed for streets in the Tengu Village. As the majority of the village was several stories up, most travel was done by air, and those who preferred to use their feet employed the network of bridges, walkways and even ropes that were strung between the buildings.

Given that it was early evening, the place was packed with Tengu beginning their nightly errands. Many of them smiled and greeted the human girls warmly as they passed by. Despite her grumpy mood, Sanae still managed to pull up a smile in return. Reimu, who was unused to crowds, was starting to feel just a little claustrophobic. She liked the Tengu Village well enough, but the bombshells that had been dropped the previous day were still weighing on her mind, and the press of bodies all around her was only making things worse.

It would have been easier if she could talk to Sanae to distract herself, but her fellow shrine maiden's attitude to her, while not outright hostile, was still on the cold side. When Sanae had announced that she was going to the village for groceries and Reimu had volunteered to come along, Sanae's reaction had been a shrug and a grunt. Reimu had tolerated this for exactly ten minutes before losing her patience and confronting the issue head-on. Of course, this hadn't exactly warmed Sanae to her any, but that was okay. Heavy silences were annoying. Arguments were familiar territory.

"Look, I told you already, I didn't know Byakuren would go off like that," Reimu said. "I brought her along because I thought she would be willing to help. It's not like I gave her a script to read from beforehand.

Sanae rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on Reimu. You brought her along because you knew you couldn't make up a decent defense for Satsuki. So you chose the biggest and strongest hippy you could find to do it for you."

Reimu frowned. "The hell is a hippy?"

"It's an extremely annoying touchy feely bleeding heart person who sings about how all you need is love and how everything would be better if we just baked our brains smoking weird plants. And they _never _shower."

"Uh…I kinda see the touchy feely part, but the rest?"

"It's just an expression," Sanae growled.

Reimu rolled her eyes. "And weren't you the one saying the…hippy should have her own temple after the flying boat incident? Seemed to me that you were kinda impressed by her."

"You had to bring that momentary lapse in judgment up," Sanae grumbled. She sighed. "Look. Reimu. I'm not really mad at you, okay? I've just got a lot on my mind, and last night didn't help at all. If Kanako's cool with you two, then so am I. I just need a little time to cool down. So don't pester me about it, okay?"

Reimu accepted this and they continued to walk in silence. So long as they had gotten that bit out in the open, she was fine with letting her friendly rival sulk for a bit. Just so long as it didn't descend into unnecessary angsting.

And then she froze. Something had set off some sort of internal bell.

"Hey," she said. "Wait."

Sanae, who was in the process of purchasing a sack of rice from an open air vendor, frowned at her. "What's with you?"

Reimu shook her head. "There's…something. I think Yukari's here."

Sanae stiffened, her arms tightly clutching the sack. "What? Here? Are you sure?"

"No. But ever since that thing underground, when Satori's pet bird went all…" Reimu caught the hard look in Sanae's eyes and decided to skip over that part. "Um, yeah. Well, Yukari let me use her gaps during that whole thing. And ever since then, every time Yukari uses them around me, it's almost as if I can feel it. It's nothing big, just a little bell going off in my head."

"And it just went off?"

Reimu pointed a finger at her own head and said, "Ding."

"Where?"

"What?" Reimu blinked. "Uh, see this finger here? It's pointing at something called 'My Head'. This is to indicate that the bell went off in-"

"No, you idiot! I mean, where is Yukari?"

"Oh." Reimu couldn't help but feel a little stupid. "Uh, I really don't know. Hell, I'm not even sure it's just not me being paranoid. Yukari could be at home taking a bath for all I-"

Sanae muttered a phrase that Kanako probably would have preferred that she didn't know at all. She reached up and touched the coiling serpent ornament that wound around a lock of her green hair.

"Kanako, something just popped up," she muttered. "Reimu says she felt…You felt it too? So she _is _here?" Sanae exchanged a worried look with Reimu. "She's not at the shrine, is she? Then where? Of course I will! Besides, Reimu's here, and Yukari favors her for some reason. Yeah, yeah, no shooting. Got it. Okay, two blocks across, four levels up. Third window from the…Wow, that's awfully specific. No, I got that. Of course. Immediately. Bye." She let her hand fall.

Reimu stared, mystified. "Why does everyone but me have cool communicator things?"

"What are you talking about? Your flying balls did the same thing when you went…" Sanae grimaced, and then said, "Well, underground."

"Oh yeah." Reimu looked out into the Tengu-filled space between the buildings. "And Kanako really knows where she is?"

"Sure. She's the god of this place, remember?"

"So she automatically knows where everyone is and what they're doing?" Reimu shuddered. "No offense, but that's kind of creepy."

Sanae rolled her eyes. "No, she doesn't. She just can sense the flow of magical energies going through the town. Yukari makes a really big blip, and I'm her shrine maiden, so I do too."

"Fine, whatever. Anyway, we're wasting time." Reimu started off. "Let's go see what Yukari's doing here."

Sanae grabbed her by the sleeve. "Wait."

"What?"

The other shrine maiden looked troubled. "Now that I think about it, isn't this kind of a stupid idea? I mean, last night we were worried about Yukari finding out about your dumb 'Save Satsuki' idea. So wouldn't it make sense to stay away-"

"If she knew what we were doing we'd know it already. And I need to yell at her about Marisa, and this is as good a time as any."

Sanae stared at her. "Are you serious? You suicidal or something? You're going to yell at-"

"Move it, Mossy," Reimu said, grabbing her by the arm. She pulled the other shrine maiden partway down the walkway before she realized something. She stopped and sighed.

"So…which way is she?"

Sanae flinched but said, "This way."

They took to the air and slowly navigated their way through the building before alighting on another catwalk. Sanae frowned, and then pointed up. There was a lighted window that was covered by heavy blinds.

"Crap, I think I know that building," Sanae said.

"Yeah? What is it, a brothel? Do you get a discount?"

Sanae smacked the back of Reimu's head. "You're disgusting. And no. To both questions. We don't even _have _a brothel."

Smirking, Reimu rubbed the back of her head and said, "And you know this…"

"Don't make me hurt you again."

"Fine, fine. So, what is that place?"

Sanae told her.

Reimu blinked.

"Huh…You know, that actually makes sense. She did say that she's going to take care of Aya's stupid story."

"So this is how she's going to do it? I thought she was going to hang the creep up by her toes and beat her with reeds. Kind of wish I was right."

"Life's full of disappointments, ain't it?" Reimu agreed. "But you know, I kind of like this idea, assuming she's doing what I think she's doing. Fight fire with fire."

Sanae squinted up at the window. "Depends on the fire she's using. Anyway, you gonna go up and yell at her?"

Reimu scratched her head. "Eh, was going to, but that's probably not the wisest thing right now. Best not interrupt her."

"Oh, thank Kanako, she's growing some common sense," Sanae muttered.

"Besides, I just got a better idea."

"Huh?"

Reimu grinned. "Like I said, back during that whole underground thing, Yukari gave me temporary use of her portals. Gaps. Whatever they're called. Really useful toys. Unfortunately, I can't just use them willy-nilly anymore, but there is one place that they can still take me, one place that she said I could go anytime. I think it's time I took her up on that."

"What? Where?"

Reimu told her.

Sanae took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "You really are suicidal, aren't you?"

"So people have told me."

"Well, it's your head. But I swear to anyone worth swearing for, if you do anything to implicate Kanako or me in this, then you better hope Yukari kills you first."

"Ouch. Calm down, I'm just going to get to the bottom of this Marisa thing."

"If you say so. I still think it's a really stupid idea."

Reimu thought about the things she had done over the last few years. She shrugged. "Well, why start doing the smart thing now?"

…

_Location: The Ancient City_

_Time: 2:14 PM_

One of the defining characteristics of Gensokyo is the tendency for intelligent and reasonably civilized life to thrive anywhere. Many areas and climates that would result in barren landscapes to the Outside World are often home to any variety of advanced lifeforms in Gensokyo. Of course, the fact that the air was literally chock-full of magical energies had a great deal to do with this. Having normally simple creatures spring into free-thinking humanoid creatures while retaining their special adaptability does lend itself to many interesting cultures.

One of the prime examples is the Ancient City. It was located several miles below the earth's surface, well beyond the point that most people would find hospitable due to the heat, much less comfortable. Also known as the Dark City, it took its nickname from the fact that it has never seen the sun and, barring tremendous geometric shifts, it never will.

However, even though it was deprived of the sun's rays, it was far from a dark place. Rather, it was continuously lit by thousands of lanterns, and despite inhabiting an area that had once been within hell's property lines, its inhabitants were generally a bright and friendly people, though the few visitors it received were usually put off by the fact that the locals had sprung from things such as bats, cave-dwelling bugs and insects. The locals themselves were well aware of this, and were known to use this to their advantage when feeling mischievous.

It was these streets that Suika found herself bustling down, clutching a bag filled with the remains of her gourd. In the years since the last time she had paid the place a visit, little had changed. It was certainly larger than it had been, with the walls of the enormous cavern being dug into in order to accommodate the expanding population. And for reasons she could only guess at, bizarre looking purple hats seemed to be in fashion. Still, it was very much the same busy, hot and cheerful place she remembered.

At another time she might have been tempted to use her return to the fullest and launch a full tour of the town and its bars, but today she had business, business that was to be found in the blacksmith shop at the far end of the street. Suika turned and entered the shop.

The first thing that greeted her was the clang of a hammer. The source was a huge woman, over seven feet of compact muscle built from several lifetimes of exerting her power to its fullest use. She wore a soot-blackened apron over a white shirt and a knee-length grey skirt, with thick black leather gloves covering her hands. Her hair, tied back to prevent it from getting into her face, was long and the color of wheat. Jutting from her forehead was a thick bone horn, painted red with a yellow five-pointed star.

The woman was hovering over a red-hot lump of metal that sat on her anvil. She struck at the lump with her hammer again and again, pausing only to work at it with a pair of tongs. Sparks flew with each strike.

Under her hammer and tongs, the soft metal slowly morphed from a formless blob into an identifiable shape. The woman went at it with practiced motions, forming individual petals, leaves and a thorn covered stem. Finally she grasped the stem's tip with the tongs and thrust the whole thing into a barrel of water. The water hissed and steam billowed up. When she brought the tongs up again, they held the shape of a perfect black rose, made completely from iron.

She turned the rose in her hands, inspecting the petals and the stem with the probing eye of a craftsman. And then, apparently satisfied with her work, she dropped it in a black vase containing three other identical flowers that was sitting on a nearby shelf.

Suika chose this moment to make her presence know. She cleared her throat and said, "Hey Yuugi."

Yuugi Hoshiguma started in surprise. She whirled around and stared dumbfounded at the little oni that stood in the doorway. And then, slowly but surely, the shock faded from her face, to be replaced with a grin of absolute joy.

"Suika!" Yuugi roared. Moving faster than anything her size had a right to, she bounded all the way across her shop and swooped up Suika in her arms in a single fluid moment, crushing her against her mountainous breasts. "You came back!"

Had Suika not been an oni herself, that would have been the end of her. As it was, she was only extremely uncomfortable. "Yeah, great to see you too," she grimaced. "Put me down!"

Yuugi complied, dropping Suika on her rear. The little oni coughed, trying to reclaim the wind that had been crushed out of her. This was not at all helped by Yuugi well-meaningly slapping her on the back with enough force to shatter stone.

"You've gotten soft, girl!" Yuugi laughed. She pinched Suika's arm. Hard. "All that hanging out with humans has made a small, weak thing!"

Annoyed, Suika shoved Yuugi away. The force of the push launched the massive oni across the room to crash into a row of shelves holding several iron rods. She sat dazed in the wreckage for a moment. And then her grin returned.

"Now _that's _more I like it!" she bellowed. She leapt to her feet, causing a minor shockwave to reverberate through the floor. "Good to see you again, Suika!"

Suika, who was busy putting her spine back into place, nodded at her. "Ditto." Then she smiled as well. Despite the fact that she ended up having to readjust her skeletal system every time Yuugi got excited, she had missed her fellow oni. Long ago, the Four Devas of the Mountain had toured and adventured together for years, only stopping when they had run out of new places to visit. As they had been unwilling to leave Gensokyo, they had parted ways to find their own places in the world. Yuugi had chosen to remain in their hometown on a more permanent basis while Suika had stuck to wandering. Still, it was nice to catch up with old friends, even if the reasons for doing so were unpleasant.

"Come, come!" Yuugi said as she tugged off her gloves and pulled her apron up over her head. This was followed by the leather strap holding her hair in place, letting it fall free. She tossed these aside and opened a door to another room. "You have obviously come here for a reason. Have a drink and tell me about it!"

Suika grinned and followed. That was one thing she had always liked about Yuugi: her straightforwardness.

Yuugi led her into a cool brick room with an unlit oven set in one wall. In the center of the room was a long wooden table with six three-legged stools. Several crates were piled against another of the walls. It was to these crates that Yuugi immediately went to. From one she pulled out two large black bottles.

"Here," she said, tossing one of them to Suika. "Take a taste of this. I know sake's your go-to, but you _must_ try this wine."

Suika gratefully pulled the cork and took a long draft. It had a very earthy taste to it, but not at all unpleasant. And it was strong. Gloriously strong, with a vicious bite as it flowed down her throat.

She finished the bottle and said, "This is good."

"Ain't it?" Yuugi smashed the neck of her own bottle against the table and drained it away. She tossed the broken bottle aside with a sigh of satisfaction and continued, "They make it from this black grape thing, forget the name." She sat down at the table, bringing two full crates with her. From one of them she pulled out another bottle and slid it over to Suika. "Took them ages to figure out how to make it grow without sunlight. Glad they did though. Exporting from above takes forever." She pulled a second bottle out for herself and raised it in a salute. "So tell me, my friend. What trouble brings you down here?"

Suika grimaced. She drained the second bottle and said, "Bad news."

Yuugi nodded. "Yeah, I figured as much. Does it have anything to do with the fact that your gourd is missing? Or that you're somehow sober?"

So she had noticed. Suika wordlessly held up the bag she was carrying and dropped it on the table. Yuugi blinked. She pulled the bag over and looked inside.

At first her face was blank with incomprehension. Then realization started to blossom as her neutral expression melted away to horror.

Suika opened her mouth to explain. "It-"

Yuugi's fist smashed into Suika's face, sending her soaring off her stood and right into the wall behind her. Had the wall not been built and reinforced by Yuugi herself, Suika would have sailed right through it and gone on for another mile or so. As it was, it was still enough to create a shallow Suika-shaped imprint.

"You _broke _the gourd?" Yuugi cried. Her face was aghast and angry tears were streaming down her soot-coated face. "How could you? You were entrusted with this, this object of such beauty, such magnificence, such…_sacredness! _And you let it-"

Had Yuugi been allowed to continue, she might have launched into a length sermon concerning the honor of an oni, the importance of alcohol to that honor and the inherent wickedness of destroying something that would provide an inexhaustible source of that alcohol. Suika however did not have the patience to be preached at and expressed her displeasure by bounding off the wall and catching Yuugi under the chin with a thunderous uppercut. The tall oni's eyes bulged in surprise and she was lifted right off her feet and sent head-first into the ceiling.

"Like I haven't been telling myself all that already!" Suika shouted up at Yuugi's dangling form. "Besides, it was smashed in a fight!"

Yuugi braced her hands against the ceiling and shoved. Her head dislodged and she fell back to the ground, shattering her stood in the process. She straightened herself out, kicked the broken pieces aside and grabbed a whole stool to sit back down.

"That's no excuse!" Yuugi said. "Our people get into fights all the time. It's what we do! And during these fights, it's imperative that the alcohol is protected! Do you remember how hard I trained to be able to fight without dropping my sake?"

"Yeah, and I also remember how many bowls you smashed until you got it right! Besides, this wasn't a normal fight." Suika held up her hand. The black scar left by the Shadow Youkai's blade was still visible. "That thing didn't play by the rules."

Yuugi squinted at Suika's palm. "How'd you get something like that?"

"I got stabbed through the palm."

"So? They had a sword. A lot of things do."

"This was an evil magic sword of death."

Yuugi looked impressed. "Ooh, I'll have to look into getting me one of those."

Suika shook her head. "Not the cool kind. I mean really, really evil. It took out Yukari, Reimu, that Mima and this really old but really scary Lunarian doctor before I got a whack at it. And it beat them all in less than two minutes."

Yuugi's jaw dropped. She made strangled-sounding noises. "Wait, Reimu? Reimu _Hakurei? _That Reimu?"

Suika nodded. "Yeah, it picked her up and threw her through a bunch of bamboo. She couldn't walk right for like three days or something."

"And when you say Yukari, you mean…"

"The one you're thinking about, yeah."

"And you're not talking about the evil ghosty Mima, are you? The one we used to fight in the old days?"

"That's the one. Green tail, tall pointy hat, really weird sense of humor."

Yuugi scowled. "You're messing with me, aren't you? There's no way that's possible. You sat on your gourd by accident, and now you're making up some shitstory to cover it up."

Suika jumped to her feet. "Are you calling me a liar?"

"Sit down, short stuff."

Moments later, Suika was well over ten feet tall and bellowing. She had to hunch over to keep her horns from gouging the ceiling. "Are you calling me _short?"_

Unimpressed, Yuugi just crossed her legs, folded her arms and glowered up at Suika's beat-red face. "That didn't intimidate back when we used to run together. What makes you think it'll work now?"

"I'm telling the truth! If you don't believe me, go ask Satori!"

"Yeah? The boss-lady was there too?"

"No, but she was at a super-secret meeting that really wasn't that secret now that I think about it where we were talking about how to kill the thing that gave me this!" Suika shoved her now massive palm back in Yuugi's face. "And we want you to join."

Yuugi pushed the palm away. "I saw that already. That doesn't mean…Wait, run that last part by me again?"

Suika sat back down, returning to her normal size in the process. "We're putting together this posse sort of thing to bring this thing down. And we want you on it."

"Uh…okay. Why?"

Suika sighed. She reached for another bottle. "Maybe I'd better start from the beginning.

Twenty minutes and three crates later, Suika had finally finished the story. It would have been shorter, but Yuugi had kept interrupting with questions and demands for clarification. At one point Suika had lost her patience and a wrestling match ensued. After seven minutes, she had calmed down and apologized for the stove. Yuugi told her not to worry about it.

"So you _see, _we be needing all the _help _we can get!" Suika declared. The wine had done wonders for her. She was almost feeling like her old self. "We _can't _shoot this thing, so _we _gotta _smash_ it!"

Yuugi finished her fifteenth bottle. She tossed it over her shoulder. It shattered against the ruined fragments of the stove. "That's the craziest thing I've heard all week."

"It's _true!"_

"Nah, I believe you now. It's just been a slow week."

Suika started to grin. "So you're _in?"_

Yuugi pursed her lips. She tapped her lower lip as she thought.

Then she smiled as well. "Ah, why the hell not? Sounds like fun. 'Sides, anything that would contribute to the death of the gourd be deserving of an oni-class beat-down."

"Now _that's _what I'm _talking about!" _Suika cheered. She raised her half-empty bottle in celebration. Then she remembered something and turned somber.

"Oh _yeah…"_ she said. "About _the_ gourd…"

"Eh, it's fixable," Yuugi said dismissively. "Ain't easy, but I can put it back together. Just as well, you were long overdue for an upgrade."

Suika's ears perked up. "Upgrade?"

"Sure! Don't'cha get sick of nothing but sake all the time?"

"Not _really, _no."

"Well, how would you feel if you can make it start pouring this stuff out?" Yuugi held up one of the bottle in demonstration. "Or anything else, for that matter."

Suika attention was completely captivated. "You _can _do that?"

"I see no reason why not!" Yuugi picked up the bag of gourd fragments and eyed them critically. "Word of warning though. You break this one, I ain't making you a new one."

"Deal!" Suika said cheerfully. She downed yet another bottle in celebration. "You're _the best!"_

"Ain't I just?"

"Oh, 'nother thing," Suika said. "Yukari wanted me to _talk _to you 'bout the _other _two. She want to _know _if we can get the band _back _together."

Yuugi frowned. "Eh, you might have some trouble there. Last I heard, Konngara's doing merc work for Shinki over in Makai, and you know how hard it is to get anything out of there."

"Yeah. Plus you know _how _much Shinki hates _Yukari."_

"No kidding. You might be able to send her a-"

"Because she really, _really _hates Yukari. I _mean _really-"

"I get it! They can't stand each other! Everyone knows that. Anyway, as for Kassie, afraid I can't help you there. Haven't see horn or hair of her for years."

"Huh," Suika said. "You know, I _think _she's been by _Hakurei _Shrine a few times."

Yuugi looked interested. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. I think _they _had some sort of _disagreement _over a bunch of gold. Never _did _find out how that turned out."

"Huh. Well, there you go. Wonder what she's doing above ground though."

"Eh, search _me," _Suika said with a shrug. "She's _always _been a _weirdo."_

"Hear, hear." Yuugi and Suika clinked their bottles of the moment together.

"Now," Yuugi said. "This whole death-touch the baddie can do, this…blight?"

"Taint."

"Right. Taint. That's gonna be a problem."

Suika scowled. "You _think?"_

"Sometimes." Yuugi grinned. "So that brings me to my next point."

"Yeah?"

Yuugi turned in her seat and gestured. Curious, Suika followed her line of sight to the blacksmith shop in the room beyond.

"Tell me something, Suika," Yuugi said. "How do you feel about armor?"

…

_Location: Palace of the Earth Spirits_

_Time: 3:33 PM_

Satori stalked forward through the corridors of her home, her movements brisk and deliberate. All along to her left, tremendous stained-glass windows were set in the black volcanic stone. The eternally burning flames beyond filtered through the multi-colored glass, casting a strange light that pulsed and moved over the black-and-white tiled floor and opposite wall. Many people would be terrified of living directly over the fires of hell, but Satori always found the visual effects they provided to be aesthetically pleasing. And the view from the balconies was spectacular, provided you had some way to withstand the heat.

Behind her, her large black two-tailed cat was keeping pace by bounding from one window frame to the other.

_I still don't see why this is necessary._

Even though no voice spoke the words, Satori still answered them as if they had been said out loud. "Necessary, perhaps not. But it is the safest course of action.

_You've got a weird concept of the word "Safe", boss. Isn't Yuuka Kazami supposed to be a kind of a literal nightmare?_

"Yes."

The cat crouched on one of the frames. Its wide yellow eyes stared down at her.

_So, wouldn't it make sense to, oh I don't know, _stay the hell away from her?_ Because right now what you're doing is kind of the opposite of staying the hell away from her._

"Pointless. She is on the warpath. Such instances are historically times of bloodshed and wanton destruction."

The cat smoothly leapt down to rebound off of the side of the next window frame to land in front of Satori. By the time its feet touched ground, it was no longer just a cat. In its place was a young woman. She wore a simple long-sleeved dark blue dress and her red hair was hung down either side of her face in two large braids. All well and normal, but the fact that she retained her two feline ears in addition to her newly acquired human ears was certain to raise some eyebrows, as was the fact that her tails had decided to stick around as well.

Rin Kaenbyou, Orin to her friends (or anyone else, for that matter. She was not overly fond of her full name), spread her hands in a placating gesture. "Look, I'm just trying to understand why we have to get involved at all. Why not do as Shinki and the Yamaxanadu did and let Yukari handle it? It's not like Yuuka's going to come knocking at our door."

Satori stopped her purposeful stride. "A fair enough question. And the answer is quite simple: Eiki Shiki's position is such that she can refuse without fear of repercussion. And Shinki has been on the outs with Yukari since a time out of mind, so another black mark wouldn't do much more than annoy."

Orin frowned. "Hold up, you're saying that this is just to make Yukari happy?"

"In a sense. We currently have three problems before us. One, the Shadow Youkai being combined with Eientei's renegade experiment. Two, Yuuka Kazami. Three, we are already in Yukari's black books ever since Utsuho's unexpected power-up and ensuing madness."

"What?" Orin's jaw dropped. "So all this is just to _punish _Okuu?"

"Of course not," Satori said. She started moving again, with Orin walking close behind. "She has suffered enough for her lapse of judgment, and her temporary loss logical reasoning does much to excuse her actions. But the fact remains that while Yukari would be content to let the matter lie during peacetime, this crisis might motivate her to use it as a lever to force our cooperation, whether we give it offer it or not. And given that Utsuho is now our most powerful asset, her involvement will most likely be insisted upon. Even with the renegade's natural resistance to exterior damage, it has been stopped by overwhelming force before, and Utsuho certainly meets the criteria."

"Okay, but-"

"And I do not wish her to confront the renegade, especially if the Shadow Youkai has taken over its mind," Satori said. "And even if it hasn't, it still has the Shadow Youkai's abilities at its beck and call. Abilities that can result in a permanent cessation of life, even for a youkai." Satori turned and walked through an archway that led to the outside.

Most castles have a moat of some sort as a means of protection. Others decide to up the ante and situation themselves on a small island in the middle of a lake. The Palace of Earth Spirits worked somewhere down those lines, except instead of a small island in the middle of a lake of water, it sat upon a jutting spike of rock that sat smack in the center of what was literally a lake of fire. _The _Lake of Fire, to be exact, or at least a former piece of it. It had fallen into Satori's possession due to a contract with Makai, back when Shinki had decided to renovate her kingdom and no longer had use for it. Seeing the many practical applications a lake of fire would provide, Satori had taken it off her hands.

The archway she had just passed through exited to one of four narrow stone bridges that corkscrewed upward from the palace to connect with a large steel cone that hung from the cavern ceiling like a giant metal stalactite. It was up this spiraling bridge that Satori ascended, heedless of the heat, the height and lack of guardrails. Granted, a creature gifted with flight would not have to worry about a fall, but even Orin reverted back to cat form for the length of the ascent.

They reached the top and entered the cone through a hatchway set in its side. They entered into a room filled with pipes and gauges. As soon as the door closed, Orin resumed her human form. "So you're saying this is way of protecting her? Making sure she's sent after the lesser of two evils?"

"I am unsure if the cliché applies, but out of possible worst-case scenarios, this is the least potentially fatal."

Orin shook her head. "I still don't know, boss. Seems to me that forcing a worst-case scenario isn't the safest way to go."

Satori raised her eyebrows. "It has been my experience that worst-case scenarios have an unerring tendency to happen, whether we force them or not. At least by being the one to suggest the idea to Yukari, I retain some control over how the operation proceeds. To me, that is infinitely better than not saying anything at all and eventually being blackmailed into assisting as Remilia Scarlet was."

"Yeah, but didn't she try to threaten Yukari? Can't we just stay out of this altogether?"

"Nothing would give me more pleasure," Satori said as she moved out of the room to the corridor beyond. "But I have long learned not to anticipate the best."

Orin didn't say much beyond that, but her mind was still full of reservations. Satori almost commented on this, but decided not to, partially because it would accomplish nothing and partially because she had more than a few of her own, though she would never admit this.

They walked a maze of cramped corridors to emerge into an open room located near the cone's zenith. The walls of the room sloped inward, first following the sides of the cone but becoming more gentle, eventually coming together to form a shallow bowl-shaped floor. Though ceiling, walls and most of the floor were a solid sea of black, a pulsing orange glow occupied the center of the blow. And kneeling within the glow was girl.

She was tall, over six feet, with long, curling hair so black it was almost as if light was being drawn into it. She was exceptionally lovely, with a shapely figure and brilliant maroon eyes. However, those unaccustomed to her might notice other features first. Such as the two massive black-feathered wings that stretched from her back. Or the cape that sat draped over her wings, with glowing stars, planets and galaxies actually seeming to move within it. Or the huge red, slitted eye that stared from a hole in her blouse cut right over the top of her breast. Or the complicated-looking mechanism that sheathed her right arm, which she was thrusting into the floor. Or the fact that if one were to examine her closely, they would see that she was not so much standing in the glow but emitting it.

Satori and Orin stopped at the room's threshold. The girl's eyes were closed and her mouth was moving at a high rate. Though no sound came out Satori could still hear what she was mouthing through her thoughts.

…_cycle complete. All control rods calibrated. Fuel movements…halted. Initiating final shutdown in three…two…one._

The glow slowly faded, as did the humming. In response, the ceiling, walls and floor softened from jet black to grey steel, making the seams and bolts visible. The girl's shoulders relaxed. She gave the mechanism on her arm a slight twist. Steam hissed out as it disengaged from the floor.

Then she straightened up and stretched her back with a groan. She swung her arms from side-to-side and finally opened her eyes.

Spying Satori and Orin standing at the room's entrance, an enthusiastic grin spread over her face. "Hi Satori!" she called, waving. "Hi Orin!"

"Utsuho," Satori said by way of greeting. The two of them walked into the room, taking their time with the slope of the floor.

Utsuho Reiuji looked down at the floor with a look of smug satisfaction. "Reactor's all shut down," she said, putting her hand on her hip. "Should be okay until we get back from our trip! Unless…" Confusion flitted across her face. "Wait, you do want to be able to turn it back on, right? This is just temporary, right?"

"Yes," Satori said. "Very temporary. As I explained the last time you asked that question. And three times before that."

Utsuho still looked dubious. "Okay…if you say so. It just seems weird."

"Circumstances make it necessary. And no, it is not because you were doing an inadequate job. Again, you won't be around to oversee the reactor's operations for an unknown amount of time. We are simply playing it safe."

Utsuho nodded. Then she frowned. "Um, are you sure it's not because I-"

"Quite. You are not in trouble."

Satori felt a wave of relief course through Utsuho's mind.

"Well, actually she kinda is," Orin muttered.

"I am?" Utsuho said in alarm.

"Not of that variety," Satori said. She gave Orin an admonishing look.

"Now, you do remember where we're going, correct?" she asked Utsuho. It was an unnecessary question, as she already knew what Utsuho remembered and didn't remember. Still, questioning her periodically was a good method to keep her attention span from wandering.

Utsuho nodded.

"Tell me."

"We're going to help Yukari Yakumo fight Yuuka Kazami," Utsuho said.

"Very good," Satori said. She ignored the somewhat rebellious comments and Orin intentionally let flit across her mind. "And before that?"

Utsuho frowned. "We're…uh, we're…"

"Going to meet…" Satori led her.

"Right! We're going to meet the other people on our team!"

"And?"

"And Yukari's going to tell us what to do!" Utsuho said. She looked pleased with herself.

"And while doing so, it's important to remember…?"

"That, uh…" Utsuho look pleadingly at Orin for help. Orin just buried her face in her palm.

"That many of our teammates are not…" Satori prompted.

"…doing this willingly!" Utsuho said suddenly, remembering. "So they're going to be already mad, so I shouldn't talk to them too much because I don't want to start a fight!"

"Correct. What else?"

Utsuho frowned. "Well, there's also…" She held up her free hand to count on her fingers, but with a small jolt of surprise she noticed that her other arm was still encase in her "Third Leg", as she called it. She stuck it barrel-down on the ground, where it separated and fell apart like an opening flower, releasing her arm.

"Right, number one, I'm not supposed to talk to Yukari," Utsuho said, tapping her index finger. "Because she's manipulative and kind of cruel. Number two, I'm not supposed to ask questions, because you'll explain everything I don't get to me afterward. Number three…" Utsuho's face fell. "I forgot the rest."

"Number three, you are not to answer questions of your acquirement of mastery over nuclear power," Satori said. "And number four, you are to stick close to me at all times and doing everything I tell you to. If someone asks you anything, direct their questions to me."

"Right!" Utsuho said brightly. "Got it!"

"Repeat it all back to me."

Utsuho tried, though she once again stumbled over the last part. Satori patiently guided her along until she could recite the rules perfectly.

"And you're sure the reactor will be okay," Utsuho said worryingly. "It's not going to fall apart or rust while we're gone, right?"

"I do not foresee us being gone nearly that long. In any case, it will be maintained in our absence. Orin will see to that."

Orin cleared her throat. "Um, boss…"

"Yes?" Then Satori caught Orin's thoughts. She frowned. "Orin, that will definitely not be necessary-"

"Yeah, I kind of think it is."

Utsuho looked confused. "Um, sorry. What are we talking about now?"

"I assure you, I will perform a more than adequate job keeping an eye on her," Satori said.

"Two sets of eyes are better than one, boss," Orin answered. "You already said that you don't like taking risks."

"Who's growing four eyes now?" Utsuho said. "Seriously, what's happening? Is this another test?"

"Perhaps, but I fail to see how your presence will increase our safety. In fact, it might decrease it. The names involved in this battle are hopelessly out of your league."

"Because if it's a test then I don't think it's a fair one. I mean I know nobody mentioned people with four eyes or leagues."

"I'm not planning on doing any fighting," Orin said. "I just want to help keep an eye on her. You know, just to be safe."

"Keep an eye on who? Seriously, who are we talking about now?"

"And what of your duties?" Satori asked.

Orin shrugged. "My girls can do it just as well as me. It's not like it takes a whole lot of skill to push a wheelbarrow."

"Orin, I do not wish to have any more of my pets involved in this messy affair than necessary. And yes, I do in fact have a capable understanding of the word 'Necessary'. And…" Satori sighed. "And you are going regardless of whether or not I give permission, aren't you?"

Orin smirked. "Cut out the middleman and skip straight to the worst-case scenario so you can control it. Isn't that what you were telling me earlier?"

"I do not like it when you're clever. But very well, I suppose you can handle yourself."

"Unyu?" Utsuho said. "What?"

"I'm coming too," Orin called down to her.

"You are?" Utsuho's eyes widened. Then she pumped her first toward the sky. "Yessssssssssss!"

Satori watched the celebrating raven-girl and shook her head. Perhaps Orin was right about this being a bad idea.

…

_Location: Kakashi Nenpo offices_

_Time: 6:14 PM_

The girl was obviously excited. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were wide and glittering. Her hands would not keep still and she wouldn't stop talking about what an honor this was and was Yukari absolutely _certain_ there wasn't anything she could get her? This had gone on for about five minutes, and they hadn't even begun with the reason for Yukari's visit. At another time Yukari might have been annoyed, but then it occurred to her that this Tengu was the first person who had been genuinely happy to see her all week.

"I mean, wow, just wow," Hatate Himekaidou said in a breathless tone. "You actually came to do this in person. That is, that is so _awesome!"_

"Thank you," Yukari said. She took a sip from the cup of water she was holding, the only thing she had accepted. "I'm glad to-"

"I mean you're only the most important around!" Hatate said. "You're the one to freaking _made _Gensokyo! At the beginning! How cool is that?"

Yukari shook her head. "I try not to be. It's only when-"

"Hey, I've always been curious. Are we like _completely _cut off from the Outside World, in our own universe or something? Or is there like this big bubble in their world with us inside? Or are we still kinda technically there, and you just have to, I don't know, say the magic words, find the right doorway or tap your heels three times to get in, and if you don't you'll just find this empty place that's kinda like Gensokyo, except it isn't, with all the forests and rivers and stuff but no magic and no people or how does it…"

"Miss Himekaidou," Yukari said gently. "I hate to be short, but the _interview…"_

The two of them were sitting in the main office of Hatate Himekaidou's newspaper. It wasn't much, mostly a desk with a typewriter and a potted plant, a couple of filing cabinets, several framed photographs of what Yukari assumed to be Hatate's friends and family, two chairs (in which Hatate and Yukari were now sitting), a water cooler and, curiously enough, a dartboard. Yukari, who had seen the room in its natural state when she had informed Hatate about her desire for an interview, knew that it was normally much messier, with papers, writing utensils and empty food containers scattered everywhere, along with a photograph of Aya Shameimaru taped to the dartboard. Hatate needn't have bothered her nervous cleaning of the place, as some of Yukari's own rooms were worse. The blinds on the room's single window had been dropped, per Yukari's request.

It was admittedly an odd choice for Yukari to get her message out. Hatate's paper wasn't especially successful (though it was doing better than it had some years ago), but considering that she was currently the primary rival of Aya Shameimaru, who had been responsible for blowing the lid on the whole story in the first place, it did feel rather appropriate. Besides, Aya's own paper was far from respected, but the edition containing her interview with Cirno had flown right off the shelves. And apparently today's story, which included Yuuka's involvement and highlighted her rivalry with Yukari, was selling out even faster. So Hatate's exclusive interview with Yukari herself would likely spread like wildfire.

"Oh!" Hatate said in surprise, her mouth forming a perfect O. "Right! Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I'm just so nervous right now."

"Don't worry about it," Yukari said. "And calm down! Just think of all the papers this will sell!"

Hatate paused for a moment. "Okay, now I'm just more nervous," she admitted with a small laugh.

"All right, think about how angry Aya will be once your paper outsells hers."

"That works!" Hatate pulled out a notepad and a pen. "All right, let's do this. So, where would you like to start?"

"Well, the logical place to begin would be to address the rumors that have been flying around concerning a certain people-absorbing monster reputed to have attacked Eientei earlier this week and is now loose in Gensokyo. As I understand it, this has caused a great deal of excitement."

"Oh, sorry, but let me just take this time to say that I don't believe a word of it," Hatate said quickly. "I mean, if Aya's treating it as legit, then…"

"No? You should. They're absolutely correct."

Hatate stiffened. "Wait, what?"

Yukari leaned in closer. "The rumors got it right. There is a monster somewhere out there that can devour people and steal their powers. I know, I encountered it personally. It almost killed me."

"Um…"

"Yes, you can include that part."

"Okay…So, where did this thing come from?"

"As I understand it, it's an old enemy of Eientei, one that they thought they had long gotten rid of, only to have it show up a few days ago looking for a fight. It got one, as I, along with some friends, were soon informed of the situation and tried to take it down in short order. However, we underestimated the thing, and it got away in the confusion. I've got people trying to scare it up even now, but it's proving to be a clever little beast."

"Oh. Um, so did it really absorb Princess Kaguya?"

Yukari nodded. "Indeed it did. So that would probably make it extremely hard to hurt. Just something to consider for all those bounty hunters out there."

"Wait, yeah. The bounty. Are you going to be putting a stop to it? I mean, a lot of people are saying that Yuuka posted it just to piss you off, and-"

"Put a stop to it? Why would a do that?"

"Um…"

Yukari leaned back in her seat, sipping her water. "Though I should point out that while Yuuka Kazami is certainly supporting the bounty, it was actually posted by Cirno the ice-fairy. With good reason, too. One of her friends was the monster's victims. I imagine that she's quite upset."

"So, it's all good? You're not going to stop them?"

"Of course not! They're well in their rights to seek help against someone who has wronged them, and Yuuka Kazami is well within her rights to help them. There's no law against their actions. In fact, there's not much in the way of laws to govern wild fairies or youkai, period."

"Right." Hatate frowned at her notes. "Okay, and about Yuuka. Word has it that she wants to kill you. Is there any truth to that?"

"Hmmm." Yukari tapped her lip. "Well, the word 'kill' is a bit of an exaggeration. But it is true that she had personally challenged me."

"Oh. Did she say why?"

"I can only imagine. Perhaps she sees me as a threat? Or maybe it's all part of some game. But yes, she does want to fight me."

"Okay…" Hatate scribbled that down. "So, just to be clear. There's a monster out there that's all kinds of bad news, one that killed one of Gensokyo's big leaders-"

"I never said Kaguya Houraisan was dead," Yukari said. "As I understand it, people who have been devoured are absorbed into the monster's body but can be extracted, alive and well."

Hatate blinked in surprise. "Oh. Okay, that's good. But still, while all this is going on and you're trying to…do what you have to do to stop this thing, there's now a bunch of people running around trying to get to it first for money? And the person who helped start all this is a notorious…crazy something or another who wants to punch you in the face for some reason?"

"That sounds about right."

"And you're okay with all this?"

"I see no reason not to be. If someone wants to take care of the problem for me, I certainly won't object. But that's actually one of the reasons I'm doing this interview. You see, little Cirno was without some important facts when she posted that bounty. So I'm here to clear things up so any prospective hunters aren't rushing into this blind."

"Oh. Okay, and what are those?"

Yukari smiled. _My move, Yuuka, _she thought.

"Well too begin, as I mentioned earlier, it can absorb people and use their powers. And from what I understand it is determined to reach the top of the food chain. So if you are to be the first to actually find the thing, it may not see you as so much as a dangerous threat. In fact, it'll probably just see you as dinner."

"Oh. Wow."

Yukari nodded. "Exactly. And that's just the beginning. As I discovered firsthand, it can also adapt to and even absorb just about any attack. Bullets, spellcards, physical weapons, you name it. And given that it now has Kaguya Houraisan in its tummy, it has some pretty effective regenerative abilities as well. So it is extremely difficult to hurt. Killing in battle is probably out of the question entirely. Of course, it already was, as we still need to get poor Kaguya out first. We wouldn't want to unnecessarily upset Eientei by accidentally killing their leader. Anyone foolish enough to do that would probably end up with a bounty on their head of their own."

Hatate blinked.

"Oh, and there's another small problem," Yukari said. "You see, it's also swallowed a few people in addition to Kaguya. And as it turns out, it's also swallowed the remnants of a little nasty called the Shadow Youkai. Are you familiar with that name?"

Hatate shook her head.

"Hmmm, well, you should look it up for your story. Sixty years ago, it was a bit of a big deal for a few days. Killed a lot of people. I can help you dig up the necessary information, if you'd like. But suffice to say, it is literally death incarnate. It can kill anything. Human, youkai, fairy, maybe even gods. And it can make it permanent."

Hatate squeaked. "Wait, is this for real? It can kill immortals?"

"Someone like that was bound to show up sooner or later," Yukari said with a shrug. "But yes. And now the monster can as well. It very nearly killed me with the Shadow Youkai's powers, as I mentioned earlier. So that's another thing to watch out for. Immortality means nothing to this thing. If it doesn't eat you, it can make it so that you never see another sunrise. It doesn't matter who or what you are, it can kill you."

Hatate shuddered.

"Oh, and incidentally enough, that would be the friend of Cirno's that got devoured." At Hatate's look of surprise, Yukari said, "Yes, but I'm sure she didn't know. It was a very complicated situation."

"Um, how so?"

Yukari ignored the question. "At any rate, if anyone still believes the reward to be worth the risk, then by all means, go right ahead. But there is something else they should consider."

"What's that?"

"Simply this: the bounty is being offered by Cirno the ice-fairy, someone who is notoriously unreliable. It is being sponsored by Yuuka Kazami, someone who is notoriously chaotic. Furthermore, not five minutes after announcing her involvement, Yuuka attacked and tortured four of my associates and had them deliver her challenge. She sent a similar message to me later that same evening, using my Shikigami as messengers. And by that, I mean she dislocated the arm of one and remotely possessed the other. In the space of a single day, she has done everything she could to anger me and stir up as much trouble as possible. And I believe the reason for this is that she intends to stir up as much chaos for her own amusement. She _wants _people chasing this monster. She _wants _to anger me during a crisis because she finds it funny. Her reputation for causing chaos for her own pleasure is not unearned.

"So please, think of this. Since eliminating the monster will end the crisis, do you really think that if one of you manages the impossible and actually brings the monster down that she'll simply hand over the money and thank you for ruining her fun? Food for thought."

Hatate wrote on her notepad furiously.

…

_Location: Eientei_

_Time: 11:02 AM_

Despite the absolute mess Eientei had been left in earlier that week, a few days and the help provided by the rabbit tribes had done wonders. The rubble had been completely cleared away, the walls containing gaping holes had all been repaired, the damaged flooring torn up and replaced and the damaged treasures were currently being tended to by the Bamboo Forest's finest craftsmen. Granted, there weren't very many of them, but the ones they did find were doing they can to restore the mansion and the clinic to their former glory.

All very well and good, but there were still numerous problems to address, chief of those being the missing princess. Eirin had met with the tribes' leaders soon after her return and assured them that an operation was already underway to bring Satsuki down and retrieve Kaguya. Fortunately this was completely true, so she was spared of the inconvenience of having to lie to them. Recovering from crippling blows was always complicated when one had to keep one's stories straight when dealing with allies.

Unfortunately Eirin herself was not yet strong enough to resume full control. The lengthy trips she had taken both to the Ruined City and back had not done her health any favors, and the lengthy meeting with the associated stress had also worsened her condition. Of course she was in possession of a powerful immune system and an even more powerful will, but after the excitement of the previous night her façade was starting to crumble. That was as good as complete collapse in anyone else.

But Eirin being Eirin, she refused to retire to bedrest without first making sure that everything she wanted done in the meantime was pounded into Reisen's head.

"For better or for worse, you are in charge of the clinic until I have recovered," Eirin grunted as she half-walked, half-limped toward her quarters. "The local doctors are…adequate in their own way, but I do not want them running my clinic. So unfortunately that means I'll have to settle for you. Try not to disappoint me too much. Is that at least a reasonable request?"

Reisen nodded while trying not to wince. Ever since the Shadow Youkai's sword had been discovered, whatever sympathy that had prompted Eirin to cut Reisen some slack had evaporated. Now she had taken on that icy, condescending demeanor she always adopted whenever Reisen had screwed up. Only this time, the stress was making it worse.

"Tewi is still in charge, obviously. She'll handle the remainder of the recovery efforts and keeping the tribal leaders happy. You keep your fluffy rear in the clinic and stick to putting on band-aids. I don't want you talking to anyone about anything they're not supposed to know. Not about Rin, not about the Princess, not about Yuuka, or Yukari, or the Shadow Youkai, or anything." They stopped in front of the door to Eirin's quarters. "Can you handle this at least?"

"Yes," Reisen said.

"Yes _what?"_

This time Reisen did flinch. "Yes Ma'am."

"Good. Oh, and it goes without saying that if you decide to disturb me, it damned well better be because I'm on _fire." _Without another word, Eirin slid open the door and flung it shut behind her.

Reisen shuddered and slowly made her way toward the mansion's exit. Along the way, she passed several members of Eientei's staff. Ever since the second Satsuki Incident, she had noticed that she had become a very divisive member of the household. Those who had known Rin before she had been…changed and had helped raise her had been nothing but sympathetic and encouraging. She had been giving words of encouragement, small gifts, warm smiles and even the odd "Don't worry. We'll get her back".

Everyone else though, those who hadn't been a part of Rin's life or had joined the staff sometime after the little Kirin had been locked up seemed to look at her in a completely different light. Word of her close relationship with Rin had spread to those who had been unaware, and their reactions toward her were less than warm. Many saw her as "The one who raised the monster". Other saw her as a traitor for still harboring sympathy. Others simply used her as a convenient scapegoat for the harms they had suffered, much similar to the role she usually played, only this time it was much worse.

And, as she was noticing as she walked the corridors, the circles she ran in meant that nearly everyone from the first category were part of the Guard, and they were out keeping an eye on the mansion's perimeter or patrolling the forest. Which meant that she was getting a lot of dirty glares and muttered rude names. Even though she did outrank them, she tried to ignore the signs of disrespect and get out of the mansion as quickly as possible.

As she turned a corner, she saw one of the contractors coming the other way. Reisen kept going, intending to walk right past him, but he adjusted his path to bump rudely against her shoulder. Startled, Reisen stumbled a couple steps back.

The contractor glared at her out of the corner of his eye. His eyes were red and heavy-lidded, indicating recent heavy drinking or something similar. "Filthy moon bitch," he muttered as he passed by.

Reisen straightened up immediately. "Hey! What…"

In response, he just spat and kept right on going to disappear around the corner.

Suddenly, there was the clunking sound of something hard being hit with something harder and then someone cried out in pain. The contractor stumbled back into view, clutching his forehead.

Tewi walked into view. One hand was holding her signature wooden mallet over her shoulder and spinning it jauntily, while the other was clutching a brown paper-wrapped package under her shoulder.

Tewi reached out with the mallet to tap the contractor's cheek with it. "Hey now, what was that, huh? What'd you just call her, huh? You wanna say that again, tough guy? Huh? Come on. Huh?"

The contractor shakily brought up his hands. "Sorry!" he slurred. "Sorry!"

"Yeah, I bet you are. What's your name?"

"Uh…"

"Never mind, I already know it. Daisuke Amano. You're with that group that came from Lady Shinashi's tribe, ain't'cha?"

"Yeah…"

"Great! Now I where to send the bill."

"Bill?" Daisuke blinked in confusion. "What for?"

Tewi grinned. She put down her mallet and the package. "Wow, you just don't get straight lines like that anymore."

"Wha-"

Tewi reached down to grab the contractor by the ears and yanked him right off the floor. Despite behind more than a foot taller than her and much brawnier, Daisuke was completely helpless as Tewi seized him by the belt and the scruff of his neck and started charging down the hallway, right past a dumbfounded Reisen.

"Alley-oop!" Tewi cried as she flung the screaming Daisuke forward. He sailed through to crash right through three of the flimsy paper walls to land in an awkward heap in one of the rooms beyond, startling two carpenters out of their wits. They looked through the holes he had created. Once they saw Tewi's slightly unhinged smile they quickly surmised what had happened and removed the dazed contractor from the room.

Tewi bent down to pick up her mallet and package. "I keep telling you, you gotta stop letting people walk all over you! Heck, you could have fired that guy if you wanted! Didn't you used to be in the military or something? Aren't they all about authority and discipline?"

Reisen realized that her jaw was hanging open. She quickly closed it. "I…I…"

Tewi shook her head. "Look, forget it, okay? Don't tell Eirin I busted up the walls, and we're square. That cool with you?"

"Uh, sure." Reisen scratched her head. "You didn't have to do that though."

"What? You complaining or something? That better not be ingratitude, otherwise you're next to go."

"No, no!" Reisen said quickly. "Thank you!"

Tewi snickered. Then she glanced down at the package and her face turned somber.

"Oh yeah. Uh, here." She thrust the package into Reisen's hands. "Take this."

"What?"

"One of the girls found it when they were cleaning up one of the store rooms. I think Eirin must've stashed them away. Don't really know why, since they're not hurting anyone. But, uh, I kinda figured…Well, you always liked that little freak, no idea why, but there you go."

Mystified, Reisen tore off the paper and opened the box within. She let out a small gasp and actually had to brace herself against the wall.

Instead was a small assortment of mundane odds and ends. The largest was a hand-carved erhu, a long stringed instrument that had once belonged to Reisen herself when she had been a teenager, but had given up on after exhibiting absolutely no talent. There were the scattered remains of what had once been a child's chemistry kit. A couple of red skirts and pink blouses were hastily folded up and lying on top of each other. Sitting on top of those was a large red bow and a handful of hair-beads shaped like cherries. A grimy hairbrush and a tarnished mirror sat in one corner. A couple of old storybooks, partially damaged by moisture and mold, were in the other, and a dusty old diary sat next to them.

Reisen gaped at the treasure she held in her hands. Then she looked up to stare at Tewi, who was looking a little uncomfortable.

"How…"

"Look, don't make this into a big deal, okay?" Tewi said. "Just thought you might want this, so…"

"But…you never…"

"Never liked Rin? Hells yeah, I didn't!" Tewi shouldered her mallet. "And you know what? I think I like her even less now. I dunno, I've got a complex or something. But if it'll make you stop moping all the time…"

Reisen nodded stiffly. "Than…thank…"

"I told you, don't make this weird. Just take the stuff and get out of here before someone catches you with it. I can't keep caving in skulls, you know? And hey, try to hug me, your skull is next, got it?"

Reisen, who had been contemplating that very action, nodded again. Then she took off at a sprint, hugging what little remained of Rin's worldly possessions to her chest.

Tewi watched her go. With a sigh, the rabbit shook her head. "That girl. No hope for her at all." Then she shrugged and went off to find someone else to whack.

…

_Location: The Yakumo Home_

_Time: 7:02 PM_

When Yukari returned home later in the evening, she was in a good mood.

Well, to be strictly accurate, there were too many problems to deal with to be completely happy. But she was in a better mood than she had been in all week, save for that one instance where she had taught Remilia Scarlet better manners. While she wasn't so foolish to believe that her bit of counter-propaganda would deter all of Cirno's bounty-hunters, it would at least make most of them think twice about going after Satsuki. Of course, Yuuka would probably follow up with a response of her own. A smear campaign perhaps, or pulling an asteroid down onto the Tengu Village. Seeing how this was Yuuka she was dealing with, Yukari made a note to make sure that Hatate was protected from retaliation.

Still, it was a start. And with the witch being successfully arrested and willing joining her anti-Yuuka movement, things seemed to finally being going in Yukari's direction.

And then there was that interesting little discovery of Eirin's from the night before. In addition to giving Satsuki's search party a huge advantage, it meant that Yukari would be having another conversation before the night was over, one that she was very much looking forward to.

However, as she stepped from her gap into the living room, she became aware of an alien presence in the room, one that was not a member of her household. It was sitting in her favorite armchair, facing the crackling fire that had been lit in the fireplace.

Ran was standing nearby, talking to the intruder. As soon as Yukari entered the room she stood up straight.

"Master!" she said, surprised.

Yukari raised an eyebrow. "We have a visitor, I see."

The Shikigami inclined her head. "Yes, she showed up soon after you left. She insisted on waiting for you."

"I'm sure she did," Yukari muttered. "Very well, you may go. I have a feeling this conversation should be private."

Ran bowed and left, leaving Yukari alone with the intruder.

"You know I really don't like it when people sit in my chair," Yukari said.

There was a shuffling of feet as the person stood and walked around the chair to face her. "Yeah? How about that," Reimu Hakurei said. "I don't appreciate people lying to me."

Yukari removed her hat and placed it on a dragonclaw-shaped hat rack that jutted from the wall. Her umbrella was folded up and deposited in her brass umbrella stand. Then she knelt down to untie and remove her shoes. "I knew giving you free access to my home would one day backfire," she sighed as she did so. "And please, tell me what lies I've told you."

Reimu folded her arms. "When were you planning on telling me about Marisa?"

Yukari straightened. She stepped out of her shoes and walked past Reimu to fall into her chair. "Funny," she said, steepling her fingers. "That question is accusing me of withholding information, not subverting it. I think that actually counts as an omission, perhaps even being locked out of the loop. But not a lie."

"You know what I mean!" Reimu shouted.

"I do. But do you? Really Reimu, if you're going to waltz into my living room, sit in my chair and bombard me with accusations before I've even had the chance to sit down, then at least correctly identify what you're accusing me of."

"Fine. Did you have Marisa arrested?"

"Yes," Yukari said simply.

"So you admit it!"

"What's there to admit? You asked a question, and I answered honestly. Admission would imply reluctance on my part. Perhaps even guilt and shame. I assure you, I am not besieged with such feelings."

"Oh, knock it off with the lawyer talk!" Reimu snapped. "Why did you do it?"

Yukari sighed. She twisted her head to one side, easing out the kinks. "Why did I arrest a noted thief known for inflicting large amounts of property damage who is partially responsible for the current incident we find ourselves in? I have to admit you've got me stumped there. You're going to have to give me some time to come up with an answer."

Reimu growled. She stomped her way in front of the reclining Yukari, slammed one hand onto Yukari's armrest and shoved the finger from the other into the ancient youkai's face. "Don't give me that. You've never had problem with her before."

"Her escapades have never unleashed unkillable abominations before. And it really was only a matter of time. I mean, come now Reimu. Did you really thing someone like her was going to get off scot-free forever?"

"You helped Yuyuko wake up Saigyou Aya…whatever its name was! How is that any different?"

"That again," Yukari groaned. She leaned forward and rubbed her forehead. "Look. Reimu. I know that because of all the times you've removed a widespread nuisance or even outright saved Gensokyo, you probably think that you're someone important. And come to think of it, maybe you're right. But that doesn't mean that people you like are somehow immune to having consequences for their actions. Marisa was going to get picked off by someone sooner or later. And when it comes down to it, better the GPF than someone who would slow cook her over a campfire."

"Don't," Reimu growled. "Don't give me that pretending to be reasonable crap. You're just using that as an excuse to send her after Yuuka."

It was a fortunate thing that Yukari had had centuries to practice her poker face, because otherwise the surprise would have been written all over it. As it was, she merely remained silent for a second before leaning back and saying, "Someone's been listening at keyholes."

"So it's true? You're forcing her to assassinate Yuuka?" Reimu gaped. "My gods, Yukari. I knew you could get ruthless at times, but that's just…sick!"

"Which part?" Yukari asked in a mild tone. "Sending an assassin after Yuuka or the idea that it might be Marisa?"

"Both! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? You think that just because you're the biggest and baddest youkai around it means you can just manipulate and screw people over to get your way?"

"Yes," Yukari said. "It just so happens that 'my way' happens to be the best way for all concerned."

Reimu opened her mouth to start yelling again, but Yukari cut her off. "Before you unleash a new wave of abuse, I would like to ask a question. After that, I would like to point out a few facts that you may have been unaware of. But first, please stop standing over me. There's a perfectly good chair over there for you to use."

"I'd rather stand," Reimu said crossly.

Yukari couldn't help but smirk. She had used that line on Eirin only a few days ago, in that very tone of voice. However, Yukari wasn't as diplomatic as the Lunarian Doctor. "What a shame. Sit. Down."

"Make-"

A split second later, Reimu was no longer glaring down at Yukari. Instead, she had been relocated to the room's other easy chair.

"-me?" Reimu looked around with a surprised look on her face. This was quickly replaced by her trademark expression of irritation. "Oh, come on! That's just cheating!"

"I wasn't aware that we were playing a game," Yukari said. "And now, first things first. Where did you get your information?"

"Oh no. You are not changing this subject. This is about-"

"You've been talking to Mima, correct?"

Reimu angrily folded her arms. "What's the point of even asking?"

Yukari smirked. "Well, full credit to the ghostly detective. I hadn't even told her about using Marisa against Yuuka."

"Yeah, and she said you're planning on throwing Utsuho Reiuji and Flandre freaking Scarlet too. Have you completely lost your mind? Or are you and the Shadow Youkai taking bets to see who can blow the whole godsdamned country up the fastest?"

"Hmmm, she is smart. But not entirely correct on all the details."

"Oh yeah? Well, I sure hope so. Because the details I'm seeing are pretty freaking scary."

"I'm sure they are," Yukari murmured. "But there're a few minor errors. First of all, I should point out that I'm not making Marisa do anything."

"Yeah? Well, that's good to hear," Reimu said sarcastically. "So she just clapped herself in irons and reserved a jail cell for the night?"

"Funny. I'm serious here. Marisa is assisting me with the Yuuka situation completely of her own free will."

Reimu rolled her eyes. "One word, two syllables. First one starts with a 'B'. Second with an 'S'. Rhymes with bullshit."

Yukari actually snickered at that one. "No, really. I offered it to her as an alternative to jail time, with the only repercussion for refusal is having to serve her full sentence. And when she realized what I was offering, she couldn't sign up fast enough."

"Yeah, why don't I believe that?"

"Why don't you believe that Marisa Kirisame would rather participate in a big flashy battle that will likely result in many opportunities to blow large chunks of the landscape to fine powder instead of being bored out of her mind in a jail cell for a few months? Come on, that's just delusional. Hell, if you doubt my word, I'd be more than happy to have you ask her yourself. And you can even bring lady smokestack along to verify that's under no enchantments."

Reimu opened her mouth but ended up closing it again. She glowered.

"Second of all, no one's assassinating anybody. This will be an actual duel, taking place in a place of my choosing, well away from any inhabited places. And I'll be doing the bulk of the work. Marisa and the others will just be there as support. Thirdly, Miss Scarlet and the Hell Raven will be on _very_ short leashes, so there's no danger of accidentally breaking the whole country."

"Oh really? And I suppose they," Reimu coughed and held up quote signs with her fingers "_volunteered_ as well?"

Yukari crossed her legs. "As a matter of fact, it was Satori's idea in the first place. So yes, the Underground did volunteer. As for the Scarlets, Remilia actually tried to blackmail me into letting her have Marisa, so she may punish her for reasons that you're well aware of. That backfired, so she has no one to blame but herself. Really Reimu, contrary to popular belief, I don't go around dragging people from their beds, shoving a spellcard in their hands, and shove them in my enemies' direction while I take a nap."

When Reimu didn't say anything, Yukari added, "Reimu, I know it's a difficult concept to wrap your head around, but Marisa is a grown woman. She can make her own decisions without needing you or Mima to rush in and save her. And believe it or not, I am honestly not some sort of tyrant who goes out of her way just to make people's lives miserable. Most of the time I'm more than content to let people run around making messes. It's just that this particular mess is too big to let people like Marisa, Yuuka or even Remilia try to distract me with their petty grudges and selfish ambitions."

It was a good speech, and it wasn't the first time she had given it. People's reactions had varied over the years, from anger to chagrin to dismissal to even grudging acceptance. Reimu, however, took a different route. She laughed. It was a bitter laugh to be certain, but it was still a laugh.

"Damn," she chuckled. "That's…not bad. Have to give you credit, that sounds real pretty. I wonder how many times you had to rehearse it before you started to believe it."

Yukari shook her head. "Think what you want, it still doesn't change-"

"What I think? We're talking about what I think? Fine. Here's what I think. Now, I admit, I haven't really known you that long. Only for a few years. Now, that might be a decent chunk of my life, but for you it's barely worth noticing. So yeah, I'm probably the last person who should be judging you, but still…"

Reimu leaned back and laughed again. "Maybe you're right. Maybe Marisa did deserve what happened. Maybe Remilia did too. And maybe when all's said and done, it's really not your fault at all. But I don't think that matters to you. Because I'm starting to think that if it was the most practical way to protect Gensokyo, you wouldn't hesitate to shove the nearest person down a dragon's throat, no matter who they were or if they were innocent or not. In fact, you probably already have."

Yukari closed her eyes. She sighed. "Actually, that is absolutely correct. And here's something to consider: Yuuka Kazami, Rin Satsuki and the Shadow Youkai aren't the first 'dragons' to try to burn Gensokyo or kill me. It's only because I am willing to throttle them with whatever's handy that this country continues to exist. Chew on that, shrine maiden."

"Yeah? Is that what happened to my mom, then?" Reimu's face was difficult to make out in the darkened room, but her voice was dripping with accusation.

Yukari blinked in surprise. She sat up. "Is that what you're thinking? That your mother died because of me?"

"Did she?"

Yukari shook her head. "No, she did not. Neither did your father, for that matter. I wasn't even involved in that incident. And before you ask, I had no hand in any of your ancestors' demises as well, and I will have no hand in yours. That much I can say with absolute certainty."

"So we get special treatment, is that it? Because I help tend the Barrier or something?"

"Something down those lines, yes," Yukari said. She placed her hands on the armrests and pushed herself up. "But as engaging as this moral debate has been, I'm going to have to cut it short. There's something that requires my attention. In fact, you might as well come along. There's something you'll need to learn."

"What?" Reimu said as she stood up as well. "What are you talking about? You're not gonna trick me into becoming your accomplice, are you?"

"Accomplice in what? But no. You're going to have to see this sooner or later."

Yukari motioned with one hand. At her command, the lamps in the room flared on, banishing the shadows. At the same time, the fire went out and the fireplace sank into the wall. From there, it literally came apart and opened up, revealing a small alcove beyond. Inside, something was pulsing red.

Reimu's face was a map of confusion. "What in the world…"

"Take a look," Yukari said, directing the light to illuminate the object inside. "The Eientei Guard found it last night. It seems our little Satsuki is a bit on the clumsy side."

Reimu's jaw dropped when she realized what she was looking it. "Holy shit. In that…"

"Yes."

"You mean you actually have…"

"I do." Yukari gestured again, and the slab that the sword of the Shadow Youkai was strapped to slid out and turned horizontal. It floated into the center of the room. "Rumia had managed to banish it to who knows where when your mother and I defeated her the first time, so I hadn't the chance to study it. But now that I've gotten a closer look, I've noticed something very interesting."

Reimu was staring at the twisted weapon with horrified fascination. "You mean _beyond _the fact that it looks like a giant, demonic bottle opener?"

"That's actually part of it. You see, I don't believe it originally had all this excessive cutlery. In fact, if you were to remove these pointy things here" the blades in question were illuminated with a white light "and here and here, take out this…whatever it is here, and all these spear-things here, you would have its original shape." Yukari's gaze swept over the sword. "Now, tell me something Reimu. Does this thing ring any bells?"

The shrine maiden hesitated, and then shook her head.

"No? Are you sure? There are others like it. You yourself fought one of their owners some years ago."

"I did? Who?"

"All perversions aside, you're looking at the ceremonial blade of an Archangel," Yukari said.

Reimu's jaw dropped. _"What? _Wait, you mean an Angel Angel? Not like a Celestial or…"

"Tenshi _wishes_ she were in this league. No, I mean an actual Angel. Of the 'Arch' variety."

Reimu made a sound like she was being strangled. "You…you can't mean…Are you saying that _Sariel's_…"

"At the moment, I'm saying nothing at all. But I believe we both know who to go to in order to find out more." Yukari's teeth flashed. "Interested in finding out more?"

Reimu looked dubious. "Look, this is all very interesting, but…How do I know this isn't some sort of trick? Some sort of way to make me stop accusing you and shanghai me into…whatever, like you did with Marisa?"

"Please," Yukari said with a snort. "As if I would need to do that. But if you feel that my intentions are less than honest, feel free to play it safe and go. I'll give you the important details later."

Yukari turned and walked to the other end of the room. She noted with satisfaction that Reimu hadn't taken her invitation to leave. Good. It would be interesting to see her reaction to this.

She stopped and stood in front of a large portrait. It was a depiction of the Court of Conflict, with each of the Ringleaders sitting in their seats. The picture changed depending on who was in power. Given Yukari's eternal nature, this happened enough that it was a useful way to keep track of who she was forced to work with.

But the portrait served another purpose as well. Yukari reached out and touched one of the seated figures. The portrait shivered, and then the paint warped and twisted together. Good, that meant that the person in question was home. A soft purple halo of light formed around the vortex, coming together to form the face of the person Yukari had just touched. It did not look pleased to see her.

"What do you want?" the floating head demanded. "And this better be good."

Yukari smiled. "Hello Shinki. We need to talk."

…

_Location: The Garden of the Sun_

_Time: 8:00 PM_

"Uno!" Cirno cried out. She proudly held up her remaining card for all to see.

The other players reacted differently. Mystia groaned out loud, letting her face fall onto the table, her talons clutching at her five cards. Wriggle said nothing at all. Daiyousei, who's hand was now in the double-digits, looked like she was on the verge of panic. As for Yuuka, she smiled happily and applauded.

"Oh, well done Cirno!" she said. "You truly are smarter than people give you credit for."

Cirno grinned. "Dam…darn straight I am!"

The five of them were seated around the large table in the room Yuuka had provided for their use. The supper Elly had provided for them had already come and gone. Cirno had to admit that the Shinigami girl had creeped her out at first, and her reaction to Wriggle had set off warning bells. However, her opinion had warmed considerably after being presented with a plate of prime rib, freshly baked bread dripping with homemade butter and honey and a bowl of criminally delicious applesauce. After the first bite she had toyed with the idea of falling to one knee and proposing.

Now they were amusing themselves until bedtime. To everyone's immense relief, the game that Yuuka had wanted to play was one they were all familiar with and was much more innocent than the one they had been expecting. They were into their fourth round of the evening, with Wriggle picking up one win and Mystia two. Curiously, Yuuka had yet to win a single round, though she seemed to be completely immune to any form of bad luck. Cirno wasn't complaining, but seeing how Yuuka was sitting to her right, she was going out of her way to avoid skipping any of the flower-youkai's turns.

Still, there first evening as the guests of one of the scariest persons in Gensokyo had really been anything but. In fact, if one were to ignore the undercurrent of fear and paranoia that everyone save for the host herself had to be feeling, it was almost pleasant. Cirno was starting to believe that maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

There was a knock at the door, and it opened about half a foot. "Master?" Elly said. "You asked to be informed of the eight o' clock hour."

Yuuka looked disappointed. "Oh, has it come already? How time flies." She folded up her hand and stood to her feet. "I'm afraid I'll have to bow out, girls. Enjoy the rest of the game! And remember, mind your manners, don't forget to wash up and brush your teeth, and be in bed by nine." She kissed them all on the cheek. Cirno, Mystia and Daiyousei froze immediately when she did so. Wriggle just accepted the peck without comment. Yuuka smiled and playfully ruffled her green mop of hair.

"All right then!" Yuuka said as she headed out of the room. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Cirno and Mystia both mumbled their goodnights. The door shut.

As soon as she was certain that Yuuka was gone for good, Cirno said, "You know, this might not be so bad after all. At least she's nice to us."

Mystia shuddered. "I don't know, Cirno. I mean, yeah, she hasn't tried to hurt us yet, but there's something really not right about her."

"You mean how she snaps from nice old lady to angry crazy person at the drop of a hat?" Daiyousei said. "Because that's kind of terrifying."

"Hey, she hasn't done that at us yet," Cirno said. "Sure, she's scary. But so long as the scary's pointed at other people…Well, that's what we want, isn't it?"

"We are such idiots," Wriggle said.

The others turned toward her. It was the first complete sentence she had spoken all evening.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cirno demanded.

Wriggle laughed. There was no humor in it. It was the bitter chuckle of the condemned. "We're idiots. All of us. Thinking that taking up with her is a good idea. And I'm the biggest idiot of them all. What was I thinking?" She drew up her legs onto her chair and wrapped her arms around them. "I should've never come back. How could I be so stupid?"

Cirno and Daiyousei exchanged a worried look. Cirno shrugged. Mystia bit her lower lip as her gaze darted from one fairy to the next. She stood up and walked over to Wriggle.

"Um, Wriggle?" she said. She laid a hand on the firefly's shoulder. "Are you all right?"

"No."

Cirno scowled. "Hey, if you're so scared of her, then why the hellsicles did you agree to go talk to her? I mean it's not like I forced you to go?"

Wriggle shuddered and shook her head. She seemed to not know how to answer that question.

"_She returned because she wanted to,"_ a quiet voice whispered.

Mystia let out a startled _"eep!" _and froze in place. Cirno and Daiyousei leapt to their feet, standing on top of their chairs as their eyes darted all over the room.

"Who's there?" Cirno demanded.

Her only answer was a dim laugh, so soft that it might have been the wind rustling through the leaves. However, the fact that they were indoors pretty much destroyed that option.

"_She came back because she had to. All she needed was an excuse," _said the voice.

"_They come back," _another voice agreed, this one slightly higher. _"They always come back to her."_

"_You will too, if you leave," _a third voice put in. _"Even if you escape, you will never leave. It takes hold of you, this place does."_

Cirno balled up her fists and shoved them into the air. "Okay! Creepy stalker people! We don't want you here! Go away before I freeze you to death!"

The bodiless voices laughed again, and then fell silent. Cirno and Mystia cautiously searched the room, but found no other living thing save for the flowers.

"Yuuka's got some weird people working for her," Cirno grumbled as she sat back in her chair. "They've probably these secret passages and little eyeholes to spy on us."

Mystia cleared her throat. "Cirno, I don't think-"

"Um, guys?" Daiyousei said. Everyone turned to look at her. She was holding up the hand of cards Yuuka had left behind and looking at them in confusion.

"How did she get these and why didn't she just win whenever she wanted?" Daiyousei said, turning the cards toward the others.

They were all wildcards.

…

_Location: The Garden of the Sun_

_Time: 8:03 PM_

Yuuka walked briskly down the corridor toward her private rooms. In her wake, the tendrils and roots that covered the floor slithered and the flowers turned to gaze upon her lovingly. Her trademark smirk never left her lips. She was enjoying her new game. She was enjoying it very much.

Elly followed close behind. "I've started your bath and prepared your towels and bathrobe. Would you prefer your water scented or unscented?"

"Scented please," Yuuka said. "Jasmine. And don't forget the candles."

"They're already lit and burning."

Yuuka smiled and affectionately kissed the top of her head. "Ah, Elly. What would I do without you?" They stopped in front of a large double-door. "Now, I just need a few moments of privacy. Drop in the salts and…Oh, why not? Bubbles, please."

Elly bowed. "Of course, Master. It'll be ready when you are."

Yuuka inclined her head and entered the room. "Such a sweet girl," she muttered to herself. She looked around the room. Her smirk grew to a full grin. "And now…Still have some time to kill. Where to begin?"

Like the room she had prepared for the use of Wriggle and her lovely little friends, this one was circular, with a glass dome overhead. However, instead of a fountain and comfortable furniture, the center was an empty plaza of smooth ceramic tiles. It was the perimeter of the room where things got interesting. A ring of soil encircled the room, in which was planted a line of tulips. However, no ordinary tulip bed was this. Each tulip was the size of a small person and evenly spaced around the room like a line of lights. Each flower was closed in a tight bud.

This in itself wouldn't be too unusual. After all, Yuuka's house was home to many strange plants. However, was what especially eye catching was how each bud was bulged and somewhat misshapen, as if there were something inside. A few were moving, though weakly.

And then there were the noises. Mostly small whimpers. Some weeping. Other were muted pleas. An angry voice from within a deep lavender bud was shouting threats. Others were completely silent.

Yuuka was not a person given to feelings of guilt or remorse. She could at times be moved to pity. Sometimes even compassion. But she rarely regretted her actions. However, she had to admit that she felt the slightest twinge of conscience over the falsehood she had told Wriggle, when the firefly had returned to her. To be absolutely truthful, she had not been without playmates since Wriggle had left her. She certainly didn't feel as much affection for them as she did the firefly, but they entertained her nevertheless.

Yuuka walked over to one of the tulips, this one a bright shade of blue. Its occupant was one of the more recent additions, and Yuuka had yet to properly welcome her into the household, an oversight that she intended to correct now.

She poked the flower with her umbrella. The top opened, revealing a girl huddling inside. She was a youkai, with short turquoise hair. She was curled up into the fetal position, with her hair and blue dress plastered to her body with nectar. As the leaves parted, she looked up with wide, fearful eyes. One was the same color as her hair, the other a contrasting red.

"Surprise!" Yuuka gibed. She reached into the flower with one grasping hand. "Now dearie, come on up and let's play a game."

…

_EDIT (7-12-13): Uh, X-elemental? While criticisms and whatnot are more than welcome and I do thank you for keeping it polite and constructive, I would really prefer it if you gave them using a signed account, because I would like to respond to a lot of your points but can't as you've been using guest reviews._

_What's a fellow to do when he wants to get back to the hunt for Rin plotline but still has numerous little scenes that need to be touched upon first that will probably end up slowing the pace even more than it already is? The answer: make another Bits and Pieces-eque mega chapter! And I figured that since I was already throwing so much information in at once, I might as well have some fun and put them in out of order, Haruhi Suzumiya style. Though at this point I really have to ask: is there anyone who's actually managing to keep up with all this? Because even I'm finding that there are parts that I'm forgetting. Still, as messy as things are right now, it is all working toward a single goal. I tend to think of the plotlines as being like a bunch of ships being sucked into a big-ass whirlpool. At first they're far apart on the outer rim, but in time they all end up spiraling toward the same place._

_Now that that's out of the way, it's time to talk about the elephant in the room. Namely, the decidedly, um, _lukewarm_ response the last chapter got. As I said in the author's notes, that one wasn't any fun for me either, and I guess that came out in the execution. What's weird was that I was actually really looking forward to doing that chapter, but when I sat down to write it out, it proved to be one of those ideas that sound like fun in my head but not in actual execution. The main problem was Kotohime herself. When I finally got her to her uncle, I realized that unlike just about every other character (save for maybe Sanae), she is a traditionally raised quasi-Japanese girl (former insanity aside) who believes in following the rules. As such, I couldn't cut loose with the snark like I usually do, resulting in me having to rein her in, with the end result being much interesting than I had planned. A mistake, I know, but hey, no one's perfect. So I apologize to anyone who found it disappointing, though I should point out that it was definitely not filler. The whole uncle thing and his issues with how the GPF is run are things that had to be introduced sooner or later. Its execution was just a little shaky._

_Okay, next issue. As many people pointed out, I had made a mistake regarding Akyuu. In the author's notes, I noted that while there's no canon material backing up her giving birth to herself over and over, I still stuck it in because I thought it was cool in a kind of creepy way. However, as it turns out, she only reincarnates every hundred years, making that impossible. Now, as I said after I had noticed other areas where Imperfect Metamorphosis contradicted the supplementary material, this story takes place in a similar but different alternate universe. Not the original plan I admit, but necessary to explain the discrepancies. And on the positive side, it allows me to add more of my own interpretations, with the Akyuu thing being one of them. Other examples not yet mentioned would be that this version of Sakuya is old enough to have known Eirin before the latter was exiled, which would make her older than Remilia (I guess having a pocketwatch that can warp time and space would be handy in that regard, though where she got a pocketwatch over a thousand years ago is anyone's guess), and Konngara and Kasen being the other two Devas of the Mountain. While the latter is a popular fan theory, it has yet to be confirmed, and it may end up being contradicted by the eventual ending of Wild and Horned Hermit, assuming it hasn't already. And ZUN could always just pull the real other two oni out and dash the theory to pieces. But as that has yet to happen, they'll fulfill that role for this story._

_That being said though, the Akyuu thing was honestly a mistake on my part. Somehow that bit of information had escaped my notice until now, and had I known it, I would have gone with the traditional portrayal. I did leave it in for awhile, as changing it kind of felt like cheat, and I did like the gives-birth-to-herself idea, but after awhile it just bugged me. So if you're reading this after the fix and are wondering what in the hell I'm talking about, there's your answer. I had made a mistake that directly contradicted canon, left in in for a few months, but finally decided to fix it. _

_On a more positive note, it looks like that as of this update, Imperfect Metamorphosis is now the longest Touhou fic on the site. I'm not sure if that's a cause to celebrate or a sign that I really need to get out more._

_Ah hell, I'll go with the former. :)_

_Until next time, everyone!_


	25. Revelations

Revelations

_Shinki was dreaming._

_It was a dream she had only started having recently, but its frequent occurrence was starting to become a source of agitation. In it, she's standing at a doorway, looking in. Within is a girl, appearing to be about fifteen years of age. She is wearing a white blue and a blue skirt. A blue ribbon is tied into her short blond hair. Her face, normally calm and contemplative, is now red and blotchy as angry tears stream down her face. Several open bags lie upon a bed, into which the girl is shoving clothing, books, dolls and other personal possessions._

"_I still don't understand why you're doing this," Shinki tells her._

_The girl shoots a glare in her direction. Then she starts slamming the bags shut. "No, you don't, do you?" she says as she tightens the straps. "But then, you never do. I could write it in big glowing green letters, and you still wouldn't understand."_

"_How can I if you refuse to tell me?" Shinki asks. Her frustration is starting to seep into her voice. "Please, just talk to me."_

_The girl just shakes her head. She starts touching each bag and muttering an incantation under her breath. The bags tremble as the magic takes hold. Then they lift into the air._

"_I thought I was doing everything right," Shinki tells her. The girl pushes past her and storms down the hall, her floating luggage following close behind._

_Shinki follows as well, talking as she went, trying to make the girl see reason. "I have clothed and fed you more than adequately, provided companionship, entertainment and advice, played games with you, protected you from harm…What have I done wrong? I even gave you the gift of immortality, something that many humans have started wars to obtain. I can't see what-"_

"_Gift?" The girl stops suddenly. She whirls around to face Shinki with an incredulous look on her face. Her bags halt in their path and hover near her head, bobbing up and down in the air._

"_You call that a _gift? _To live forever in this place? Oh yes, Mother. Spending an eternity in Hell. Such a lovely gift. There's a word for that, you know. I believe they called it being damned." The girl shakes her head. "And you wonder why I'm leaving?"_

_Shinki is dumbstruck. Not only has she never thought of her good intentions being interpreted as such, the thought has never occurred to her that her actions would be seen as something evil. "Alice…I didn't mean…"_

_Alice turns and continues down the hallway, her luggage close behind. "Goodbye, Shinki," she says._

_Shinki stands where she is, staring after her. "But I never meant it to be like that," she mutters. "I just wanted us to be-"_

A finger poked the Queen of Makai in her side, startling her awake. _"Shinki, you're mumbling in your sleep again."_

Shinki started. She was sitting on her throne, a high-back chair in the form of a winged serpent carved from a single block of obsidian. Her throne was located at the far end of the Great Hall of Pandemonium, a many-columned room of black stone, burning torches and flames flickering along the room's edges. The obsidian serpent's wings were spread wide, covering the entirety of the back wall.

Shinki grunted and straightened up in her seat. She stretched her arms over her head and let out a cavernous yawn. Then, after rubbing the last grains of sleep from eyes, she shot a not entirely displeased glare at her white-winged sibling, who was hovering nearby with a small amused smile on its face.

"Exactly how long have you been watching me?" Shinki asked. She rolled her neck, working out the kinks.

"_Only for a few seconds. You fall asleep in your throne entirely too often, my sibling."_

"Yeah, I know. It's this chair's fault," Shinki yawned. "I had it made entirely too comfortable."

"_I fail to see how the chair is to blame. Though I wouldn't have woken you, but you did not seem to be enjoying your dream."_

Shinki frowned. "Just a dream," she mumbled.

"_Even a dream can have meaning. You know that better than anyone. After all, wasn't being able to dream one of the reasons you took that body?"_

"Don't remind me," Shinki muttered. She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"_Hmmm. Sometimes I wonder if you fully thought out some of the choice you've made."_

Shinki opened her eyes. She eyed her sibling. "Please don't start this again. And they were _my _choices. That was the whole point, Sariel."

The creature known as Sariel bowed its head. _"Apologies. I'll refrain from bringing it up in the future."_

"Which means you're going to bring it up again tomorrow, aren't you?"

Sariel smiled again. _"You know me entirely too well, sibling."_

Shinki sighed. "You know, for someone who still hasn't given up on the whole Archangel thing, you sure do enjoy annoying people, you know…" Then she frowned. A sharp buzzing was raising the hairs on the back of her neck, signaling that the magical energies within the room were changing.

"Oh hell, it's her," she growled. "Speaking of annoying…"

A yellow mist came into being in the air, about five feet from the ground and ten feet away from the throne. Within the mist a face came into view, the face of one of the only people that Shinki came close to actually hating.

"What do you want?" she demanded of Yukari's floating visage. "And this better be good."

"Hello Shinki," Yukari said. "We need to talk."

Shinki rolled her eyes. She exchanged a look with Sariel, who was watching the proceedings with evident interest.

"I'm quite certain that we don't," Shinki told her. "In fact, I'm also quite certain that we never do."

"Oh, I disagree," Yukari said. "This is about the Shadow Youkai."

Rage ignited within the Queen of Makai. Her purple robe burst into scarlet flame as she leapt to her feet. "What? What does it take to convince you that I had nothing to do with that?" she roared. "Will you just leave me alone already?"

Sariel gripped her by the arm. _"Calm down, sibling," _it murmured. _"Calm down please."_

Shinki ignored it. "What is _with _you? You're like a hellhound with a bone. _My _bone! Just let it rest and go do something actually productive instead of chasing paranoid fantasies!"

Yukari's hand appeared within the mist to reach up and scratch her cheek. "Hmmm, yes. Well, unfortunately something has just come up."

The flames surrounding her robes reached up to frame Shinki's face. "Then go deal with _that _instead of bothering me!"

"I am dealing with it. You see, last night this crisis took an unexpected turn. We managed to recover the Shadow Youkai's sword."

"Oh?" Shinki spat. "How clever of you. Now, why don't you make use of it and introduce it to your intestines?"

Sariel sighed. _"Sibling…"_

"Things are not nearly that bad yet," Yukari said. "And actually, I wanted you to take a look at it for me. If you have the time, of course."

"I don't. I never have, not for you."

"Oh, I think you'll change your mind. Please, have a look."

The mists expanded, revealing Yukari's full form. Shinki's lips pressed even tighter together. Yukari winked at her and stepped to one side. She gestured like a showman to an object hovering behind her.

It was a stone slab, about five feet tall. And strapped to the slab was a hideous looking blade that Shinki recalled catching glimpses of in the gathered memories Yukari had shared with the Ringleaders.

Shinki scowled. The flames surrounding her robes extinguished as she sat back down. "Oh, look at that. Or rather, let's not. It offends my sensibilities. But what of it, Yukari? I still have no idea where it-Ow, stop it!"

This last remark was directed toward Sariel, who had suddenly grabbed Shinki's wrist in an iron grip. Shinki looked at it in puzzlement. Despite not having anything in the way of blood, Sariel's normally pale face seemed to have lost even more pigment as it stared at the sword with more shock on its face than Shinki ever recalled seeing.

"_My sibling, look at the hilt," _Sariel said in a soft voice. It pointed at the hilt in question, and then its finger slowly rose up the blade. _"Now follow my finger. Look beyond those abominable blades…"_

"Is that Sariel's voice I hear?" Yukari said. "Excellent! Glad to hear you're still serving as Shinki's voice of reason."

Shinki ignored her. She squinted at the sword as her eyes followed the path of Sariel's finger. For a moment she couldn't understand what her sibling was talking about.

And then she got it.

It felt like her heart had exploded in her chest. She quite literally couldn't move, the shock was too great. Her fingers dug into the armrests, nearly cracking the stone beneath them. Her eyes were wide open and her mouth was hanging slack.

"By George, I think she's got it," Yukari said in an amused tone. "Now, tell me something Shinki: are you absolutely _certain _there is nothing you can tell me about the Shadow Youkai?"

"I…I…" Shinki tried to compose herself and come up with an adequate response. "This…this isn't real. This is a trick. Yes, you fabricated that sword…That's the only…"

Yukari arched an eyebrow. "If that's what you believe, then you're more than welcome to examine the weapon itself. If, of course, we have permission to pop in."

"We?"

"Yes, me and Reimu." The mist expanded once again, showing that the red-clad shrine maiden was indeed standing nearby. For her part, Reimu seemed surprised and uncomfortable at being singled out."

"Oh," she said. "Uh, hi there Shinki. How's it going?"

Shinki growled. "If you think you can just use this as an excuse to barge into my domain-"

"_Sibling, hush," _Sariel murmured. To Yukari, it said, _"Of course. We will provide any aid we are able. We only ask that you give us five minutes before coming over. I believe Shinki would like to yell at me for a bit."_

"Of course," Yukari said with an infuriating smile. "Try not to hurt each other too badly. See you in five."

The mist suddenly contracted and burst into slowly falling yellow sparks.

"Are you _insane?" _Shinki demanded. "You just invited that woman into my throne room! Don't you realize how difficult it was to make her agree not to pop in whenever she was-"

"_Sibling, listen. This is important. Did you not notice who that sword once belonged to?"_

There was no mistaking the urgency in Sariel's voice. As her sibling was usually the levelheaded of the two, hearing it sound so worried derailed Shinki's indignation. "What? No, I can't say that I…"

"_Azrael, sibling. That was Azrael's blade."_

The name hit Shinki with more force than the shock of recognizing the blade had. She slowly sank into her throne as the implications of what she had just learned rose in her mind.

"No," she whispered. She leaned forward and buried her face in her hands. "No, no, no…"

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia sighed as she stared at the screen. On it, jumbled shapes, barely recognizable as the stones, dirt clumps and roots they were, were being pushed aside as Rin moved her body steadily forward. It was the same view they had been staring at for several hours.

"Are we there yet?" she said.

"No," Rin said automatically, not taking her eyes off the screen.

Travelling to Hakurei Shrine had proved to be more complicated than both Rin and Rumia had predicted. Under normal circumstances, it would only have taken them about half a day, tops. Unfortunately, the fact that they had to avoid being seen had slowed them down considerably.

With that came the second problem. Plants were continuing to die wherever Rin went, which left a clear trail for their pursuers. It hadn't been much of a problem when they had stuck to more arid areas, but unfortunately the entire area surrounding Hakurei Shrine was lush with foliage. Of course, they could always try approaching from the sky, but given how many people were flying around that would only increase their odds of being seen.

And so they had opted for the opposite and started burrowing under the ground. Rin put the vast destructive powers at her disposal to work disintegrating the earth before them while slowly propelling herself forward. There was considerably less chance of running into anyone, but there was the added problem of not being able to see where they were going. As such, Rin had faced Hakurei Shrine's general direction and then proceeded forward the best she could. They had to surface every now and then to check on their progress, which was always nerve-wracking. Thus far they had not surprised (and been surprised by) anyone, but it really only had to happen once.

In the meantime though, there was a long amount of time spent just digging. And Rumia, already nervous, was now growing bored and impatient.

"Are we almost there at least?"

"I don't know," Rin said. "Do you want me to check again?"

Rumia thought about this but shook her head. They had already done that five minutes ago and found themselves to be in a rice field. She couldn't help but wonder what the farmer's reaction was going to be when he found a huge black spot of dead rice.

"No, too risky. Just…I don't know. Hurry up or something."

"Going as fast as I can," Rin said. "This isn't easy, you know. Not being able to see where I'm going."

Rumia sighed, mainly because Rin was right. "All right, all right. I'll leave you alone now."

"Thank you."

Rumia let herself fall back. She stared upward at the nothing that surrounded them at all sides. Despite the fact that Hakurei Shrine was one of the most dangerous places for them to be, she found herself impatiently desiring the journey to be over. It was almost as if her mind felt that the boredom she was experiencing was worse than the sheer terror she would be experiencing if Reimu Hakurei caught them.

And then suddenly, it was over. For that moment at least.

Rin let out a small squeak of surprise as they came out into open air. Rumia scrambled to her feet as Rin braked hard, bringing her physical body to a sudden stop.

They had emerged in a small dirt alcove in what appeared to be in the side of a hill. Roots from an outside tree twisted around the walls and provided support. Several small instances of graffiti from the various youkai and fairies that had used the alcove at one time or another were carved into the roots, though they became almost impossible to see when most of the roots withered and died in Rin's presence.

They weren't alone either. Two mouse youkai, a male in red pants and a female in a filly, polka-dot skirt, were crouching nearby and staring at Rin with wide eyes. Apparently her sudden appearance had startled them, though they had yet to flee. Perhaps they were wondering if they this strange glowing newcomer was good to eat, though considering what Rin had done to the tree roots that would be a stupid idea.

Rin looked at Rumia. Her large, blue eyes were even wider with panic. "What do I do? I can't use my evil killer powers on them! Do I just go back?"

"Um, what about Miss Mokou?"

"What?"

"You've got Fujiwhatshername no Mokou's powers too, right? She uses a lot of fire. So you can use it too!"

"Oh! Good idea!"

A glaring light suddenly filled the screen. Accompanying it was a loud _whooshing _noise. At first, Rumia assumed that the two mice were in the process of being reduced to cinders, but then through the glare she could see two hazy shapes fleeing the alcove, so Rin must have just shot flames in their direction to scare them. Nice of her, but it did mean that they were risking having those two tell others of the encounter. Of course that would end up happening anyway once they resurrected, but at least that would give Rin some time to clear the premises.

"Ha! You're right, it worked!" Rin said with a satisfied smirk.

It was then that Rumia noticed something odd. Not only had the flames not going away, but they didn't seem to be anywhere except directly in front of them. Though the rest of the alcove was hard to make out, it didn't seem to be on fire.

"Rin…" Rumia said slowly.

"Yeah?"

"Did you just set _yourself _on fire?"

"Yeah!"

"…why?"

Rin looked confused. The flames disappeared immediately. "What do you mean? You told me to!"

"I told you to use the fire on _them, _to set _them _on fire, not yourself!" Rumia shouted.

Rin looked horrified. "What? Why would I do that?"

Rumia rolled her eyes. "Well gee, I don't know. Maybe because we we're _wanted fugitives!_ We don't need people blowing our location!"

With a slow shake of her head, Rin said, "That's no reason to just up and kill them! They probably don't even know who we are."

"Is that so."

"Yeah, that's so!"

Now it was Rumia's turn to shake her head. "Let me tell you something, Rin. This nice girl attitude you've got going has got to go. You're not in your nice little mansion in the Bamboo Forest anymore. You're in the real world now, the wild world. And as someone who's lived in this world all her life, I can tell you straight up that the people here will _not _think twice about eating you if they can."

"Except they can't," Rin pointed out.

"Beside the point. Even if they can't, they can go give us up to someone who _can! _Like, oh I don't know, maybe _Yukari?"_

Rin frowned. "What is it with people in my head telling me to kill other people?" And before Rumia could voice an indignant reply, Rin added, "And I fought your evil alter ego to the death and won, remember? I'll fight if I have to. I'm just not going to go killing everything that gets in my way! That's the sort of thing that _she_ would…" Rin's voice trailed off. She looked puzzled.

"She? Who are you…Oh, Evil-Me." Rumia rolled her eyes. "Fine. Go make nice with all the predators out there. Just don't come crying to me when it ends us up in a cage. But for now, can we just go already?"

Rin didn't answer. She just tilted her head and kept frowning. It looked like she was listening to something.

"Rin? Hey, Rin? Rin Satsuki?" Rumia waved her hand in front of Rin's face. When that failed to produce a response, she clapped her hands in front of Rin's nose. "Hey!"

"What?" Rin said with a start. "Oh, sorry. I just think I heard something say your name."

"Say my…Huh?"

"Outside." Rin gestured toward the screen. "I've got the combined senses of four different people, so I can hear pretty well. And I think someone's talking about you outside."

Rumia slapped her palm against her face in exasperation. "Oh, for the gods' sake! What did I just get done telling you?"

"I don't think it's the mice. In fact, it actually sounds…a little familiar…"

"Familiar? That's even worse!"

"Not that kind of familiar. Not one of our pursuers familiar. More like something I got from your memories."

Now Rumia felt completely lost.

"I wonder…" Rin muttered. The view on the screen jolted as her physical body pulled itself fully out of the dirt. It started to move toward the outside.

"Rin? Uh, bad idea Rin," Rumia said. "Seriously, this is a really freaking bad idea! We don't need to know…Rin!"

Rin didn't even acknowledge her. She just kept moving forward. Her frown remained frozen in place while her eyes darted from one end of the screen to the other, as if she were searching for something.

"Rin, snap out of it," Rumia said. They were now fully out of the alcove and moving up the hill. Flowers and tall grass shriveled as they drew close. "Rin, seriously. This is stupid. Go back in the hill. We're right in the open now. Rin…"

"Rumia, quiet," Rin said. Her eyes didn't leave the screen.

Rumia wanted to strangle her. "What the hell's wrong with you? Don't tell me to be quiet! Get your scary-ass…ass down the hill and back into that cave!"

"In a minute. But for now, listen."

"Listen? Listen to what?"

Rin pointed. Against her better nature, Rumia turned her attention toward the screen. When she saw who Rin was talking about her anger was almost forgotten, replaced by surprise and recognition.

Rin had concealed her body behind a large stone. Beyond, three fairies were gathered near the top of the hill and were engaging in conversation. The first and apparently the leader of the group was wearing a red and white dress and had her short wheat-colored hair tied into two pigtails. The second's dress was also contained the color white, but she preferred black as a secondary color. Her golden hair was done up in spiraling curls. The third was dressed in blue and wore her midnight black hair long and straight.

The three fairies seemed to be suited up for some kind of expedition. The leader was holding a musket that looked so old that Rumia doubted that it was still in working order. The golden-haired one carried a large butterfly net over one shoulder and the dark-haired one was trying to pry open something that looked like a miniature bear trap.

"Hey, wait, I do know those guys!" Rumia exclaimed. "The one with the gun is Sunny Milk, the one that looks like she's going bug-catching is named Lunar Child, and that one that's about to lose her hand in that trap is Star Sapphire! They're another gang that sometimes helps us out on missions and stuff."

"I knew I recognized them from somewhere," Rin muttered. "Even if my recognition was really yours. But that's not why I came over here. Listen to what they're saying."

Now interested despite her previous protests, Rumia did so. Sunny Milk was speaking, her voice distorted as it was filtered through Rin's constructed ears.

"…_and I after that, I'm going to go get me my very own chocolate mansion!" _she exclaimed excitedly. _"Think about it! A whole mansion, made entirely of chocolate. Chocolate stairways, chocolate garden, chocolate swimming pool filled with melted chocolate! Great place to live, and whenever I get the craving for chocolate-"_

"_Which is all the time," _Lunar pointed out.

"_Right! And it'll be right there! I'll have to buy some spells to keep it from getting sticky or melting, but that shouldn't be a problem."_

Behind Lunar, Star had managed to pry the jaws of the bear trap halfway open. Arms trembling, she tried to push it down all the way. Then her fingers slipped and the jaws snapped shut. She leapt back with a startled cry, barely managing to avoid having her fingers severed right off her hand. She scowled and gave the trap a frustrated kick. _"Stupid piece of junk," _she muttered. _"Why do I always get stuck with the loser equipment? And there's no way you'll be able to afford all that with just one-third of the bounty. Heck, I don't think the full amount would be enough!"_

Rin shot a confused look over to Rumia. "Bounty?" she whispered.

"Yeah, you know. People want to get other people but can't do it themselves," Rumia whispered back. "So they offer money to some other people to do it for them, and whoever gets the first other people first gets the money."

"I know what a bounty is, dork. I was just wondering who they were after."

Rumia rolled her eyes. "Three guesses, Rin, and the first two don't count. Didn't I say this was a bad idea? And why are we whispering?"

"I dunno, it feels appropriate. And it might not be us," Rin protested. "Just because there's a lot of people that want to get us doesn't mean that there's no other wanted people in Gensokyo. Besides, I think Eirin and Yukari Yakumo would want to keep us a secret to avoid-"

"_If we catch this blob monster quickly, there will be more!" _Sunny declared. _"I mean, Yuuka Kazami's bonus on top of Cirno's bounty? And there'll probably be more than that! I mean, she wants Rumia back really, really badly."_

"Oh," Rin said. Her shoulders slumped. "Never mind." Then she frowned. "Wait, did she say Cirno?"

Rumia buried her face in her hands. "Yes," she muttered. "Why?"

"Oh, just wondering," Rin said. For some reason she sounded relieved. Normally Rumia would be asking why, but at the moment she had other things on her mind.

While learning that Cirno cared and was desperately trying to save her, the ice-fairy's actions were going to do much more harm than good. It was bad enough that people like Reimu, Yukari and Eirin were after them. Now they had to worry about complete strangers and as well.

Then something occurred to her. "Wait," she said with a frown. "D-did she also say Yuuka Kazami?"

"Um, yeah," Rin said. "Isn't that supposed to be some kind of scary monster lady?"

Rumia stared at her. "Um, yeah, there's no way in hell I can answer that question right now. We need to get back underground. Now."

"_You know, maybe if we hand it over to Yukari Yakumo instead, we can get more," _Lunar wondered. _"I hear she's after this thing too. And she might have more money."_

Sunny whacked her upside the head. _"Idiot! Like she'd pay us anything! Besides, Cirno will kill us! Remember Rumia?"_

"Rin! Now!" Rumia shouted. "Star can sense nearby motion! It's a miracle she hasn't noticed us already!"

"Hang on, I want to hear more," Rin said in that infuriatingly vague voice of hers. "How many people know about this-"

"_Hey guys, I think something's watching us," _Star said, her head perking up. She looked over to the boulder. _"There's something moving over there."_

"Move it, moron!" Rumia screamed. She grabbed Rin by the shoulders and started shaking her.

Rumia's panic seemed to snap Rin out of her hesitation. "Okay, okay, we're leaving!"

To Rumia's relief, the view on the screen lurched and turned around as Rin started to crawl back down the hill. But then the shouting started.

"_Wait, you're right! There's something there!" _Sunny started shouting.

"_Oh wow, what is that?" _Lunar added.

"_It's the monster!" _Sunny screamed. _"Shoot it, shoot it!"_

There was the sound of bullets and minor spells being fired off. Small flashes of light burst to either of the screen as some of the attacks missed their mark, though there were enough muffled thuds to indicate that some of them were making impact. While it was far from enough to actually hurt Rin, it was enough to motivate her to start hurrying. But instead of heading toward the alcove, she instead soared up into the air, almost to the treetops, and plunged back down. Even though she was no stranger to aerial acrobatics, Rumia couldn't help but flinch as the ground rushed up to meet them.

And then there was nothing but earth as Rin burrowed deeper and deeper.

Rin breathed a sigh of relief. She turned to Rumia, a wide smile on her face. This however died when she saw Rumia glaring at her furiously.

"Rin," Rumia said slowly. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you now and save Miss Yukari the trouble."

"Um, I think that might actually be impossible. Your psyche…mind…thing isn't strong enough to-"

Rumia swung at Rin's face. To her partial surprise, this time Rin didn't fade before contact. Her fist connected with Rin's nose with a satisfying squishing sound and Rin was knocked onto her back. Rin blinked and touched her nose. Then she looked up at Rin with confused eyes.

Rumia crouched over Rin, her pointed teeth bared in anger. "Listen to me, idiot," she hissed. "I don't care how smart you are. I don't care how many books you've read and how many tests you've aced. I don't care how powerful you are and what you can do. You. Are not. A _predator! _I am! Been one all my life! So I'm the only one who knows how to keep us alive! And so long as I'm stuck sharing the same space as you, you are going to listen to me when I tell you that you're doing something stupid! Do you understand me?"

Rin quickly nodded. Then she seemed to rethink this and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Rumia grabbed Rin by the armpits and hoisted her up. "Was that a 'No'? I really hope not. Because then we have a-"

Rin faded out of Rumia's grasp. She reappeared several steps away. Rumia felt like screaming.

"What's wrong with you?" she yelled. "Have you completely flipped? Do you _want _to die horribly?"

Rin gingerly poked at her nose. She grimaced. "Rumia, calm down already," she said. "We're fine."

"No we're not! Nothing about this is fine! Did your common sense forget to revive with the rest of you?"

"Okay, but freaking out and hitting me…And by the way, ow!...isn't going to help."

Rumia started to growl. Her fingers curled into claws. She was suddenly glad that Rin had recovered those memories of her more savage days. She had a feeling that they were about to come in handy. "Neither will going right out in the open every time you want to eavesdrop! And hey, _neither will heading straight into the favorite hiding place of the people that want to kill us!" _

"This again," Rin sighed. "Rumia, look. I told you already. We need information. And that's the only place we know of where to look."

"Why?" Rumia demanded. "We already knew my other-self was evil. What difference does it make for us where she came from? It's not like us knowing will make them want to kill us any less. They already know everything! We won't be giving them anything new! Seriously Rin, why is it so important that we find out where Evil-Me came from?"

…

Reimu stared at the tear in reality that hovered before her. She would be lying if she said that she didn't feel at least a little apprehensive. Though she had been through the Borderlands a number of times, she wasn't exactly enthused about their destination. Going to Makai was one thing. Going straight to Shinki's throne room was something else.

"Um, are you sure this is a good idea?" Reimu said as Yukari hovered the stone slab carrying the sword of the Shadow Youkai toward the gap. "Because last time I was at Pandemonium I really didn't leave a good impression."

"I know," Yukari said. She seemed almost proud of Reimu. "But don't worry about it. She won't do anything to you."

"Why, because she'll be too busy doing it to _you?"_

"Quick learner," Yukari said, looking pleased. "But my offer stands. Feel free to sit this one out if she scares you."

Reimu fumed. Even though she knew that Yukari was deliberately invoking her pride to get her to come along, she also knew that it was going to work.

"Low blow, Yukari," she said.

"Yes, I know," Yukari said pleasantly. She turned back to the gap. "Come along now. The Queen of the Infernal Flames of Hell is expecting us."

Reimu's right hand twitched. She wanted to slam a fistful of ofuda right into Yukari's back. Or maybe just her fist. But in a rare display of self-control, she restrained her violent urges and followed.

Yukari and the slab went first. As soon as they passed over the boundary, it was as if something sucked them inside and they quickly disappeared.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Reimu muttered. Then she stepped through the gap.

It was if something had seized her by every point on her body and pulled her forward. She had a brief but intense feeling of falling through a loud and windy tunnel.

And then she was stumbling across smooth warm stones. She regained her balance and looked around.

Black obsidian, shot through with glowing red cracks. Twisting pillars. Silent fire flickering along the edges of the room. A huge throne at the far end, in the shape of a massive winged serpent. And standing in front of it and speaking to Yukari were two tall people, one of them someone that Reimu would be quite fine with never seeing again and the other someone that she had quite expected to never see again. Both were similar in that they had six wings apiece curving from her shoulders, long white hair and their regal bearing, but the wings of the first were purple and batlike and the person herself was quite obviously female, while the wings of the second were composed of pure white feathers with the specific gender of their owner being too ambiguous to tell.

Reimu cleared her throat. "So, uh, Shinki! And Sariel. Good to see you guys again. Been a while."

Shinki glared at her and looked away, as if Reimu were beneath her notice. Sariel, however, smiled warmly.

"_Reimu," _she (or he? It was impossible to tell) said. Reimu blinked. This was the first time she had heard Sariel speak. Its voice was strange: ethereal and not entirely there, if such a thing were possible. It was almost as if she were hearing it with her mind instead of her ears. _"Welcome. I had not expected to see you again so soon."_

"What? I haven't seen you since I was a kid!"

"_As I said, so soon." _The Angel's eyes fell to the slab hovering at Yukari's side, and the sword sitting upon it. _"Though I regret that the circumstances are so unfortunate."_

"Unfortunate, yes," Yukari muttered. "That is one way to put it. A bit of an understatement if you ask me. And now that you've had the chance to see the sword for yourself, I think we can all agree that this blade is authentic, yet? This is one of yours."

"_No, not ours specifically," _Sariel said. _"Both of our blades are accounted for. Mine is right here, as you can see."_

The Angel indicated the elegant silver sword that she (Reimu was pretty sure it was a she) wore at the hip.

"Um, that really doesn't look anything like that monstrosity over there," Reimu said.

"Look at the hilts," Yukari said. "Color pattern aside, they're identical. And now look at the core of the Shadow Youkai's blade."

Shinki folded her arms and turned away.

Reimu frowned. Now that Yukari mentioned it, they were similar. It was as if someone had taken Sariel's sword, welded an entire box of sharp metal to the blade and dumped the whole thing into thick, black oil. The only bit of color to be found was the large round gem set in the cross grip. Though the stone itself was as black as the rest of the sword, from within came a pulsing red light.

"What's that?" Reimu said. She pointed at the stone. "Why's it blinking?"

"It's calling out to its master," Yukari told her.

Reimu blinked. "You mean the Shadow Youkai? It's calling for her?"

"So it would seem," Yukari muttered. "Fortunately, Rumia doesn't seem to have answered. Which probably means that she has yet to fully take control of Rin Satsuki. That buys us some time, but that's not the subject at hand. Is it, Shinki?"

Shinki's shoulders slumped but she didn't turn or acknowledge Yukari's question in any way.

"Did you hear me, oh Mistress of the Eternal Flames?" Yukari said. "What is the sword of a Fallen Angel doing in my country? I thought I had an agreement with you people. I gave sanctuary to you and your sibling, and in return I wasn't to be bothered with the rest of your kind." She gestured to the sword. "However, I'm finding that this bothers me. Quite a bit, in fact."

Reimu frowned. Sibling?

Though Shinki was the once addressed, it was Sariel who answered. _"This blade's presence is not our doing. It did not come with us. I for one am as befuddled as you are."_

"Oh, really?" Yukari said. "Well, that would be a relief, if it weren't for the fact that it's _not. _Surely you can agree that having an Archangel's sword, and an _extremely_ corrupted one at that, show up out of nowhere in my country and being wielded by a growing avatar is somewhat suspect, yes? Especially since I've already got two ex-Archangels hanging about."

"Two?" Reimu said. She looked at Shinki. "Wait, you're a Fallen Angel too?"

This time Shinki did speak. "What gave it away?" she said with her back still facing the others. "The six wings, perhaps?"

"Yeah, but they're way different from hers," Reimu said, pointing at Sariel. "I mean, hers are all feathery and stuff! Yours are more…I dunno, demonic."

Shinki laughed bitterly but didn't answer. Sariel said, _"I am not a 'she'."_

"Oh, sorry. No offense, but it's kinda hard to tell. His wings then."

"_I am not a 'he' either."_

"I…" Reimu blinked. "Um, that's the only possibilities I was aware of. Unless Angel reproduction is _way _more complicated than ours. Or you're a…you know…person with a foot in both camps."

Yukari snickered at that. "Angels are sexless," she explained. "They are neither male nor female. They do not reproduce as humans do, and their bodies are not directly based upon humans as fairies and youkai are. If anything, the inverse is true. But concepts like gender were invented solely for mortals."

Reimu's face twisted in confusion. She looked at Yukari and stuck her thumb at Shinki, as if to say "But she's got boobs!"

"_My sibling chose to forsake her true Angelic form upon being exiled from the Silver City," _Sariel explained. _"As such, she acquired a body with mortal characteristics. Though she does not age nor die, she now eats, sleeps, breathes as you do. And with this, she has taken on a gender. But as for myself, I chose to remain as I was created. As such, being referred to as 'he' or 'she' is grossly inaccurate. If you must refer to me with a pronoun, please us 'it'. I know that most humans would consider this rude, but it is at least accurate, and far less insulting as 'he' or 'he'."_

"I...Okay." Reimu pressed her fingertips against her forehead and groaned. "Look, I know you guys are already in the know about all this stuff about Fallen Angels, swords, mortal forms, genders and Angels that don't have parents but are siblings somehow and whatever, but as hard as I'm trying to keep up with all of this, I'm really starting to get a headache. So for the benefit for the poor, ignorant human who's probably gonna be in the middle of this mess and risking her very much mortal life, what say we start from the beginning?"

"A fair enough request," Yukari said. "After all, I did bring you along to learn. What say you two?"

Sariel looked over to Shinki. _"My sibling?"_

Shinki sighed. She walked over to her throne and collapsed into its seat. "Why not?" she muttered. "Go ahead."

"Thank you," Yukari said. "Though since this promises to be a long story, some place to sit would not go unappreciated."

Shinki flicked one wrist halfheartedly. The black stone of the floor suddenly heaved up in two places, forming itself into what looked like a pair of matching stone armchairs.

"Again. Thank you," Yukari said. She sat down and crossed her legs. Reimu gingerly sat in her own chair. Despite being made from warm obsidian, it was surprisingly comfortable. She wondered if it was due to proper body distribution or Shinki's magic.

The only person who remained standing was Sariel. Given Shinki's obvious bad mood, it appeared that it would be doing the majority of the storytelling. _"It is difficult to know where to begin," _it admitted. _"It is so rare that we have to explain this to someone with no previous knowledge. Reimu Hakurei, how much do you know about our kind?"_

"What, Angels?" Reimu shrugged. "The real ones? Not a whole lot. There're a few Christians over in the Human Village, but I've never talked to them. And they're the only ones I know who have anything to do with you guys. Aren't you supposed to be some kind of servants for one of the big gods in the Outside World?"

"_That is…an incredibly simplified way of putting it. But yes, it is our duty to serve our Creator and obey His commands."_

"Wait a minute, so he really is a 'he' after all? So he gets a gender and you guys don't? I mean, I know our gods have men and women, but you were starting to make me think that you Western types were all into androgyny. Come on, at least be consistent."

"_He," _Sariel said.

"Say what?"

"_Do not refer to Him as he. Refer to Him as He. With a capital H."_

"What?" Reimu exploded. "How in the flying hell am I supposed to pronounce a capital letter? And how can you tell if I am pronouncing a capital letter? It all sounds _exactly the same!"_

"Shut up, both of you," Yukari snapped. "I've had it up to here with these meetings dissolving into pointless bickering. We are not here to debate theology, we are here to address the threat at hand. So I'll thank you to stick only to relevant information."

"It started it," Reimu muttered, but she didn't press the matter.

Despite itself, Sariel looked somewhat abashed. _"Of course. My apologies. Old habits die hard, even after all this time. But you are correct in that we are the servants of the Creator."_

"Huh. That's kind of in the past tense now, isn't it?"

A small, sad smile appeared on Sariel's face. _"Yes. Unfortunately, a long time ago, a…significant number of our kind started to question our literal God-given roles and decided to express their disagreement. Through outright rebellion."_

Reimu nodded. "Okay, yeah. This I know. A bunch of Angels tried to take over and got their asses kicked. Then they got kicked out and started making trouble for mortals." At Yukari and Sariel's surprised looks, she shrugged and said, "What? I read. There's a whole mess of books that mention it."

"_Again, an oversimplified recounting of the actual event," _Sariel said. _"But yes, many of us united under a powerful and charismatic leader and attempted a coup. Their reasons for doing so differed from Angel to Angel, ranging from being convinced that they were truly doing the right thing to a simple desire for power."_

"And where'd you guys fit in?" Reimu asked. "I mean, you guys obviously got yourselves all fallen. Why'd you do it?"

Surprisingly, it was Shinki that answered. She shifted herself partway out of her slouch and murmured, "Actually, while I certainly rebelled with the others, Sariel was not among our number."

"_Indeed," _Sariel said. _"My own exile…came later, though the circumstances were related."_

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"_I disobeyed a direct order. As such, I was stripped of my rank and responsibilities. Your kind would call it being dishonorably discharged."_

"Okay, fine. But why?" Reimu pressed. "What did they want you to do?"

"They wanted Sariel to eliminate me," Shinki said. "They believed that our previous close relationship made it the best person for the job." A wry smile appeared on her lips. "Obviously the one who gave that order did not take into account that that very relationship would make it reluctant to attack its sibling."

"Jeez, Angels are just as messed up as we are," Reimu muttered. She turned to Yukari. "Are these the wonderful and holy beings of light everyone keeps going all gaga about? Seems kind of a letdown if you ask me."

Yukari smiled. "See? We can agree on something."

Reimu's face soured. She turned away.

Sariel shook its head. _"Despite what the stories may have led you to believe, Angels are imperfect beings as well. Otherwise, the Rebellion would never have happened. But while we may not err to the same degree as mortals and their brethren, when we do, the results are much more catastrophic."_

"Yeah, no kidding. Good going, guys. Really appreciated. But okay, so you got kicked out because you didn't want to kick Shinki's ass. Fair enough, I wouldn't want to either. But what about her? Why'd she throw in with the bad guys?"

"_She…ah…"_ Sariel turned to Shinki. _"Well, as she continuously points out, my opinions of that situation are somewhat biased. So perhaps it would be best if she explained it herself."_

Shinki looked uncomfortable. "Is this really important? After all, I am not the one-"

"Tell her, Shinki," Yukari said. The ancient youkai was obviously enjoying the situation immensely. If her smile were any smugger, Reimu would become tempted to punch it off just on general principles.

"Fine," Shinki snapped. "You've obviously got me on a noose here. My reason was that I did not like how things were being run. I felt that if an all-powerful Creator was going to create intelligent beings lesser than Him, He should at least approach them on their level, instead of sitting on His throne being all omnipotent and dictating things without explanation."

"_Which He ended up doing," _Sariel pointed out.

Shinki waved that off. "Not remotely what I had in mind, and that happened centuries after anyway. But still, I do admit that the Rebellion was a colossally bad idea. Like many others, I was led to believe that once we were in power, things would be different for Angels and mortals alike. Things would be better, with none of this hierarchy based upon factors that we could not even control, that we would be able to choose for ourselves what functions we fulfilled. But come to find out that the only point for the Rebellion was the power. The leader, the Archangel that started the whole mess, didn't give two yen about improving life for lesser beings. It just wanted to see what the view was like from the top of the mountain."

"So, what'd you do?" Reimu asked. Despite the fact that she still wasn't entirely clear on what this had to do with the Shadow Youkai, she was growing fascinated. While she had heard tales of the Angels' Rebellion and their fall, this was the first she had heard a firsthand account.

"What did I do? I betrayed the betrayers. I left them and fled. I thought that the Archangels would be too busy squashing the remainder of the Rebellion to notice. I was wrong."

"And then Sariel was sent after you," Reimu said, putting the pieces together. "She…Sorry, _it _refused, and got kicked out."

"Correct. That was actually what led me to surrender myself," Shinki said. "It did not seem right that Sariel should suffer for my sins. I gave myself up and offered information on the other renegades' whereabouts. I thought that by doing so, they would have mercy on Sariel."

Reimu eyed Sariel. "But seeing how it's standing right here in a place that's kind of a Hell, I take it things didn't work out."

"_Not necessarily," _Sariel said. _"My eviction from my post was permanent. And Shinki's own actions ensured that she would never be welcomed back into the Silver City. In fact, there was talk of sending us both into the Abyss."_

"The where?"

"Angel Hell," Yukari muttered. "The original, to be specific. Far less nice than this place."

"Ah. Got it. That sucks."

Sariel nodded. _"Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. Michael, our commander, intervened and had our sentences lessened. Instead of being damned, she was simply exiled from the Silver City, never to return." _It bowed its head. _"I was sent with her, to keep an eye on her make sure she never fell back to her old habits. That's was the official reason, at least. In truth, I was as much an exile as she was."_

"That…doesn't sound too bad."

"So says someone who's never been there," Shinki said. A ripple of pain passed over her face. "It's where we came into existence. As such, it is quite literally a part of us. Imagine, Reimu, to be forcefully ejected from Gensokyo for eternity into a harsh wasteland of utter darkness, never again to feel the warm sun on your face or the grass beneath your feet. You would be cut off from the magic of this place, cut off from its light, never again to have peace of mind. That's what it's like. Only much, much worse."

For once, Reimu didn't have a smartass reply. She just found something on the ground to stare at and fidgeted uncomfortably.

"And I suppose you can figure out the rest," Yukari said. "Some time later, the Creator the Angels serve was growing in popularity among Humans, and as such they were forsaking their beliefs in their native gods and spirits. Without an influx of faith, the gods were quickly losing strength and the spirits, including youkai such as myself, were risking extinction. And so I struck a deal. We would be allowed to make a sanctuary of our own, one that any so-called 'Pagan' principality" Yukari signed quotation marks with her fingers "could dwell without fear of being wiped out by this foreign religion. The agreement was that once this happened, we would have nothing to do with the inhabitants of the Silver City and their Creator, and they would have nothing to do with us. We would mind our own business and do our best to pretend that the other didn't exist." She gestured toward the two Fallen Angels. "Of course, these two figured that since they were exiles, that meant they could apply for citizenship. They appealed to me for asylum, but I wasn't too hot about giving it. The last thing I needed was a couple of the Silver City's war criminals. But to make another long story short, disagreements were made, compromises were struck, and they were allowed in. Shinki then decided that she wanted to try her hand at this whole Creator business, and I needed someone to run Makai, so I gave her the keys and the rest is history."

Reimu sat and pondered what she had just learned. There was no denying that she had been ignorant of this bit of Gensokyo's history. And now that she was in the know, she wasn't exactly sure how she felt about all the celestial politics involved. In fact, as interesting as the story had been, she had a feeling that she might have been happier remaining unaware that the country she loved and protected was in many ways a supernatural refugee camp. It was…disquieting.

Still, there would be time for disillusionment later. Right now there was a more immediate issue to deal with. "Okay," she said. "That was…a pretty cool story and all. But there's something I kinda need clearing up." She jumped to her feet and thrust a finger at the Shadow Youkai's sword. "What the _hell_ is that thing and how did it get here?"

Sariel looked surprised. It exchanged a look with Shinki. _"She's right. Goodness, haven't we gotten away from the main point."_

"Not really," Shinki said. "It was more of providing background. Giving her a frame of reference. And to answer your question Reimu, you do recall the part I mentioned about how I forsook the Rebellion?" At Reimu's nod Shinki continued. "Well, I wasn't the only one to do so. Some of the others had come to their senses, much as I did. Others became impatient with the way we were doing things and felt they could do better. Ironic, considering that was why we had rebelled in the first place." She took a deep breath. "And then there was Azrael."

To Reimu's surprise, Yukari didn't react to this new bit of information with the air of smug superiority she had been radiating this whole conversation. Rather, her eyes bulged open and she leapt to her feet with a startled gasp. "A-A-Azrael?" she stuttered. "This thing is _Azrael's?" _

Reimu, however, was just confused. "As a rail? Who's like a rail?"

"_Azrael," _Sariel corrected. Just saying the name seemed to make it uncomfortable. _"One of the Angels who rebelled. And one of my siblings, as Shinki is."_

"And to answer the question that you've no doubt been wanting to ask this whole time, no, we are not siblings in the way humans judge the word," Shinki said. "After all, we do not have parents. To us, a sibling is another Angel who serves the same function. We worked closely together and as such, developed very close relationships."

"Okay, fair enough," Reimu said. "So what was you guys' jobs?"

"_Angels of Death," _Sariel said.

Reimu made a choking noise in the back of her throat. She got in under control and managed to say, "Oh…Kay…"

"_It's not as horrible as the word seems to imply," _Sariel said. _"Our function is…or as I should say, _was _to assist mortal souls as they transcended from one life to the next. Not too dissimilar from what your Shinigami do, actually. Though on rare occasions, we would have to step in and end a mortal's life prematurely for any number of reasons, but those were in extreme situations." _The Fallen Angel's perfect brow wrinkled in a frown. _"Though I have to admit, we've had to do this more often with Humans than any other people. You truly are a rambunctious bunch."_

"Up yours," Reimu growled.

"_I don't have one."_

Yukari, who was only now recovering from her shock, grew angry. "I said no bickering!" she snapped. "Azrael. Stick to Azrael."

"_Right. Of course. And I apologize, Reimu. As I have just finished explaining, my kind is capable of far worse things than yours ever will be. But as I said, Azrael was also given charge over the souls of the recently departed. However, it seemed to…How do I put this…"_

"Enjoy its job a little too much?" Shinki suggested. "Because let's face it: it really did."

Sariel nodded. _"Yes, that's it exactly. Of course, being the naïve beings we were, we just assumed that it was due to the satisfaction of fulfilling its function for the glory of the Creator. But every time we were called to step in and end a mortal's life, it would be the first to volunteer. Even when the situation was horrible. In fact, that only seemed to make Azrael enjoy it all the more."_

"Of course, after the Rebellion was underway that we realized the truth," Shinki said. "Azrael enjoyed killing. It cared nothing for the well-being of mortal souls. It just wanted to end their lives as often as possible. And as it no doubt felt that the rules and principles of its office were restraining, it was one of the first to rebel, and became one of the Rebellion's lieutenants. I truly doubt that it cared anything for the coup. It just went with the team that would allow it to kill more. And once the Rebellion started to fail, it abandoned them completely and struck off on its own. Much as I did actually, though for completely different reasons." She swallowed noisily. Her face was starting to gleam with sweat. In fact, she looked like she was going to be sick. "It…turned renegade. With no one restraining it anymore, it devoted all of its energies to pursuing its hobby. The worlds it ended…the peoples it destroyed…"

"_Everyone was shocked, even its former comrades in the Rebellion," _Sariel said. _"By then, it was obvious that Azrael was a monster, but we had failed to realize just how sick it had become. The times of the Rebellion were horrible. No one knew who to trust. Siblings turning on siblings, our former friends trying to destroy everything we had worked so hard to create. But Azrael…was easily one of the worst parts. Everyone on both sides agreed on this."_

"Except for the one who started the whole Rebellion to begin with," Shinki muttered. "Pretty sure that one just found it funny."

Reimu was starting to feel a little sick herself. "So that's what we're dealing with?" she asked. "Some kind of celestial serial killer?"

"_You mean Azrael itself?" _Sariel shook its head. _"No, that much is certain. After it began its rampage, apprehending it became one of our highest priorities. As powerful as it was, it was outnumbered, outmatched and…not exactly keeping a low profile. Azrael was found, defeated and damned to the Abyss, where it remains to this day. Though not before it…" _Sariel grimaced, a very mortal-looking expression _"…it did a great deal of damage. We fortunately were able to stop it before it got to the Humans, but…There are no words to describe the things it did."_

Now Reimu was even more confused than before. "Hang on, you mean you beat her? It? Whatever? It's in Angel Hell forever, right? So what's up with the scary sword thing, and where did the Shadow Youkai come from?"

Shinki stood to her feet. She walked over to the levitating stone slab and gazed upon the abomination it contained with disgust. "Azrael was beaten, yes, but it was not in its possession of its sword at the time. We tried to make it divulge the blade's location, but it refused, most likely in hopes that something like this would happen."

"You see Reimu," Yukari said. "The blade of an Angel, the Archangels especially, are more than just weapons. They are imbued with a significant portion of the Angel's strength and woven out their very essence. If, say, the blade of an Angel damned to the Abyss were to have its sword fall into the hands of a mortal, the sword would then attempt to corrupt them, to seduce them into taking the sword for themselves. And if person were to give in, their very soul would be scarred. Twisted. Turned into an avatar of the Fallen Angel that had once possessed the blade."

"Oh. Damn. Well, that's not as bad as having the actual Angel around, right?"

"It's still a catastrophe," Shinki spat. "Left unchecked, an avatar will grow in power until they, for all intents and purposes, _become _the Fallen Angel that had created them. Almost a reincarnation. And then the whole mess would start anew. This actually happened on a couple of occasions. In one instance, an entire race of people were corrupted beyond saving before the avatar was stopped." She turned to look at Yukari and Reimu. "And just think of what an avatar of Azrael would be like."

"I don't need to," Yukari said shortly. "We've met."

Sariel said, _"Besides, as much as Azrael glorified in death, it was still somewhat limited by its function. Mortals have proven to be far more…creative when it comes to certain things. Imagine a creature with Azrael's love of death and a mortal's talent for petty cruelty."_

"Fuck," Reimu muttered under her breath. She walked away to the other end of Shinki's throne room. This situation had already been too complicated as it was. Now it was even worse.

She put her hands on her hips and sighed. Not for the first time, she found herself longing for the incidents of times past. Spoiled vampires interfering with the weather. Bored Celestials knocking down buildings. Naïve ghosts stealing spring away. Things would get messy, she would go in with some friends or rivals, knock some sense into whoever was responsible, and everything would get sorted out. More often than not, she would end up becoming friends with the culprits. But it was difficult to picture this Azrael coming over for tea.

Then she thought about Rumia, the silly little youkai that ran around with Cirno playing pranks and causing mischief. She thought back to the encounters they had had. That time when she had jumped Reimu and Marisa back when Remilia Scarlet was causing trouble, that time she and her friends had decided to drop an entire sheet of snowballs onto Reimu when she had been praying (the fact that it had been in the middle of summer had done nothing to improve her feelings on the matter), and of course, that incident with the noodles. There was always going to be that incident with the noodles.

It was impossible to imagine that such a little idiot would have something so terrible as the avatar of a homicidal Fallen Angel contained inside. To be honest, the more she thought about it, the more chilling it became. It made her wonder what other horrors were sealed away around her, out of sight. She shot a glare over to Yukari. _She_ probably knew about each and every one of them. Reimu wondered how many people had died because of Yukari Yakumo's secrets. She had a feeling that she wouldn't like the answer.

Well, there was nothing to be gained by inaction. She turned and walked back to the group. "Okay," she said. "So we've got someone possessed by a Fallen Angel-"

"_Not exactly possessed," _Sariel said. _"It certainly has been gifted with Azrael's abilities, knowledge and…personality, but not its memory or consciousness. Corrupted would be a more accurate term."_

Reimu threw her hands in the air. "Fine! Whatever. It's Azrael Mark 2 in the making! What exactly do we do about it? Get your Angel friends to come and take care of it?"

"Absolutely not!" Yukari shouted. "Reimu, do you think for one second that letting any of that bunch into Gensokyo would solve anything? Certainly, they'll take care of the Shadow Youkai, but as we are at _best _competitors, all it would take is having some of their more zealous members decide that it was their duty to remove us abominations and we'd end up losing Gensokyo anyway!"

"For once, I agree with her," Shinki said. "Involving the Silver City will probably end up causing more harm than good. More likely than not they'd come to the conclusion that the best way to end the threat would be to annihilate this place entirely."

Reimu swallowed. "But…your agreement and all…"

"_Extreme times call for extreme measures," _Sariel said. It spread its hands. _"That's what they would say. The appearance of Azrael's avatar would certainly qualify."_

"Okay, I'm convinced," Reimu said quickly. "And no offense, but you Angels are starting to sound like a bunch of _dicks."_

Yukari snorted back laughter. Surprisingly enough, so did Shinki. Then the two looked at each other and stopped laughing immediately. Yukari cleared her throat and Shinki quickly looked away.

Reimu rolled her eyes. "And they say Humans are immature," she muttered. Then she turned to Shinki and Sariel. "What about you two? I mean, you may be all fallen and all, but you've got to be more than a match for a simple avatar."

"_This is true," _Sariel agreed. _"And if we were dealing with the Shadow Youkai directly, we would be able to overcome and defeat it. It is obviously far from being fully formed. In fact, having its sword in our possession gives us a tremendous advantage. I believe that if we are able to subdue it and keeping it from reclaiming the blade, we can force Azrael's essence to abandon its host and return to the blade. This…will take some doing, I'm afraid, but it is possible."_

"Really?" Reimu perked up. "You can do this?"

"_Certainly. In its incomplete state, the avatar, this Shadow Youkai, is most certainly dangerous, but if weakened the balance between Azrael's essence and its mortal host would become disrupted, allowing for it to be extracted. Obviously this becomes more difficult the more powerful it becomes, but in its current state a sufficiently advanced curse god could probably do it. I'd…advise against going that route though, as the energies would be probably too much for it to digest and might end up…doing something bad. Not entirely certain, as such a thing has never happened. Fortunately, so long as we have this sword, that won't be necessary."_

"Well, great then!" Reimu said. "We'll do that then!"

Yukari grimaced. "Unfortunately, it's not quite so simple."

"Oh." Reimu's shoulders slumped. "Of course it isn't."

"Is it ever?" Yukari said.

"No, not really. And let me guess. Rin Satsuki."

Yukari nodded. "Very smart of you. So long as the Shadow Youkai remains within Satsuki, extracting her will be difficult. We don't know the full extent of Satsuki's adaptability, and with the regenerative immortality of Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou added to the mix, things are even more complicated. We would throw everything we've got at Satsuki and the Shadow Youkai might not even feel a scratch. It would, of course, be simpler were it to take full control of Satsuki and thus bring itself to the fore, but since that would mean it could summon the sword away from us in an instant, extracting her would suddenly become…even more complicated."

Reimu took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Okay…Fine. Original plan then. We find Satsuki. Defeat Satsuki. Capture Satsuki. Find a way to force the Shadow Youkai out without giving it the opportunity to take the sword away, beat the shit out of Rumia and then you yank all of Azrael's essence away and put it back where it belongs. Does that just about sum things up?"

"More or less," Yukari said. "Obviously it will take a great deal of work, but so long as we act quickly I don't believe it is beyond our capabilities. In the meantime though…" She looked over to the pair of Fallen Angels. "Am I correct in assuming that I now have Makai's cooperation in this matter? After all, you now have a personal stake in all this."

"_Of course," _Sariel said. _"We will do what we can to ensure that Azrael's legacy does no more damage."_

Shinki hesitated. She sucked in air between her teeth and let in out in a sigh. "Yes, we will cooperate." That admission seemed to cost her something. Reimu wondered at the exact details of her relationship with Yukari. She then wondered if she would ever find out. Probably not.

"Though I should point out that while we will help dispose of the Shadow Youkai," Shinki continued. "Don't count on us to throw in with your grudge match with Yuuka Kazami. That's entirely your affair."

"Yuuka," Reimu muttered. "Shit, I forgot about her."

"Fair enough," Yukari said. "But in the meantime, I'd really appreciate it if you kept the exact details of the Shadow Youkai's origins under wraps. I've got my hands full already preventing mass riot."

Shinki nodded her agreement.

"I'd also appreciate it if you held onto this infernal thing for the time being," Yukari said. She gestured toward the sword. "I'd really rather not have it in my house, and you'll need it on hand."

"_Again, of course," _Sariel said. _"But you do realize that should its master call for it, there is nothing we can do to prevent it from answering."_

"One crisis at a time, please," Yukari muttered. She sighed. "Well, I suppose that's everything. I have a great deal I need to prepare for, and now so do you."

"Yes, I suppose so," Shinki muttered.

"Good. Well then, you two know where to reach me. Reimu, come along."

Yukari walked away from the throne toward the gap that still hovered in the air, connecting the tower of Pandemonium to her house. Reimu moved to follow, but something made her hesitate.

She looked back at the two Fallen Angels. They were standing and staring at Azrael's sword. Sariel had its hand clasped under its chin. It appeared to be deep in thought. Shinki however had brought one hand to her face while the other crossed over her breast, lying to rest in the opposite elbow. That the Queen of Makai was feeling a considerable amount of stress was evident. Reimu was actually a little surprised that she wasn't bursting into tears.

And then Shinki's shoulders started to shake. Reimu swallowed. Perhaps she had judged too quickly. For the first time, she felt a stab of pity for the former Archangel. After having suffered for past mistakes and exiled forever from her home, a piece of the very thing that had cost her everything had forced itself back into her life. Reimu couldn't even begin to imagine how she felt.

"_Reimu?" _Sariel said, startling the shrine maiden. _"Is something the matter?"_

"Oh, uh, no," Reimu said quickly. "I'll, uh, yeah."

She turned and quickly ran through the gap.

…

Yukari watched as Reimu finally reappeared in her home. She raised an eyebrow. "Saying your goodbyes?" she said.

Reimu shuddered. "Something like that, I guess."

Yukari nodded. She waved a hand, closing the gap. "It's a lot to take in, I know. No doubt you're feeling a little overwhelmed."

"Oh, you have _no _idea."

"You'd be surprised," Yukari said with a shrug. She walked over to the fireplace. A small focus of will, and the dead cinders ignited anew. "But still, it's better to know, yes?"

"I guess you could say that," Reimu muttered. "But hey, one more thing. This…avatar of Azrael, Rumia. Why is she called the Shadow _Youkai? _Shouldn't it be something like the Shadow Angel?"

Yukari shrugged again. "That's how she introduced herself."

"So…could the avatar have been a youkai? One that picked up the blade and got turned into a nightmare?"

"Hmmm, I suppose it's possible," Yukari said. She looked up at the ceiling and tapped her lower lip as she thought. "Not very likely though. As I understand it, a Fallen Angel's sword needs an actual soul to corrupt, and there's not many youkai running about with those. More likely than not, it was a Human originally. But even then, the term wouldn't be incorrect. After all, a Gensokyoian Human elevated to a new type of supernatural being does fit the definition. Perhaps Rumia, whoever she was originally, was simply using a term she was familiar with."

"I guess," Reimu muttered.

"But still, if you have no more questions at the moment, you probably should be getting home. As I told those two, we all have things we need to take care. Oh, and speaking of which, you are not to tell anyone about Azrael either. That information is only to be dispensed on a need-to-know basis."

"Then why'd you let me know?"

"Because you needed to know," Yukari said primly.

"Whatever," Reimu sighed. "Probably as good an answer as I'll get from you."

"The girl learns," Yukari said. "Oh, but feel free to tell the turtle. If anyone can be counted on to keep a secret, it's him. And his advice would be invaluable."

"Advice, huh?" Reimu folded her arms. "Since when do you ask him for advice?"

"I meant for you."

Reimu glowered. "Fine, whatever," she said with a roll of her eyes. "I'll be going then. But, ah, Yukari? One more thing?"

Yukari raised an eyebrow. She waited.

"Don't think for one minute that all this crazy means I've forgotten the whole thing with Marisa," Reimu said. The shrine maiden's voice had a dangerous edge to it. "We're definitely going to be talking about that later."

Without another word, Reimu stormed from the room out the front door. A moment later, she was gone.

Yukari stared after her. Despite the gravity of the situation, she couldn't help but smile.

"She really is her mother's child," she muttered.

…

_Deep Within_

More than an hour had passed since Rin had nearly gotten the two of them killed. During that time, Rin had concentrated on putting as much distance between them and Sunny Milk as possible, all the while avoiding meeting Rumia's eyes.

For her part Rumia had no problem with eye contact. She sat with her legs crossed and arms folded, her crimson eyes fixated Rin. She waited.

More time passed. Rin remained silent.

Rumia cleared her throat. "So. Rin."

Rin flinched. "Y-yeah?"

"You, ah, wanna answer my question now?"

"Question?"

Rumia's eyes half-closed. "Yes. Question. About why it's so important that we find out my origins?"

"I'm kinda busy right now…"

"No, you're really not. Talk."

Rin let out a frustrated groan. "It…just is. Okay?"

"Okay?" Rumia repeated. "Is it okay that you almost got us caught by being stupid? Hmmm, let me think about that_NO!" _she screamed. "No it's not! Why, Rin? Why do we have to risk our lives for something that won't even help us? We should be trying to survive here! We should-"

"That thing killed me!" Rin shouted back. She jumped to her feet and whirled around to face Rumia. Rumia, momentarily surprised by Rin's sudden outburst, couldn't help but jerk back.

"That thing killed me," Rin said again. "And it threatened to kill Reisen too. In horrible, horrible ways, just to get at me. And it laughed while it did it. We're finding out what it was, Rumia. We're finding out where it came from and why it was inside your mind. So please. I'm sorry about messing up back there, but we are going through with this. So _sit down _and _shut up!"_

Rumia stared. She wasn't sure where this angry and assertive Rin came from, especially in light of how annoyingly cheerful the Kirin had been as of late, but she had a feeling that she meant what she said.

"I…uh…" Rumia nervously licked her lips. "I'm already sitting down."

Rin sighed. With that, her anger seemed to fade away. "Yeah, I know. You…you know what I mean." She crouched back down. "I mean what I mean what I mean," she muttered as she started to rock back and forth on her heels.

So now she had gone back to being crazy Rin. Fantastic. Rumia sighed and flopped onto her back. She stretched her legs out and let her arms fall to their full length at either side as she stared up at darkness. It just figured that she would start to fall apart again. Especially since there was something that Rumia needed to talk to her about. The trip to Hakurei Shrine and the thing with Sunny had driven it out of her mind, but it had slowly returned. Now it was gnawing at her mind, along with everything else.

She grimaced. Screw it. She didn't have the patience to wait for Rin to be fully lucid. For all she knew she would be waiting for the rest of the year. She pulled herself back up.

"Hey, Rin?" she said.

"…what I mean I mean…Huh?" Rin stopped her rocking. She turned to look at Rumia with confused eyes.

Rumia cleared her throat. "Um, sorry to bring this up, but it's kinda been bothering me. Look, are you _sure _Evil-Me's really gone? I mean, what if it's just-"

There had been any number of reactions Rumia had been expecting to her question. Dismissal, maybe. Condescending reassurance. Another lapse into muttering. But instead, she got outright panic.

"No!" Rin screamed suddenly. She fell back on her behind. Her arms and legs scrambled as she scooted away from Rumia. "She's dead! I _felt _her die! She's dead, dead, dead!"

"Okay, okay!" Rumia said. She held up her palms in a placating gesture. "I get it! Calm down!"

Rin started shaking. It began with her head but spread to her whole body. "She's dead," the Kirin muttered. She lay down on her side and curled up in a ball, her back to Rumia. "Dead. She has to be dead. Dead and gone. Die…gone."

Rumia stared at the bizarre spectacle. _Sheesh, she's worse than ever, _she thought bleakly. Whatever excited, optimistic energy Rin had acquired upon her revival was now gone. Rumia wondered if it would be back. She wondered if she wanted it to.

She looked down at her hands. In her mind's eye, she pictured them holding a card. On the card was a hideous horned creature, chained to a naked man and a naked woman.

"The Devil," she muttered to herself. In her mind she could hear Mima's voice speaking the words with her. "The destroyer from within."

…

_Wow, this is getting kind of dark, isn't it? =sweatdrop=_

_Alrighty, I've got a lot I want to touch on, so let's dive right into it._

_First order of business. The fourth chapter of Rhapsody of Subconscious Desire went up last week. Check it out if you haven't already. Especially if you're a fan of RTS's. You'll see what I mean._

_Second order of business, this chapter. The decision to mix in Judeo-Christian elements was kind of a worrying one, especially since how they tend to ignite flamewars. But it only made sense, given that Sariel is kind of an Angel. Besides, ZUN has confirmed that Christianity does exist in one form or another in Gensokyo, so that worked out (check out Ellen's dialogue from PoDD). Still probably would have done it though. I subscribe to the Neil Gaiman school of thought when it comes to using religion and mythology in stories. _

_I love American Gods. :D_

_Anyway, moving on. This chapter's kind of a milestone for a number of reasons. To begin with, we finally get some concrete information on Ex-Rumia's origins. Not all of it though. Don't wanna let the full cat out of the bag just yet, especially if I can milk even more meandering plotlines out of it! MWAHAHAHA!_

_Yeah, I'm kind of a dick something. ;)_

_Next, this is the twenty-fifth chapter. In addition to being a nice round number, it is also one-fourth of one hundred. Will this story live long enough to get that far? No idea. Only time will tell._

_After that is something far more significant. I really wanted to get this update up today, because…today is Imperfect Metamorphosis' first anniversary! Woohoo!_

_=balloons, confetti, those irritating noisemakers=_

_Yep. One year ago today was when the very first chapter (penned mostly in script-form in my notebook when I should have been paying attention in class) went up. Obviously the story has grown quite a bit since then, though it's kind of funny when you think of it. You wanna know how much time has passed in-story? A little over a week. Yeah…_

_Seriously though, a massive thank-you to everyone who's been reading/reviewing/telling other people about this story. This is the first thing I've written for any audience bigger than a twenty-person classroom, and hearing from you guys has made every minute of it worth it. You let me know when I was doing something right and didn't cut me any slack when I screwed up. That is…really awesome. So thank you. And here's to another year of updates! Maybe this time we can get in a whopping two weeks' worth of events! _

_Joking, joking. Sort of. We'll see._

_Okay, there was something else I was going to bring up. Something important, but for the life of me I just can't remember what it was. Let's see: RoSD, Ex-Rumia, twenty-five, anniversary…What was it?_

_Oh, wait. That's right. Drumroll please._

_=baddabaddabaddabbadda=_

_Thank you._

_=takes a deep breath=_

_Imperfect Metamorphosis got its own TV Tropes page._

_=pause=_

_IMPERFECT METAMORPHOSIS GOT ITS OWN TV TROPES PAGE! _

_YESSSSSS!_

_Okay, this is seriously very exciting. I've been having my free time waste away in that site for a few years now, to the point where it's probably my most visited bookmark. And now that IM has an article of its own…_

_=lets out a very girlish squeal=_

_Anyway, I know I've thanked you already, but Jiven? Dude? YOU FUCKING ROCK!_

_So yeah, now I have a special request for all you tropers out there (Guy You Met Online, Sect, Devilrose87, This Troper from Gensokyo, One-Week Wizard, everyone from the Touhou thread on TV Tropes, etc) and hell, everyone else too. On my profile you'll find a link to the article in question. As you see Jiven, along with Makuta9999 and Whatshisgame (damn, I feel like some kind of stalker with all this name-dropping), have already done an amazing job. But there is always more room for growth! So click on that edit button and go crazy! Add more tropes, lengthen the description, whatever! Or, as a very wise woman put it…_

_Make._

_My._

_Monster._

_GROW!_

_Until next time, everyone!_


	26. Sanctuary Denied

Sanctuary Denied

As bright and clear as the weather had been the last few days, the skies were starting to darken. Grey, melancholy-looking clouds were accumulating, blotting out the blue of sky and the light of the sun. The air hung damp and heavy. The winds had stilled, almost as if they were drawing breath to blow. A storm was coming.

All thorough Gensokyo, people were taking notice. The laundry was being brought in, tools were being properly stored, homes checked for leaks, farmers were thanking the gods for the coming rain while praying for mercy from the winds, wild youkai and fairies were retiring to their makeshift shelters while those who rejoiced in the rain were impatiently watching the skies, waiting for the first drops. A storm was coming.

Perhaps the gods who held domain over the weather wished to wash away the last clinging bits of winter with one fell stroke. Perhaps they had taken notice of the dramatic events that were taking place and decided that the sunny peacefulness was an inappropriate backdrop. But either way, a storm was coming.

And in a small grassy copse near the southeastern boundary of Gensokyo, one of those events had decided to surface. The leaves of grass suddenly shook, as if something had seized their roots and surprised them. Then they slowly dipped down as their life slowly drained away. Green gave way to grey, to brown, to finally black as they shriveled completely. In the center of the decay, the ground pushed up, revealing the head of a strange pale woman, surrounded by an aura of twisting flashes of red, purple and black. She looked around, apparently checking to see if anyone had spotted her unconventional entrance. Then she began to rise up.

…

_Deep Within_

"So, uh, I think this is it," Rin said.

Rumia glowered balefully at the Kirin. "Is that so."

"Well, you would know better than I would," Rin said with a shrug. "I mean, I've never been here before, you know? Could you…check the screen and see if we're near the shrine?"

"I thought you had all my memories."

"I've _looked through_ your memories," Rin corrected. "And that was just for general knowledge. There's a lot of information to go through. It's not like I've lived your life or anything."

"Fine, fine," Rumia groused. She pushed herself to her feet and walked over to the screen to have a look. After a moment her shoulders slumped.

"Yeah," she said. "We're close. You just go up that hill and you'll find a path that'll take you right to the shrine grounds." Despite the fact that they had reached their destination, Rumia felt no triumph. On the contrary, her feelings about the matter were that of dejection mixed with resignation.

Rin didn't answer. She just nodded. The view on the screen shuddered and lurched as Rin's body lifted off the diseased ground and headed toward the path.

Rumia sighed and walked off to be by herself. This was a bad idea. She had already told Rin what a bad idea it was many, many times. But now she had given up. Rin wasn't listening, and it was beyond Rumia's power to make her do anything. And so there was nothing to do but wait and pray that things didn't turn out too disastrously, though the fact that most of the gods were on the other side wasn't lost on her.

Then Rin made a small squeak of surprise. "Uh…R-Rumia?"

_Oh, here we go, _Rumia thought bleakly. And they hadn't even gotten to the shrine yet. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Is…What's that there? I don't think it's supposed to be there."

Grimacing, Rumia turned around, expecting to see Yukari at the head of an entire army waiting for them. Instead, even with expectations like that, her mind was not prepared for the sight that greeted her. She made a startled _glurk! _sound in the back of her throat. Her jaw hung slack and she stared.

Even though the shrine was still almost a mile away and shrouded by trees, its location was plain as day, thanks to the barrier that covered the entire grounds. It was huge, a gigantic bubble of energy that rose nearly half a mile above the treetops. Its surface was lavender in color, with varying shades ranging from light pink to deep purple swimming and pressing against each other, and yet never mixing.

"That…wasn't there before…" was all Rumia could think to say. She shook her head. "Wow. I guess…they're taking us seriously, huh?"

"Yeah," Rin said in a small voice. "Great."

Rumia took a deep breath. "Well, there goes that. Come on, let's get…Rin, why are we still moving toward the big bubble?"

Which was exactly what was happening. The view on the screen had once again started to move down the path as it rounded a small grove of trees before evening out and heading for the steps that led up a small hill, on top of which sat the shrine grounds.

"I'm not giving up now," Rin mumbled. "Not after all that."

Rumia gulped. The red gate that stood over the front entrance, the Torri, was now visible. And steadily growing large. The barrier began directly in front of it, right behind the final step. "Rin. Turn around. Right now. Turn around right now."

They were now ascending the steps, moving closer toward the gate. There was something sitting on the top step, something squat and rectangular.

Rumia ran up to where Rin was sitting. "Okay, I've officially stopped caring about how crazy you are. GET your ass AWAY FROM THAT THING! It's a freaking security system! That means they're _expecting _us to show up! Who's to say they don't have watcher wards as well? Please Rin, let's get out of here before-"

"Hey Rumia?" Rin said. The inquisitive tone of her voice seemed to indicate that she hadn't even heard Rumia's pleas.

"_WHAT?" _Rumia screamed.

Rin pointed. "What's that thing there?"

Rumia growled. She angrily whipped her head toward the screen, expecting to see something even nastier than the barrier.

But once again her expectations were proven wrong. There, sitting on the top step and directly in front of the barrier, was a wooden box. Characters of some kind were painted on its side. The top was open, but covered with a grate.

"Uh…" Rumia said, her confusion mixing with her anger and fear and doing so badly. "I…think that's her donation box?"

Next to the box was a sign on a pole. Rin squinted at it.

"Uh…" she said. "It says, 'Shrine Temporarily Closed Due To Ongoing Incident. Please Place All Donations Within Box. All Blessings Apply As Usual. Seriously Guys'."

"Seriously what?"

"That's what it says."

Rumia now felt utterly stumped. Her previous sense of urgency had not gone away, but being in such a dangerous place and running into something so silly and trivial was driving her brain into an involuntary non sequitur.

"I…guess they're closed?" Rin shrugged.

"Looks like," Rumia said. She shook her head, trying to force herself to think straight. The ironic part was that at any other time, she would have been delighted to learn that she had forced Hakurei Shrine to close down, just for the laughs. Cirno would have considered it a prank for the books. But now…

"Okay," Rumia said. "So they're closed. Big deal. It's not like we can get in anyway. Come on, let's get out of here before someone sees us."

Rin frowned. "I can get past this…" she muttered.

Rumia did not like what she was hearing. "What?"

"Barriers. Back when I first went up against Eientei, before I got locked up? I found out that I can adapt to barriers as well. They're really not that big of a deal to me."

"So?" Rumia demanded. "It looks like one of Miss Yukari's! She probably has some extra nasty surprise set to go off if you touch it-"

Rin's body reached out with one shimmering hand and pressed it against the barrier.

…

Reimu lifted the singing kettle from the small stove. A slight tilt, and steaming water poured into the waiting cup and attached teabag. This was placed upon a waiting tray along with a bowl of rice mixed with smoked fish. Reimu lifted it up and carried it outside.

Once outside, she couldn't help but scowl at the sky, or at least where the sky should have been. Yukari's annoying barrier was back. She supposed that it made a certain amount of sense, seeing how the threat of Crazy-Unkillable-People-Eater-With-Overpowered-Homicidal-Manic-In-Its-Head had recently been upgraded to the threat of Crazy-Unkillable-People Eater-With-Overpowered-Homicidal-Manic-In-Its-Head-Who-So-Happens-To-Be-Powered-By-An-Insane-Fallen-Angel, but it meant that she had to put up with a giant glowing bubble thing blotting out both the sky and the horizon. Not only did it spoil the view, but what little traffic her shrine might have seen was now cut off. Fortunately she had enough foresight to put out her donation box before it had gone up, but her hopes hadn't been high.

With a sigh she headed out behind the shrine, toward the cherry tree grove. Well, in fairness there wouldn't have been much of a view anyway. From the feel of things the weather was turning nasty. If that was the case, then maybe having a barrier would become a blessing in disguise. Though the disguise was admittedly a major eyesore.

Reimu settled down against one of the trees on the bank of the pond. She slowly munched on her food and sipped her tea as she stared out at the still waters and thought. As annoying as the barrier was, it was far from the most pressing matter to her mind. What she had learned about Azrael and the Shadow Youkai had changed the game in every way possible.

But surprisingly enough, the issue most weighing on her mind wasn't the threat to Gensokyo. It was her promise to Reisen. Reimu felt a gnawing sense of uncomfortableness as she thought about the Lunarian's tear-streaked face as she begged Reimu to help save Rin Satsuki. What was she supposed to do about that now? If Satsuki hadn't already been dominated by the Shadow Youkai, than she soon would be. Did keeping a promise she wasn't even comfortable with justify risking the thousands of lives threatened by Azrael's avatar? Everything in her screamed "NO!"

There was a raspy clearing of a large throat, and someone said, "So, you gonna tell me what's on your mind, or should I just stare at you for awhile?"

Reimu sat straight up, nearly upsetting her lunch in the process. She had been so deep in thought that she hadn't noticed when Genji had risen from the pond and lumbered over to her side.

"Jeez Genji, don't startle me like that," she said as she settled back down.

The elderly turtle let out a coughing chuckle. "Eh, you were gonna be askin' for me sooner or later anyway. Figured I would just skip to that part. Not my fault if you can't even pay attention to what's in front of your own nose." He cocked his head. "So, missed you yesterday. Where've you been?"

"What do you mean? I was at Yukari's meeting, that Ringleader thing."

"Yeah, nice try girlie," Genji said with a dismissive snort. "That thing ended early two days ago."

Reimu blinked. "What? How'd you know…I mean, what gave you that-"

Genji laboriously settled his heavy body down on the grass. "Got my ways. One of 'em being a certain green-haired ghost hollerin' up the place, wonderin' where you went to."

"Oh," Reimu said. She sighed. "So that's how she found me." Then she frowned. "Hold up, how'd you know where I was?"

"Didn't," Genji said. His massive shell shifted in a manner that was probably intended to be a shrug. "Jus' told her to check the place you was most likely to be."

"So it was a lucky guess that had her show up at Moriya Shrine? Figures."

Genji cocked his head quizzically. "You was at Moriya? I was thinkin' that vampire house."

"The SDM? Why?"

"Dunno. You just been hangin' out with the little bloodsucker more than the competition, so I figured you liked her more. Then again, she did say she had already been to see Remilia and didn't run into you, so I guess it makes sense…"

Reimu rolled her eyes. "No, I've been hanging out with Remilia _longer_ than Sanae. And…" Reimu hesitated, and said, "Despite the fact that she's pretty much a green-haired knockoff of yours truly, I gotta admit: it's…nice. Sometimes. To have another shrine maiden to talk to."

"Is it now?"

"I guess," Reimu said with a shrug.

"Even if her shrine be pullin' six times in a day what you make in a whole month…"

Reimu gave Genji's smirking head an admonishing, but gentle, kick. "Shut up. It's your fault we're in the middle of freaking nowhere and somehow forgot to include an actual god."

"Hey, I didn't pick the place," Genji chuckled. "I jus' signed up for the pond-space. Seriously, a whole pond to myself? There are places where you hafta _buy _that kind of privacy." Then his ancient yellow eyes gleamed craftily. "So, you wanna tell me why in the middle of a big-time country-wide emergency, you decided to go hang out with your green-haired knockoff? And don't bother with the BS. You know I can tell when you're lyin'."

"You are not going to let this go, are you?" Reimu sighed. She picked out a piece of fish from her bowl and tossed it to him.

He caught it in his beak and greedily slurped it up. "Hey, the freaky ghost woke me up with her screechin'. I'm at _least _entitled to know what got her panties in a twist. Something to do with that witch of yours getting tossed behind bars?"

Reimu blinked. "You know about…Never mind, of _course _you know. And yeah, that happened, and I'm _still _going to find a way to kick Yukari's ass for that. And…a bunch of other stuff happened too."

"Bad?" Genji guessed.

"Bad," Reimu confirmed with a nod. She set the tray with the nearly empty bowl aside. "A lot of bad. And a lot of confusing. And a lot of…frustratingly complicated."

To Genji's credit, he didn't make fun of her as he was usually wont to do. Instead, he just settled back down and said, "All right. Mima already told me what down in the meetin'. So start with what happened after that."

"Well, it actually started around in the middle. See, it was the end of the first day, and I was in my room…"

For the second time in so many days, Reimu explained the late-night visit she had gotten from Reisen Udongein and the promise she had made. She went on to describe meeting with the denizens of Moriya Shrine and the deity of the Temple of Myouren and the ensuing clash of personalities and interests. She told him of Mima's surprise visit and learning of Yukari's arrest of Marisa and how it was suspected that the witch would be used against Yuuka Kazami. She told him of going to confront Yukari and the debate they had had.

And then she told him of the sword and how they had gone to Makai to speak to Shinki and Sariel. She got partway when Genji did something very uncharacteristic. He interrupted her.

"_WHAT?" _he shouted. He was suddenly on all four feet quicker than anything of his build had any right to be. "Azrael? The Shadow Youkai is the effin' avatar of effin' _Azrael?"_

Reimu stared, her mouth hanging agape. "I…uh…seems to be?"

Genji stared right back. Then he turned around and plodded closer to the trunk of the tree. He drew his neck back and, to Reimu's continued surprise, started to bash his forehead against the trunk. Repeatedly.

"Damn!" he howled. "Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn damn damn damndamn_DAMN!" _He gave the tree one last thump and turned away in disgust. Reimu tilted her head. From what she could tell, Genji's head had survived the pounding completely intact. The tree, however, was now sporting a fashionable new dent.

"Oh, I am gonna rip Yukari a new one over this," Genji complained. "How'd something like that the sword of effin' Azrael comin' in escape her notice? Girl's been slackin' far too long. Yuuka Kazami was bad enough, but this? This is _completely _unacceptable!"

Reimu cleared her throat. "So, uh, I take it you've heard of her? I mean it?"

"It? You mean Azrael? Gods_damn_ it girl, of _course _I have! I'm a lorekeeper! It's my effin' job! And let me tell you somethin' right now, kid. You are _way _out of your league with this one. Hell, even Yukari's gonna be put to the test with this one. Do yourself a favor and sit this one out."

"What?" Reimu gaped. "D-did _you_ just tell _me_ to _not _do my job?"

"This ain't your job," Genji growled. "This ain't no incident, no uppity youkai or overzealous goddess or some shit. This is apocalypse-level catastrophe in the making, and you ain't got the experience, power or know-how to solve it. Leave it to the people who do."

"Like hell I will!" Reimu shouted as she leapt to her feet. Unfortunately, the heel of her foot landed on the edge of the tray, upsetting the almost-empty bowl of fish and rice and pouring out the remainder of its contents. She gave it an angry glare and kicked it aside, spilling the rest.

"You think I'm just going to stand aside and let my friends stick this out alone?" she demanded. "Marisa and Remilia are already trapped in this, Sanae's probably already out in the field, Suika's going to be on the front lines, Mima's in this as deep as anyone, and as much as I want to punch her in her smug, stupid face, Yukari's going to be endangering herself too. I'm not going to just sit down and let them risk their lives while I do nothing!"

Genji's nostrils flared. "Young lady, there's a time and place for bravery, but when it starts to become hotheaded _stupidity, _it-"

"Besides," Reimu said. "I already promised Reisen I'd help get her Kirin back. And Kanako and Byakuren agreed to help. I can't just back out now. I thought keeping your word was a big deal for you ancient types."

The elderly turtle's glower burned even hotter. For the briefest of moments, Reimu could have sworn that she caught an actual flash of red in those rheumy yellow eyes. For some reason, the hairs on the back of her neck rose up.

Then he sighed and slumped back down. "Damn it, you had'ta bring that up," he growled. "Hell of a time for you to grow a conscience and start caring about honor, kid."

Reimu allowed herself to relax, just a bit. She sat back down. "It was bound to happen sometime."

"Why'd it have to be now, though?" Genji closed his eyes and shook his head. "You're right, I guess. It wouldn't be fair to expect you to sit this out. But Reimu, let me tell you something. _Be careful! _I mean it. That Azrael…Man, that thing was a piece of work. I mean it. It was almost as bad as its boss, and seeing what a right bastard that guy turned out to be, that's sayin' something. It's said that the only reason it wasn't the leader of the Angel's Rebellion was that it cared too much about killin' to bother with leadin'. Probably a bit of exaggeration, but the point remains. Don't do something stupid and get yourself killed. Because if that Shadow Youkai gets loose, that very well might happen. In fact, it probably will. Don't. Let. That. Happen."

Reimu felt a chill run through her that had nothing to do with the cooling weather. She nodded.

"As for this Satsuki girl, 'fraid I don't have much to suggest about her. I mean, it's all good and nice that you're willin' to stick up for the kid, but again, don't let your promise blind you to the fact that she's crazy dangerous. There's a hell of a lot of monsters that used to be victims themselves and just got pushed too far. Might come a time where the kindest thing you could do for her is puttin' her out of her misery."

"I know that," Reimu sighed. "I've heard it already from a lot of people. And no, I'm not planning on putting Gensokyo's safety above hers. I just…" She shook her head. "Okay, to be honest, I really don't know what the hell I'm doing. I guess I just felt bad for Reisen, and just got myself committed."

"If I had a yen for everyone who's made that mistake," Genji muttered. "Wouldn't do me any good, of course. No way I could spend them, but still…"

"Yeah, I know. Do me a favor though. Don't tell Yukari. About me trying to help Satsuki."

Genji looked troubled. "Kid, I dunno if that's a great idea. Yukari has this funny way of findin' these things out."

"She also has a funny way of completely ruining everything you're trying to do if she thinks you'll get in the way," Reimu pointed out.

"Well, I ain't gonna tell her." Genji stretched out his neck and started snapping up the bits of spilled rice and fish. "Word of warnin' though," he said with his mouth full. "She's gonna find out sooner or later."

"Then make it later," Reimu said. "At least it'll give me some time to figure things out."

Genji swallowed the last of Reimu's lunch. "Good luck with that. And I mean it. Outsmartin' Yukari ain't easy. Believe me, I know."

Reimu leaned back. Through the branches of the cherry tree, the barrier continued to swim above them. "Hey Genji, can I ask you a question?"

"What, you expectin' throat cancer?" Genji said with a snort. "Go right ahead. No promises that I'll answer though."

"You've been around a long time, right? Like a really long time."

"That's your question? Thought that had been established already."

"No, that's the lead-up. You've trained a lot of shrine maidens, right? A lot of my ancestors. Has any of them faced anything this big?"

Genji fell silent for a moment. When he did answer, his voice was slow and cautious.

"Well now, that's something of a trick to answer. Gensokyo's faced apocalypse before, sure, and your great-whatever-grandmas were involved. Ain't gonna lie, a couple of them fought their final battles in those. And if you wanna get technical, the Shadow Youkai's first killin'-spree actually ranks higher than this does, what with her being all loose and active at the time. So yeah, things have gotten this hot before."

He hesitated, and then continued. "Though if you be askin' about if things have gotten as bad as they might get, well now. That one's easy. No."

Reimu nodded, slow and deliberately. "I thought so. Just my luck, huh?"

"Typical shrine maiden arrogance," Genji grumbled. "Always thinkin' that you always has it the worst. Been plenty of shrine girls with worst luck than you, kid. Well, maybe not compared to _now, _but when you take in how things work out generally…"

"Yeah, I get it," Reimu muttered.

The two of them sat in silence. Reimu looked out at the grove of trees. If it weren't for that damned barrier, it was exactly like any other calm, spring day. Thousands of tiny little pink buds adorned the branches. Soon enough they would be blooming, covering the grass with their petals. Reimu surprised herself by wondering if this was the last bloom those trees would see.

Suddenly the silence was rudely interrupted. A horrible screeching noise filled the air, rising and falling in a pulsing wail. Reimu yelped in surprise as she leapt to her feet and clamped her hands over her ears.

"What is that?" she shouted to Genji.

The elderly turtle was wincing as the noise assaulted his ears, which he was unfortunately incapable of covering. "Oh, damn it all," he said, though she could barely hear him. "That's the alarm."

"The what?"

"The ALARM!" he shouted at her. "Yukari put it into the barrier! Didn't think it would be so annoyin'!"

Annoying was an understatement. Reimu felt like two oni were having a wrestling match inside her head. "She put in an _alarm? _Is she crazy? This place is swarming with youkai! I can't have this thing going off every time one of them wants to take a potshot at the big purple bubble!"

"Yeah, except it won't! Thing's not designed to go off if someone shoots the barrier. It's set to go off when…" Genji's eyes widened. "Oh crap."

Reimu did _not _like the sound of that. "What?"

"It's set to go off if someone tries to _drain _it."

Reimu inhaled sharply. "Satsuki," she breathed.

A minute later she was in the sky and above the treetops. She flew in a wide circle, trying to see where the disruption was coming from.

Genji floated up after her. "What are you doin'?" he demanded. "You're not planning on fightin' her alone, are you?"

"I'll figure that out when I _find…_There!"

She had spotted the intruder. There, at the front gate, she could see a blurry humanoid shape standing right beyond the barrier. The purple energies were swarming around a small section at its middle, brightening to a hot pink. That was probably where she was touching it.

Reimu set her teeth. She swooped down to about a foot from the grass and headed right for the disturbance. The vague figure grew more distinct as she neared. She caught a glimpse of startled eyes, glowing lavender even through the wall of the barrier. And then Satsuki whirled around and took off.

"Reimu, stop!" Genji shouted after her. "You're being an idiot!"

"I can't let her get away!" Reimu shouted back.

"At least call for backup! Look, you can contact Yukari through the Ying-Yang Orb. She'll be here in a-"

Reimu froze in mid-air. That's right, she had forgotten about that. In fact, Yukari would probably be contacting her soon enough, wondering what the alarm was all about.

"No!" she shouted. "In fact, don't let her come here!"

Shock filled the reptile's face. "What? Are you nuts? Why-"

"Stall her. Lie to her. I don't care. I don't want her coming here and messing everything up!"

"Messin' _what _up?"

Reimu anxiously looked out to the area beyond the barrier. She was losing precious time. "I'm going to try to talk to Satsuki, and Yukari will just interrupt us with shooting big holes in everything! So don't let her come here!"

"Like hell I won't! Kid, I am not going to let you-"

The shrine maiden was already moving. "That's an order!" she shouted over her shoulder to the sputtering turtle. Then she flattened her arms against her sides and shot forward, through the barrier and out into the forest beyond.

To her relief, Satsuki wasn't even bothering to hide. Instead, she was flying away in a straight line, literally tearing her way through the trees and leaving a trail that a blind man couldn't miss. Reimu redoubled her speed and moved to intercept. As she did so, she tried to ignore the increasingly persistent voice in the back of her head that was screaming at her for how much of a suicidal idiot she was being.

…

Genji stared as the talented but _very _mortal Reimu Hakurei flew off in pursuit of an ungodly abomination. He couldn't fathom what the girl was thinking. Granted, flying head-first toward ridiculously overpowered opponents was favorite strategy of hers and it had served her well so far, but this lunacy was beyond the pale. Even if Azrael's avatar had yet to seize control of Rin Satsuki, Satsuki herself was still stronger than Reimu by a significant margin, not to mention a great deal crazier. Reimu was risking becoming the nutcase's next meal.

But what really rankled Genji was not that he was powerless to do anything about it, but that there were a number of things he could do but was prevented from doing them by a number of outside factors. He certainly could just up and tell Yukari what was happening, and to be truthful he probably would have done that, Reimu's wishes be damned.

But she had to go and give him a direct order. Again, that wouldn't have been such a big deal if he were Human. He could just disobey her. Unfortunately, he was not a Human. He was something much, much older, something that, among other reasons, had been placed at Hakurei Shrine to assist the Hakurei family. And since Hakurei Shrine lacked a proper god to center its devotion, that meant the maidens were the ones in charge. They rarely asserted their authority. In fact, many of them had come to see him as something of a parental figure, someone who should be listened to and respected. Which was completely true, but when push came to shove, he still had to do what they said. Such bindings, so often disregarded and warped by the very humans he served, were kind of a Big Deal to creatures like him. It got stupid at times, and in cases such as this is felt like the spirit of the law was being strangled by the letter, but as much as he hated himself for it, he wasn't going to break it.

Of course, he could always just try to solve the problem himself, without Yukari's involvement. But unlike her, interfering directly would…change things. For the worst. And as much as he liked, perhaps even loved, the spunky little girl, the long-term ramifications of him asserting himself in that way were not worth saving her life.

But still, her life did have to be saved. She was currently the only living Hakurei, and if that line ended, then the worst case scenario would end up happening anyway. At the very least, Yukari would throw a tantrum. Not normally a big deal, but when the person losing their temper was capable of whisking entire layers of the earth's crust away in anger…

Still…

Genji's eyes narrowed. He turned and started to fly back toward the shrine. Even with the problems Reimu's idiocy were forcing on him, he was not without options. However, first he had to deal with a certain someone, a someone that had probably already noticed the fuss.

The Hakurei Ying-Yang Orb sat in the center of the shrine, resting on top of what could only be described as a makeshift altar. Reimu had thrown it together from some planks and building stones she had found in the storehouse and had covered the whole contraption with flowers to pretty it up. All the while Genji had carefully explained to her that while the Ying-Yang Orb was certainly a magical and holy object it its own right, it was intended to be a weapon, not an object of worship. Her response had been something to the tune of "Don't care. I'm broke and this is the closest thing I've got to a holy relic."

Of course it hadn't worked, but Reimu had left the little altar up anyway, in hopes that the word would one day spread. Genji thought it was all foolishness, but upon entering the shrine he was suddenly glad she had left it in place, because it meant he was treated to the amusing image of Yukari's insubstantial form rising partway out of the orb and looking around for Reimu, almost as if Hakurei Shrine had finally gotten the deity it desired and said deity just ended up being totally bewildered.

"_Reimu?"_ Yukari's form said. _"Reimu, where the hell are you? Why'd the alarm go off?" _Apause, and then,_ "That's it, I'm coming over there-"_

Genji floated into the small room. "Oh, there you are! Good, I've a bone to pick with you, girlie."

Yukari's head snapped up. _"Genji! Good. What's going on? Is Satsuki attacking?"_

Genji cocked his head to one side. "What?"

"_I _said_, is the-"_

"I don't care, I ain't talkin' to you so long as this damned alarm is tearin' up the place! Turn it off!"

Yukari rolled her eyes but nodded. A second later, the noise ceased completely, blessing Genji's earholes with glorious silence.

"Oh, that's so much better," he muttered.

"_Glad to hear. What happened? Where's Reimu?"_

"What happened? I'll tell you what happened, you overzealous nitwit! A couple of youkai went and set off your blasted alarm! Reimu went to go chase them off."

It was a dangerous game that Genji was playing. There were very few people who could successfully lie to Yukari Yakumo, and those who were caught tended to have their future prospects suddenly cut off. It was just Genji's good fortune that he was one of the people who could.

However, that didn't guarantee his success. Yukari's eyes narrowed. _"A couple of normal youkai. Really."_

"Yeah. As it turns out, the place is _swarmin' _with them. Who knew?"

"_How…interesting. Odd that the alarm would go off then, especially since I specifically designed it to only go off-"_

"When someone tries to drain the barrier," Genji finished for her. "Yeah, I know. Guess it's real fortunate that out of the thousands of youkai out there, that Satsuki gal's the only one that has the ability to drain energy! Lucky how things worked out, ain't it?" His eyes flashed. "You made the damned thing too sensitive, you daft fool!"

Yukari's head snapped back. _"Excuse me?" _she demanded.

"Oh, don't give me that crap," he growled. "And come to think of it, how about locking me out of the loop about the Shadow Youkai bein' the avatar of effin' _Azrael? _Think that would be the sorta thing I'd need to know, don't'cha think?"

Yukari folded her arms. _"I only just found out myself," _she said. _"And I instructed Reimu to tell you everything, which she has presumably done. You have nothing to complain about." _

"Really? Would've been nice if you came and delivered the information yourself, 'stead've sendin' a proxy."

"_Hmmm, I smell a forced change of subject," _Yukari said with a glower. _"What are you hiding, old lizard?"_

"What did I tell you about callin' me that?" Genji growled. "And you can play the paranoia card all you want. Ain't gonna change the fact that I am right pissed at you."

"_Really. Well, heaven forbid I should incur your wrath. And are you sure you're not hiding-"_

"Why did you let the Sword of Azrael into Gensokyo?" Genji demanded.

That actually stopped Yukari in mid-sentence. She blinked and tilted her head. _"I'm sorry, are you implying that I am not doing my job correctly?"_

"No. I'm outright _sayin' _it. Or at least, you weren't doin' it when that disgustin' thing wound up in our country! Were you asleep at the time? Must've happened durin' winter, eh? 'Course, it would have just as much a chance as any other time, seein' how much time you spend actually keepin' an eye on things! 'But no,' she says. 'It's all right. I'll just take everyone else I know and force them to solve the problem for me! I'll probably end up outlivin' them all anyway, so it won't even matter in a hundred years or so'."

He got the reaction he was digging for. Yukari's arms dropped to their sides. Even when filtered through semi-transparency, there was a visible tremor to them. And her incorporeal avatar was starting to flicker, signaling her now lessened hold on her control.

Yukari sucked in a deep breath and regained control. When she spoke, her voice was slow and deliberate. _"If you think you can do a better job, you're more than welcome to try. But seeing how we both know that's not going to happen, then you and Reimu are just going to have to live with my methods, aren't you? Now if you'll excuse me, I have three insanely overpowered monsters to defeat. Go back to your pond, old lizard."_

She started to fade away. Genji surprised himself by feeling relieved by his success. Now, all he had to do was try to contact-

Yukari's image suddenly refocused itself. _"Wait," _she said, suspicion filling her voice. _"Reimu went to chase off a couple youkai, correct? Why didn't she take the Ying-Yang Orb with her?"_

Genji wasn't sure whether to cheer or break out into a cold sweat. Well, he couldn't actually sweat, but the metaphor still applied. "She didn't need it," Genji said. "A couple of annoyin' youkai ain't no match for her, orb or no orb. And I really don't think she wants to talk to you right now. Or have you talking to her."

"_Does she not?" _Yukari said with a roll of her eyes. _"Human girls. They never change. Well, I should probably check in on her anyway. Just to be safe."_

_Yes! _Genji thought enthusiastically. _Do that! Ignore everything I'm about to say and get down here! _

"Sure, go ahead," Genji said. "Though I should point out that she's already major pissed at you about arrest her best friend. And this will just make things worse. You don't want another Hakurei shrine maiden to tell you that she never wants to see you again, do you? I thought we were tryin' to stop making that happen."

_Come on, _he thought. _It's obvious that I'm trying to keep you away. Act on your suspicion. _

Unfortunately, it seemed that he was a little too skilled at manipulation for his own good. Yukari's eyes widened and her head jerked back just a bit, almost as if she had been slapped. There was a long pause, and then she said, _"Very well. I'll…see about decreasing the barrier's sensitivity."_

"You do that," Genji said despondently.

Yukari disappeared without another word.

Genji started cursing. He cursed Reimu for giving that order and flying off alone, he cursed Yukari for being fooled, he cursed himself and the binding code of honor that was now getting in his way and he cursed himself again for being too good at these sorts of things. He had deliberately tried to anger her, true, but it wasn't supposed to have driven her off. Apparently her pride and past mistakes were too much of a vulnerable point.

Well, no use dwelling on his unwanted success. Having Yukari actually back off for once was a annoying, sure, but there were other alternatives. There were other people he could call, people that Reimu had not forbidden him to speak to. He just hoped that the time he had wasted with Yukari would not end up killing the shrine maiden.

…

_Deep Within_

"I _told _you so!" Rumia screamed in Rin's ear. "I told you it was a stupid idea! Did you listen? No, you didn't listen!"

"Okay!" Rin shouted back. She pushed Rumia away. "I get it! Now stop yelling in my-"

Even though their bodies weren't actually physical and the empty space that they inhabited did not technically exist, the "ground" still swayed and pitched as Rin swooped and turned her way through the forest, no doubt symbolizing Rin's panic. Trees and branches flew past, withering in her wake. Her speed was impressive but she lacked technique. The trail she was leaving had to be ridiculously obvious, especially since she wasn't focusing as much on dodging as she should, and in many cases ended up going right through trees instead of around.

Rumia, however, wasn't interested in providing constructive criticism. She had other things on her mind. Namely, Rin's recent rash of stupidity. "Get it? You get it? You didn't get it after the last time, why should I believe that you got it now?"

"Shut up!" Rin shouted. "I'm trying to concentrate here!"

"Well, gods forbid that I should get in the way of _that!" _Rumia threw her hands in the air. "And while you're at it, maybe you can concentrate on being less of a-"

Rin took a sudden turn and Rumia found her feet sweeping out from under her. She rolled on her shoulder and landed in a crouch. Then she looked up and froze.

The view on the screen was tilting up and up as Rin gained altitude. They were now flying in a completely vertical path. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the sudden attack of physics meant that Rumia was now slipping backward as the invisible ground turned into an invisible wall. Rin, it should be pointed out, was unaffected. In fact, she didn't even seem to notice Rumia's predicament.

"Rin?" Rumia shouted. She clawed at the tilting surface, futilely searching for any kind of handhold. "I don't know what's causing this, but fix it now!"

No answer.

"Rin!" Rumia screamed. The slope was now too steep. She tumbled back, falling into the darkness.

…

Reimu wasn't having any difficulty tracking Satsuki. However, she was having considerable difficulty following her. The trail that the taint had created continued in a more-or-less straight path, but it also cut through a lot of foliage. Rin Satsuki had burned through the worst of it, but there were still a lot of vines and small branches slapping her face. Of course, she could have always just gone above the forest. There was enough space between the trees for her to still have seen the path. But unfortunately, she wasn't thinking all that clearly.

_Come on, where are you? _she thought desperately as she shielded her face. She twisted hard to the right to avoid clipping a half-rotted trunk. _Where are you, you freak of science?_

Then the branches overhead cleared up for one moment, giving Reimu a clear view of the sky. Her eyes widened when she saw a faintly glowing figure shooting straight upward.

_There! _Reimu braked hard and shot up as well. Above her, high enough that she was closer to the clouds than the forest, Satsuki was slowing down.

Reimu cupped her hands around her mouth. "Rin!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Rin Satsuki! Wai-"

There was a flash of light and heat. Reimu's instincts took over and she spun to the right, just in time to avoid a fist-sized fireball.

"_Leave me alone!" _Satsuki shouted at her, her voice distorted and unnatural. _"Go away and…Oh no, I forgot!"_

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia's fall came to a sudden halt. She hung suspended, surprised and terrified.

Then someone grabbed her and yanked her straight up. She screamed the whole way.

And then she came to a sudden stop.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I got distracted and didn't notice you!"

Rumia looked up. She was near the screen and was staring up at Rin. From her perspective, it looked like Rin was standing on the side of a completely vertical wall. Rumia felt a brief wave of vertigo rush over her, making her nauseous.

Whatever it was that was holding her let go. Apparently gravity had been fixed, as she fell a short space to plop on the invisible wall that Rin was sticking out from, which had turned back into an invisible floor. The sudden change made her so dizzy that she couldn't even think about standing up.

"Are you okay?" Rin said. She rushed over to Rumia. "I'm so sorry. I just panicked, and my emotions started spilling over into this mind-space thingy!" She reached out and touched Rumia's shoulder. "I swear, I didn't mean to-"

The touch banished Rumia's feelings of nausea. She bared her teeth and leapt for Rin's throat.

"I'll kill you!" she snarled. "I'll rip out your-"

She hit empty nothingness. Rin had faded away just in time.

"Stop doing that!" Rumia screamed in frustration.

Rin reappeared a few feet away. "I said I'm sorry! And we really don't have time to fight right now."

"Well, you'd better make time, because you are long overdue for a-"

Then she caught sight of the screen.

"Rin!" Rumia screamed. "Miss Reimu's _right there!" _

"I know that, that's what I've been trying to-"

"Stop talking and _shoot her already!"_

…

Reimu was confused. After the initial attack, Satsuki had stopped moving entirely. At first she assumed that Satsuki had seen something that she hadn't, but no, they were still alone.

The shrine maiden wasn't sure what was going on, but she wasn't going to waste time worrying about it. She took advantage of Satsuki's distractedness and closed the distance between them.

But then Satsuki came alive again. The mutated Kirin's fists were both aflame. She started swinging, sending more spheres of fire Reimu's way. Reimu twisted and turned, dodging the blazing attacks. She was briefly thankful that Satsuki was apparently using Mokou's powers instead of the Shadow Youkai's, but then she remembered that being set on fire would kill her just as effectively as the taint. And it would probably be a lot more painful as well.

Reimu glanced down. Her heart fell. Some of the trees were starting to burn. Perhaps the twisting death attacks would have been better. At least then she wouldn't be risking a forest fire.

"Rin, wait!" Reimu said as she dodged her way upward. "Stop it! I need…Damn it! I need to talk to you!"

"_Talk to this!" _Satsuki shouted back. The flames covering her hands cut off immediately, to be replaced by a sparkling glow in every color of the rainbow.

Satsuki pressed her palms together and thrust them down at Reimu. Multicolored beams of energy shot down, filling the sky with color. Reimu grimaced in frustration as she dodged the energy Satsuki had stolen from Kaguya. This was going nowhere fast…

Then Reimu realized that despite the huge amount of power being unleashed on her, she had yet to so much as graze a single attack. She looked up at Satsuki, who was still pouring sparkling energy down upon her. The Kirin certainly had anger and drive, but she was seriously lacking in the technique department. A very different creature from the one that had so easily dispatched Reimu and her friends at Eientei. A sign of the Shadow Youkai's lack of influence, perhaps?

Heartened by this observation, Reimu shot upward, effortlessly moving around the glittering attacks. She deliberately moved closer to some of the larger ones, to the point where she was almost touching them. Her body tingled as it automatically absorbed some of the excess energy, which was then used to increase her speed.

"_Stop it!" _Satsuki screamed. _"Leave me alone!"_

"I'm just trying to help!" Reimu shouted. "Though the gods alone know why. So stop shooting already!"

Satsuki did so. But before Reimu had a chance to feel relieved, something started to happen. The light of day, already muted by the clouds, became even dimmer. The clouds overhead started to grow fatter and roll over each other, darkening from grey to black. Silent lightning started to flicker. A bitter wind started to blow.

Reimu forced herself to a sudden stop. "Oh _shit!" _she whispered.

Darkness was gathering around Satsuki's hands, so thick and black that it almost looked tangible. It angrily swirled around, gathering in strength.

Reimu started to turn around. Maybe if she moved fast enough, she could avoid being turned into a shriveled and blackened corpse.

And then two huge green hands, one from above and one from below, shot out of nowhere and smacked Satsuki between a crushing clap. The darkness disappeared immediately and the weather calmed down.

Reimu remained floating where she was. Her mind had frozen in shock. Her mouth was hanging slack and her eyes were bulging out of their sockets. One of the hands had wrapped around Satsuki's torso in a tight-fisted grip while the other was flicking her in the head with its fingers.

"I..." Reimu choked out. "…what…is…."

"Eyerok's Twin Firsts of Fury," a soft voice murmured from somewhere behind her. "Not very popular, but highly underrated in my opinion. It just takes a bit of skill to use properly."

Reimu squeaked in surprise. She whirled around. "What? Mima? How? I…Where? Why?"

Her onetime arch-enemy was floating nearby. One hand was planted on her hip, while the other was idly scratching at her cheek. She wore a wry smile as she looked at Reimu with amusement.

"I already told you the answer to the first," Mima said. "And the answer to the second is yes. The third is magic, I'm not telling you the fourth, and the fifth is that Genji contacted me about a minute or so ago and told me that you were confronting Rin Satsuki on your own and was in desperate need of backup." She looked over to the imprisoned Satsuki. One of the green hands was now holding her suspended by one leg while the other was batting her back and forth like a punching bag. "Upon assessing the situation, I find myself agreeing with his conclusion."

Reimu stared. "I…Uh…"

"He also made it clear that your behavior was abysmally stupid." Mima shook her head. "I'm afraid I must concur with that conclusion as well."

Reimu scowled. Indignation was chasing away the stupefaction that was locking up her mind. "Hey, I wasn't doing too bad!"

"No, you weren't," Mima agreed. "But you _were _going to lose. That was a great amount of magic death she was about to send your way." The ghost glanced down. She shook her head. "And look, you somehow managed to set the forest on fire as well. How careless."

She waved her hands and muttered a word. Rainclouds suddenly formed above the spreading fires and began dousing the flames with a crushing downpour, snuffing them out.

"There now, that's taken care. But what of Satsuki? It won't be long before she starts to adapt to that as well." Mima stretched out her hands. They started to glow yellow. "I say we call up Yukari to come pick her up and call it a day."

"No, wait!" Reimu shouted.

Mima paused. The yellow glow vanished. "Yes?"

"Don't call Yukari, not yet. Just…Can you hold onto her for a little longer? I want to see if I can convince her to cooperate."

Mima looked confused. And then realization dawned on her face. "Ah, that's right. Your mission of mercy." She shrugged. "Well, I still believe that you're being a tremendous fool, but it really doesn't make a difference to me. And a bargain is a bargain, after all. Though if I were you, I'd talk quickly."

Reimu turned. Satsuki had managed to catch the giant hand that was swatting her with her talons. It shook in her grasp, and then it started to slowly shrivel. The hand holding her place began to deflate as well as she absorbed both into her body.

"Hmmm, that didn't take long," Mima murmured as she floated to Reimu's side. "Perhaps a change in tactics?"

She flicked her wrist. Both of the giant hands exploded into green sparks. But before Satsuki could right herself, dozens of golden discs appeared and started to circle around her in all directions. There was a low humming sound, and suddenly beams of light shot from the discs to impact against Satsuki. No two beams were the same: some were thick as logs while others as thin as chopsticks. Some were bright red, others dull red, others green, one appeared to be made entirely of densely packed blue stars, another of pulsing bubbles. And they refused to remain consistent. Each disc shot forth a specific type of beam for only about five seconds between switching to another entirely. It was nauseating to watch.

"There we go," Mima said smugly. "Let her adapt to that." She glanced over to Reimu. "Though I should point out that this spell requires a tremendous amount of energy. So please start talking. I won't be able to maintain it for long."

"Right," Reimu muttered. She took a deep breath. "Okay, here we go."

"Oh, and try not to look directly at it," Mima called as Reimu made her way toward the imprisoned Satsuki. "You'll make yourself sick."

Reimu ignored her. She drew in closer and said, "Rin? Rin Satsuki? Can you hear me?"

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia had no idea what to make of what was going on. The last time they had been attacked by Reimu and her cronies, it had been like the nothingness around them was reacting in pain, almost visibly recoiling with explosions in red, white and purple. This was similar, but instead of feeling like she was in the middle of a war zone, it was more like she had flown into a firework display. Flashes of light came from all around, and in a greater array of colors than before. Green, blue, yellow, etc. It was more dizzying than violent.

As for Rin herself, she didn't seem to be in pain, but the Kirin girl was obviously distressed. She kept whirling and jumping around, as if she were trying to face something that would not hold still. Her face was twisted into a grimace of frustration, while her eyes were full of panic.

"I can't…It's too much…" she muttered. "I can't adapt to this. It won't let me! Stop it! Leave me alone!"

That last bit was directed toward the screen and, presumably, Reimu Hakurei, who was still visible behind the bizarre trap Mima had stuck them in. Now that the Evil Spirit of Makai had shown up, Rumia had become even less enthusiastic about their chances of survival.

The shrine maiden was coming closer, though she was still keeping some distance between her and Rin. _"Satsuki, would you please just shut up for one minute?" _she said irritably. _"I'm trying to help you here!"_

That comment surprised Rin so much that she stopped whirling immediately and focused all of her attention on the screen. "Wait, huh?" she goggled.

Rumia had to admit that she felt much the same way. Reimu Hakurei did not help youkai outside of her small circle of friends, and even then she needed quite a bit of convincing. So why the hell would she try to help Rin?

She wouldn't, that was why. Rumia sauntered over to Rin and muttered, "She's lying. She has to be. Don't listen to her."

…

"_You're lying," _Satsuki shouted. _"You have to be! Why should I listen to you?"_

"I have to admit, the affront to nature makes a valid point," Mima muttered.

"Shut up, Mima," Reimu said wearily. This conversation had just begun and already it was giving her a headache. To Satsuki, she said, "Look, I know we're kind of on opposite sides-"

"_Kind of?"_

"Okay, yeah. But still, there are people who are…" Reimu turned to Mima. "What's the word I'm looking for?"

"Deluded?" Mima suggested.

Reimu scowled and turned back to Satsuki. She snapped her fingers. "Sympathetic! That's it. There are some people that feel sorry for you and want to help-"

"_Oh, so you feel _sorry _for me," _Satsuki shot back. _"Well, that's just great. Not sorry enough to let us go and leave me alone?"_

"Um, I…really can't do that."

"_Yeah, I kinda figured."_

"But look. I've got some pull with Yukari Yakumo, and she's in charge of this…whole whatever. And if you give up peacefully and all, I'm pretty sure I can-"

Satsuki started making a strange, huffing noise that echoed through the grey sky. Reimu stiffened, convinced that she was about to unleash some weird new attack. A fraction of a second later she realized that Satsuki was actually laughing.

"_Give up?" _Satsuki repeated. _"Peacefully? Are you serious? I don't even know you people, and you've done nothing but attack me!"_

Reimu grimaced. "Um, yeah. The ambush. About that. See, we had no idea who you were. We thought you were someone…else. Someone bad. We saw you with Eirin and thought you were attacking. Our bad. So…sorry about that?"

"Reimu, I know it may crush your dreams, but I feel compelled to discourage any future endeavors in a career as a persuasive speaker," Mima murmured.

"Told you to shut up."

But apparently Satsuki was in agreement with Mima. _"Are you serious? You're 'sorry'? Is that supposed to make everything better?"_

Reimu scowled. She was starting to get annoyed. "Well, you busted up my ribs, took out my foot for like three days and nearly gave me a concussion. So how about we get past that and move on? I'm seriously doing my best here. How about a little cooperation?"

"Oh, so much more convincing."

"Seriously, Mima. Zip it."

"_And why should I believe you?" _Satsuki demanded. _"You still haven't answered that question. Why would you have any reason to help me?"_

"Because your stupid bunny girl asked me too!" Reimu snapped. "I'm doing it as a favor to her, because she had to be all sad and pitiful! Stop making me question it!"

Reimu had difficult fully making out Satsuki's form through the busts of light, but it did look like Reimu's words had made her stiffen. At least, she had stopped writhing.

"She's no longer trying to adapt," Mima said in a low voice. "I do believe you've surprised her."

…

_Deep Within_

"R-Reisen?" Rin whispered. She fell backward onto her butt, where she sat with her hands splayed out to either side and her eyes focused on the screen. "Reisen asked you to help me?"

"Rin, you're seriously not buying this, are you?" Rumia hissed. "It's a trick! Don't listen to her!"

"_Yeah, she did," _Reimu said. _"She told me that you were misused and abused. Now, I still think you're freaky as all hell, but hey, if she's telling the truth, then you're innocent. Kind of. From a certain point of view. But hey, we've had crazy incidents result from crazy misunderstandings, so I'm not one to say anyone's beyond help."_

"Don't listen to her," Rumia said. "She's just trying to fool you."

Rin turned her head toward her. "But what if she isn't?" she said. "What if Reisen really-"

"She didn't," Rumia said in a flat voice. "And even if she did, Miss Reimu wouldn't have gone along with it. And even if she did, she wouldn't have gotten Miss Mima's help. And even if she did…You see where I'm going with this? Don't trust her, she's just trying to make it easier to bring you in."

"But they've already captured me!"

"No, they've got the upper hand," Rumia corrected. "But you're not captured until Miss Yukari's got you in a little glass bowl or something. And hey, it's working. You've stopped struggling, haven't you?"

Rin looked troubled but she didn't argue.

…

"_Forget it," _Satsuki said. _"I've had nothing but grief from you people. This is just another trick."_

Reimu felt like tearing her hair out. "No it's not!" she yelled. "Gods, what do I have to convince you that I'm on _your_ side, you half-baked, deformed piece of-"

Mima placed a hand on her shoulder. "Reimu, perhaps you should let me handle this."

Reimu shot her a disbelieving look. "What? The hell I am!"

"Reimu, be serious. This is not your forte. Leave it to someone who can actually string a convincing sentence together without losing her temper."

"But I-"

"Trust me on this." Mima turned toward the bizarre trap that held Satsuki. "I apologize for my associate's lack of tact. She really is a pleasant person once you get to know her. It's just that the isolation and stress from her job have disallowed her to develop any decent social skills to speak out."

"Was that a compliment or an insult?" Reimu muttered. "Because I'm having a really hard time telling-"

"Shush now," Mima said. She returned her attention to Satsuki. "However, I assure you that she was not lying. For one thing, she's terrible at it. For another, this sort of trickery quite simply isn't her style. So if she says that she has been approached by your surrogate parental figure on your behalf and grows frustrated when you don't believe her, she is telling the truth. You are not without allies, Rin. There are people who wish to end this incident in a manner beneficial to all involved, yourself included."

…

_Deep Within_

"Rin, snap out of it," Rumia begged. "That's Miss Mima, for crying out loud! Miss Reimu may suck at lying, but that ghost is a pro!"

Rin looked dubious. She shot Rumia a doubtful look, and turned back to the screen.

"What about you?" she said to Mima. "I mean, I've heard of you. And you've…uh, got kind of a nasty reputation you know? Why would you care?"

…

Mima turned to Reimu. Her teeth flashed as she grinned. "Do you hear? I'm famous!"

"Mima, just get back to work," Reimu sighed. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"If you insist." She turned back to Satsuki. "You're correct. I have no reason to care what happens to you. Death, escape, cured, ascension to abomination of the highest caliber; whatever your fate, it's all the same to me. However, at the moment I am at odds with a certain Yukari Yakumo, as she has recently done me a wrong. And since Reimu here isn't on the best terms with her Royal Bitchiness either, we have entered into a collaboration of mutual assistance. And included among our long-term goals would be fulfilling her altruistic mission on the behalf of the Lunar rabbit." Mima chuckled. "Also, seeing how Yukari is currently the strongest advocate for your termination, curing you and resolving the current incident without her involvement would make her look all kinds of foolish." She spread her hands. "So while my reasons may be a little on the selfish side, they are enough to motivate me to help you, as self-contradictory as it seems."

Satsuki didn't answer. Reimu wasn't sure if this was a good sign or a bad sign, but it was certainly better than outright hostility. So she decided to add her own argument.

"Seriously, all we want is for this craziness to be over," she said. "And hey, if we can fix you in the process, why not try? I mean, the best case scenario is getting Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou back, making you normal again with no one getting hurt, getting rid of the Shadow Youkai-"

Mima suddenly seized Reimu by the wrist. "All right, stop talking," she hissed.

"What?" Reimu looked at her in confusion. "Why?"

"Ix-nay on the adow-Shay oukai-Yay! What if it's still influencing her? Do you really want it to join the debate?"

Reimu gulped. She hastily turned back to Satsuki. "Uh, you know what? Just disregard that lastMMMPHHHH!"

Mima slapped a hand over Reimu's mouth. "Again, my apologies," she told Satsuki. "As I said, Reimu is unaccustomed to using means other than brute force to solve her problems, so she has an unfortunate tendency to speak without thinking."

"_Shadow Youkai?" _Satsuki said. _"Do you mean Rumia?"_

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia was on the verge of absolute panic. "Don't bring me up. Please don't bring me up. I don't want you talking about me. Please? Please, Rin?"

"But they may know where-"

"I don't care! I couldn't care less where I came from! I just want-"

"Well, I do!" Rin shouted. "It's kind of important, you know?"

"_Rumia?" _Reimu's voice could be heard saying, though the shrine maiden herself was difficult to make out. _"Is she…in there with you?"_

…

"_No," _Satsuki said.

"A lie," Mima murmured so that only Reimu could hear.

"I kind of figured, thanks," Reimu muttered back. She sighed. Great, now they potentially had Azrael's avatar whispering into Satsuki's other ear.

"Rin, look, you…can't trust Rumia," Reimu said. "She's…not a good person. She's killed a lot of people, just for fun, and just wants to use you so she can kill again."

"_What, you mean her evil side?" _Satsuki said. There was a note of scorn in her voice. _"I know about that already! I killed it!"_

Reimu's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

…

_Deep Within_

"It tried to take over my body, so I chased it into hiding," Rin explained. "I found it, and it tried to kill me, so I tried to kill it back. We both succeeded. I came back. It didn't. It's dead."

Rumia sat down. She put her head between her legs and started to whimper.

"So, whatever issue you have with Rumia isn't a problem anymore," Rin continued. "The only Rumia that's left doesn't have a clue about Evil Rumia or where she came from. So leave her alone!"

Like that was going to work. Rumia found herself actually wishing that Yukari would show up and put an end to everything. At least then she wouldn't have to deal with crazy people yelling at each other anymore.

…

"Wait a minute," Reimu said. "Are you telling me that the original Rumia…I mean the Rumia that I know, the little stupid one, is _still alive?"_

There was no answer.

"Rin, I need an answer. If the Rumia from Cirno's gang is still around, that could…change a lot."

She looked over to Mima, her eyebrow raised in askance. Mima looked off into the distance, deep in thought. Then she gave a single nod, confirming that it was possible.

"_Like what?" _Satsuki said.

"Well, for starters, we were all worried that Rumia had turned back into the Shadow Youkai and was in your head messing with your mind!"

"_She isn't. I told you already, I killed that part of her. Only the harmless Rumia's left."_

"Okay…Uh, but if that's true, then maybe I can find a way to get both of you off. And then we can see about getting you fixed."

"Might want to consider rephrasing that," Mima murmured.

"Huh? Why?"

"Clearly, you've never owned a pet. But at any rate, we would have to confirm for certain that the Shadow Youkai half of Rumia is truly crushed into oblivion. Of course, not knowing the Shadow Youkai's species or origins complicates things, but a simple astral probe-"

Reimu blinked. "Right, you weren't there when we found out."

"Found out what?"

"The Shadow Youkai. It's a Fallen Angel."

Mima's reaction was different from Genji's, but it was down the same lines. Her head whipped around so that she was staring Reimu in the eyes. Her cheeks were trembling as her mouth slowly opened.

_She's a WHAT? _Mima mouthed.

Reimu nodded. "Well, an avatar of one, actually. Not really sure how it works, but Yukari said that some mortal picked up the sword of a fallen angel, and got themselves all corrupted."

"Oh," Mima said. She slowly shook her head. "Oh…my. Oh, my, my, my. That really does complicate things."

"Really? How."

"Because if what you're saying is true, then there's no way Rin could have killed it. Especially if it had already fully merged with a host. It's still alive, Reimu."

Those words sent a chill down Reimu's back. For a moment, she had started to hope that Satsuki had taken care of the problem for them. But apparently not.

"_No, it's not," _Satsuki said suddenly. _"I told you already, I killed it!"_

"Aw, nuts," Reimu muttered. "How'd she hear us over all the shooting?"

"She does seem have exceptional hearing," Mima said. Then, in a much lower voice, she said, "Reimu, I don't know what you're planning now, but I'd advise that you make it quick. Maintaining this spell is starting to become somewhat of a pain."

"Oh. Crap." Reimu wracked her brain, trying to think of new solutions. "Um, how much longer can you keep it up?"

"Conservatively speaking? I'd say…" She shot Satsuki a quick glanced and held up three fingers.

_Three minutes, _she mouthed.

"_What are you two talking about?" _Satsuki demanded. _"You don't think I killed it, do you? You don't think I'm strong enough? And now you're talking about killing us both just to make sure, aren't you?"_

"What? No!" Reimu said. "We were just-"

"_Save it. You're not trying to help me. You never were. You're just trying to sucker me into letting you take me somewhere where you can kill us easier. Rumia was right, I should've never listened to you in the first place."_

"Rumia?" Reimu said, her level of alarm rising. "Rin…What has she be saying to you?"

Satsuki didn't answer. Reimu suddenly had a very, very bad feeling.

…

_Deep Within_

"I _told _you!" Rumia screamed. "I _told_ you not to trust them!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Rin muttered. She was sitting hunched over with her head in her hands. She seemed to be concentrating on something. "But I'll make it up to you."

"Is that so," Rumia said with a note of sarcasm. "How's that?"

"By getting us out of here."

Rumia blinked. "But I thought you couldn't adapt to this cage thingy!"

"I can't. But I wasn't planning on adapting."

Rumia wasn't sure if she liked the sound of that. "Then…"

Rin brought her hands close together, fingers curled into claws. From all around, there came a low whistling sound, like a sharp, bitter wind through a tunnel. Rumia found herself shivering.

Then Rin spoke. Her voice was dangerously low, almost to a menacing level. "I'm going to make your predecessor's legacy work in our favor for once," she said. "I'm going to _break _out of here."

…

"What's happening?" Reimu shouted at Mima. The wind was howling so loudly that she could barely hear herself. "What's she doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Mima shouted back. "She's tapping into the Shadow Youkai's well of power!"

It certainly seemed that way. The black clouds had returned, though there were more of them this time. And they seemed angrier as they crashed and rolled over each other. From within came flashes of that creepily quiet lightning.

Satsuki herself had acquired a few special effects of her own. Twisting tendrils of darkness swirled in and out of Mima's magic cage like black smoke, and they were growing thicker by the second. The glow of the cage was starting to fade to a sickly pale yellow.

And then there was the wind. In addition to shrieking as it blew by, it seemed like it was being sucked into Satsuki herself, almost like a whirlpool. Or a…

"Look out!" Mima shouted. She grabbed Reimu around the waist and threw the both of them nearly half a mile back.

And not a moment too soon. An imposing whirlwind of pure darkness had literally erupted around Satsuki. Reimu wasn't sure, but it looked like it had sprung to life from inside the cage to connect to the angry clouds instead of descending from above. But either way, there was a black spinning monolith sucking in everything that the winds had knocked loose.

Including, as it seemed, Reimu herself.

"Whoa!" she screamed as she was pulled toward the vortex. She put everything she had into her natural flight and shoved herself as hard as she could in the opposite direction, but all that accomplished was making herself slow down.

Fortunately, Mima was still nearby. The green-haired ghost's hand snapped around Reimu's wrist and pulled her close. Once she had both arms around the shrine maiden, Mima muttered a brief word, and a sphere of green sparks sparkled to life all around them. The pull of the wind stopped immediately.

However, it seemed that others weren't so lucky. Others had gotten caught up in the pull and were being dragged toward the all-consuming cyclone. Fairies, youkai, animals, the odd human traveler; all were being dragged through the air toward their deaths.

"Help them!" Reimu screamed at Mima. The first of the helpless crowd were only moments away from being torn apart by the darkness.

"How?" Mima responded. "I don't have the strength to cancel that thing out, nor can I shield every one of them. This is beyond the scope of my-"

And just like that, it was over. The whirlwind dissolved into small spinning wisps of darkness, which disappeared like smoke on the wind. The clouds cleared up, revealing their still looming but considerably less ominous grey predecessors above. And the sunlight, muted as it was, started to shine once more.

"-abilities?" Mima looked around. "Never mind. I clearly underestimated myself."

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Let go of me," she groused as she pushed herself out of Mima's arms.

The small crowd of victims that the whirlwind had pulled up were evacuating the area in a hurry. Reimu had to move out the way to avoid being run over by a small gang of panicked fairies. But despite her previous concern, her attention was focused on the space previously occupied by the whirlwind.

It was empty. The cage was gone. As was Satsuki.

Reimu looked down. A good quarter-mile of forest had been devastated. In its place was a large black circle, completely overrun by the taint.

"Well now," Mima said. "That's…problematic."

"Yeah, no kidding," Reimu muttered. "Do you know if anyone got hurt or killed?"

"The former? Most likely. The latter? I'm afraid I don't know. Odds are pretty good that someone had a permanently bad day though."

Reimu nodded. It was the only thing she could think to do.

"Reimu, is what you said true? Is the Shadow Youkai really the avatar of a fallen angel?"

"Yeah," Reimu said emotionlessly. "It is."

"I see. Do we know which one?"

Reimu nodded again. "Yes. Azrael."

Mima fell silent. When she spoke again, her voice was slow and guarded. "I…see. Well, if that's the case, then you may need to abandon your mission of mercy. This is just a small taste of the devastation these creatures are capable of, and if it escalates…"

"I know, I know," Reimu muttered in frustration. "Just give me time. I'll think of something."

"Will you now?" Mima said. She raised a questioning eyebrow. "You do remember that planning isn't you strong suit, correct? Perhaps you better leave that part to Kanako and me."

"Right," Reimu sighed. "And hey, is there anything you can do about-"

"I can't heal the taint, and after that bit of nastiness, I doubt my abilities to hide what has just happened from Yukari. I can, however, disguise it for the time being. You're on your own when she starts asking questions though."

Reimu didn't answer.

Mima laid a hand on her shoulder. Reimu blinked, and looked at her in surprise. The gesture seemed to be sincere.

"Come on," Mima said softly. "We can talk back at the shrine."

Reimu nodded. Mima turned and flew in the direction of Hakurei Shrine, with Reimu close behind.

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia wasn't exactly sure what had happened. First Rin had started to get really scary. And then it had gotten very loud. And then it had gotten very dark. Rumia had shut her eyes at that part. And when she had opened them again, they were once again traveling through the earth. Apparently whatever Rin had done had worked, but Rumia wasn't sure if she wanted to know what it was.

She shook her head. What was she going on about? Of course it didn't matter what Rin had done. The important thing was that they were free, at least for the time being.

Rin was sitting cross-legged nearby, staring down at her knees. She glanced at Rumia. "Hey," she said.

"Um, hi?" Rumia said. "Did we…"

"Escape? Yeah." Rin sighed. "Well, go ahead."

Rumia blinked. "Go ahead and do what?"

"Yell at me. Call me an idiot. Try to punch me, or bite me, or whatever. Because…I think I kinda deserve it, you know?"

Rumia thought about that. "Would it make any difference?" she said at last. "Because seriously, I'm getting a little sick of you not listening to me when I tell you that you're doing something stupid."

Rin looked away.

"Seriously though, what is it with you?" Rumia stood up and walked over to Rin. She knelt down and tried to look Rin in the eye. The Kirin girl just moved her head away. "I mean, at first you were all excited about having me around for company, but then you start acting like I'm not even here. You ignore me when I'm practically screaming in your ear, you go and do the dumbest things imaginable and then make up silly excuses. Do you _want _them to catch us? Is that it? Are you suicidal or-"

That's when it hit her. She took a step back and gasped. "Oh my gods," she said. "Oh. My. Gods. That's it!"

Rin finally looked at her. "Huh?" she said in confusion.

"You _are _suicidal!"

Rin's eyes bulged. "What? No I'm not!"

"Yes you are, you just don't know it! I've seen people get like this before! You're deliberately doing the craziest, most dangerous things and hoping someone big enough will come along and kill you!"

"That's nuts! I got us away, remember?"

"That's why I said you don't know it! Your mind must've gotten all screwed up even more when you regenerated, and something's driving you to get yourself killed!"

"Rumia, do you even know the _slightest_ thing about psychology? It doesn't work that way!"

Rumia stuck a finger at Rin's face. "Hey, I might not have read all those big brainy books you have, but I can tell that you're not clicking right." Then she realized what she had just said and quickly amended, "Um, I mean more so than usual. Face it Rin, you're kind of…broken."

"Tell me something I don't know," Rin muttered. "And you'd be broken too if you-"

"Yeah, I've heard the sob story already. And if you wanna go bid goodbye to your craphole of a life, I'm really not gonna blame you. But, hey. Rin? Guess what." Rumia got down low and shoved her face right into Rin's.

"I'm _still _here!" she raged. "I'm still stuck here inside you, and no I don't care how that sounded! I _don't _wanna die. I want back the life you took from me! You owe me big, sister. So wait until you've paid up before offing yourself. Got it?"

Rin stared with wide eyes. She quickly nodded.

"Good." Rumia backed up. She sat down. "So from now on, we do what _I _say, okay? You may be driving this big mess of creepy, but I'm the only one with any common sense. So if I tell you 'Bad idea, run like hell', you do it, got it?"

"Got it," Rin whispered. Then she added, "I'm sorry."

Rumia snorted. "Yeah. Heard that before."

She turned away and walked off to be by herself for a bit, even if she knew that Rin was technically everywhere. She just didn't want to deal with Rin at that moment. She needed space to think. She had come up with and executed her fair share of pranks and plots back when she was with her friends (how long ago had that been, anyway?). She just needed to treat her current predicament the same way. She had to think of it as if she were playing a prank that had gone wrong, and needed to-

Rin started to make the odd hiccupping sound of someone who was doing their best not to try but still desperately needed to. Rumia glanced over her shoulder. The Kirin girl had turned away from her. She was slumping forward, with her arms hugging her knees. Her shoulders were shaking.

Rumia grimaced and quickly turned away. She was _not _going to feel sorry for the crazy girl. It was Rin's fault they were in this mess to begin with, in more ways than one. If Rumia had done something incredibly stupid that had gotten everyone into major trouble, Cirno would have chewed her ear off without sympathy. That was how the world worked. You screwed up, you had to deal with the consequences. Crying about it wouldn't fix anything.

Still…Rin just looked so _pathetic…_

Rumia put her hands on her hips and sighed. She looked around, found that there was still nothing to look, and settled for rolling her eyes upward.

"Damn it," she muttered. Then she turned around and walked over sit by Rin.

"All right, calm down," she said, though if her words sounded false even to her ears. "It's not that bad."

"It's not?" Rin said with a bitter laugh. "Which series of events have you been following? At least you've still got your friends running around and trying to rescue you."

Rumia declined to point out how much of a problem Cirno's methods were likely to become. "Well, you've got Miss Reisen! I mean, she managed to convince Miss Reimu to help try to save you, right? So there's still some hope."

"I thought you said that was all a trick."

Rumia grimaced. "Right, I did. Uh, but maybe it-"

"Don't bother, you were right," Rin muttered. "And even if it is for real…it just makes things worse."

"What?" Rumia blinked. "Why?"

"Because I don't want Reisen to get in trouble for me, after what I almost did to her. Because it's too dangerous. Because I'm not worth it. And because…" Rin took a deep breath. "Because I think it may be too late for me."

Rumia stared at her, unsure of what she should do. She lifted up one hand with the intention of placing it on Rin's shoulder. But she ended up putting back down with a sigh.

A heavy moment passed, with neither of them saying anything. Then, surprisingly enough, it was Rin that broke the silence.

"So, uh, what do we do now?" she said.

…

"What amazes me is that something like the Sword of Azrael even made it into Gensokyo," Mima said. "I mean, I know our guardians have a tendency to be…lax at times, but you would think something like that would have been noticed by _somebody _before infecting a host. It must have passed through the barrier only shortly before falling into Rumia's hands."

"Genji was wondering about that too," Reimu said. "And hey, you were kind of a bad guy back then, right? Are there any old friends that might of-"

Mima shook her head. "Everyone I know from the business would certainly have not let it fall into anyone else's hands. And we kept pretty close tabs on each other. Someone would have found out. But then, there are plenty of no-good-doers that I am not personally acquainted with. It could have been any one of them."

"Huh," Reimu said. "And just out of curiosity, say you were the one who had it, or it had fallen in your hands. What would happen?"

"Now? I would use it to try to bring the Shadow Youkai down. My days of widespread mischief-making are behind me. And I really do like this place. It would be such a shame to have something happen to it. But back then?" Mima smiled. "Well, suffice to say, if I did have the Sword of Azrael in my possession…you never would have been born."

Reimu grimaced. "You're kinda creepy sometimes, anyone ever tell you that?"

"Mmmm. Compared to some of the things that your ancestors have called me, that's nearly a compliment. Ah, here we are."

They had reached the shrine grounds and the ridiculous barrier covering it. Being residents of the place, they passed right through without trouble.

"You know, I'm rather relieved Yukari hadn't thought to exile me from this place like she has…some other places," Mima said. "Of course, she probably just hasn't thought of it yet. Be a bit awkward when she does."

"I won't remind her if you don't," Reimu said. "Though by now, the number of secrets we're keeping from her would-"

"There you are!" an angry voice exploded from nearby. They both turned to see Genji floating toward them with an expression of pure fury on his aged and scaled face.

"Well now, I do believe you're in trouble," Mima murmured.

"You think?" Reimu sighed. To Genji, she said, "Okay. I'm back. Mission failed, she got away, but no one died. At least I don't think so anyway. So go ahead and let me have it."

Genji settled to a stop. "'Let me have it', she says," he grumbled. "Oh, I'll let you have it. If I were physically capable of the action, I'd be kickin' your stupid head right in! I mean, chasin' after somethin' like that without help? And _then _you forbid me to tell the one person who you should've called in the first place. Gods girl, what the _hell _were you thinkin'?"

"Okay, okay, it was stupid," Reimu said, holding her hands up. "I get it."

"Yeah, like I'm gonna be fallin' for _that. _Can you believe this girl? Never, in all my years, have I seen such a blatant display of pure _stupidity!"_

The last two sentences were directed toward Mima, who was watching the exchange with her usual air of detached amusement. "Oh, I don't know," she said. "I remember those girls you used to send after me, and there were some pretty dumb ones. Though I have to admit, I never thought I'd be called upon to rescue the last surviving member of the Hakurei line, much less agree to do just that. Rather fortunate that I did though. The girl was this close to ending up as a sad little pile of charred meat."

"You two aren't going to cut me some slack any time soon, are you?" Reimu said.

"Hell no," Genji snapped.

"Most certainly not," Mima said. "It's too much fun."

"And if it weren't for the fact that you two still gots business to take care of, I'd still be rippin' your ass," Genji said. "But that'll have to wait."

"What?" Reimu blinked. "Business?"

"Did you just say, 'You two'?" Mima asked. "How exactly am I involved?"

"It's not Yukari, is it?" Reimu said. "I told you to keep her out!"

"Nah, not her. Not yet. But still, you two gots yourselves a visitor."

Genji tilted his head toward the shrine. Reimu and Mima looked up to see someone running toward them. Or rather, two persons, one full-sized and on foot and the second about a foot tall and floating behind the former's shoulder.

"There you are!" the larger of the two shouted. "Of course, the moment I need you, you decide to be elsewhere. Wouldn't surprise me if you had been lazing about until the very moment I came by. Absolutely typical."

"Alice?" Reimu said. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Shouting at you, it seems," Mima said. "Appears to be all the rage these days."

Alice Margatroid skid to a stop. Just by her disheveled appearance, she had worked herself up over something.

"Look for you," she snapped. "What part of that failed to be obvious? But you're here now at least. Now you need to come with me to the Forest of Magic. Both of you. Right now."

Reimu and Mima exchanged a look. They both shrugged. "Um, why?"

"Because Marisa's come home."

"Huh?" Reimu said. "They let her go?"

Mima's eyes narrowed to slits. "Highly unlikely."

"I never said she was alone!" Alice shouted. "There has to be at least a full squad of those GPF imbeciles with her, along with that violence happy captain of theirs! They wouldn't even let me get near enough to talk to her!"

"Was Yukari there?" Mima asked.

Alice shook her head. "No, I didn't see her."

"What of that Shikigami of hers, Ran? Was she there? Or Satori Komejii?"

"Satori? Why would she…No. Neither of them. Just Marisa and the GPF."

"And did you sense any new magics? Any hidden barriers or blocking spells or traps?"

Alice thought for a moment. "No, I don't believe so. Nothing other than the usual paranormal mess that always seems to gather around that-Hey!"

Alice and Reimu jumped back in surprise. Mima had vanished. No theatrics, no warning. One moment she had been there, the next there were only three sentients standing at the shrine grounds entrance.

"Ah, nuts," Genji muttered. "That ain't good."

"What?" Alice said. "What isn't good?"

"You've gone and set Mima off on a rampage. She's probably over there already, causing all sorts of mayhem."

Alice scowled. "I'm sorry, but I'm failing to see the problem with that. After what those self-important 'authority figures' did to Marisa in my house, I'm finding it difficult to-"

"That's because you ain't thinkin' with your _brain!" _Genji hissed."Mima's pissed. She has a target, and she has a motive. That means alotta collateral damage, and even more intended damage. And seein' how the GPF are Yukari's pet project, that means a whole lot of the ghost makin' things _worst!"_

Reimu looked at Alice. "Okay, he's got me convinced. This ain't good. Come on."

"What?" Alice said as Reimu took to the air again. "You're not possibly thinking of going down there yourself. I mean, the Forest of Magic is at least-"

"Less talking and more flying! Genji, hold down the fort, yeah?"

"Like I've got a choice?" he shouted back. "And for the love of all that is holy, take your damned ball with you this time!"

"Point." Reimu snapped her fingers. Over in the shrine, the Hakurei Ying-Yang orb lifted off its makeshift altar and took off toward her. Halfway there, it split into two smaller orbs, each about half the size of the original. These split yet again, resulting in four orbs total, which twisted through the air and started to swirl around Reimu's waist. She then wasted no time shooting through the barrier and making a straight beeline for the Forest of Magic.

She glanced over her shoulder and was pleased to see that Alice was close behind. "Glad to see you decided to tag along," she shouted back.

"Don't make me change my mind," Alice responded. She scowled. "I came here to see help from you and Mima in helping Marisa escape, not try to stop Mima from doing just that."

"Hey, you heard the turtle. You wanna have this thing escalate out of control? Things are about two steps from complete chaos already."

"And what do you suggest we do when we get there?" Alice demanded. "That is, assuming it's not already too late."

Reimu shook her head. She turned her head back toward the horizon. "See, this is why you'll never become a professional incident solver. You just don't ask these sorts of questions. Most of it is simply going to the place and figure things out when you get there."

"Is that right? No wonder so many in the business end up dead."

Reimu scowled. She flattened her arms against her body and increased her speed. "Shut up and fly."

…

_Hmmm, giant black tornadoes of death. Where have we seen that before?_

_Anyway, I'd like to take this moment to talk to you about a little something called the "Idiot Ball". This is when to have the scene you want to happen actually happen, you need to have at least one character acting in an uncharacteristically stupid manner. It's considered a sign of bad writing, and like everyone else it always makes me roll my eyes when I see it happen. But now, here we see Reimu pick it up, so score one for irony. Still, there are a few things in my favor, the first being that Reimu, while far from dumb, never really was that much of a thinker and is accustomed to charging headfirst into insanely dangerous situations. The second is relentlessly lampshading the fact that the character is being an idiot by having the other characters give her no end of grief over it. Doesn't completely excuse it when it happens, I know, but it does make it at least a little easier to swallow. _

_But that issue aside, and even though this really wasn't the most important chapter ever, I have to admit: I probably enjoyed this chapter more than any other chapter since the Deep Within trilogy. I dunno, it was just really, really fun. Maybe it was because it was what I do best: lots of characters being pissed at each other and shouting a lot. Plus, I admit that I'm kind of a sucker for hurt/comfort stories. But whatever the reason, I had so much fun with this one. :D_

_Oh, and just for fun, go back and reread Genji's lines and imagine him being voiced by Jeff Bridges._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	27. Wheels Within Wheels

Wheels Within Wheels

_Deep Within_

As far as hiding places went, Rumia had seen a lot worse. In fact, she had seen few better. As much as she hated to admit it, Rin had really come through.

Of course, most of that had been pure dumb luck. Ironic, given the streak of bad fortune that had been plaguing them. But Rumia wasn't complaining. So long as it kept them off of Yukari's radar, she would take whatever they could find.

And what they had found was a small cavern, buried deep under Gensokyo. One could say they had literally fallen into it, as Rin's frenzied fleeing had led to them crashing through one of the walls. Rin had nearly gone straight through the other side before Rumia had screamed in her ear to stop.

The cave itself was a far cry from Rumia's (hopefully not yet former) home under the Youkai Mountain. For one thing, it was shaped liked a very awkward egg tilted on its side. For another, the number of stalagmites resulted in a lack of flat ground.

And then there were the glowing mushrooms that were growing everywhere, ranging from only a few inches to several feet tall. Not even Rin could identify their species. Not that it really mattered, as scientific discovery was not their intention. Staying out of sight was.

And to that end, the first thing Rumia had Rin do was seek out and destroy every exit, no matter how small. Rin at least had the presence of mind to have collapsed her tunnel behind her, so all that was left was find the little outlets that presumably connected to some larger network.

Now that the fungi-filled cavern was completely independent, Rin's physical form was clinging to one wall, surrounded by once luminescent mushrooms that were now blackened and wilted dead things. Rumia had to admit, she felt a lot better now that they were actively hiding instead of running headfirst into ridiculously dangerous situations.

Still, it did come with its disadvantages. All those times she had been forced to take cover when she and her friends had screwed up at least had her stuck with people she wanted to be with. And at least then they only had to wait for a few hours. But now that she had been forced underground for the foreseeable future with nothing to do but talk to the crazy Kirin, it wouldn't be long before she started to flirt with madness herself. It wasn't enough to drive her to make them resurface, but it was still a significant drawback.

Of course, she could always just make Rin send her back into the Dream World, but the very thought of it made her stomach squirm.

At least Rin was listening to her now. She still had her vague periods and the occasional weird breakdown, but she was at least making an effort. And when they were discussing a subject that had her interest, she could be surprisingly lucid.

Currently, the subject of the hour was more-or-less the same one that Rin had been obsessing over for the last few days, that of Rumia's mysterious origins. Granted, they had failed to infiltrate Hakurei Shrine, but Reimu Hakurei had filled in some of the holes for them. Time would tell if the new information would benefit them or not, but despite her previous protests about not wanting to know where she came from, Rumia found her interest being ignited, all thanks to two words.

"Fallen Angel," Rin mused. The Kirin girl was pacing back and forth, her hands on her hips as she thought. "Never heard that term before. But then again, my life at Eientei was kinda…I dunno, isolated? Sheltered? Take your pick, they all apply."

Rumia had recently discovered that Rin's screen had actual mass (or whatever the closest equivalent was in that place) and made for a convenient thing to lean against. "I don't really know a whole lot about them," she said. "But I've picked up a little here and there. I think Angels are some kind of…good spirit. They look like humans and they got wings. I think they're on the same side as the Saint that was Crucified."

Rin stopped and looked at her blankly. "Who's that?"

"A saint. Who got himself crucified."

"Oh. What he go and do that for?"

"Hey, I told you, I don't know a whole lot about that stuff."

"Oh." Rin frowned. "So, a _Fallen _Angel would be…"

"When an Angel goes bad, yeah."

"And your Evil Side was one."

Rumia shrugged. "I don't know. I guess. Miss Reimu seemed pretty sure that she was." She smiled. "Though it's kind of cool if you think about it. I mean, I'm pretty sure Fallen Angels are heavyweights in the bad guy league. Makes me kinda wonder what kind of evil badass I used to be."

Rin hesitated. "Uh, try cruel, sadistic, manipulative and just plain _evil. _Not the cool evil, the bad, _bad _evil. I've met her. Trust me, you don't want to be her."

"Right," Rumia winced. "Sorry. But still, if it took Miss Yukari, Miss Mima and Miss Reimu's mom to stop me, then I must've been pretty crazy powerful."

"Why do you always do that?" Rin asked. "That 'Miss' thing."

"Huh?"

"Why do you call almost everyone 'Miss' or 'Mister', and then go use their first names? I mean, no offense, but you're not really the most respectful person in the world. What's up with the honorifics?"

Rumia scowled. She stopped leaning against the screen and stood up straight. "Does it matter?"

"No, but it's kinda weird."

Rumia was tempted to snap at her about relative weirdness levels but decided that it wasn't worth it. "It's just how I talk. I've always done it, never saw a reason to stop."

"Huh." Rin shrugged. "Okay, moving on, do you know where we can find more out about fallen Angels?"

"This again?" Rumia rolled her eyes. "No, I don't. And I thought we agreed that there weren't going to be any more information hunting missions for awhile."

"Well, you know. For future reference. And while we're at it, we probably should look into the Yagami family. Maybe something from the Human Village."

Rumia stared at her blankly. "The what family? Oh! Right, Rumia Yagami." She shrugged again. "Hey, just having a surname doesn't mean I was Human. I mean, Wriggle and Mystia both have surnames, and I've met tons of other youkai that do too. Heck, there're a few fairies that have them."

"Still, it might be worth looking into." Rin smiled. "And even if there's nothing, don't you think it's kinda cool? I mean, you've found a name that you didn't even know you had! Kinda like digging under your house and finding a treasure that you forgot you buried."

Rumia scowled. "You're not gonna start going all crazy-cheerful on me again, are you?"

"Why, does it bother you that much?"

"I'm trying to decide if you have _any _moods that don't bother me, and it's…just not coming." She glanced at the screen and the cavern beyond. "Well, okay. So long as we're here, we might as well work on another problem."

Rin blinked in confusion and cocked her head.

Rumia pointed at the dead mushrooms that surrounded them. "That whole kill-every-plant-you-meet thing. You have gotta do something about that. Is there any way to turn it off?"

Rin frowned. "Well, I could repress the powers I got from you, but…"

"Is that possible?"

Rin nodded. "Uh-huh. Only problem is that it's wicked hard even when I've only got one person inside me-"

Rumia choked back a laugh.

"What?" Rin said in puzzlement.

Rumia waved off her question. "Never mind, never mind. You were saying?"

Rin stared at her. Then she shrugged and said, "Well, it gets harder-"

Rumia let out another snort.

"Okay, what's up with you?" Rin demanded. "What's so funny?"

"Seriously, it's nothing," Rumia laughed. "Just remembered something someone said."

"And you say I'm weird," Rin muttered. "And for your big fat information, no. I can't just hold back your Shadow Youkai powers all the time. It might work for a little while, but it's sorta like a fat person sucking their stomach in. Sooner or later, it's gonna fall apart. Not to mention the part about how it can damage my body's cells if I do it too long."

"Oh," Rumia said. Then she frowned. "Uh, not trying to sound like an idiot here, but what are 'cells'?"

"I'll…" Rin closed her eyes and sighed. "Tell you later. But the bottom line, it hurts like heck." She frowned and looked down at her hands. "Maybe there's a way to turn them off. I'll see what I can do about that."

"You do that," Rumia agreed. She sat down and leaned back against the screen while she thought. The situation was still screwed up beyond belief, but on the bright side it seemed that they had finally caught a break. There was no telling how long it would last, but it would be best to take advantage of the time they had to come up with some kind of long-term strategy.

Then she remembered the sort of people she was competing with. She sighed.

Rumia slid down so that she was lying flat on her back with only her head resting against the screen. She folded her hands over her stomach and stared upward. Now that things had slowed down a bit, she was starting to miss her friends. She was glad that her killing of their incredibly annoying doubles in her dream hadn't done any damage to her perceptions of them. She wondered where they were and what they were doing. Odds were, it wasn't anything fun.

…

"BANZAI!" Cirno cried as she wrapped her arms around her legs and let herself plummet from twenty feet up. She hit the water, causing a small but vicious wave to spring up in her wake.

In her seat at the water's side, Mystia shielded herself with her arm as she was pelted with bitter cold water and tiny fragments of ice. "Hey, watch it!" she yelled.

Cirno's grinning face popped up above the water. "Wimp!" she shouted. "Come on, jump in already!"

Mystia eyed the water where Cirno and Daiyousei were swimming. Thanks to the combined influence of two fairies, it was well on its way to developing its own icebergs. "Thanks, but I think I'll pass."

The four guests of Yuuka Kazami were gathered around their host's sizeable swimming pool. Cirno and Daiyousei had changed into their swimsuits and were splashing and playing in the water, though most of the splashing was supplied by Cirno, as Daiyousei seemed to be too nervous about doing anything especially energetic. Given that low temperatures did not appeal to Wriggle and Mystia disliked getting wet period, they had settled for reclining in two of the many umbrella-covered lawn-chairs that sat along the pool's side. Mystia couldn't help but wonder why Yuuka had so many, seeing how there was no one living at the mansion save for herself and her little serving girl Elly.

The day was like every other day at the Garden of the Sun: sunny and pleasantly warm. Mystia wondered if it ever rained and, if not, how Yuuka managed to keep the thousands of plants she owned watered. Perhaps there was some sort of underground irrigation system at play. Perhaps water vapor collected and soaked the ground in the early morning. Heck, at this point, Mystia wouldn't be surprised if the plants pitched in and watered themselves. She was struck by the bizarre image of several buckets of water being filled at a stream and passed around via vines, branches and stalks.

Mystia glanced over to Wriggle, who was sitting in the shade of her umbrella with her knees pulled up under her chin and her eyes glaring out at the pool. The firefly didn't seem to be appreciative of the perfect climate. In fact, she hadn't stopped sulking the moment Yuuka had become involved. Mystia didn't really blame her. She didn't know the full history between her and Yuuka, but what bits she had been able to glean made her surprised that Wriggle had agreed to involve the flower-youkai at all. It had also made her question the wisdom of involving Yuuka at all, and the last few days had done little to allay those fears. True, Yuuka was pleasant enough, but still…

Mystia sighed as she leaned back and stared up at the umbrella's underside. Well, it was too late to turn back now. And when it came down to it, having a heavyweight like Yuuka in their corner was all kinds of useful, especially since they had managed to make Yukari Yakumo's Bad List. According to what she had heard, the number of names on that list never stayed there for long. Then again, neither did the names on Yuuka's List of People I Am Paying Any Kind of Significant Attention To…

"I'm going back inside," Wriggle suddenly announced.

"Huh?" Mystia said.

Wriggle didn't answer. She just got up and walked back to the mansion. Mystia stared after her, wondering if she should follow.

"You'll have to forgive her," said a voice behind her. "She's just so hard to get along with when she's in one of her moods. Though it's all part of the charm if you ask me."

Mystia stiffened. She watched warily as Yuuka walked around and lay back in the lawn-chair Wriggle had occupied, her folded-up umbrella set on the ground beside her. The flower-youkai had traded in her red plaid skirt and vest and pink blouse for a pair of tan pants that ended partway down her calves and a pale green shirt. She was also wearing a straw hat with a blue band, which was probably the first time Mystia had seen her wear any kind of head covering.

"Ah, you really have to appreciate days like this," Yuuka muttered as she stretched out her limbs to their full length. "It really makes one grateful to be alive. Hello girls!" She waved toward Daiyousei and Cirno. "How's the water?"

The two fairies turned toward Yuuka. Daiyousei winced and tried to hide behind Cirno. But for her part, Cirno just grinned and shot Yuuka two thumbs'-up. "Perfect!" she shouted back. "Thanks!"

"That's wonderful!" Yuuka said. She turned to Mystia. "I really do love to watch young girls enjoying themselves. Such a pleasant sight. Will you be going in, then?"

Mystia gripped the armrests and mentally forced her fingers to stop trembling. "Uh, no. No thanks. I'm…not really…one for getting wet."

"Hmmm, pity. Not much of a waterfowl, then? Well, I can't blame you. Wet feathers must be such a pain to dry. And no doubt you would be risking hypothermia." Yuuka flopped over onto her back. "Well, I suppose it's just as well that Wriggle left. She was in my favorite spot, and I am unfortunately a creature of habit. Once I take to a place it lie back and relax I find it hard to change."

Mystia found herself immensely relieved that she had not sat there. "Oh, uh. That's...your favorite lawnchair then?"

"Mmmm-hmmm! Well, admittedly it's not so much the chair but the company." She reached out with one hand and stroked the wooden shaft of the umbrella that sat next to her. The spread of it was a deep purple, and for some reason there was a towel wrapped around its base. "Of course, there had to be a few...modifications before she was presentable. Wouldn't do to have her leering at you from across the pool. And being drooled on would just ruin your day! But I'm glad I did. I've grown quite fond of this one."

Mystia wondered what in the hell Yuuka was talking about. Aside from the towel, it looked like any other umbrella.

Then she squinted at it. Was it her imagination, or was the umbrella actually trembling?

Mystia decided right there and then that she didn't want to know.

"So tell me something, Mystia," Yuuka said suddenly as she gave the umbrella one final pat. "It is Mystia, right? I am making an effort to keep your names straight. But anyway, how did you come to keep such charming company?"

"Huh?"

"How did you meet?" Yuuka pressed. "You and your friends?"

"Oh, uh…" Mystia struggled to work past the block fear was putting on her mind. "It's…nothing big, really. Cirno, Daiyousei and Rumia started coming around my eel stand pretty regularly, and I'd listen to them while they'd talk about all the capers they've pulled off. After awhile they started inviting me along. And then we met Wriggle and…" She shrugged. "The…rest is history, I guess."

"Fascinating! And what eel stand would this be?"

"Oh. I, uh," Mystia anxiously ran her fingers through her hair. Why wasn't she leaving? "I used to run this food stand. Cart. Thing. Lamprey eel was kind of my specialty."

"Lamprey?" Yuuka made a face. "Those horrid things with the sucker mouths."

Mystia flinched. "I-I know they look gross and all, but you just need to know how to…cook them, to prepare them. They're really quite tasty!" She let out a nervous laugh.

"Interesting!" Yuuka said. For some reason, she seemed to be legitimately fascinated. "Well, I never knew. You'll have to make that for me sometime. Perhaps even let Elly in on the recipe. She's always looking for new dishes, and seafood isn't one she's had much opportunity to try!"

"Oh. Uh, sure. Of course."

Yuuka smiled. "Well, at any rate, I recently received some news that should interest you girls."

Damn it, she still wasn't leaving. "O-oh?" Mystia said.

"Indeed." Yuuka held up a white envelope. Sticking partway out of it was a letter. "It would seem that our friend Yukari Yakumo has finally sent me an official acceptance of my challenge. Oh, this is so exciting! We meet in two days' time."

"Oh," Mystia said. "Uh, congratulations?"

"Why, thank you! I'm so glad that she's taking me seriously." Yuuka chuckled. "Though I suppose my catogram is mostly responsible. It's amazing what a little…personal motivation will accomplish."

Mystia blinked. "Catogram?"

"Oh yes. I had little Chen deliver her a message for me." Yuuka held up a hand. Sitting in it was an ash-grey seed. "Via Blackgrass. Lovely plant, with so many uses."

"Chen?" Mystia sat up straighter. "Huh?"

"Mmmm-hmmm! Oh, don't worry. She's fine. She doesn't even remember that little incident. Despite what you may have heard, I would never have permanently wasted such a toothsome morsel, at least not over a childish prank, amusing as it might have been."

Horrified, Mystia stared at her. She didn't know what Yuuka had done to Chen, but she was not finding her claims of goodwill to be in the least bit reassuring.

"Still, perhaps I did tip my hand too soon," Yuuka said. She frowned. Her index finger tapped against her lower lip. "I would not put it past Yukari to try something sneaky and underhanded. To that end, it would have been useful to have a plant in her house." She giggled. "Pun intended."

"Plant? What?"

Yuuka smiled. She reached over to stroke Mystia's hair. The night-sparrow let out a small squeak of terror, and not just because of the unwanted touch. Yuuka's lawn-chair was a good eight feet away. When exactly had her arm gotten so _long?_

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about anything," Yuuka murmured. Her hand dipped down to lightly brush over the soft down of Mystia's ear. "It's just politics. Nothing you need to be concerned about."

Mystia closed her eyes and tried not to scream.

Suddenly the touch of Yuuka's fingers disappeared. Mystia heard a sharp intake of breath. She opened her eyes to see Yuuka sitting up with an odd expression on her face.

"No," the flower-youkai was muttering, seemingly to herself. "Her? Here? It can't be. But…why? Is this Yukari's doing?"

"Uh…" Mystia said. "What is…"

Yuuka abruptly stood up. She snatched up her umbrella from the ground and started to march off toward the gardens. Mystia stared after her but she didn't try to stop her. Anything that made Yuuka leave couldn't be a bad thing.

Unfortunately Cirno wasn't in agreement. "Huh?" the ice-fairy said as she watched Yuuka from the pool. "What's wrong?"

Yuuka paused. "It would seem that there are a couple intruders on the premises. Nothing to worry about. I just need to go chase them off." She waved at them and started walking again. "Toodles!"

Once she was sure that Yuuka was gone, Mystia hopped to her feet. That was it, she was going back to their room and not coming out. Things were way too dangerous outside, what with someone that Yuuka Kazami considered to be large enough of a threat that she had to see to it personally. Plus, there was Yuuka Kazami herself. It was their second day there and already there was more than enough evidence that all the rumors were true.

Then someone grabbed her by the wrist.

Mystia yelped and whirled around. To her relief, it was only Cirno and Daiyousei.

"Come on!" Cirno said. "Let's go see who it is!"

So much for relief.

"Huh?" Mystia said. "Why? Why can't we just stay inside where it's…safer and let her handle this?"

"Because it might be the blob monster!"

Mystia gaped at her. "All the more reason _not _to follow her!"

"Uh, Cirno?" Daiyousei said. "I think Mystia might be right. We really shouldn't-"

Cirno got behind them both and started pushing them forward. "Move it! If Yuuka kills the blob monster, then Rumia might get hurt too!"

"But what if it's not the blob monster?" Mystia protested as she staggered forward.

"We'll figure that out later! Heck, it might be one of the bounty hunters with the blob monster in a bag. And if that happens, we need to pay them before Yuuka blows them up!"

…

Though the Garden of the sun was primarily known for its sunflowers, the truth was that it was home to a nearly overwhelming collection of plants, herbs, trees, etc. Especially notable were the groves of fruit trees along the eastern border. Here one could find just about any kind of fruit, regardless of native climate. Apples, oranges, pears, avocados, kumquats, peaches, and so on. And seeing how the Garden's climate was perfectly content to ignore whether or not a certain kind of tree was in bloom, producing fruit or bore nothing but leaves depending entirely on the whim of Yuuka Kazami herself.

Of course, no one in their right mind would dare pick any of the fruit. Even Yuuka herself waited until they fell of their own accord to gather them together. Of course, her fruit was always lush and fresh as opposed to overripe, and most of the gathering was done by the plants themselves, so she could afford to wait. But woe be to anyone who would be so foolish to not only enter Yuuka's orchards without permission but actually have to audacity to harm the trees she so fiercely guarded, even in such a small way…

A pale, slender hand moved through the leaves until it caught hold of a full-bodied peach. The peach was then pulled off the stem and brought to a pair of rose lips, which parted to reveal two rows of perfect teeth. These teeth opened and closed around the peach's succulent flesh. A full third of the fruit was bitten away, spilling juice all over the intruder's hand. Two more chomps and it was gone entirely, pit and all.

The intruder licked the juice from her fingers. Then she turned to her companion and said, "Now, Youmu."

"Yes, my lady?"

"It would seem that we have discovered a paradox, Youmu."

"How is that, my lady?"

"Here we find ourselves in a garden. A large garden. A well-tended garden. Is this not true, Youmu?"

"It is, my lady."

"And yet, though it be early spring, the peaches have already grown large. This is not a time for peaches to grow large, it is much too early. And though the sun be obstructed by clouds everywhere else, here it is shining freely. This puzzles me, Youmu."

"We are in a closed space, my lady."

"A closed space, Youmu?"

"A closed space, my lady."

"How so, Youmu?"

"A very powerful person has laid claim to this land and thus exercises absolute control within its bounds. This includes the climate, my lady."

"A very powerful person, Youmu?"

"A very powerful person, my lady."

"Which very powerful person, Youmu?"

"That. Would. Be. Me."

The two trespassers turned to see a very tall woman with green hair and flashing red eyes striding toward them. She was clutching a pale pink umbrella in a vice-like grip and, judging by the bulging veins on her forehead, was absolutely furious.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" the woman said. "A couple of ghosts out for a walk. Enjoying the weather, ladies? I truly hope so, I work hard to make it this perfect. And look! They've decided to stop and have a picnic! How very charming."

The first intruder blinked. She turned to the second.

"She appears to be upset, Youmu."

"So it would appear, my lady."

"Why is this, Youmu?"

"I believe it is because we're trespassing, my lady."

"Trespassing?" the angry woman snarled. "Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. I'm afraid this goes beyond trivial trespassing. For it would seem that you have decided to pick fruit before its time. From my trees. Trees under my protection. I suppose such audacity should be admired, but I must confess, I am finding it difficult to finding anything admirable about your actions." The woman thrust the umbrella out like a duelist's rapier.

"You mutilate my friends and still have the cheek to be surprised at my anger?" she cried. "How _dare _you?"

The intruder stared at the outstretched umbrella. She blinked in confusion and turned to her companion. "What a strange person. Do you know her, Youmu?"

"No, my lady. We have never met."

…

Cirno slowly poked her head out of the sunflowers she and her friends had taken cover in. She squinted and shielded her eyes with her hand. She could see Yuuka threatening someone standing in the shadow of the peach trees, but unfortunately she was blocking her view of the intruders.

"Ugh, Yuuka's in the way," she groaned. "Can't make them out."

"She sure looks angry though," Daiyousei said. The other ice-fairy was crouched at Cirno's side. "I wonder if she knows those people."

Behind them, Mystia was nervously looking up at the sunflowers that surrounded them at all sides. Most of them had turned their dials toward Yuuka and the two intruders, as if they were also watching. But those closest to the hiding girls had decided to watch them instead.

"Uh, g-g-guys?" she said. "I really think we should go back. These things don't look friendly."

"Hang on," Cirno said. "I still wanna know who these guys are."

"What in the infernal _hells _are you idiots doing?" Wriggle said in a furious whisper.

Her sudden appearance made everyone jump. They whirled around to see the firefly crawling up to them with an expression that was equal parts exasperation and horrification.

"Are you _trying_ to get yourselves blown up?" she hissed. "Elly told me that there were a couple of trespassers eating the fruit and Yuuka had gone to deal with them. Then I look out the window and see you morons doing the stupidest thing imaginable. _Following _her! My gods, have you guys ever heard of collateral damage? Do you know the meaning of the words 'Ground Zero'? Let's get out of here before we're reduced to free-floating pieces."

"Like I'd let that happen," Cirno grumbled as they started to follow Wriggle back. "Come on, have a little faith in me. I just wanted to see who…" she glanced over her shoulder "…oh hey, Yuuka moved. I can see them now!"

One was a small young woman with a slender frame. Her straight silver hair was cut short and tied with a black bow. She wore a simple green dress over a green blouse. A black hilted sword was sheathed at both sides, a long katana on her left and a wakizashi at her right. Nothing terribly noteworthy, but for some reason there appeared to be a…smoky…white…bubble…thing floating patiently at her side. Cirno had no idea what to make of that. It looked like a tadpole-shaped cloud of vapor had come alive and decided to hover at the woman's side and keep her company.

In sharp contrast to the slender girl, the other was almost as tall as Yuuka, with a full, curvy body that her billowing pale blue robes absolutely failed to hide. Her unruly hair was pinkish in color and fell to a point just past her shoulders. On her head was a puffy blue mop cap, not too dissimilar to a night cap, with a white triangle on the front decorated with a red spiral design. There was a strange vagueness around her, but not so much that of someone who had no idea where she was and what was going on but of someone who couldn't be bothered to find out. More of those strange wispy smoke bubbles were circling around her, though they were only a third of the size of that belonging to the smaller of the two women. Designs of the bubble things adorned her robes.

"Huh," Cirno said. "Weird. Who the hellsicles are-"

Mystia reflexively glanced at the two newcomers. Then she let out a short gasp and froze in place. A slow trembling spread over her body, starting with her taloned fingers and sweeping upward. Her eyes opened wider and wider and wider.

Wriggle took notice. "Mystia?" she said. She placed a hand on the night-sparrow's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Mystia answered by opening her mouth and screaming.

…

"Oh dear," said Yuyuko Saigyouji. "Is this really Yuuka Kazami, Youmu?"

"So it would seem, my lady. I fear we made a mistake in coming here."

"Oh, you did," Yuuka growled. "You most _certainly _did. Harming my friends is always a huge mistake, and…"

A shrill shriek of utter terror exploded from the nearby sunflower patch. Youmu stared at it in surprise while Yuyuko merely tilted her head and blinked. Yuuka only gave it the briefest of glances.

"…and it would seem that your presence is upsetting my guests as well. And to top it off, I cannot bring myself to believe that your presence here is an accident."

"Who is that screaming? And why is Yuuka so suspicious, Youmu?"

"Please address me directly," Yuuka said. "It's only good manners. And though I admit I'm not usually up to date on the who's who list, I have at least heard of you. Yuyuko Sai…Sai…"

"Saigyouji," Youmu supplied.

"Yes, thank you. The ruler of the netherworld, correct? Queen of the Dead?"

"She seems bothered by my position, Youmu."

"Speak to me directly, please," Yuuka said evenly. "And I must inform you, death has no place in my domain. That alone would be enough for me to refuse you entry, but as I've heard, you are also close friends with one Yukari Yakumo. Is this correct?"

"She knows Yukari? I was not aware of this, Youmu."

"I _said, _speak to me directly! I will not have this conversation filtered through an inferior, you braindead waste of ectoplasm."

Youmu's spine stiffened. Then she bared her teeth and started marching forward. Her swords were drawn from their sheaths in one smooth motion.

"Insult me if you must," she said. "But no one insults my la-"

Yuuka looked at her in disdain. "You're annoying and unnecessary. Go away."

Green vines shot from the ground to wrap around Youmu's ankles, bringing her to a sudden stop. She looked down in surprise but recovered quickly and slashed them away. That seemed to be the plan at least. The truth is that she never got past the looking down part before she was suddenly yanked beneath the earth. Her cry of surprise was cut off when her head disappeared. This seemed to throw her spectral half, Myon, into a sudden panic. It frantically swirled around where Youmu had disappeared, shaking and throwing itself at the ground, as if that could bring its fleshy self back. So great was its panic that it did not notice the thick green stem slowly looming overhead, topped by a huge purple bud with petals lined with teeth. The bud opened wide and snapped forward. Myon was swallowed up just as smoothly as its counterpart had.

Yuyuko tilted her head in confusion. "Youmu?" she said. "Where did you go?"

"Away," Yuuka growled. "And as for you, you don't expect me to believe that you have come here without Yukari's direction? First that…admittedly lovely nine-tailed woman she has a servitor, and now her best friend. Even my incredulity is stretched."

Yuyuko is confused. "What is she talking about?" she murmured to herself. "What does Ran have to do with anything?"

"That's it, had enough," Yuuka hissed. She pressed forward, grabbing Yuyuko by the neck and shoving her against the peach tree's trunk. The tip of her umbrella was shoved under the ghost-girl's chin.

"I told her," Yuuka said in a dangerously low murmur. "I told her that if she sent anyone else after me, I would break them. Now, breaking a ghost seems to be an oxymoron, but I am willing to experiment."

Yuyuko still didn't look like she knew what was going on, but her attention had finally been grabbed. "You know, I don't believe I like you," she said. "Not at all."

She reached out to touch Yuuka's cheek. Yuuka froze as she felt what could only be described as the cold trickle of death seep into her. Sweat broke out on her forehead. She swallowed noisily.

"E-enough of that," she said breathlessly. She quickly seized Yuyuko by the collar and swung her over onto her back, where she landed with a surprised squeak.

Yuuka closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She slowly exhaled, letting it flow through her teeth. When she opened her eyes again, they were once again stone-cold and steady.

"Well, that was unpleasant," she murmured. To the astonished ghost-girl, she said, "As for you, you just fly back to Yukari and tell-"

She stopped talking. A thought had just occurred to her. She glanced to the patch of ground that had swallowed up that annoying sword-girl. Her lips parted in a smile.

"-tell her that while I am glad that she has finally answered me, I am quite upset that she has allowed yet another one of her associates wander into my grasp. This is bordering on carelessness." She bent down and offered Yuyuko her hand. "You will tell her this, won't you?"

Confused, Yuyuko automatically allowed Yuuka to help her to her feet. "I don't understand," she said.

"No, I doubt that you understand anything that is not high in calories," Yuuka said as she brushed off Yuyuko's robes. "But that shouldn't matter. Just go to Yukari and give her the message. She'll explain everything."

Yuyuko still looked unsure. "But what of Youmu?" she said. "Where is Youmu?"

"Oh, her. Here you go."

Yuuka flicked her wrist toward the ground. It heaved upward. Youmu suddenly burst out with a desperate gasp. Coughing, she shakily pulled herself fully from the dirt. At the same time, the carnivorous flower spat out Myon, which immediately darted to Youmu in panic and hid behind her back.

"You…you…" Youmu choked out. She snatched up her swords and forced herself unsteadily to her feet. "I will…I will…"

"You'll do nothing but leave," Yuuka answered her. "Both of you. Leave now."

Youmu shot her a look of pure hatred. She took a shaky but threatening step forward, only to be stopped when Yuyuko laid a hand on her shoulder.

"I believe we should do as she says, Youmu. This situation has quickly become undesirable."

"But…but my lady…"

"_Youmu…"_

Youmu's shoulder's sagged. "Yes, my lady."

Yuyuko turned and rose into the air. With one more venomous look toward her aggressor, Youmu followed her. Soon the pair were well out of the Garden of the Sun's borders.

Yuuka shook her head as she watched them go. "Well now," she said. "That was _most _unpleasant. Still, it might work out in my favor." She glanced over to the sunflowers. Within, little Mystia was screaming still.

"I suppose I better go to see to that," she mused. "But goodness, that girl has an impressive set of lungs."

…

"That was them!" Mystia screamed. "That was them! Right there! They were the ones who did it!"

Cirno, Daiyousei and Wriggle had all surrounded her and were doing their best to calm her down. Their efforts were seeing little success, however, and all three of them were now sporting shallow but painful slashes, courtesy of Mystia's talons.

"Mystia, please," Wriggle begged her. "Stop screaming."

Mystia just shook her head. She had curled up into a small ball and covered her head with her hands. She kept screaming.

"Stop it, you idiot!" Cirno cried as she tugged at Mystia's sleeve. "You're gonna get us blown up!"

"Seriously," Wriggle said. "Come on! They can't get you if we leave. So stop announcing our presence to everything and everyone!"

"It's a little too late for that, I'm afraid," Yuuka said as she stepped into view. "I wouldn't be surprised if they can hear her all the way in the Human Village."

Cirno, Daiyousei and Wriggle immediately scrambled away from her. "We weren't doing anything!" Cirno cried. "I mean, we were! But it wasn't anything bad! We just wanted to see-"

"Calm down, child. I'm not angry with you. A little…irritated perhaps. For heaven's sake, girls. I brought you hear to keep you safe. So when I go off to chase off a potential danger, it would make things so much smoother if you didn't follow me! But then…" The side of Yuuka's lips quirked up in a wry smile. "I suppose I should just come to expect this sort of behavior from you. You _are _a mischievous bunch, aren't you? Now then, let's see to this problem here."

She knelt down in front of Mystia, who was still huddled in a ball and openly weeping. She gently placed the tips of her fingers under the night-sparrow's chin and lifted her tear-streaked face up so that their eyes were meeting.

"Come, come, what's this all about?" Yuuka said. "Goodness, one would think that you've seen a ghost."

If Mystia had caught the joke she certainly didn't find it funny. "That was them," she sobbed as she jerked her head away. "They're the ones that…ate. Me."

Cirno's eyebrows shot up. "Wait, really? That was them?"

Daiyousei sat down, very quickly. "Oh, wow. Oh my gods."

"Oh man, are you serious?" Wriggle said, staring. "Wow. That's just…wow. No wonder she…"

For her part, Yuuka just looked confused. "Excuse me?" she said. "Those two ghosts…ate her? I'm sorry, but I do not see how that is possible. The body of a youkai disappears upon suffering a mortal wound, allowing for regeneration and resurrection. Unless of course she was swallowed whole, but unless they can unhinge their jaws…" She mused over that for a moment. "Actually, that would be a rather nifty trick to have."

"No. They, uh, put a spell on her that kept her body from recognizing mortal wounds," Wriggle quickly explained. "That way, it didn't vanish while they…yeah."

Yuuka's head jerked up. Despite who she was and her well-earned reputation, the flower-youkai seemed to be honestly shocked by this bit of information. "They…did what?" she said. "But…youkai do not die of natural causes. And to have such an anchor in place, that means she would have been alive during the whole ordeal."

Wriggle swallowed. "Um, yeah. She was…kind of a mess afterward."

"In more ways than one," Cirno supplied.

"Cirno!" Daiyousei said, aghast.

Cirno winced. "Sorry, sorry! Just sorta slipped out."

Wriggle shot her a nasty look. To Yuuka, she said, "It took awhile for the spell to wear off and for her body to regenerate. We…don't bring it up much." She looked over to the peach trees, where the two ghosts had stood. "I can't believe that was them though. I mean…what are the odds? Seriously, that's just sick."

"I do not rush to disagree," Yuuka muttered. "Sick indeed." She looked down at Mystia. "Oh my dear, I'm so sorry you had to endure that. No wonder you're so frightened."

With that, she scooped the shaking Mystia into her arms and held her tightly. "There, there, little one," she murmured. "Don't worry. They can't hurt you anymore, not here. You have my promise."

Cirno, Daiyousei and Wriggle all exchanged a look of surprise. It was hard to tell which was the more bizarre; that Yuuka seemed to be genuinely trying to comfort Mystia or that Mystia wasn't rejecting the gesture. Quite the contrary, she was clinging to Yuuka for dear life.

"I won't be eaten," she sobbed into Yuuka's shoulder. "I won't be eaten, I won't be eaten…"

"Shhh, it's all right," Yuuka said as she ran her fingers through Mystia's hair. "Those horrid people and their ilk will never bother you again." A small twinge of her usual smile appeared. "I'll seen to that personally."

…

The flight from the perpetually sunny garden of Yuuka Kazami was a strange one. Youmu Konpaku literally didn't know what to think. A couple weeks back her lady Yuyuko Saigyouji had decided to take a walking (well, walking with some flying, some floating, some apparitioning and a whole lot of eating) tour of Gensokyo to enjoy the early spring, and Youmu had gone along with her to provide protection. It was a normal enough occurrence, one that should have been as uneventful as its numerous predecessors.

But then they had wandered into the garden of a certifiable monster. And then things had become…unfortunate. Youmu's normally thin lips tightened even thinner, as did her grasp on her swords' hilts. It was only by her lady's word that that abominable wretch of a woman was not now reduced to an indeterminable number of smaller bits. One of these days…

"Now, Youmu," Yuyuko said suddenly.

Youmu perked up. At that moment they were flying high over the grey clouds that were covering the skies. The sun was shining brightly overhead. Normally this would be a blessed relief, but now Youmu was not feeling kindly toward sunny areas. "Yes, my lady?"

"That was a rather surprising experience. I did not much care for it, Youmu."

"Neither did I, my lady."

"It would seem that we've wandered into some bad business. This is troublesome, Youmu."

"I agree, my lady."

"Of course you do, Youmu" Yuyuko murmured. Youmu eyed her lady, wondering what was going on. Yuyuko lived so deeply within her own mind that when she was bothered enough to take full noticed of the going-on's of the world around her, it tended to be a time of great significance.

"I do not believe that this was a simple issue of someone chasing someone else of her lawn, Youmu," Yuyuko continued. "I do believe that there is something else at play. There seems to be layers beneath the surface that we were previously unaware of." She paused meaningfully. "Youmu, I do believe we have stumbled upon an _incident."_

"I got the same feeling as well, my lady."

"Good. And as we are currently without reliable information beyond what was shouted at us by that horrible person, it falls to us to fill in the gaps, Youmu."

"We are to see Yukari Yakumo, my lady?"

"Yes. Those angry words seemed to indicate that there is ongoing conflict between those two. And even if she has nothing to tell us, she will at least treat us to cake. Yes, I do believe we must see her now, Youmu."

"Very good, my lady."

It was a solid enough plan. Yukari was usually involved in these incidents in one way or another, and even when she wasn't she knew who was.

Youmu frowned. She cast a glance over to Myon, which was floating in its place at her side. Perhaps Yukari could also help her with that. Ever since it had been swallowed by that flower, Myon felt…wrong. Uncomfortable. Itchy, somehow. Perhaps it had something to do with being doused in nectar.

Then she looked down at the clouds passing by below. In some places, she could almost make out the country below it. She couldn't help but wonder at the nature of the incident, and how long it had been active. She hoped it wasn't too long. Such thing, when left unchecked, tended to become worse and worse over time. She found herself hoping that things hadn't become _too _problematic for those already involved.

…

_Yukari stares as the corpse slides limply to the floor, blood blackened by the taint running from the gaping wound in its breast. Its confused eyes are wide open with absolute shock, and its mouth hangs open without ever having the opportunity to ask "Why?"_

_The murderer glances at it with an expression that was equal parts amusement and contempt. "Poor idiot. She never so much as suspected. I doubt her brain had time to register the shock. Just as well, the realization would have broken her." Then the murderer looks up and smiles at Yukari. Its features warp and flow over itself, reforming into the Shadow Youkai. __**"Hello Yukari. Welcome back. I've been waiting."**_

_Swallowing, Yukari straightens. She holds out her hand and summons her power, but at the back of her mind she wonders if it is enough. Because if it isn't, than this truly is endgame. There would be no second-_

Yukari snorted and jerked awake. Someone was roughly shaking her by the shoulder with enough force to pound through concrete. Of course, nothing less would awaken her.

Glaring through bleary eyes, she looked up to see Ran standing next to her bed. "Ran," she grumbled in a voice still heavy with sleep. "I've already been woken up once before today, and that was no fun. So give me one good reason why I shouldn't cover you with bacon grease and hang you out the window for the crows."

Ran bowed. "I'm so sorry, Master. But there's someone here to see you and-"

"Couldn't they wait?" Yukari snapped. "I haven't had a decent day's sleep since before the Ringleader meeting…"

Then her voice trailed off as she realized that the list of people actually capable of visiting her house was diminutively small, and every name on that list would only show up if they had a damned good reason.

"All right, all right," she yawned. She kicked away the covers and sat up on the edge of the mattress. "So, who is it? Reimu's come back to yell at me about that alarm? If so, you can tell her to just suck it up."

"No, Master," Ran said. Then she told her who it was.

Yukari blinked. She asked Ran to repeat that name. Ran did so.

A moment later Yukari was on her feet and tearing through her dresser. "Where's my dress," she mumbled. "Where's my damn dress? Ran, where did my dress go? I know I had it just a few…"

"Uh, Master?" Ran said. "You're…wearing it."

Yukari glanced down at the pink nightgown she was wearing. Her shoulder sagged. "Oh, right," she said. "Must be the sleep deprivation."

She flicked herself in the shoulder. The nightgown immediately began to shift and change shape and color. Beginning where she had touched it, the pink gave way to purple, white and red, while the frills flattened out and rearranged themselves. She ran her fingers through her hair, straightening out its disheveled appearance into something more suitable for company.

"Right," she said as she walked toward the door. "And I really hope she has a good explanation for why she didn't show at the meeting."

"Master!"

Yukari looked over her shoulder. "What?"

Ran pointed meaningfully at her head.

Yukari's eyes rolled upward. "Oh, right." She flicked her nightcap. Like her nightgown, it also changed shaped and color, becoming her everyday cap.

Now fully dressed, Yukari walked out of the room and headed toward the living room. A relieved smile grew on her mouth when she saw the two figures standing there, waiting for her.

"Yuyuko!" she cried. She strode forward to throw her arms around the ghost princess. "Gods, I can't tell you how glad I am that you're here!"

Yuyuko enthusiastically returned the embrace, lifting Yukari right off the floor. "Yukari," she said. "You're happy to see me!"

"Put me down, you oaf!" Yukari laughed. She regained her footing and pulled away. "And glad to see your grasp of the obvious is as keen as ever. I _am _happy to see you." Then her happy smile faded away, to be replaced by a furious scowl. "Especially since you disappeared without a word and skipped out on the most important Ringleader meeting in centuries! Right when I needed you the most, too! Where the _hell _where you?"

Yuyuko blinked. She turned to Youmu. "Was there a meeting called while we were out, Youmu?"

"I do not know, my lady. But it does seem so."

"Yes there was!" Yukari shouted. "I even went to your house in person to find you! And there was your little summoning pyramid, blinking on and off all by itself! I told you to bring that with you whenever you go out!"

"Oh," Yuyuko said. "I'm sorry. We went out to take in the sights-"

"And tastes?" Yukari said snidely.

"And tastes," Yuyuko nodded, seemingly obvious to Yukari's sarcasm. "I suppose I had forgotten it. It is so rare that we are actually summoned, you know."

Yukari sighed. It was difficult to stay mad at Yuyuko. Being what she was, the concerns of the physical world so easily slipped her notice. It was unfair to blame her for being true to her nature, even in situations such as this.

"All right," Yukari sighed. "I suppose it's useless to yell at you again. Well, come in. I suppose I should bring you up to speed as well." This was starting to get repetitive. She found herself suddenly jealous of the Outside World and their information networks. Having something like that would make these sorts of things so much easier.

"That would be why we came, lady Yukari," Youmu said suddenly as she and her lady stepped inside.

"Oh?" Yukari said. "So you've heard the news?"

"Encountered it, actually."

"Yes, we ran into someone who doesn't seem to like you very much," Yuyuko said. "Not at all, to be honest."

Yukari quirked an eyebrow. "You're…really going to have to be a little more specific."

"It was that flower-youkai, the one who migrated here a few years back."

Yukari stiffened. This wasn't good. "Wait, you ran into Yuuka Kazami?"

"Yes. Well, to be accurate, it seems that in our travels, we accidentally stumbled upon her garden…"

Yukari's jaw dropped. "You're kidding."

"…and discovered that she takes extreme offense to anyone eating her peaches…"

"Did she touch you?" Yukari demanded.

Yuyuko blinked. "Beg pardon?"

"Did she touch you in any way? At all?"

"Well…" Yuyuko exchanged a look with Youmu. Youmu just sighed and looked down at her dirt-covered clothes. "Yes. Quite a lot, actually. She was quite upset."

Growling, Yukari closed her eyes and held out her hand. She squeezed it into a fist and let loose a small measure of her will.

Youmu suddenly stiffened while Yuyuko jumped back in surprise. "What was that?" she asked.

"That was me killing all plant life in the room. Sorry, she's snuck in here once already using other people to carry her little tricks. I'm not one for giving her a second chance."

Yuyuko looked positively bewildered. "I…feel I've been missing out on numerous important events."

"Yes, you could say that." Yukari sighed. "Well, no time like the present. Ran!"

Her Shikigami appeared at the doorway. "Yes?"

"Would you mind putting down a tea for us?" Yukari glanced at Yuyuko. "With the guest-appropriate trappings, of course. I fear this is going to be a long conversation."

"Of course. I'll get started-Oh my _gods, _what happened to the plants?"

Yukari glanced at the potted plants that were displayed here and there throughout the room. "Oh. Those. Sorry, overzealous but necessary precaution on my part. It seems these two ran into Yuuka earlier today, and I didn't want another…um…Blackgrass incident."

Ran shuddered. "Oh. Yes, I…take your meaning."

Yuyuko stared. She turned to her ever-patient but still filthy servitor. "Now, Youmu."

"Yes, my lady?"

"It would seem that we've been missing out on a great deal more than originally suspected."

"Yes, my lady."

Yukari closed her eyes. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Again, an excellent handle on what is obvious. Well, come on. It's going to be a long conversation, so we'd best get started."

…

Some time and an innumerable amount of cakes later, Yukari had finally finished catching Yuyuko up on everything that had happened, from the battle at Eientei to the Ringleader meeting to Yuuka's challenge to the discovery of the sword and the current plans to deal with all the problems. She wasn't entirely sure how much Yuyuko actually understood. Again, the ghost girl's view of physical matters tended to be a bit warped. But she seemed to be following without too much difficulty.

"It is amazing that so much trouble could occur in such a short time," Yuyuko muttered around three consecutive mouthfuls of pastry. "After all, it took Youmu nearly all winter to fully kick off the thing with that cherry tree."

Youmu, who had been assisting Ran in the creation and transportation of the numerous snackfoods, paused as she set down a tray of freshly baked cookies. "My lady, that whole thing was your idea."

"So it was. Still, I'm surprised at you, Yukari. Why didn't you come to me for help?"

Yukari repressed the eye-roll she felt coming. "I did. I told you, I called you and went to your house in person when you didn't respond."

"Did you? Oh yes, I forgot. I'm sorry, we were-"

"Out and about, I know. Don't worry about it. Still, you're right that things are a bit crazy at the moment." Yukari rolled her eyes. "I've got Yuuka harassing me for laughs, and after I'm done smashing her face in and stuffed her in a box I still need to hunt down and capture Satsuki. Then I need to flush out the Shadow Youkai, find a way to force Satsuki to give up her captives, eliminate her totally, and…Oh gods, I completely forgot that I _still _need to talk to the Kirin!" Yukari groaned as she sagged in her chair. "Wonderful. Yet another headache. I guess they can wait until this business with Yuuka is finished."

Yuyuko's brow furrowed. "The Kirin? What do they have to do with anything?"

Yukari flicked her wrist in a vague manner. "Satsuki is a Kirin child, remember? If they find out that we're hunting one of their young behind their backs, then we'll have yet another problem to deal with. Heh, first time I've ever had to ask permission to kill someone. Should be interesting." She sighed. "Well, I guess chalk that one up along with dealing with three ridiculously overpowered monster."

"Four," Yuyuko said.

"Excuse me?"

Yuyuko refilled her teacup. "You forgot Mima. She is still at large and holding a grudge, correct? Given what she is capable of, wouldn't she count as yet another overpowered villain in this piece?"

Yukari stared. Despite their centuries of friendship, Yuyuko still surprised her with how perceptive she could be. "You're right. Mima would be an issue. But…" Yukari smiled. "I'm not overly worried about her. In fact, I'm counting on her help with the Yuuka situation."

"Really?" Yuyuko said. "How do you figure?"

"Simply a matter of persuasion. You see, Mima's a different sort of monster than the other three. As best I can tell, Satsuki is driven by a simple desire to survive. Desperation. The Shadow Youkai is driven by a desire to kill, and most likely revenge. Maliciousness. And Yuuka just wants to drive things further and further into chaos for her own personal amusement. So, boredom. But Mima?" Yukari's smile returned. "She wants keep Marisa Kirisame safe. Her concerns in this matter begin and end with the witch. Thus, she is driven by love, as paradoxical it may be to attribute her with the emotion. And out of all the above motives, love is the easiest to manipulate. So her cooperation will be simple to acquire."

"Is that so? And how do you plan on pulling that off? Threatening Marisa's life?"

Yukari leaned back. She lifted her teacup and saucer off the table. "A simple matter of placing people in the right places and letting their natures do the work for me. As a matter of fact, it's already been taken care of."

…

Usually, the journey from Hakurei Shrine top Marisa's home in the Forest of Magic took roughly around twenty to thirty minutes. Far too long to make it in time to prevent Mima from doing anything drastic.

Usually, however, this estimate took into account things such as headwinds, fairy and youkai attacks, stopping to take in the sights and a general lack of motivation to hurry. Given the situation at hand, many of these factors had ceased to matter.

Reimu and Alice made the journey in just over seven minutes. They were still too late.

From the look of things, they had arrived right after some sort of battle. The area around Marisa's home had apparently been sealed off with yellow tape and GPF officers patrolling the area. Now the officers were lying lifeless on the ground, against trees or slung over bushes. Others were hanging head-down from the branches, tied in place by the same yellow tape that they had used to mark off the area. Three of them were floating in a slow circle around the perimeter, rotating and bobbing like puppets on strings.

Reimu slowed to a stop as she approached. "Wow," she said as she surveyed the scene. "That was fast."

Alice didn't answer. She simply landed and walked over to the nearest fallen officer, an older man with a streak of silver cutting through his otherwise dark hair. She nudged him with the toe of her boot.

"Alive," she pronounced. "But he's not going anywhere for awhile."

Reimu felt relieved. At least Mima hadn't gone wholly back to her old habits. Though her mercy was more likely to be motivated by being pressed for time than concern for human life. "Okay, so we know she was here. Where is she now? And Marisa, for that matter."

Alice tapped her lip as she looked around. Her eyes fell upon Marisa's T-shaped house. The front door was open.

"Inside there, most likely," she said. "It is, after all, the center of this display of-"

"Okay, seriously Master," Marisa's voice suddenly said from inside the house. "You're gonna want to put her down. Come on, put breakable human down, ze."

Alice quirked an eyebrow. "I suppose further evidence gathering would be unnecessary."

"Smartass," Reimu muttered. She ran past the puppeteer. "Come on."

The interior of Marisa's house was surprising in a number of ways. To begin, most of her junk was gone, leaving large patches of something that Reimu had thought she would never see in that place: bare floor. But over the floor were sprawled more bodies in black uniforms. And in the center of it all was Mima herself.

The ghost's demeanor was almost eerily calm. She was floating a little ways off the ground, with one hand hanging at her side and the other holding someone aloft by the neck. Her head was cocked to one side as she stared at her victim with an emotionless expression. Reimu's eyes widened when she recognized the person in Mima's grasp as Kotohime herself. The former madwoman was futilely grabbing at Mima's fingers, trying to pry them away from her throat. Her legs were kicking at air and her face was starting to turn purple.

Standing behind Mima was Marisa herself. The witch didn't seem to be overly enthused about her sudden rescue. Instead, she was pulling at Mima's free hand and was trying to talk her down.

"Seriously, you _really _don't want to do this," Marisa said. "I'm in enough trouble as it is. So come on, I know she's a pain in the ass, but put her down, okay? Let's…just put the police-girl down."

"Oh, but I find that do want to do this," Mima murmured. Her eyes never left Kotohime's choking face. "I want to do this very much. This was the one that dogged you, took you down and handed you off to Yukari, is it not? If so, then this is only the beginning of the things I want to do to her."

She lifted her other arm into the air, easily removing it from Marisa's grasp. Green sparks started to crackle around her fingertips. "How shall we begin, little princess?" she asked. "Perhaps I should just burn off all your limbs and see how well you do your job as an amputee? Perhaps I should pull out your eyesballs and stuff them down your throat? Or shall I boil the blood in your veins? Freeze the water in your eyes? Make it so your heart only beats once every ten seconds? Oh, here's an idea. Perhaps I should see if I can undo whatever it was Yukari did to your mind? I'll probably fail and end up doing irreversible damage, but seeing how returning you to madness would be my intention anyway, it still counts as a success."

"No, bad idea, bad idea!" Marisa yelped. She jumped up and tried pulling on Mima's shoulders. "Put her down already-Oh, hi guys. Wish I knew you were coming. Would've put the kettle on, ze."

Reimu ignored her. She rushed up to Mima and flew up high enough to get in her face.

"Have you completely lost your mind?" she screamed. "Let her go!"

Mima looked at her with emotionless eyes. "But of course."

The hand gripping Kotohime's neck started to glow. Kotohime's already wide eyes bulged out even further as her frenzied squeaking took on a new degree of urgency.

"Alive, I meant alive!" Reimu screamed. "Mima, stop it before-"

There was the sound of something thin and flexible whipping through the air. Reimu thought she caught a brief glance of movement, and suddenly the arm that held Kotohime in the air separated at the elbow. Kotohime fell to the ground as the now severed forearm and attached hand dissolved into vapor. She lay there, shaking and trying to pull in a full breath through her damaged throat.

Everyone else, Mima included, went completely still. Then all eyes, save for Kotohime's, swept around to stare at Alice, who was standing framed by the doorway, Shanghai hovering behind her like a small humanoid familiar.

The blue-eyed magician tilted her chin. "As satisfying as it was to watch that pretender to authority dance around like one of my puppets, this was starting to go too far." She held up her right hand. On each finger was a small gold band. Hanging from each band was a long and incredibly thin wire of some sort of silvery metal, visible only through the brief flashes of light as they flicked through the sunlight. There was a whistling sound as the wires retracted and wrapped themselves neatly around their bands of origin.

"Murders tend to make things…messy," Alice continued as she let her hand fall. "I think this house has seen messes enough."

Mima cocked her head. "Angel-hair. Interesting weapon of choice. Extremely rare, of course. But I suppose it was easy to access, given your…upbringing."

"A gift from my aunt/uncle, before my mother and I parted ways," Alice said. "For use in my work. Sariel probably intended for me to put it toward a more mystical purpose, but one must never overlook something's practical applications."

"Well spoken," Mima said. She held up what was left of her right arm. Green electricity surged around the stump, and it became whole once more. She flexed her fingers experimentally, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Of course, you do realize that you've just made yourself into an obstacle," Mima told Alice. She held out both her hands, palms up. A humming ball of yellow energy formed over each, growing as she slowly floated closer to the puppeteer. "Now, let me show you what I do to obstacles."

Marisa leapt in her way. "No!" she yelled. Her yellow eyes were wide with panic. "Master, stop! Kotohime was one thing, but leave Alice alone!"

"Get out the way, Marisa," Mima said.

"Hell no! Look, I love you and everything, but no one messes with Alice!"

Alice blinked. "What?"

"Well, except for me of course," Marisa amended. "Gotta protect the trademark, you know?"

"That's…not what I meant."

"'Fraid I'm gonna have to go with Marisa on this one," Reimu said. She floated over to Marisa's side. As she did so, the orbs hovering around her waist start to spin faster and faster. "I mean, weren't you the one chewing me out for being all stupid and reckless? Because right now I think you've _way _over that line."

Mima looked from one determined face to the other. "Marisa, are you serious here? You would truly stand against me to protect her?"

Marisa flicked up the brim of her hat and grinned. "You bet your incorporeal ass I would! Come on, I need to have _someone _to annoy within walking distance!"

"I'm touched, I really am," Alice muttered.

Mima stared at her former apprentice. The spheres of light snuffed out and she lowered her hands. Reimu tensed up, unsure of what the ghost was planning.

And then Mima smiled. "Good for you. I'd disinherit you if you didn't." She looked around the room. "I suppose I did get a little carried away. My apologies."

"You _think?" _Reimu said. "I mean, look at this place!"

"Yes, not my best work, I'll admit. But I've been under a bit of stress as of late. Excuse me for a moment." Mima turned and leaned over Kotohime. The policewoman was just starting to gain some control over her coughing. She held her throat as she shakily tried to push herself up.

Mima waved a hand over her head and muttered a word. Kotohime's eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed.

Reimu stiffened. "Whoa, what the hell-"

"Calm down, she's just asleep." Mima said. "See? I am occasionally capable of mercy, once I've regained my senses."

Reimu glowered at her suspiciously. Perhaps it was past memories at work, but she for one wasn't willing to accept Mima's turnabout as genuine. She glanced down at Kotohime's prone form. She was breathing, though shallowly.

"Okay," she said. "But there's still the big problem of you trying to commit _murder."_

"We can discuss that later," Mima said. "But for now, I suggest we modify their memories and vacate the premises as soon as-"

Marisa cleared her throat. "Um, yeah. About that. Itsy-bitsy problem with that, Master."

"Is there?" Mima said. "And what would that be?"

"See, I appreciate you guys storming in to rescue me, I really do, but…I kinda don't need to be rescued. And running away's also out."

"Eh?" Reimu said. "What are you talking about? I mean, I know a jailbreak would probably be a bad idea, but I didn't expect to hear that from you."

"I agree," Alice said as she stepped fully inside. "Please, do explain."

"Unnecessary," Mima said. She floated up to Marisa and grabbed the witch's face by the cheeks.

"Hwey!" Marisa half-slurred, half-shouted. "Fwat are you dwoing?"

"Shush," Mima said. She brought Marisa's face in closer and stared into her eyes. "This won't take long. I just need to see where Yukari rewired your brain so I can fix it."

"Okway, get woff!" Marisa yelled as she pushed herself out of Mima's grasp. "She didn't mess with my brain, I made a deal with her!"

"Uh, what?" Alice said. "Would…would you mind repeating that last part?"

"What, are you deaf? I cut a deal with Yukari to get out of jail time, and going all violent on these guys will just screw it up!"

Reimu cleared her throat. "Uh, Marisa? Sorry to be such a downer, but doesn't making deals with a certifiable and ruthless liar strike you as kind of…dumb?"

"I concur," Mima said. "And seeing how it's coming from Reimu, it only makes your poor decisions all the more stark?"

"Uh, what?"

"Well, you're not exactly having the most intelligent day yourself, are you?"

Marisa stared at them. "Uh, okay. I have no idea what you two are talking about, but seriously, it's cool. Yukari's got this big fight with Yuuka Kazami coming up, and she wants me to help her win."

"What?" Alice yelped. "Huh? Kazami? What?"

Reimu and Mima exchanged a look. Mima's lips tightened and she rolled her eyes, almost as if to say, _See? I told you so._

"Wait, are you serious?" Alice continued. "You two, did you know about this…madness? Is she being serious?"

Mima cleared her throat. "Ah, yes. Marisa, may I speak to you for a moment. Privately?"

Marisa frowned. "Uh…"

"I promise that I'm not going to knock you out and whisk you away, or anything down those lines. I just believe we need to have a discussion."

"Um, okay." Marisa looked over to Alice and Reimu. She shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Just try not to get me into any more trouble."

"I truly believe that is impossible. Follow me."

Mima floated past the three girls to exit the house. After a moment's hesitation, Marisa ran after her.

When they were gone, Alice turned to Reimu. "Reimu, what was she talking about?" she said. "What does Yuuka Kazami have to do with anything?"

Reimu groaned. Yet another explanation session. She was starting to wish that they had some way of simply posing the information somewhere where everyone could see it. It would save her a considerable amount of breath.

"Give me a hand here," she said as she put her arms under Kotohime's shoulders. "This'll take awhile, so we might as well work while we talk."

…

Marisa followed Mima of the house and into the clearing. She winced when she saw the lifeless bodies of the GPF officers lying on the ground, hanging from the trees or flopping limply through the air (though she did make a mental note to learn that spell). She really hoped that no one had died. Being a thief was one thing, a noble career with centuries of tradition. But while the same could be said for murderer, it still wasn't a title she was eager to attain. And being an accomplice to a murderer was even worse. All of the guilt and shame with none of the badass points. Plus, deal or no deal, Kotohime would hound her until the end of time.

Mima, predictably enough, didn't seem to be the least bit concerned about the potential carnage she had wrought. She simply led Marisa out of the clearing and into the woods. Once the daylight, muted as it was, had been replaced by shadow, she turned and said, "Now, Marisa. I am aware that your relationship with sanity is a tenuous one at best. Now I've never really minded. I'm sure there are many that would say the same about me, and to tell the truth, I tend to find that characteristic to be endearing. But in this case I really must ask." She took a deep breath (most likely for effect) and shouted, "Have you _completely_ divorced yourself from what little sense you claim to have left?"

Marisa scratched her head. She around at the twisted, fungi covered trees that surrounded them. She toed the carpet of moist and rotted leaves that covered the ground. Then she said, "No, not really."

"Oh!" Mima arched a single eyebrow. "Is that so? Well, that's good to hear. But again, I have to ask: what else would you call your so-called deal with Yukari?"

Marisa grinned. "A mutually beneficial arrangement, ze!"

Mima stared. "Mutually beneficial?"

"Well, sure."

"Marisa, do you even know the meaning of that phrase?"

"Of course! I get what I want, and by sheer coincidence someone else gets happy too!"

"Oh, Marisa, Marisa, Marisa," Mima sighed. "Don't you get it? When Yukari has your balls in a vice, it doesn't matter what sort of deals she makes with you."

Marisa looked down. "I haven't got-"

"Doesn't matter! In these sorts of situations, the only person that ends up 'getting happy' is Yukari herself!"

"Hey, it gets me out of jail!" Marisa said as she stuck a thumb against her chest.

"Which my actions here would have achieved anyway," Mima pointed out.

"I get to take part in a big kick-ass battle," Marisa continued.

"Plenty of those in the future."

"And I get to ransack Yuuka's mansion afterward!"

Mima blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Hey, the last time I was there, I found the coolest spell of all freaking time, ze!" Marisa said with a grin. "Think of what I could find if I wasn't worried about seeing Yuuka's creepy smile around every corner."

"Marisa, are you serious? Are you even thinking? Do you think that Yukari will let you, a convicted felon with a record, just go off and loot the home of one of the most dangerous persons alive?"

"Eh," Marisa said with a shrug. "Wasn't really planning on asking for permission, ze. 'Sides, I figure afterward she's gonna be too busy cleaning up and chasing the all-devouring lump of goo to care what I'm doing."

"Is that what you think?" Mima said icily. "Good heavens. As much as it pains me to say, I'm starting to think that you're not the bright young pupil I thought you were."

Marisa's head jerked back. "N-now, hold on! What are you saying? Just because-"

"Marisa, one of the things I've always admired about you is your independence. Your love of freedom. Your absolute refusal to take guff from anyone. Even when you were in servitude to me, I could still see that spark in you. And after you struck out on your own, I was so pleased to see that spark ignite into a raging fire. So pleased…" Mima shook her head. "But now, you are not only taking Yukari's shit, you are shoveling it down your throat! What sort of hold has that bitch gotten over you?"

Marisa's jaw was hanging slack. "You…you seriously think that of me? You think I'm…"

"What else am I to think, Marisa? That this is all some grand scheme that you cooked up? That you are somehow manipulating her to do what you want? Please. You've put her collar around your neck. And take it from someone who's seen others make that same mistake: such collars are not easily removed. More often than not, they end up as slaves. Or dead. Is that what you want? Because you certainly have taken that path with full enthusiasm."

A lump formed in Marisa's throat. She felt like she was nine years old again, and Mima was chewing her out for botching a spell. She stared down at the decomposing mulch beneath her feet.

Was Mima right? Was she playing right into Yukari's hands? Well, that was pretty much a given, but she had been convinced that the potential gain made the temporary inconvenience worth it. But what if she didn't regain her freedom afterward? Yukari held absolute power in this situation. She could easily just ignore the deal and toss Marisa back into Kotohime's cell to rot forever.

She shook her head. Everything was so confusing now. True, Mima being disappointed in her did have that effect, but…

Wait.

Mima.

Marisa started to laugh. It started as a quiet giggle, but it grew, gained strength, and blossomed into full on crazy cackling. She threw her head back and let the hysterics run their course.

Mystified, Mima stared at her prodigy. "Well, that wasn't expected. And honestly, don't you think you're overplaying the laughing witch cliché just a bit?"

Still laughing, Marisa wiped the tears of mirth from her eyes. "Ah, sorry Ma…Mima. It's…You remember those secret tests? When you'd send me to do something that you had already sabotaged, or had me try to duplicate a spell that was impossible, or do something that would get me in trouble and yell at me, even though you knew it wasn't my fault, ze? Just to see how'd I react?"

"That was years ago, Marisa. What of them?"

"This is another one, isn't it?"

"What?" Mima gaped. "Are you serious? Is that what you believe, that I'd use something like this for a silly test?"

"Nah, not you. I was thinking life itself."

"Marisa?" Mima's brow furrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"See, you were just going on and on about how I need to do my own thing, how I need to make my own decisions, to keep my freedom, despite what other people want or expect from me."

"Well, yes, I thought I had made that-"

"Well, wouldn't that include you too?"

Mima fell silent. Her sapphire eyes were open wide with shock.

"Thing is, Mima, I'm not a little girl anymore. I've graduated. Grown up. I can't keep being your apprentice. Sooner or later, I gotta do what's right for me, even if you don't like it."

"And this is how you decide to express your independence from me?" Mima demanded. "By plunging headfirst into something so suicidal-"

Marisa leaned back against a gnarled old oak. She stuck her hands in her pockets and her cocky grin reappeared on her face. "Come on, Mima. Think about it. What would happen if Yukari showed up and saw all those wannabe-cops lying unconscious and me gone? It wouldn't be hard to figure out who busted me out, either. After that, Satsuki ain't gonna be the only fugitive on Yukari's list."

Mima's eyes darkened. "Marisa, are you doubting my ability to protect us?"

"Mima, she gave you the finger without a second thought. And this was when she was already dealing with Satsuki and Yuuka. No offense, but I don't think she's scared of you."

Mima's hands clenched into fists. She bared her teeth. "She should be."

"Yeah, well, she isn't. And if we make ourselves out to be yet another problem…" Marisa shrugged. "She ain't gonna think twice about squishing both of us. You might be able to put up a fight, but me? I kinda squish easy."

"Oh, is that it? You're scared of Yukari, so you just blindly take her orders and hope she doesn't hurt you?"

Marisa folded her arms. She shrugged. "Don't have to be scared of her to know that she's still the strongest person around. And it ain't cowardice to want to stay off her Bad List."

"Marisa, think this through! You're right, she does have godlike powers. She's centuries old, and looking to live centuries more. You think some little human matter to her? You think she'll think twice about-"

"Exactly. I'm nothing to her, ze. So all I gotta do is go along with her plan, make a good showing, and she'll have no reason to go after me anymore. I'll be on her Good List, we'll part ways, and as far as she's concerned, I'm gonna die in a few years anyway. That's what a Human life span is like to you immortal types, right? So there'll be no harm in ignoring someone who's gonna expire soon enough anyway. Besides…" Marisa snickered. "Killing me would make Reimu mad, and Yukari's got a thing for Armpits. So, she's not real likely to whack me for no reason or set me up to die, is she?"

Mima stiffened. She slowly unclenched her hands. "Very well," she said coldly. "You've obviously made up your mind on the matter. Who am I to try to change it?" She inclined her head in a mocking bow. "I apologize for disturbing you. I'll show myself out. Farewell, Miss Kirisame."

She started to fade away, but then Marisa said, "Hey, wait a minute!"

Mima regained solidity. "Yes?"

"Come with me!"

"_What?"_

"Hey, I get it. You're concerned for me. And don't get me wrong, I really appreciate it, but if you're so worried about Yukari double-crossing me or Yuuka pounding my face to paste, then why not come along and watch my back?"

Mima looked at Marisa as if she had suddenly grown several ears on her forehead. "Marisa, did you seriously just suggest that I…" Her face contorted, as if the very words were fighting against her.

"_Ally _myself with Yukari?" she finally spat out. "Is that what you're saying?"

"Hey, you've done it before."

"Yes, but I didn't hate her then."

"Hey, no one's saying you gotta get matching BFF bracelets or anything. Just help me kick Yuuka's ass and make sure Yukari don't try anything, ze. Then as soon as I get those dumb charges cleared, you and I can go off and strip Yuuka's place bare! Come on, it'll be like old times."

"Marisa," Mima said. "We've never fought Yuuka together before."

Marisa shrugged. "Yeah, but I have, and we've worked together plenty of times, so add those together. And besides, it's just Yuuka. Sure, she's scary when you're on your own, but all of us together? It'll be a massacre! With…us doing the massacring, so don't use that sentence against me."

Mima looked troubled. "Even if I were to agree to this, even if we were all to pool our resources against Yuuka, I am not as optimistic as you about our chances for success."

"Huh? But she's just a youkai! Sure, she's a strong one, but-"

"No, she's not."

Marisa twisted her face up in a frown of confusion. "Eh?"

"Yuuka. She's not a youkai, at least not how we judge the term. That's just a skin she wears. A mask." At Marisa's astonished look, Mima said, "I've had encounters with her in the past, during which I got a measure of her essence."

Now Marisa was even more confused. "Then what is she?"

"I don't know," Mima said. She shook her head. "Something alien. Personally, I'm surprised Yukari herself hasn't noticed. But whatever she is, it is not…something we're familiar with."

Marisa threw her hands up. "Well then, all the more reason to have you along! Keep this from becoming a complete disaster! Besides, we'll have plenty of backup. Yukari's got this whole team she's throwing together."

"I know that already," Mima said crossly. "And to be honest, working with the likes of Flandre Scarlet and Utsuho Reiuji does not fill me with optimism, especially when they've got Remilia Scarlet and Satori Komejii holding their leashes."

Marisa blinked. "You know about them already? Damn, news travels fast. And what's wrong with Satori?"

"You mean besides the fact that I am growing more and more convinced that this was all her idea to begin with? There are so many layers to these plots that it's a miracle that anyone can keep this straight."

"Eh, plots, plans, schemes, whatever." Marisa shrugged. "Too much work, if you ask me. They just end up making things confusing, ze. But either way, I'm still going. You can come with me if you want. Or don't. But I'm going."

Mima stared at the girl she had practically raised, the only Human in centuries that she had felt any kind of genuine attachment toward. And now this girl, who didn't even have a percent of a fraction of Mima's age, power or experience, was point-blank challenging her motives and her pride and demanding that she become involved in a mess that she wanted no part of. It was insane, it was inconceivable, it went against all logic…

And it was working. The gods help her, it was working.

Now Mima was the one laughing. "Ah…hahahaha," she chuckled as she shook her head in disbelief. "Well, I'll be forever damned. I don't know if what you said is true, about this being some sort of secret test life is throwing at you. But if it is…"

Marisa cocked her head. "Yeah?"

"If it is, then I'd say you passed."

…

Reimu frowned as she looked at Kotohime's swollen face. The GPF captain had been moved to Marisa's bed, where she continued to breathe in a steady but raspy manner. She wished she could do something for the other officers lying around, but there was only one bed.

"Is she okay?" Reimu asked Alice. "I mean, how long is she going to be out?"

Alice, who was fretfully pacing back and forth, looked at her in contempt. "It's an enchanted sleep. She'll awaken when Mima decides she should."

"Oh. Well, that's gonna be a while, isn't it?"

"At this moment, I think we have more important things to worry about than a pretentious badge-holder," Alice snapped. "Marisa and Mima have been gone far too long. Who knows what that ghost is up to? For all we know, she could have whisked Marisa away and left us here to take the fall when Yukari finally decides to check up on these fools."

Reimu opened her mouth to respond, but a moment later her answer was rendered unnecessary when she glanced out the open door.

"Hey, check it out," she said as she got up and ran toward the door. "There they are!"

Reimu didn't know how the conversation had gone, but the results were interesting. Marisa had a wide grin on her face, the same sort she usually wore after purloining a particularly valuable book from Patchouli Knowledge's library. The look on Mima's face was one of complete bemusement, as if she were experiencing several conflicting emotions and once and didn't know which one she should be feeling.

"Marisa!" Alice cried as she pushed her way past Reimu. "There you are! What in the world have you two been discussing? Don't you realize that it's only a matter of time before Yukari decides to check on her little puppets here?"

"Nah, no worries," Marisa said as she walked right past the puppeteer. "We've got everything worked out, ze. It's all been…Hey, why the hell is she in my bed? That's just not right!"

"What?" Reimu said. She and Alice exchanged a confused look. "What's going on?"

"It's all right," Mima said wearily. "We've come to an agreement. I'll be assisting Marisa in her…current path."

"What?" Alice exploded. "Are you _insane? _You came here to rescue her, and now you're just going to let her twist in that bitch's clutches? This is madness, this is-"

"Calm yourself," Mima said. "As I said, I will be looking after her wellbeing from now on. There is nothing you two need to be concerned with. In fact, I think it would be best if you left now."

"But…I…This is…" Alice's eyes darted from Mima, to Marisa, to Reimu, to Marisa again.

"Fine!" she shouted. "You obviously don't want me interfering with your business. Just don't come crying to me when it all blows up in your idiotic faces!"

With that, she stormed out of the house, Shanghai following close behind. As soon as she was in the open air, Alice leapt up and flew off in a huff.

All eyes turned to Marisa, who just shrugged. "Eh, she gets like that sometimes. She'll get over it."

"It's all the same to me," Mima said. "But you should follow her example, Reimu. This is not the place for you anymore. I'll take care of my mess here and treat the wounded. There is nothing you need to worry about."

"I…uh…okay." Reimu still had no idea what was going on, but there was a note in Mima's voice that told her that she should obey. She reluctantly turned and headed toward the door.

Then she paused. "Hey, Mima?"

"Yes?"

"Look after this idiot, all right? Make sure she doesn't do anything really stupid?"

"Why, Reddie," Marisa grinned. "You really do care! I'm touched."

"Shut up, Marisa," Reimu snapped. "And I mean it. Don't make this incident any more fucked up than it is."

With that, Reimu took to the air, quickly putting distance between herself and the disaster area that was Marisa's house. She adjusted her course for the shrine. She hoped Genji was still talking to her, because she had a _lot _she needed someone to talk to about.

"And to think," she muttered as she cleared the clouds. "I thought today was going to be a peaceful day."

…

"It is amazing, the sort of things people will do for love," Yukari murmured. She brought the teacup to her lips and slowly sipped the steaming liquid. "Even the proudest, the most uncontrollable, the most erratic of creatures can be swayed by its power. Mima is no different."

Yuyuko nodded, though it was difficult to tell if she truly understood or not. Youmu, however, was a bit more in tune with the physical world than her lady. She took that moment to break into the conversation.

"But…I'm sorry, lady Yukari. But I don't understand. What if Mima had refused? What if she had just snatched Marisa away without listening to her arguments? Or what if she had killed those men and women instead of just knocking them out? Forgive me, there just seems to be too many things left to chance!"

"Now, Youmu," Yuyuko murmured. "Let's not get overly upset. Yukari knows what she's doing."

Yukari placed the teacup back on the table. She leaned back and crossed her legs. "No, no. She's quite right. And to answer your question, Mima cares enough about Marisa to want her to go with her willingly, rather than simply kidnap her. So she would want to convince Marisa to see things her way. Furthermore, she still has her pride, and to simply snatch up Marisa against her will would seem like a failure on her part." She shrugged. "It was a risk, yes, but in the very worst case scenario, all I would lose is the witch, and her only part in this battle would be as backup. But to bring Mima back on board? Definitely worth the trouble."

"As for the GPF," Yukari continued. "That was another risk. However, even if Mima had decided to go for the kill, I was still watching that whole encounter." She smiled. "Sometimes it pays to be able to manipulate the borders of life and death. Or, say, the border of wholeness and disintegration. Shiki's most likely going to cut me more slack than usual due to the emergency situation. And what Kotohime doesn't know doesn't hurt her. All in the line of duty."

Youmu still looked troubled. "But…surely it would have been easier just to ask the two of them at the beginning? Without resorting to arrests or mind games?"

"Youmu, weren't you paying attention?" Yuyuko said. "She didn't find out about Yuuka until after she had announced her intention to arrest Marisa. By the time this plan had been formulated, Mima had already snuck Marisa out."

Yukari raised an eyebrow. "Wow, you really are surprisingly perceptive today. Has there been a change of diet?"

Then she smiled and idly stirred her tea with her forefinger. "But yes, I did have to…improvise. But now that the pieces are finally falling into place..." She picked up a chocolate covered strawberry from its nearly empty tray and held it between her forefinger and thumb.

"Yuuka will never know what hit her," she murmured. With that, she crushed the strawberry.

…

_And the Xanatos Roulette wheel keeps going round and round and round! I don't know why I enjoy adding all these overly convoluted plots, but it's just so much fun. I'm starting to think of writing this story as being like navigating a mirrored maze with a map in one hand and a hammer in the other, and making frequent use of both!_

_Anyway, as you may have noticed, this chapter came up considerably quicker than past updates. In only ten days to be exact. Why is this, you might ask? Well, the reason is simple: exactly one month ago we celebrated Imperfect Metamorphosis' first birthday, at twenty-five chapters._

_And today we celebrate mine, at twenty-five years! :D_

_Okay, that's pretty much the whole reason. I just thought it would be cool to update on my birthday. Wasn't easy. Ended up consuming an ungodly amount of caffeine, and was fortunately blessed with a week free from schoolwork. Still was fun though. I think I'm addicted to over-complicating plots. But I've already talked about that, so let's move on to the chapter itself!_

_So anyway, Yuyuko and Youmu finally show up. To be honest, I've been wanting to bring them into the story for awhile now, but the problem was that I honestly couldn't think of anything they could do. All I really had in mind was that one scene where Mystia sees them and freaks out, and maybe a couple appearances at the very, very end of the story, but in the middle? No idea. Glad they did show up, as their almost-but-not-quite Boke and Tsukkomi routine was a real hoot. Though I do apologize if Yuyuko's portrayal during her more serious moments felt a little inconsistent, as it did to me. I'm still trying to get a handle on her character, and am finding that I'm having the same trouble that I did with Patchouli. Should get the rough parts smoothed out soon._

_Speaking of Yuyuko and Youmu, I have another problem with them. In that, despite that it was time for them to finally show up…I still have no idea what to do with them. I want them to be in this story. They're hugely important characters in the games and the fandom, and excluding them would be just plain wrong (especially after they got this big introduction). But inventing an entirely new plotline just to keep them around would feel forced and make things even more convoluted, while keeping them in their present role would just make them into Yukari's sidekicks, and they deserve more than that._

_So I think I'll leave it up to you guys! What do you think? If you have a good idea for a role they can play, let me hear it!_

_Also, Yuyuko and Yukari's conversation takes place a few hours after Mima and Marisa's, and Rin and Rumia's, though it comes first, occurs some time after that. I was rereading the chapter and realized that's the only way it makes sense. Bit out of order, I know. Also, yes, I am deliberately ignoring the potential meetings from PoFV. So…yeah._

_Oh, and one last story-related thing. The next few chapters are going to be another mini-arc, similar to the Deep Within trilogy. The title? "The Storm". The content? Yukari and Yuuka finally throw down. Place your bets now!_

_Anyway, moving on to other news, as most of you are probably aware, the demo for Ten Desires was released a few days ago. We've got a few returning faces, as well as a few new ones! Byakuren's group has a new member (who is abso-freaking-lutely adorable!) and…ZOMBIE GIRL! Hell yeah! Still working on how I'm going to work Ten Desires and its characters into the IM continuity. I'll decide once I've played the full game. In the meantime, Kyouko's been retconned into Byakuren and Reimu's conversation in chapter 21. Time will tell how the rest of that game will work out. But until then, I am curious as hell to see who the Big Bad of this one is. And given the clues we've seen so far…Mima? Please?_

_Ha, it's probably just Myouren. I'd like to see Kasen show up as Ex-Boss though._

_Oh, and I forgot to mention this last chapter (felt like an idiot when I realized it), but thank you so much to everyone who's contributed to IM's TV Tropes page! Yes, I have it bookmarked. Yes, I obsessively check the history, and yes, I get all happy every time a new trope's been added. DON'T JUDGE ME!_

_Just one request though: I noticed that most of the tropes have to do with its status as a dark fic (It Got Worse, Break the Cutie, etc.). While these are all certainly correct, there is a lot more than just depressing stuff! So maybe some of the lighter elements should be mentioned as well? Just a thought._

_And finally, to address a couple points/questions left in the reviews._

_lolcanon: I haven't forgotten about Fantasy Heaven. But while its invincibility would have come in handy, it is still an incredibly complicated spell to pull off, and Reimu wasn't really focused at that time. Besides, she needs the Ying-Yang Orb to activate it, which had been left behind._

_ThisTroperFromGensokyo: It's true. So far, no one important has died, and casualties from unnamed OC's have been kept to a minimum. But just remember that one of my principle influences is Joss Whedon…_

_Hehehehehehe…_

_Also, Genji had more reasons than the Rule of Drama keeping him from becoming personally involved. Let's just say, the landscape wouldn't be able to handle him in all his badass turtlely fury. _

_Because he's fucking Genji._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	28. The Storm, Part 1

The Storm, Part 1

_The Calm_

_Well, this is…different._

_It certainly is unexpected. But while these surroundings are perplexing, they are not unpleasant._

_You are standing on a white stone path, which cuts through a magnificent garden. Lining the path on both sides are two lines of marble statues, all of them of young girls in filmy dresses. Some are depicted standing, some are sitting, some are running, playing, walking, talking, laughing, crying and a half-dozen other activities. Growing up from the statues' square pedestals and snaking upward to entwine around their bodies is a network of tiny green vines, on which are blooming thousands of tiny flowers. The flowers that each statue wears is a different color, from deep crimsons to rich purples to pure whites to bright yellows, giving the statues an effect not unlike being covered with Christmas lights._

_Stretching beyond the statues in all directions is a seemingly endless field of sunflowers. They are growing tall and healthy, with stiff stalks a vibrant green and huge brown dials framed by small yellow petals. And each and every one is turned upward, staring lovingly at their namesake._

_The sky above is bright blue and completely cloudless. The warm of the sun surrounds you, but not uncomfortably so. The gentle breeze that blows through the field and rustles the sunflowers certainly helps in this regard. All in all, as odd as it is that you have found yourself here, it is really quite a nice place._

_But something is off. In most similar places, there would be noises from nearby creatures. The chirping of birds, the chittering of insects, perhaps the cry of larger animals. But here it is almost completely silent. The only sound is that of the wind and the leaves. It is as if you have been dropped in some strange world where all animal life has died off, leaving nothing but the plants behind. But that wouldn't make any sense. Who built the path and the statues? Who tends the flowers?_

_With this observation comes the decision to investigate. You start to move up the path, sandals slapping against the sun-warmed stone. Even though there is no one else but the flowers, it feels as if someone is nearby, watching. You squint at the eyes of the statues suspiciously, and then the sunflowers. Could someone be hiding in the field? There doesn't seem to be anyone, but something is making you uneasy._

_You increase your pace, eventually breaking into a full-out run. More and more statues and sunflowers fly past, with no indication as to their origin._

_Wait. Stop. There is something. The path is now circling around a lily-pad filled fountain. And beyond that, a large mansion. It is of a rectangular shape, with three stories of open windows all along the walls. Like the statues, it is also made from white marble. And also like the statues, it has curling vines and multi-colored flowers growing all over its surface. The overall effect is strangely reminiscent of a vanilla-frosting cake covered with rainbow sprinkles. Given the creepy feeling that has been steadily growing, this new reaction is a bit on the disconcerting side._

_Still, despite the fact that the mansion seems to be in good repair, there is no one in sight. No one comes out to say hello. You briefly consider calling out to see if anyone's listening, but instead you settle for walking up the steps toward the large double-door. You hesitantly wrap your fingers around the brass doorhandle and give it an experimental tug. _

_Surprisingly, it opens. _

_Once inside, things start to get truly bizarre. It is as if someone had taken the interior plan of a greenhouse and a European mansion and spent a considerable amount of time combining the features of both. Before you is a circular foyer, with three ornate doors, one at the far end of the room and the other two to either side, leading to other parts of the mansion. Two curving staircases wrap down to join with the floor at the gaps between the doors. Directly above is a chandelier of gold and crystal, lighting the room with dozens of electric candles. _

_But all that pales when confronted with the room's centerpiece: a massive handpainted portrait in a frame of golden leaves. In it is tall woman standing in a field of sunflowers on a bright summer's day, presumably the very same field you had just left. The woman seems to be in her early-to-mid thirties and is very attractive, with creamy white skin, a full and curving body and plump lips lifting in a slightly mischievous smile. She is wearing a long red plaid skirt over a pair of stocking of a red so dark they are almost black. Her blouse is pale pink and there is a bright yellow ascot tied at her neck. Over this is an open vest the same color as her skirt. A light lavender umbrella is held lightly in her fingers and leaning over her shoulder. All well and normal, but there is something about the woman that you find to be horribly fascinating. Perhaps the fact that her hair is moss green and her eyes the color of freshly spilled blood has something to do with this._

_It is an impressive room, there is no doubt. But even the painting is not as attention-grabbing as the plants. They are literally everywhere. Ivy clinging to the walls and gently wrapping around the painting in an affectionate embrace. Tiny blue bell-shaped flowers growing on vines that dangle from the ceiling. Lilies framing the doors. Rose bushes covering the banisters, red on the left-hand staircase and white on the right. The stone of the floor had been replaced with soft soil, from which grew even more sunflowers._

_It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. This many plants should not be able to grow within this room. And yet here they are, as strong and healthy as if they were outside in a well-tended garden._

_But again, there is no one here. Where to next, then? After a moment's contemplation, you decide to leave the second story for later and go through the door on the left, even if it does mean moving gingerly through the sunflowers to reach._

_The rest of the mansion continues the theme, a combination of both home and garden. Plants are literally everywhere, covering the walls, the floor, the ceiling. You make your way through hallways and past opulent lounges, silk-adorned bedrooms and a rather large washroom with a bath of black obsidian so large it could have passed for a good sized hot tub. _

_Whoever lives here must have a deep appreciation for art, as there are an inordinate number of paintings on the walls. Most of them are of landscapes, from flowery fields to crashing waterfalls. Another common theme seems to be young girls, which, coupled with the statues you encountered outside, are starting to cast certain suspicions of the master of the house's pastimes. One of the latter is especially eye-catching. Two smiling children, one girl and one boy are embracing in front of a plain black background. The girl is fair of skin and her golden hair frames her dimpled face in two large curling locks. She is wearing a simple maroon sundress and a wide-brimmed straw hat. The boy is wearing a pair of poofy pants and a white button-up shirt. He is bareheaded, with a mop of green hair and, oddly enough, a pair of what honestly appear to be antennae coming out of his head. By this point this is hardly surprising._

_Thwack._

_You start and whirl around. The beating of your heart thunders in your ears as your eyes frantically search for the source of the sound. No one is there._

_Thwack._

_Thwack. _

_The sound is coming from further down the hall. You cautiously tiptoe and peer into an open doorway._

_It's a kitchen made from red brick. Cupboards line the walls, pots and pans hang from the ceiling. The foliage in here seems to mainly be clinging vines and more of those bell-shaped blue flowers hanging from the ceiling._

_Though the room is large enough to accommodate a kitchen staff of ten, there is only one person present. It's the golden-haired girl from the painting. She is at the counter at the opposite end of the room, her back toward you and is standing on a crate in order to reach. The source of the noise becomes clear as she methodically hacks away at a piece of raw meat with a cleaver._

_Thwack._

_Thwack._

_Thwack._

_So close to speaking to her, to ask her where you are. But then you eye the hunk of meat with uneasiness. This place is strange enough as it is. Who's to say that shank might have come from someone sentient?_

_The girl finishes her chopping and sets the knife down. She sighs and wipes the back of her hand across her brow. Then one of the vines reaches down to lift a dry towel off of a hook and helpfully hands it to her, which she accepts with a nod of thanks._

_Your heart leaps into your throat. You desperately try to move away from the door without attracting the girl's attention, but the shock still makes this difficult._

_Then you stare around at the plants that surround you on all sides. You now know who was watching you. _

_Enough of this. It's time to leave._

_You start sprinting back down the way you came. But as you round corner after corner, it becomes clear that you somehow gotten turned around. None of the hallways look familiar. Panics starts to mount as you run faster and faster, fearfully expecting to feel a vine snaking down to wrap around your throat._

_Wait. Stop. Voices. The plants? It sounds ridiculous, but at this point even something like that is possible. It doesn't sound like it thought. Perhaps they should be disregarded, but your curiosity eventually gets the better of you. Moving carefully so as not to announce your presence, you creep up toward a doorway that sits slightly open and peer inside._

_Four children are inside, huddling together and speaking in hushed tones. It's difficult to make out anything other than the odd sentence fragment, but they seem to be worried. Two of them are noticeably shorter than the others. The first had centered her appearance around the color blue, from her short hair to her dress to the large bow on her head. Six crystalline blue spikes jut from her back like wings. The other's fashion sense is more varied, with green hair tied in a side-ponytail and more traditional wings, these ones membranous and golden. _

_Fairies? Do such creatures even exist? Normally the answer would be "No", but it's difficult when there's a pair of them sitting not twenty feet away. Besides, after watching that vine pick up that towel, it is difficult to dismiss anything as impossible._

_The other two just amp up the strangeness. One is a girl with disheveled brown hair, a brown dress decorated with white petals and feathers and a strange round cap on her head, from which sprout to tiny wings. Two more wings, these ones much larger, are coming out from her back. It's difficult to tell if they're the real thing or just some sort of eccentric decoration, but at this point you're tempted to go with the former._

_Sitting next to her and holding her hand is the other child from the painting, the green-haired boy. From the look of things, those antennae had not been the result of artistic license. You gulp and shy back. _

_The four of them seem to be in heated discussion, not quite an argument, but the tension is obvious. The blue fairy seems to be frantically trying to assure the other three of something while the boy acts as her main opponent. The winged girl isn't saying much, but her worry is obvious. The green fairy seems to be trying to keep tempers from flaring up._

"…_it's not…we can still…"_

"…_can't…even paid attention at all…_

"…_please, don't shout…"_

"…_I'm serious, everything will be…"_

_It's then that the boy with antennae leaps to his feet and starts to shout. You then get yet another shock when you realize that the boy is, in fact, female._

"_No, everything will not be all right!" she yells into the blue fairy's face. "Gods, have you been keeping your head in the ground? Things haven't been right since we grabbed that stupid box. And they're only going to get worse!"_

_The green fairy and the winged girl immediately try to get her to sit down, but she is having none of it._

"_Didn't you see Yuuka when she came back?" she demands. "Didn't you see what kind of shape she was in? She lost! She's not going to be able to protect us from anything! So what do you think's gonna happen when Yukari decides to come after us?"_

_The blue fairy jumps to her feet as well. "You don't know that she lost! Maybe she killed Yukari!"_

"_As if! Stop being such a thickheaded idiot!"_

"_I! Am not! An idiot!"_

"_Yes you are, you idiot!"_

"_Stop calling me an idiot!"_

"_Idiot! Idiot! Stupid, stupid, idiot!"_

"_The one who says idiot is the idiot!"_

"_You just said idiot, you idiot!"_

_The two immediately jump at each other and start struggling, all the while shouting insults as the other two desperately try to pull them apart. Taking that as your cue to leave, you back away from the door and once again start to run._

_It was clear that a conflict had recently taken place. Seeing how you do not want to wind up in the middle of anything that would stress the residents of this house, it is time to find the exit as quickly possible and leave everything to their fights and plants._

_As another corner is rounded, you feel a sudden rush of relief. Daylight could be seeing streaming through a huge picture window that takes up the entire left wall. And there, in the center of the window, is an open glass door. Freedom. You grin and sprint out the door into the open air._

"_Ah. Hello there."_

_Your eyes bulge and you skid to a sudden stop. You're on some sort of marble sundeck, on which is a round, one-legged table, shaded by an umbrella. There are two chairs at the table. The closest is empty. The other is not. _

_The red-eyed woman from the painting in the foyer sits there. On the table before her is a pale blue cup of tea, a small bowl of sugar cubes and pitcher of cream. She is leaning over the table, her hands clasped in front of her face, her mouth turn up in a wry smile._

_However, that alone is not what makes her appearance terrifying. The woman has obviously been through hell. Though the only flesh uncovered by clothing are her hands and head, that is more than enough. Her face is twisted and scarred, with the flesh literally burned away in some areas. Her green hair has been reduced to odd scraggly patches and wispy strands growing out of her abused skull. A white strip of linen holds a puffy bandage over her left eye. Her fingers are burnt black and skeletal in their appearance. And she no longer has what can be properly called a nose._

_You turn to flee, but find that the glass door has been closed and sealed shut by ivy. There is an exit to the garden below to both your left and your right, but those have been blocked off by two large briar patches that had not been there a moment ago. _

_Trapped._

"_Now, now, none of that," the deformed woman murmurs. Despite the horrific damage, her voice, low and with an unidentifiable but unquestionably European accent, is intact. "It's rude to show up for tea and suddenly leave without saying a word. Now, won't you have a seat?"_

_At your look of disbelief, she laughs and says, "Oh, come now. I'm not going to hurt you. For one, as you can obviously see, I am in no shape to be getting into any tussles. For another, it is bad manners to murder your guests, at least the ones that are invited. And you are invited, aren't you?"_

_You most certainly are not, but you are not about to tell her that. _

"_Excellent! Now, please. Have a seat."_

_Seeing no other choice in the matter, you warily walk over and sit down in the empty chair. It is then that you notice that the woman is wearing two rings, one on the ring finger of her right hand and one on the middle finger of her left. Both are gold and set with a large round crystal, cut into multiple facets. As you draw closer, you see that the left-handed one is glowing with a pale lavender light while the one of the right is bright scarlet._

"_Well now," the woman says once you've sat down. "Little Elly should be along any minute now to check up on me. I'll have her bring you refreshments then. But in the meantime, I suppose we may just address the elephant in the room."_

_Sweat prickles on the back of your neck. Here it comes. She's going to demand to know why-_

"_You're sitting there, thinking to yourself, 'Why my dear Yuuka, whatever happened to you, you poor thing?' I do not blame you. My condition is certainly a sight."_

_To be honest, you had been wondering about that. And there seems to be no reason why this woman, Yuuka, is treating you as a beloved friend rather than an intruder, you sure are not going to dissuade her from that notion. Perhaps if you get her talking, the opportunity to slip away will present itself. _

"_Well, that's something of a long story," Yuuka sighs. "But the short of it is, I was on the losing side of something of a no-holds-barred brawl. I suppose it comes as some small consolation that I gave as good as I got, but I'm afraid that the final score would be in her favor, even if she did cheat. But I don't begrudge her that. There's a certain amount of respect in cheating. Shows that she was unsure of her ability to take me on her own. But yes, the story." She rolls her one good eye up as she taps her scarred lip with a ravaged finger. "So difficult to know where to start…You are aware of the events that have plagued this fair country as of late, are you not?"_

_You dare not contradict her._

"_Good. Well, I suppose we should begin with a few days ago and see the final events leading up to the battle in question. I suppose you also know of the twists and turns that surrounded our rivalry, yes? Excellent. Now then, let's begin with someone who, while not directly involved, still stood to be affected. It never pays to forget that the effects of every story are felt by more than the main characters. There are always bystanders who stand to lose just as much as the participants. Now, look."_

_She pushes her still-full teacup across the table. Confused, you lean over to peer within. At first, it's just seems to be green tea. But then the murky liquid clears, and you are looking down at a concerned girl with short blond hair, staring up at the sky as she stands in a field of poison…_

…

The weather was getting worse. Already the gloomy grey of the last few days had darkened. Now black storm clouds hovered ominously overhead, just waiting for the opportune moment. A low but steady wind had been blowing all day, rustling the tall weeds of the field.

Alice Margatroid watched them with worried eyes. She usually didn't much care what the weather was, as her house was well insulated against radical climate changes. However, a storm would mean that her activities here would be postponed, and she was making little headway as it was.

Someone approached her from behind. "These-con-di-tions-con-tin-ue-to-wor-sen," said a strange, scratchy mechanical voice. "Con-tin-u-ing-in-this-wea-ther-is-ill-ad-vised."

Alice turned. There, coming toward her, was a very strange person. Or rather, a couple of persons that, when taken together, comprised a single entity. The larger of the two was quite literally a five-and-a-half foot female doll. She was dressed in an expansive red skirt and a blouse the color of blood pudding. Her painted eyes were of a blue light enough to pass for silver, and there was a red ribbon tied in her short yellow hair, with another at her neck. A large white bow was firmly sewed to her lower back.

The second person looked more-or-less the same, except she was only about a foot tall and hovering over her larger counterpart's shoulder, much as Shanghai often hovered over Alice's. It was to the latter that Alice spoke.

"I can see the sky, thank you very much," she snapped. "I am not blind, you know."

The little doll scowled, but it was its larger counterpart that spoke. "Then-you-re-a-lize-the-risks-we-are-tak-ing," it said, its wooden mouth moving up and down on its hinge. "This-storm-threat-ens-to-up-set-"

"Yes, yes, I know," Alice muttered. "No point in delaying the inevitable." She walked past the composite person that was Medicine Melancholy toward a small clearing in the poison lilies that surrounded them on all sides. It was her good fortune that the one who had assisted in her ascension to youkaihood had intended for her to be immortal in every way. Else she would have more to worry about than bad weather.

However, it was someone else's ascension that concerned her at that moment. Or lack thereof. Shanghai was lying on the ground, right in the center of a magic circle. A six pointed star surrounded her, its points touching the edges of the circle. This in turn was surrounded by eight similar but smaller circles, each one a different color. Each of the smaller circle's contained a different item: a lock of Alice's hair, a vial of her blood, a small pink focusing crystal, some (very small) wood shavings taken from Medicine, a small bag of fairy dust, one of the field's poison lilies, a half-inch of angel hair and one of Kaguya Houraisan's toenails. That final ingredient had taken a great deal of work to obtain, with more than a week's work of planning and learning about certain aspects of the Lunarian Princess' personal life that she would quite frankly had been happier remaining ignorant of.

Each of the ingredients was held down by an anchor spell, else the wind would have scattered them in moments. However, that was not what Alice was concerned about. The energy of storms could be harnessed and used to provide additional fuel to large spells that were powerful but simple in construction. However, they tended to wreak havoc on more delicate enchantments. And the spell they were trying to pull off was nothing but delicate.

"Of course a storm would come," Alice muttered. She waved her hand over the clearing. Each of the spell circles faded away. Another wave of the hand and each of the ingredients lifted into the air. From a nearby oak chest the size of a jewelry box, eight small silk drawstring pouches also hovered into the air and opened up, allowing the ingredients to slide inside. The strings drew tight and the bags neatly replaced themselves within the chest.

Alice knelt down to close the chest. She lifted it up. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, really. After all, it's not like we weren't encountering enough problems already. But now the weather itself has decided to get in our way. Sometimes I feel that something is deliberately foiling our work here, I really do."

"We-have-been-a-ware-of-this-com-ing-storm-for-days," Medicine pointed out. "It's-not-like-it-rose-up-out-of-no-where."

Alice shot her a dirty look. "And yet, here it is, getting in our way. Foreknowledge of an obstacle does not change the fact that the obstacle remains an obstacle."

Medicine frowned. "I-fail-to-see-why-this-is-such-a-prob-lem. All-we-lose-is-a-few-min-utes-un-til-we-re-lo-cate. Be-sides, none-of-us-three-is-ag-ing-in-the-slight-est. Why-should-a-tem-por-ar-y-de-lay-mat-ter?"

Holding the chest under one arm, Alice flicked her hair. "Perhaps I simply tire of our lack of success. I'm entitled to a little impatience every now and then." She flicked her wrist. At her command, Shanghai sat up. The blond doll pushed herself to her feet and flew into the air, taking her place over Alice's shoulder.

"And-is-im-pai-tence-the-rea-son-you-have-in-sis-ted-on-meet-ing-ev-er-y-day-this-week?" Medicine pressed.

"Is this a problem?"

"I-am-as-com-mit-ted-to-this-pro-ject-as-you, but-this-is-get-ting-strange. It-is-al-most-as-if-we-have-ac-quired-a-dead-line."

"Now you're just being silly."

"Some-thing-is-both-er-ing-you."

Alice glowered at the living doll. "If I ever need to be emotionally analyzed, I will seek out the services of a professional. Since I don't and you are not, I suggest that you-"

"It-is-that-witch-girl, is-it-not?"

Alice blinked.

"Ev-er-y-one-knows-that-she-was-beat-en-down-and-cap-tured-by-the-bor-der-you-kai-right-in-your-house. Just-as-ev-er-y-one-knows-that-the-bor-der-you-kai-is-cur-rent-ly-on-the-war-path. The-witch-girl-is-not-ex-pect-ed-to-sur-vive. So-giv-en-your…" Medicine made a sound of disgust. "…close-re-la-tion-ship-with-the-witch-girl-it-real-ly-is-ob-vi-ous-that-she-is-the-source-of-your-un-char-act-er-is-tic-stress."

Her cheeks burning bright, Alice turned away. "My relationship with Marisa is my own business," she snapped. "Mind only what I have paid you to mind."

"Hu-mans," Medicine muttered. "I-for-one-can-not-see-why-you-choose-to-as-so-ci-ate-with-those-sla-vers."

"I used to be Human myself," Alice growled. Though Medicine was the most logical choice as a partner in her quest to grant Shanghai true sentience, the living doll's prejudices made working with her a trying experience at times. "You will do well to remember this."

"And-yet-you-chose-to-for-sake-your-hu-man-i-ty-and-be-come-a-you-kai," Medicine pointed out.

Alice whirled around. "That was _not _my choice!" she snapped angrily. "I have Mother's misguided goodwill to thank for that. And just because I became immortal does not mean I lost my humanity."

Though she did not speak, Medicine's true body smirked. "Give-it-time," her larger half said.

"Once again, I'd thank you to keep your mouth shut, both of them, and do not bring up matters that do not concern you. Or have you forgotten who built your secondary body in the first place?" Alice gestured to the full-sized Medicine Melancholy. "Annoy me further, and I just might be tempted to wrest control away."

Medicine's smirk vanished immediately. "You-are-being-ri-dic-u-lous. It-is-not-like-she-will-not-die-in-time-a-ny-way."

"For the final time, you do not and should not worry about that at all." Alice floated into the air, Shanghai trailing behind. "All you need to concern yourself with is repeating whatever trick led to you becoming a real girl. Does that sound too hard, Pinoccia?"

Medicine followed. "If-I-could-re-mem-ber-I-would-tell-you," she snapped. "Do-not-you-know-how-frus-trat-ing-this-it? To-have-a-chieved-some-thing-in-ac-ci-dent-and-being-un-able-to-rep-li-cate-the-ef-fect-de-lib-er-ate-ly?"

"Why yes. Yes I do. Or close enough, anyway. But please, let us drop this increasingly irritating subject. It's a long trip back to my home and I do not wish to spend it debating your…distasteful views. Talk instead about one of your poisons if you must."

Medicine perked up. "Real-ly? Be-cause-it-just-so-hap-pens-that-I-re-cent-ly-ac-qui-red-a-batch-of-Act-a-e-a-Pach-y-pod-a-seeds."

"Is that so?" Alice said without caring in the slightest bit.

"Oh-yes! They-are-nick-named-Doll's-Eyes, ap-pro-pri-ate-ly-e-nough. Cur-i-ous-ly-their-fruit-is-high-ly-poi-son-ous-to-Hu-mans-but-com-plete-ly-harm-less-to-birds-and-as-such…"

And so she continued on. Alice sighed and continued to head toward her house. Medicine followed behind, droning on and on and on…

…

"_My, my, my, that doll is in possession of some rather interesting ideas," Yuuka says. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that she would poison all of humanity if given the opportunity." She laughs. "I like her! We should be friends!"_

_You giggle nervously, hoping that feigned agreement will keep her focused more on the pictures in her tea and away from questioning your presence. A glance to the side confirms that yes, the exits are still sealed._

"_Now then," Yuuka says as she rubs a single ruined finger around the edge of the cup. "Let's see who else we can scare up."_

…

"All right," Patchouli Knowledge murmured as she made yet another adjustment to the flow of magic. "That should do it…"

She took in a deep, shaky breath, was pleased to see that it was uninterrupted by a coughing fit, and slowly let it out. She stepped back from her generator and shot a look to her assistants. Koakuma and Tokiko were standing under the pavilion, watching her with both eager anticipation and apprehension.

Patchouli was tempted to scold them for their lack of confidence. But to be truthful, she did not have high hopes of success either. They were trying to build off of someone else's failed experiment, a someone else that had invented more about magic than Patchouli would probably ever learn. What hope did she have of succeeding where Mima had failed? True, Patchouli was an accomplished magician in her own right and might even be considered one of the principle heavyweights in the current magical world, but being someone who was well-regarded in a certain community was a far cry from being the person who had practically shaped it into what it was today.

Enough of this. Patchouli shook her head and grimaced. She had no time for self-doubt. If this attempt was going to fail, then it just meant she had to seek out what went wrong and try to fix it. Trial and error, the only way anything new was done right.

So before the nagging voices in her head could start gnawing away at her confidence, Patchouli reached out with her mind. She touched the generator, felt the delicate balance of forces gathered around it, felt the power it contained. And, with one simple command of thought, she turned it on.

Immediately there was a low humming. A soft golden light started to blink within the black crystal dome, growing larger with every pulse until the whole thing was shining brightly. The multicolored crystals that stood atop of the pillars that circled the generator likewise began to glow. Crackling energy formed around them, jumping from crystal to connect them and form a network.

Patchouli tensed. So far it was working correctly, but that did not mean it wasn't on the verge of exploding. She had had several past experiments start up the way they were supposed to only to blow off half her face.

Suddenly, a wave of energy exploded out of the dome. Koakuma cried out and covered her face while Tokiko dove under the table. Even Patchouli couldn't help but flinch.

However, there was no rush of heat and pain commonly associated with such failures. Patchouli cautiously opened her eyes to see that a dome of sparkling energy had stabilized around the generator. It was semi-transparent and kept blinking from one color to the next. At the same time, the crystal of the corresponding color would briefly flash, one right after the other. And so it went on, working both its way around the circle of crystals and the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum. It was very pretty, but nauseating to watch. Probably seizure-inducing as well. Patchouli made a point not to look directly at it.

"It works!" Tokiko blurted out. She scurried out from under the table to stare in amazement.

Patchouli sighed and exchanged a look with Koakuma. Like herself, the devil girl had seen too many past experiments go up in flames to declare this one a success so early.

"It turns on," Patchouli said to the ibis girl. "Nothing more. Whether or not it will fulfill its intended purpose remains to be seen." With that, she walked over to the table and picked up a silver-bladed knife, borrowed from Sakuya. "And to find that out, we need to begin some tests."

Patchouli levitated the knife into the air. She moved it until it was dangling directly over the center of the generator, blade down and handle pointing toward the sky. And then she released it.

As soon as the tip of the blade touched the shield, the hum became a shrill shriek, almost as if the shield were screaming in pain. This time, all three of them cried out in surprise as the shield flared bright red and exploded.

For a second nobody moved. The generator sat quiet and lifeless, the knife lying on the grass a few meters away. Glittering ruby sparks drifted down from the sky.

Then Patchouli spoke. "Well, it would seem that further modifications are necessary."

With that, she marched forward and inspected her failure. The magical circles and the generator itself were fine. The dome wasn't even scratched. However, when she got to the pillars she immediately saw the problem. Part of the red crystal had blown clean off. Presumably, it had been the one active when the knife had hit, and the contact had overloaded it.

Patchouli sighed and shrugged. Well, at least she knew that the problem was with the shield's fluctuating bases. Now that she knew that, she could work on pinning down the exact imperfection and correcting in.

Then she heard someone nearby clapping in a slow, sarcastic rhythm. "Bravo, bravo," Remilia said. "A magnificent performance. Truly, your magicky skills must be unmatched by all your peers."

Patchouli glanced over her shoulder. Remilia was standing there, fangs protruding from her sly smile. Curiously enough, Flandre was there too, standing next to her sister. Sakuya stood behind the two vampires, holding up an umbrella to shield them from the light of the setting sun.

What was even stranger was how Remilia and Flandre were dressed. Remilia was holding her spear, Gungnir, while Flandre had that accursed wand of hers, Laevatein. This in itself wouldn't be unusual, but the two sisters had traded in their pink and scarlet dresses and accompanying mop caps for a pair of matching red-and-white militaristic uniforms with large gold buttons, stiff pants and shiny black boots and gloves. Remilia was wearing a hard-brimmed commander's cap and had so many medals adorning the left breast that it was a wonder that she wasn't leaning to one side. As for Flandre, she had on a helmet topped with a small golden bat. While Remilia was standing stiffly and obviously trying to look impressive, Flandre was clearly uncomfortable. She kept fidgeting and gnawed constantly at her sleeve.

Patchouli frankly thought that they both looked ridiculous. Koakuma and Tokiko, on the other hand, immediately started slinking away, trying to make themselves look inconspicuous.

"Hello Remi," Patchouli said in an even tone. "Interesting outfit you've got there. Strange, no one informed me that there was to be a costume ball."

Remilia's smirk disappeared. "For your information, we are on our way to attend Yukari's meeting of minds, to discuss the Yuuka Kazami problem. I do not believe anything is lost by trying to make a good impression, wouldn't you agree?" Then her eyes narrowed on Flandre, who was still trying to chew her sleeve off. She gave her sister an admonishing whack on the back of the head. "Stop that, these uniforms are expensive."

"But it _itches!" _Flandre whined.

"Learn to live with it. You don't want Yukari thinking you to be undisciplined, do you?"

"I _hate _discipline!"

Now it was Patchouli's turn to smirk. "Yes, what impressive figures you cut. Yakumo will sure be so impressed that she bows before your magnificence and abandons command into your capable hands." Patchouli turned away from the increasingly angry Remilia to focus on her damaged generator. "Well then, ta ta, and have a wonderful trip. Heil Tepes."

Behind her, Remilia hissed in indignation. "And I trust you'll have worked out the bugs in your little toy by the time we come back, correct? Because it would be so disappointing to return in victory only to find that my master magician cannot do something so basic as construct a simple barrier, wouldn't you agree?"

That hit a nerve. Patchouli whirled around and marched right up to Remilia and jabbed a finger in her face.

"What I am trying to accomplish here is considered impossible by the overwhelming majority of the magical community," she snapped. "Not only that, you forced me to rush a completed version before I could even get the prototype working properly. All things considered, I'd say it is a testament to my expertise and not insignificant amount of knowledge and skill that I am even making _progress, _much less got the thing to start up on the first try! But if that is not enough for you, then I suggest you look elsewhere for a professional magic user, if you can find one that can tolerate your insufferable pettiness." She turned back around and walked back to the damaged pillar. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm currently occupied with telling the laws of reality to sit down and shut up."

Remilia a noise of barely contained fury. "Out of all the insolent…Let's go!" she snapped to Sakuya and Flandre. "We wouldn't want to keep the creator of Gensokyo waiting."

Patchouli rolled her eyes. She turned around to fire off one last parting shot, but stopped when she saw that the space they had occupied was empty.

She frowned in puzzlement, but then relaxed and rolled her eyes. "Ah, yes. Sakuya. Or perhaps Yukari herself. It really doesn't matter." She shook her head. "That poor little fool of a vampire. She's going to get herself in trouble one day."

With a sigh that was almost regretful, Patchouli returned her attention to her work, but was stopped when someone tugged on her sleeve. She looked down to see Tokiko looking up at her.

"Yes?" Patchouli said testily.

Tokiko fidgeted nervously. "Um…I know I really haven't been here that long, but I…you know, I really like this place, and…"

"If there is a point that you're struggling to reach, then please. Do us both a favor and skip right to it."

"The mistresses Scarlet. And mistress Izayoi. I don't really know what's going on, but it sounds like they're going to do something dangerous. Are they going to be okay?"

Patchouli sighed. "Tokiko, in case it has somehow failed to escape your notice, I am a magician, not a seer. I deal with warping the flow of energy and bending it to my absolute will. What I cannot do is foresee future events. The outcome of Remilia's little tryst with Yukari has yet to take place and therefore is outside of my jurisdiction. So I'm afraid that achieving any sort of favorable result is entirely up to them."

Tokiko flinched. She stared down at the grass. "But…but…"

Patchouli grimaced. She fought off the groan she felt forming. "Oh, for the love of…Look, if it makes you feel any better, Remilia may be a complete and utter ass at times. And Flandre can run the entire spectrum of mental disorders within the space of a single day. Still, given the number of times those two have gotten themselves into dire trouble through their own idiocy and still came out alive and well, I must conclude that, while it flies in the face of any rational line of thinking, they must be blessed with a double portion of the sort of luck that protects fools such as they. So please don't bury them until they are actually dust. If nothing else, I find unnecessary moping to be incredibly irritating and wasteful of energy that could be better spent elsewhere. Now, do you find that sufficiently reassuring?"

Tokiko blinked. She glanced back and forth before her gaze finally settled on Koakuma, who was watching the whole exchange with a slightly bemused expression on her face.

Then she smiled. "Yeah, I guess I do."

"So glad to hear it," Patchouli said. "Now, if the group therapy session is now over, would you two be so kind as to wake up Meiling? I fear this pillar needs replacing. In fact, we may have to replace them all before I get this damned thing working right."

…

"_Hmmm, it seems that many of these players have irritable and overly self-assured magic users who like to use big words waiting for them back at home," Yuuka says. "I can't help but wonder what would if those two were ever meet. Either they shall decide that neither can live while the other exists or immediately begin rutting in the dirt." She giggles. "Personally, I find myself favoring a combination of the two. Now, before we jump to the main players in question, I think we have time for one more little detour…"_

…

Tenshi Hinanai glowered with half-lidded eyes out from under the pile of bedclothes and stuffed animals at the entrance to her room. Outside, her parents were banging on the door, pleading with her to come out.

"Honey, please come out!" Father begged. "You've been in there all week!"

Reaching up to pull her blanket off her head, Tenshi yelled, "So what? We're immortal! That's just a couple of seconds to us!"

"Come on, Chiko. Be reasonable," Mother said. "Can't we talk about-"

"My name is _Tenshi!" _

"Of course it is," Mother quickly amended. "You will always be our beautiful angel."

"And you know we don't believe a word about what that awful Yukari said about you," Father added. "Absolutely ridiculous. I have half a mind to go tell that woman-"

"Go away!" Tenshi screamed. "Leave me alone!"

"Sweetheart, please," Mother pleaded. "You can't stay in there forever."

"Why not?" Tenshi shot back. "It's not like anything I do ever matters. Who would care?"

"We would, Tenshi," Father said. "You're our little girl."

Tenshi couldn't help but laugh at that. "Oh, sure. Forever and ever, huh?" She pulled the blanket back down. "Go away."

"But Tenshi-"

"I _said, _go _away!"_

She listened as her parents argued in hushed but worried tones beyond her door. She grimaced. They were probably wondering what they had done to make her angry. It was amazing how thick they could be. Her first time actually being treated like the royalty she was, representing Heaven in an important meeting of the minds, and she had been publically humiliated and slapped down like she was some kind of child. And now she was still being treated like a child, just like she always was! Of course she wasn't over it. What were those idiots thinking?

Then, to her immense relief, there came the sound of their gradually fading footsteps. They were finally leaving her alone.

She waited until she was sure that they were gone for good. Then she shoved the covers off, kicked her stuffed animals out of the way, and lowered herself to the floor. To her surprise, her legs wobbled and nearly gave out, forcing her to grab at one of the bed-canopy's posters for support.

Okay, so maybe her parents had been right about spending too much time in bed. Stopped clocks and all of that.

Carefully balancing on shaky legs, Tenshi stumbled her way across the room, nearly upsetting a potted bonsai tree in the process, until she reached the bathroom door. She fumbled at the handle, pushed the door open and flicked on the light.

Once inside, Tenshi slouched over the sink and glowered at herself in the full-wall mirror. Goodness, she was a fright. Her face had taken on a gaunt, malnourished look and her makeup, the same she had worn to the Ringleader meeting, had smeared all over itself. The worst was the eyes. In addition to still being wet and red, her eyeliner was running down her cheeks, making it look like she was weeping oil.

With a growl of disgust she turned on the faucet's handles, letting steaming hot water splash down into the bowl .Then she grabbed a neatly folded hand-towel, held it under the running water until it had absorbed all it could and scrubbed away the mess on her face. When she was done, she looked at herself again and smiled.

Well, maybe the situation wasn't unsalvageable. True, her reputation had taken a nasty hit, but it wasn't anything she couldn't recover from. All she had to do was show Yukari up. That was it. She was going to find and take down Rin Whatshername and show everyone that Tenshi Hinanai was not to be laughed at. She would show them that…

…

_Yuuka blinks in surprise. "Oh my, where did that come from? I'm sorry, my concentration must have wandered. That was certainly random. I don't even know that girl." She sighs. "Well, I suppose that's enough detours. I have yet to get to the meat of the story, and you're probably getting impatient. So let's move away from these arrogant little brats and take a look at a different sort of girl. One that's sweet, naïve, kind but not too bright, and very, very dangerous…"_

…

Utsuho Reiuji followed her companions through Yukari's gap and gaped when she got her first look at the Court of Conflict.

"Satori!" she said. "Why are there so many seats? Is that where the audience sits?"

"It is neither a sports arena nor an amphitheater," Satori patiently explained. "This is where community leaders, military officers, advisers and anyone else close to the Youkai Queen Minerva met to plan out the conquest of Gensokyo. This room has since been recommissioned for the bi-centurial meetings of Gensokyo's leaders."

"Oh. And you're one of those leaders, right Satori?"

"Yes."

"Who else is there?"

"It depends on who is in charge of each community at the time," Satori said. "In addition to the Underground, those in representation would be the leaders of the Humans, the Kappa, the Tengu, the Kirin, Makai, Heaven, the Seat of Judgment and the Netherworld. The Dragons are technically a member as well, but they so rarely have anything to do with current events that they are not often present. Also, Hakurei Shrine has recently been added to our numbers so that we may be kept up to date on the Hakurei Barrier's condition, Eientei has been recognized as the principle authority of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and Myouren Temple is now representing the interests of the Wilds."

"Uh, okay. So you guys just sit in those chairs and talk the whole time, right?"

"That is correct, though shouting is often involved."

Orin scratched her head. "Yeah, I meant to ask you about those chairs. They really don't look comfortable. At all."

"Not in the slightest." Satori turned. "Ah, here comes our host."

Yukari was walking toward the trio, Ran following dutifully behind. "Satori," she said. "Thank you for coming. And also thank you for arriving first. I for one would not want to have Remilia Scarlet and her entourage for company without sufficient backup." Then she looked at Orin. "Well, Rin Kaenbyou. I see you've shed your whiskers for this meeting."

Orin coughed nervously. "Um, yeah. Hi."

"I take it you'll be assisting in keeping your friend here under control?"

"Sure, you could say that."

Utsuho nudged Orin. "Is she talking about me?" she whispered.

"Not now, Okuu," Orin whispered back.

"But why do I need to be kept-"

"Not now!"

"Well, best take your seat," Yukari said, ignoring Satori's pets. "I'll be bringing Remilia over soon. You'll be wanting to get out of the way."

"Duly noted." Satori nodded toward Orin and Utsuho. "Come now, it is best that we cleared the floor. The others will be less likely to harass us if we are already seated."

Yukari cleared her throat. "Ah, Satori. I presume you know about the recent addition to the team?"

"Yes." Satori laid a hand on her third eye. "I have no objections. Just please make sure that she stays away from my pets and remains adequately fed at all times."

Yukari blinked. "I…Uh, I was talking about Mima."

"I was not. But now that you've brought her up, I suppose she bears watching as well."

"Interesting." Yukari scratched her head. "I do believe you need to reprioritize your list of threats."

"Even creatures like Mima must fall in line behind those completely innocent of morality and eternally hungry," Satori said. "At least the vengeful and manipulative can be reasoned with."

"A fair point," Yukari admitted. "But don't worry. I'll make sure that she doesn't start munching on your friends."

"Thank you."

Satori led the dubious Orin and the wide-eyed Utsuho up to three of the stone chairs close to Yukari's seat.

"You were right about these chairs," Orin muttered as she wiggled in her seat. "So glad I was in cat form for the last one. How can you stand sitting in these things? My butt's getting sore already."

"Through self-control. Mind over matter."

"Is that right? Sorry boss, my matter's kind of really uncomfortable right now. Okuu, what are you doing? I know it's a literal pain in the ass, but sit down already."

Utsuho, as Orin noted, was not sitting in her chair. Rather, she was standing on it and peering out the tall windows that hung above the rows of seats. "Wow," she said as she stared at the expanse of the Ruined City. She reached down to pull on Orin's arm. "Look at this, Orin!"

Orin shook her off. "Seen it the last time. Just looked like a bunch of rocks."

"Really? Did you tell me about it?"

"Yeah, but I'm kinda sucky at describing thing. You probably don't remember."

"I guess not. How high are we, Satori?"

"This tower is 94.847 percent of a mile high," Satori answered. "We are in the upmost room."

"So…pretty high then?"

"To some, yes."

"Okay." Utsuho frowned. She turned around and sat down. "Hey, is this place bigger than our house?"

"In height, yes. But the Palace of Earth Spirits covers a greater area."

Utsuho looked at her in confusion.

"This place is taller, our place is fatter," Orin told her.

"Oh!" Utsuho said, suddenly understanding. "Okay." She frowned. "So…"

The Hell-Raven held up the control rod that covered her right and stared at it. She balled her left hand into a fist and put it next to the control rod. She seemed to be taking measure of both.

Orin's face twisted in bewilderment. "Uh…what…"

"She is picturing Yukari's citadel and the Palace of Earth Spirits side-by-side," Satori told her. "To be specific, she is trying to decide who would win in a fight."

"Win…You mean the buildings?"

"Yes. It seems that this citadel has a fully functioning laser installed at its pinnacle, and our own home comes equipped with numerous missile silos. Admittedly, I am not certain as to why she has decided that this battle must take place outside of the earth's atmosphere, but I suppose the lack of gravity does allow for easier maneuverability."

"I….okay then." Orin shrugged. She leaned over to Utsuho. "Just to save you some time," she murmured. "Our place would totally kick this place's ass."

"Really?"

"We have a lake of lava. This place has a bunch of rocks. We win."

Utsuho thought about that for a moment. Then she grinned. "Coooool…"

…

"_An emotionless peeping-tom, a sarcastic feline and an overpowered fool," Yuuka murmurs. "Clearly, poor Yukari's little band of ruffians is not off to the best start. And I'm afraid it only gets worse from here. It's time to return to the brats."_

…

Remilia Scarlet hastily exited Yukari's gap. Thanks to her previous encounter with the infernal devices, she was of the mind that the less time spent in them, the better. In fact, she would have been perfectly fine making the journey by air. However, Yukari had made it clear that she was in no mood to wait.

"Hate those things," Flandre muttered. The blond vampire started scratching herself all over. "Hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em."

Sakuya said nothing.

Remilia folded her arms. She looked around. "So, this is the famed Court of Conflict? One can't help but wonder what its original name was." She sniffed. "Still, rather ostentatious meeting place, wouldn't you agree? I don't see why Yukari didn't simply bring us to a normal sized room."

"But if I were to do that, how would I tower menacingly over you?" a mocking voice said from directly behind Remilia. "Though perhaps you have a point. Towering over you seems to be something that can't be helped."

"Yukari," Remilia said with a scowl. She turned to see her smiling host and the nine-tailed kitsune standing right behind where the gap had been. "A little old for the sneaking up behind people, aren't you? I notice that your scent seems to have temporarily disappeared. This isn't just for my benefit, is it?"

"Tch," Yukari said. "Forgive me. I like to keep my subordinates on their toes." She looked the fuming vampire up and down. "Well, you're here then."

"Yes," Remilia glared. "I am."

"Good. What in the _world _are you wearing?"

"What?" Remilia gaped. "Are you blind? It's a uniform! I was under the impression that we were going to war!"

Yukari stared at her. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "And just when I thought this couldn't get any…" She sighed. "Go sit down. And stay quiet."

"I don't like you," Flandre broke in suddenly. "And you'll never have my pudding."

"Goodness, how will I ever survive?" Yukari pointed to the stone chairs that lined the walls on both sides of the room. "Go. Sit."

Bristling but unable to see any alternative, Remilia stomped her way toward the rows of seats. Why was it so difficult to get people to take her seriously? It seemed like everyone was staring down their noses at her, from Yukari to Mima to Patchouli to…

Remilia slowed when she saw that three of the seats were already taken. "Sakuya," she whispered. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Satori Komejii?" Sakuya said. "The ruler of the Underground? Yes, that's her. I recall seeing her at the previous meeting, though we did not speak."

"Who are those women with her?"

"I am unfamiliar with the redhead, but judging by the wings, the bizarre contraption on her arm and the large red eye in the center of her chest, I'd say the other would be Utsuho Reiuji."

"The Hell-Raven?" Remilia said. She thoughtfully rubbed her chin. "The one that went mad and caused that big commotion a few years back?"

"She has very pretty eyes," Flandre noted. "More than she should." She smiled. "I like her."

"I believe so, Mistress," Sakuya told Remilia. "As I understand it, they're currently using her as a power source of some kind."

"Interesting," Remilia murmured. Then she cast a look over to Yukari. The border-youkai was standing a ways away and in deep conversation with her Shikigami.

"Well then," Remilia purred. She grinned. "I suppose the friendly thing to do would be go say hello, wouldn't you agree?"

"Mistress, I don't believe this is the wisest-"

It was no use. Remilia was already in the air and making her way toward the already seated women, her small wings flapping appropriately despite having absolutely nothing to do with her flight. Flandre was quick to follow. After the briefest of hesitations, Sakuya did so as well.

Satori glanced up as Remilia approached, but said nothing. Remilia landed on the seat directly in front of her, smiled warmly and extended her hand.

"Hello there!" she said. "Now, I don't believe we've ever been properly introduced. I am-"

"Remilia Scarlet, vampire," Satori said in a voice that conveyed both disinterest and a lack of a proper night's sleep. "Mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which borders the Misty Lake. In addition to your normal vampiric abilities, you also possess the ability to manipulate one's fate, though to what extent seems to vary from situation to situation. Responsible for what is now commonly referred to the 'Scarlet Mist Incident', insofar as such incidents are judged, that one would rank rather low as a threat."

Startled, Remilia quickly recomposed herself. "Ah, yes. Your famed mind-reading abilities," she said. "Quite impress-"

"No. That is common knowledge."

"I, uh, see that my reputation precedes-"

"I was aware of your inclusion in this endeavor from its inception. Aside from you and your sister, there are no other vampires involved, especially none that appear to be frozen in the bodies of prepubescent Human females. Furthermore, Yukari informed me that she would be bringing you and your party over moments before your arrival."

"Oh. Well, then-"

"I am not interested in entering into any scheme, plot, or conspiracy with you. Unlike yourself, we were not forced into this as a means of punishment. As such, I have neither reason nor inclination to work against Yukari. Doing so would serve no purpose and be idiotic in the extreme. Furthermore, should you continue to try to find conspirators as you did with Mima and seek out to undermine this operation, I will be forced to report your actions, further worsening your predicament." A pause, and she added, "Also, your outfit is ridiculous."

Remilia stared at her, slack-jawed in shock and indignation. She started to sputter, only to have Sakuya sidle up to her and whisper, "Mistress, it would be best to discontinue this conversation."

A tense moment passed. Then Remilia spat out "Fine!" and spun around to plop sulkily into her chair.

"Though honestly, would it kill anybody to be just a little polite?" she muttered under her breath. "I mean, honestly. I make one mistake, a suddenly there's a big scarlet 'B' stitched to my breast. And all I wanted was to see a little justice done! Was that too much to ask?"

"B?" Sakuya asked, confused.

"For blackmail," Satori told her.

Remilia turned in her seat to glare daggers. "Thank you for your completely unwanted explanation."

"You are welcome."

As Sakuya tried to restrain her mistress from lunging for Satori's major arteries, another first contact was taking place between a resident of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the Palace of Earth Spirits. Flandre sat backwards in her chair, legs folded under her and hands holding the backrest. Her wide eyes were staring up at Utsuho, who was returning the gesture by staring right back.

Had it continued, the world might have witnessed the very first staring contest between an undead juvenile powerhouse of destruction and a nuclear-powered devourer of gods. As it was though, Utsuho was evidently not interested in having her eyeballs become as red as the one in the center of her chest. So she blinked and said, "Hi."

"Hi," Flandre responded. She continued staring.

"What's your name?"

"Flandre Scarlet."

Utsuho smiled. She extended her uncovered hand. "Hi Flandre. I'm Utsuho Reiuji, but everybody calls me Okuu. It's a nickname," she quickly added, apparently believing that it was necessary.

Flandre stared at the offered hand. She hesitantly extended her own and wrapped her fingers around Utsuho's thumb.

"Um…" Utsuho said. She slowly moved her and Flandre's arms up and down. When she was done Flandre pulled her hand away and stared at it.

"What was that?" she asked Utsuho.

"It's a handshake. You've never shaken hands before?"

"Uh-uh. Why, what is it?"

"It's a…" Utsuho grimaced and looked at Orin, who rolled her eyes.

"It's a type of friendly greeting," Orin told her. "A sort of way to say 'Nice to meet you'."

"Oh. Why?"

"Dunno."

"Early warriors used it when they would meet under peaceful circumstances," Satori sat without even looking at them. "As a means to show that their hands were empty of weapons."

Flandre just looked confused. She held up Laevatein. "But I have-"

"I was merely explaining the gesture's origins. It has since evolved beyond its original purpose."

"That's enough, Flandre," Remilia hissed. "Face forward and sit still."

"But I was just talking," Flandre whined. "Why can't I talk to her?"

"Stop talking back and just _do it."_

Flandre sulkily obeyed. "You never let me do anything."

"Yes, I wonder why that is?" Remilia snapped. "And things will continue to be that way until you've proven to me that you can make rational decisions on your own. And associating yourself with such…" she shot Utsuho a nasty look "…unsavory figures shows the opposite."

"Unsavory?" Utsuho said in confusion.

Orin hissed. "Hey, back off. Jeez, what crawled up your blood-sucking butt and died, huh? She was just trying to be friendly."

"Mistress, please," Sakuya said into Remilia's ear. "These people have Yukari's ear. Upsetting them would just make our situation worse."

Remilia threw her hands up. "Fine!" she shouted. "You know what? Fine! Do whatever you want! It's clear that my educated opinion on these matters is not to be regarded, so why should I even waste my breath?"

With that, she crossed her legs, folded her arms and turned away from everyone to glower at the floor.

And uncomfortable silence passed, during which only Satori appeared to be unconcerned. Then Utsuho leaned forward and whispered to Flandre, "By the way, I really like your wings. Are they real?"

Flandre turned. "Thanks!" she said with a surprised grin. "And of course they're real! See?" She poked one of the crystals, demonstrating that it was solid.

"I, uh, didn't mean-"

"And hey, what's up with your cape? Are those real stars?"

As they talked, Orin leaned over to Satori. "Um, hate it admit it, but I might be with her tightass sister on this one. Maybe it's not such a good idea to let them become friends?"

"Perhaps," Satori murmured. "But would you like to be the one to tell them 'No'?"

"The bitchy one didn't have a problem with that."

"And you are going to hold up her judgment as any sort of standard? Besides, this operation will have enough infighting as it is. Perhaps a cross-team friendship will be beneficial."

Orin looked dubious. She glanced at the two incredibly powerful but not at all stable girls as they chatted away. "If you say so, boss."

…

"_Personally, I don't see what all the fuss was about," Yuuka says. "I think it's adowable! Though I suppose there is small reason for concern. Imagine if those two went on a Girl's Night Out!" She sighs wistfully. "Ah, it would be magnificent! Of course, that's not likely to happen now that…But no, I'm getting ahead of myself. Come closer please, and take a look. Because things are about to become even more interesting."_

…

Marisa sat on her bed, glowering balefully at her nearly empty house. The GPF had taken almost everything, leaving her with nothing but the bare essentials. Even the stuff she had rightful claim of ownership over was gone. Her books, her tools, her toys, all of it. And it was frustrating her to no end.

According to that complete Yukari's ass-kissing tool Kotohime Sonozika, everything she had borrowed long term was being returned to their original owners, and everything else would be eventually returned, sometime after they had finished with Yuuka.

Still, she was going to get some of her stuff back fairly soon. Any moment now, and the GPF would be by…

There was a knock at the door.

Grinning, Marisa said "Finally!" and hopped off her bed. She ran over to the door and opened it up.

As expected, Kotohime was there, followed by three of her thugs. One of them was carrying a heavy crate.

"Hey there!" Marisa said brightly. "Nice of you guys to stop by, ze! About time too. Was starting to worry you had tried to open it and blown yourselves up. Then I'd never get it back!"

The edge of Kotohime's mouth perked up in a wry smile but she didn't say anything. The captain of the GPF didn't look like she was doing so well. Her face was unusually pale and her eyes were gummy and bloodshot, as if she had not been sleeping well.

Marisa wondered how much she remembered about that. Mima claimed to have altered the memories of those she had attacked when she had tried to free Marisa, and there had been no retribution after they had awakened. Still, memory charms were notoriously finicky, especially when done to so many people. And as skilled as Mima was, something could always go wrong. It would be downright awkward if one of them were to suddenly remember and spill the beans. Or just went crazy.

However, none of those here seemed to know about being attacked by an angry ghost, so Marisa stepped to one side and said, "Well, come in, come in. Been looking like rain for awhile now, and you don't wanna get caught."

Kotohime motioned, and the four officers entered the house. Marisa followed them.

"So…" she said as they set the crate down. "How are things? Because no offense, but you really don't look so hot. And I mean that in every possible way. Also noticing that you're not talking much. Or at all. What's wrong, Kotocopout? Yukari's catgirl got your tongue?"

Kotohime rolled her eyes. She glanced over to one of the other officers, a short but stocky man who was bald save for a long thin ponytail, who said, "The captain has unfortunately injured her throat. Speaking causes her pain."

"Yeah?" Marisa said, trying to keep the alarm out of her voice. "And how'd that happen?"

Kotohime frowned at the floor. The man said, "We're not sure. It's probably just some kind of infection, but the doctor can't-"

Kotohime made a cutting motion with her hand.

"-and it's really none of your business. Now, here are the items you specified. Check them."

"Don't need to tell me twice, Lumpy," Marisa said. She entwined her fingers, flipped her palms around and cracked her knuckles. Then she sauntered over to the crate. She lifted the lid and grinned as she surveyed its contents.

Inside were most of her weapons. Her hakkero, her spellcards, a few handheld instruments that did interesting things to anything they were pointed at, her broom, some protective gear, and a few other oddments that anyone but a select few would have trouble identifying.

"Ah, hells yeah!" she said. Immediately she began to rearm herself. While Yukari had promised the chance to play around with her own spells, one could never be too prepared when going to war.

"So I'm really hoping you guys didn't mess with these babies," Marisa as she pulled on a pair of fingerless steel-reinforced leather gauntlets that covered the majority of her forearms. She squeezed her right hand into a fist and nodded in satisfaction. "I put a lot of work into getting them working just right," she said as she pulled her sleeves over the gauntlets. "And you know how it is when someone who clearly doesn't know what they're doing starts pawing through all the really delicate stuff."

Kotohime rolled her eyes again. The man that had been designated her speaker said, "We assure you, nothing was tampered with."

"Well, good," Marisa snorted. She started thumbing through her spellcards. "Because I can't stand it when amateurs screw things up, ze. Then I gotta go back and fix whatever damage they-"

Then the air filled with a constant humming. "Marisa," croaked a painfully scratchy voice.

Marisa blinked. She looked up at the GPF captain. Kotohime's partial smile had become a full-on smirk.

"Catch," she rasped. Then she tossed something Marisa's way.

Surprised, Marisa instinctively dropped her spellcards and snatched the object of the air. A second later and her brain kicked in and she immediately tossed it on the bed and leapt back.

"What the hell is with you?" she snapped at Kotohime. "Trying to trap me with some kind magic doodad? You think Yukari's gonna like that? Because I'm telling you, if I get crippled by some lame-ass bullshit she's gonna-"

The GPF officers started laughing. Even Kotohime managed a snicker, though it was obvious that it pained her.

"Wait, what's so funny?" Marisa demanded. She turned to look at the object. "What is that thing…Oh, you've got to be kidding."

It was a silvery tube with rounded ends, about ten inches long. And it was vibrating into her pillow.

"Found it. In your dresser," Kotohime whispered. "Thought you might. Need it back."

Her companions started laughing again. Her cheeks flushing a deep crimson, Marisa quickly snatched up the tube and switched it off.

"Assholes," she muttered. "Like you don't have one." Then, making sure it was out of their sight, she dropped the tube into her apron.

"Well?" she snapped over her shoulder. "You've dropped off my stuff and had your laugh. No more reason for you to stick around, right? So why don't you all just make like a tree and piss off?"

Kotohime snorted, though the grimace that followed showed that she regretted it. She nodded to her spokesman, who said, "We've been instructed to escort you to the citadel."

Marisa's jaw dropped. "What?" she said in disbelief. "Yukari said she'd be opening one of her gaps right here! It's gonna take me right there, ze! What do I need an escort for?"

"To make sure you go through it," he answered. "After all, having your weapons returned might just have been a ploy to give you the means to escape."

"Are you _serious? _There's so many godsdamned binding spells on this place now that I can't even go out the front door without getting tanned!"

"Is that right? What a shame. We're still going with you."

Marisa's gloved hands curled into fists. She was about to shout at them some more, but then she remembered something.

"Okay, fine," she said. "But you're gonna have to wait awhile. I'm still waiting on someone else to show up."

Kotohime stiffened, as did her cronies. "Who?" she rasped.

Marisa grinned. "Can't tell you. It's a surprise."

Kotohime took a menacing step forward. _"WHO?" _she said again with more emphasis.

"You'll see," Marisa said. "Any second now…"

…

"_Ah, surprises," Yuuka says. "I love surprises. Even the nasty ones can be fun. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees…"_

…

Even though the Gensokyo's Peacekeeping Force was the first of its kind in Gensokyo, Yukari still had a very thorough knowledge of how its counterparts in the Outside World managed their operations. As such, while the GPF was far from a carbon copy of a traditional police force, it still held discipline and level-headedness in a time of crisis in high regard.

Still, its members were (for the most part anyway) only Human. As such, even they should be given some leeway if, say, a certain someone known for a long history of antagonism toward their race, a mean streak and more power than should be allotted a single individual were to appear out of thin air right in front of them.

Marisa let her slow, sadistic grin grow even wider as she watched the black-wearing GPF officers, who had so recently acted so smug and superior as they laughed at her, cry out in fear and literally fall over each other as they scrambled away from the green-and-blue specter that had just appeared right in front the door.

"Hey there," she told Mima. "Nice entrance."

"I do try," Mima responded. She watched the terrified law enforcement officers with a look of absolute glee. "Well. Now, I may be wrong, but I don't believe they're happy to see me."

"Them? Nah. That's just their weird way of saying 'Hi'. It's a culture thing, ze."

The four officers had scampered against the far wall and were staring at Mima with bulging eyes full of horror. Kotohime was pointing at Mima and her mouth was moving, but no words were coming out.

"Hmmm. Say, Marisa?" Mima murmured. "Do they…ah…"

"Remember?" Marisa said in a low voice only Mima could hear. "Nope. Kotohime's got herself one hell of a sore throat, but she don't know why. You're cool."

"Huh. Well, good. Keep things simple." Mima floated over to the huddled mass of trembling bodies. The look of fear increased as they tried to move even further away from her. Unfortunately, there was a wall in the way.

"Good evening!" Mima said brightly. "Now, judging from your reactions, I must assume that Marisa here forgot to inform you of my arrival. It's okay though, she's been under a lot of stress. However, let me assure that you have nothing to fear. I am not here to fight, jailbreak, irritate or annoy. Quite the contrary, it has recently been made clear to me that my little Marisa here is working with Yukari of her own free will. And how could I stand in the way of that?" She folded her arms and favored them with her friendliest smile. This only seemed to terrify them further. "And so I came to act as a chaperone, to make sure nothing nasty happens to my little girl."

Marisa blushed furiously. "Aw, damn it _Mima!"_

Mima laughed. She playfully flicked off Marisa's hat and mussed her hair. "You know I only embarrass you because I love you."

"But people are _watching!"_

"Which makes it fun." She put the hat back and pecked Marisa on the cheek, which only brightened at the touch.

Mima turned back to still terrified but now also confused officers. "So if you'll be so kind to call up Yukari and order us a gap for two, I would be very much obliged. And much less inclined to bring down a rain of hellfire upon your cute little headquarters."

Kotohime stared up at her. She slowly pushed herself to her feet, not once taking her eyes off of Mima. Her men followed suit.

Once she was completely vertical, Kotohime held up her palm close to her face. There was brief flicker of static, and Yukari's tiny form appeared in the air above it.

"_Captain, yes," _Yukari said. _"Has Marisa finished readying herself? We're just waiting on her."_

"Problem," Kotohime coughed. Her gaze never strayed from Mima.

"_Problem, you say?" _Yukari's became cold steel. _"Captain, I've had problems enough the last few days. I really don't need another one. What is it? And please don't tell me Marisa's escaped."_

In answer, Kotohime moved her hand around so that Yukari's avatar had a good view of the rest of the room.

Mima smiled and waved.

The miniature Yukari in Kotohime's hand stood silently for a moment. Then she said, _"Mima. Right. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."_

"No, you really shouldn't."

Yukari sighed. _"Look. Mima. If you want to use my face as a dartboard, then I'll be more than happy to provide you the opportunity. However, I should point out that there are some things that you might not be aware of. For starters, Marisa isn't-"_

"She's accepted the deal you offered her and is in fact enthusiastic about taking part in the hit on Yuuka," Mima finished for her. "Yes, she told me. And as much as it galls me, I really can't force her to change her mind."

"Damned straight," Marisa muttered. "Like to meet the punk who can."

"However, I do have more experience, shall we say, _dealing _with you than she does," Mima continued. "Plus, she seems adamant that I come along. So, despite it being against my better judgment, I've decided to put aside my grudge for the time being and lend her a hand."

The GPF officers murmured and exclaimed their surprise. Kotohime herself came very close to upsetting the virtual image in her hand.

"_Wait, are you serious?" _Yukari laughed. _"Mima, I know you've told some whoppers in the past, but this takes the cake. What kind of gullible fool do you take me for?"_

"The kind that's got too many things to worry about to afford one more maniac after her blood," Mima said. "And the kind who's about to throw down with an enemy that is capable of dealing more damage than you're comfortable with. Face it, Yakumo. You really need all the help you can get."

"_Help? From you? Mima, I know you're history. You and loyalty have never really been on speaking terms. In fact, if memory serves, pretending to ally yourself with an enemy just so you can stab them in the back is a favorite tactic of yours."_

"Ah, you know me so well. In which case, you probably have an entire room filled with countermeasures, designed specifically to counter my wiles. And now I'm giving you the opportunity to finally try them out!"

"_So you _are _planning to backstab me?"_

"Yes. But not until Marisa's finished with her part in this. She is looking forward to the coming battle, and I'd hate to disappoint her. So how does this sound? So long as Marisa is working with you, you have my word that I will do nothing to hinder your plans but will instead assist you in any way possible."

"_Like a load of crap," _Yukari said bluntly. _"Get lost, Mima. I don't have time to deal with you now."_

"Unfortunately, I'm not offering you a choice," Mima said. "You can either accept my offer and give me the duty of ensuring Marisa's survival, or I can go see if I can become an even greater nuisance than Yuuka. I've always been a competitive spirit." She turned to Marisa. "Get it? Competitive _spirit?"_

Marisa rolled her eyes. "Wah-wah-wah-wahhhhhhh…"

"No sense of humor. I know I trained you better than that." She turned back to Yukari. "So, what do you say?"

Yukari scratched her chin. _"You do realize that you're attempting to blackmail me here. I really don't appreciate it when people do that. Just ask Remilia Scarlet."_

"Already have. And I'm not making the same mistake as her. Rather, I'm simply asking that you allow me to ride along and help Marisa out. Once the battle is over and you have Yuuka's head on a platter, she and I will go our way, you go yours, and all debts will be settled. Come on, Yukari. You've had no problems with working with me up until this little unpleasantness."

"_Yes, I have. But I suppose you raise some valid points. You're right. I do need all the help I can get, and quite frankly I don't want to worry about you running around and complicating things." _Yukari thought for a moment longer. And then she said, _"Very well. Come along if you must. But I must warn you. We are assembling at my citadel. Which is, as you know, one of my places of power. Try anything, and it will not go well. Furthermore, you are correct. I _have _been itching to try out those countermeasures. Don't give me a reason."_

With that, Yukari's form vanished from Kotohime's palm. Less than a second later, one of her gaps opened up in the room, right in front of the front door.

"Whelp, doesn't get any more obvious than that," Marisa said. She stuck a thumb at the gap. "Wanna get going?"

"Of course." Mima turned to the GPF officers. "Well, my dear fellows? I believe you were sent here to provide an escort. Shall we be going?"

This was greeted by a chorus of whats and sounds of disbelief.

"Captain, she can't be serious," one of the officers said to Kotohime. "Don't you know who that is?"

"Seriously, this is lunacy," chirped in another. "Best to cut our losses and run."

Kotohime didn't answer. She looked at the two smiling witches and frowned.

Then she signaled toward the gap.

"Captain, are you serious?" said her former spokesman. "We can't-"

"We do. Our jobs," she rasped. "No…" she grimaced and touched her throat. "No complaints."

"But-"

The look she shot him could have melted steel.

"Such dedication," Mima noted. She slowly clapped her hands together. "Young lady, I applaud your sense of duty. Though I'd be careful if I were you. It's going to get you into trouble someday."

Kotohime sucked in a deep breath through her damaged throat and said, "Move your. Fucking. Ass."

Marisa flicked the brim of her hat and whistled. "Damn, I think you pissed her off."

"Indeed. Understandable, I suppose." Mima shrugged. "Well, let's go."

Mima led the way, with Marisa following close behind. After a moment of hesitation, Kotohime moved after them, her men reluctantly following suit.

As Marisa stepped through the gap, she was suddenly struck by a wave of doubt. She and Mima were willingly going through one of Yukari's gaps, which could take them literally anywhere. Who was to say Yukari wasn't lying to them? Who was to say she wasn't using this opportunity to dispose of them both with one swift motion? They could be stepping out into the heart of the sun for all she knew. Or maybe a black hole. A cool way to go, she had to admit, but if she was going to die, she really rather it were on her terms and not by the will of a power-hungry, word-twisting-

There was the noisy rush of the Borderlands, and then Marisa was stumbling out into the Court of Conflict. Mima was floating directly next to her, and Kotohime's people were already taking up position on either side of them. On one side, she could see some familiar faces already assembled and sitting.

"Well, that went okay," Marisa told Mima. "At least she didn't dump us-"

"MARISA!" an overjoyed voice shrieked.

Marisa looked up at the seats that lined the far wall. Her eyes widened when she saw an enthusiastic, energetic scarlet bundle of death hurtling toward her. Her heart fell, she took stock of her deeds in her mortal life and found them lacking. And, bizarrely enough, she found herself reciting something her father had been fond of quoting.

"Our Father, who art in Heaven…"

Fortunately, Mima's reflexes were considerably quicker than hers. Fast as a striking snake, she snatched up Marisa and moved them both out of the way, scattering the GPF officers like bowling pins in the process. Flandre Scarlet flew right through the space they had occupied and sailed right into Yukari's gap.

Everyone reacted immediately, with the most common response being surprise and alarm. "Flandre? _Flandre?" _Remilia cried as she swooped down to the floor, her maid close behind. "Come back!"

"…for ever and ever, amen," Marisa finished. She looked at the gap. "I cannot _believe _I still remember the whole thing. And I may be wrong here, but did she just get sent to my house?"

"Yes," Yukari said irritably, seemingly appearing the hell out of nowhere. She pushed her way past Marisa to glower at the gap. "To be specific, she is now a good twenty-six feet away from your house and does not seem to be losing momentum. Good thing Mima moved you when she did."

Marisa stared. "Wait, she didn't smash through the front, did she? I'm not gonna go home to find a big-ass _hole _where the door used to be, am I?"

"Of course not," Yukari said. "The gap was facing away from the door. Your door is fine. The back wall, however, is now missing its middle section."

"_WHAT?"_

Yukari sighed. "I'll make sure that gets fixed."

"Who _cares _about her bloody _house?" _Remilia screamed. She flew right up to Yukari's face. "Get me my sister back!"

Yukari's response was to grab the top of Remilia's head and hold her at arm's distance. "When was the last time you flossed?" she muttered, waving her free hand in front of her face. Then she snapped her fingers.

The gap turned onto its side so that it was now facing the ceiling. A second gap opened about ten feet above it. A moment later Flandre herself came swooping up through the bottom gap to disappear through the top, only to reappear where she started. This repeated over and over, so that there seemed to be a never-ending blurred line of red and white connecting the gaps.

"There, safe and sound," Yukari told Remilia. She released the small vampire. "Now do your job. Calm her, before I do."

Remilia needed no further urging. She soared over to the endless stream of Flandre.

"Flan!" she called. "Stop!"

"_Huh?" _Flandre said, her voice coming out strangely distorted. _"What happened? First I went to say 'Hi' to Marisa, then I was in a forest, and now everything's all swooshy!" _

"You're going through two of Yukari's gaps!" Remilia shouted. "Stop this instant!"

"_I'm doing _what?"

Flandre came to a sudden, abrupt stop. How she did it without being jarred by the force of her own momentum, Marisa could only guess. The young vampire looked up at the gap above her and then at the one below her. A look of horrification came over her face.

"Flandre, how many times do I have to tell you to control your impulses?" Remilia demanded. "You not only almost killed Marisa Kirisame, which I admit would be no great loss, but you threw yourself through the Borderlands! Multiple times in a row, I might add! Do you understand how incredibly foolhardy that was? Don't you remember what happened the last time you paid that place a visit?"

Flandre wasn't listening. Her blood-red eyes were searching the room. Her gaze came to rest upon Yukari, who was watching the exchange with equal parts annoyance and amusement. Flandre's eyes flashed bright red and she held up her right hand. Scarlet energies swirled around her palm.

Recognizing what her sister was doing, Remilia lunged forward and cried, "Flandre, don't! If you do that-"

Flandre snarled and squeezed her hand into a fist.

Marisa immediately flinched back. While she didn't completely understand the full extent of Flandre Scarlet's power, she knew enough to know that when the little vampire did that, someone was about to become more liquid than solid. And in this case, seeing how Yukari was standing very close, Marisa risked being drenched in a crimson shower.

Nothing happened.

Flandre blinked in surprise. She squeezed again, harder this time. Again, nothing. Again, and again, and again. She sputtered in rage and confusion as Yukari utterly failed to explode.

"Remilia," Yukari said. "Your little sister is attempting to murder me. And this comes not five minutes after she nearly bisected another member of this team and escaped into the Forest of Magic. Must I remind you that you were brought here to keep under control? Because if this proves to be too difficult, I will remove you and place her in the care of someone who can!"

Remilia's hand immediately snapped around Flandre's wrist, causing the gathered energies to disperse. "Flandre, stop that. Right now," she hissed. "Return to your seat."

"After I make her unto something like mud."

"No. You cannot. Quite literally. And you're making her angry and me look bad. Neither of these things are desirable, wouldn't you agree? So please. Calm down. Sit down. And stop acting like a child."

Flandre shot Remilia a look of pure venom. She tugged her arm out of her sister's grasp and slowly floated back toward her seat without another word.

Marisa breathed out in relief. She had no idea why Flandre had been so happy to see her. She had only actually met the little vampire on a handful of occasions, and none of them had exactly been the sort of things that would cement them as friends. Then again, Flandre so rarely saw those she actually lived with that perhaps she thought of any stranger she so happened to meet that didn't die upon the initial encounter as a dear friend. Which was kind of cute she supposed, but it just increased her own chances of being turned into a syrupy mess.

That was when Flandre so happened to glance down and, spying Marisa once again, completely forgot that she was supposed to be angry. Her scowl evaporated into a wide, fanged smile as she once again cried "MARISA!"

"Oh, here we go again," Marisa said as she stared at her impending death. "Hail Mary, full of grace-"

Flandre was once against stopped, this time by a flat, circular and transparent green shield that materialized in her path. "Mmmm, I don't think so," Mima said. "Yukari, you invite the _strangest _people to your parties."

"Don't I know it," Yukari said wearily. "Remilia?"

Her face the same color as her name, Remilia grabbed Flandre by both elbows. "What did I just tell you?" she demanded. "Stop that!"

"Hold up, now," Mima said. She passed through her own shield to stare at the Scarlet sisters.

"What do you want?" Remilia spat.

"What," Mima began. "Exactly are you two wearing?"

Remilia's jaw dropped. "What? Why does everyone ask that question? It's a _uniform! _Why is it so-"

"Because they're absolutely _adorable!" _Mima suddenly gushed. "Oh my goodness, look at you two! I've never see anything so cute in my life! And I live in a world of fairies!"

"What," Remilia said flatly. Flandre stopped struggling and stared curiously at the ghost.

"Your costumes! They're just so perfect!" Mima made a slight flourish and produced to shiny candy apples from her sleeves. She handed them to the two vampires. "Here you go, kids. Happy Halloween."

Marisa burst into explosive laughter. She fell to one knee and held her stomach as her body shook with hysterics.

Remilia was not so amused. She stared dumbstruck at the tasty treat in her hand. "Why…What is…How dare…" She snapped, and flung the caramel-glazed fruit at Mima's face. It passed harmlessly through and evaporated into a puff of steam upon impacting against the shield.

"I've had _quite _enough of this nonsense!" Remilia screamed. "Come on Flandre, we're…What the _hell _do you think you're doing?" Flandre had already enthusiastically bitten away a good third of her own apple. Remilia snatched it out of her hands and threw it away, to Flandre's obvious distress. "Don't eat that! You don't know what she might have put in it."

Mima shook her head. "You know, it's interfering moral busybodies like yourself that ruin perfectly harmless celebrations by increasing paranoia over silly urban legends and-"

"Shut up, Mima," Yukari snapped. "And for once I actually agree with the half-pint vampire. This nonsense has gone on long enough. You two." She pointed at the Scarlet sisters. "Sit down. If I hear so much as a peep from either one of you for the rest of this meeting, then you will see how difficult it is to fly when your legs have suddenly turned to _lead!_"

The red on Remilia's face was starting to darken to purple. She grabbed Flandre by the arm and dragged her back to their seats.

"As for you," Yukari said as she turned to Mima. "Was that absolutely necessary?"

The smile on Mima's face did not disappear, but it did decrease. "No. But she did try to make a move against Marisa, unsuccessful as it might have been. A little more humiliation was in order."

"Ah. Which brings us to a long overdue point. You claim that you're here to help, and yet you just antagonized those two for failing where I had succeeded. Not a very convincing argument for your goodwill."

"Yes, but as I said, I'm willing to postpone my grudge until Marisa's part in this is done," Mima said. "Until then, you have my cooperation."

"And after?"

Mima's smile returned to full strength. "I literally have eternity to make your life miserable," she said. "I can stand to wait a few days."

"For Marisa's sake?"

"Yes."

Yukari held her eyes for a moment. She slowly nodded. "Very well. You of course understand that I'm going to keep you on a short lease. Your concern for your former ward is touching, but I really can't trust anything you say."

"Likewise." Mima put her hands on her hips and looked around. "So, two infinitely powerful and notoriously untrustworthy women are forced into an alliance of mutual loathing. This should be interesting."

"Don't flatter yourself. I at least haven't been forced into anything. You're useful, not necessary." Yukari motioned with her head. "Please, go sit down, or whatever it is you do. And try to avoid open chaos."

Mima shot off a mocking salute and floated over to Marisa, who was finishing composing herself after her fit of laughter.

"So, what's the word, ze?" Marisa said. "We good?" She nodded over to Yukari, who was whispering something into Ran's ear. Ran nodded and excused herself from the room, presumably on some errand.

"For the time being." Mima said. "She and I are still probably going to try to kill each other later, but we've agreed to postpone that for the time being. By the way, why in the world was that psychotic vampire so happy to see you?"

"Hey, you got me," Marisa shrugged. "She's crazy, could be anything. I've only actually met her like three or four times. Maybe she's got a crush on me or something."

"How distressing."

"Tell me about it. I mean, Alice is bad enough. Can you imagine what it would be like to have _Flandre _stalking you?"

"Yes, actually. I've had my fair share of-" Mima blinked. She turned to stare at her protégé. "Wait, did you just say…Are you telling me that Shinki's estranged girl is-"

Marisa waved her hand dismissively. "Nah, just kidding. Usually I stalk her. In the middle of the night. In that tree right outside her window. With one hand holding the binoculars and the other down my-"

"And with that, I believe it's time we stopped talking and took our seats. I'm sure Yukari would like to begin, and I really don't wish to hear any more."

Marisa shrugged. "Yeah, okay. One question though."

"Ask."

"Why are they still here?" Marisa said, sticking her thumb over her shoulder at Kotohime and her men. For their part, the GPF officers were standing and staring at the bizarre people doing bizarre things, clearly unsure of what they were supposed to be doing.

Yukari apparently had overheard Marisa, as she turned and said, "Hmmm? Oh, right. Sorry Captain. You all may go now." A gap opened itself to take them away from the citadel.

Her face filled with relief, Kotohime straightened and saluted. She motioned, and they gratefully moved to leave the tower of crazy people.

…

"_Exit, stage left," Yuuka murmurs. "Wise of them too. So many violent people in that room, with destructive abilities, uncontrollable urges, intelligences ranging from the dangerously stupid to cruelly intelligent and a tendency to hold a grudge."_

…

When all mortals incapable of demolishing mountains had left the room Yukari said, "Well, now that the pre-meeting festivities have _finally_ finished" she shot a dirty look over to the Scarlet sisters "we're almost ready to begin. We're just waiting on two more people, and then everyone will be here."

"Excuse me?" Remilia said, evidently forgetting that she was supposed to remain silent. "Two more? How much more firepower do you need?"

Yukari evidently decided to give Remilia a pass. "All of it," she said. "Now, try not to cause any more problems in the meantime. I'd really hate to kick things off with the death of one of our own."

"Was a day when that was common practice," Mima said to Marisa as they headed toward the small cluster of strange people in the seats. "Of course, those ended when people lost their balls for ritual sacrifice. Ah, nostalgia."

"Damn, why do you ancient types get to have all the really cool traditions?"

"Nothing's stopping you from bringing them back." Mima glanced up to the cluster of strange people gathered in the high seats. "Now, it seems we got off on the wrong foot with our fellow assassins. Shall we go up and try to make amends?"

"Why?" Marisa blinked. "Can't think of anyone up there I actually like, ze. And it's not like I'm gonna be visiting them anytime…Oh. You just wanna mess with them some more, don't you?"

"Oh, so very much," Mima said agreeably. "Specifically, Satori. I've been meaning to talk to the cave-dweller about her part in all this."

"Sounds good to me." Marisa cracked her leather-bound knuckles. "And I need to have a few words with little Remi about trying to have me arrested."

Mima frowned. "Hmmm, now that I think of it, taking you near that group might not be the best idea."

"Why? Afraid Fangs is gonna try something?"

"No, but her sister might."

"Hey, I've handled Psycho-Vamp before."

"In danmaku duels, certainly. But I doubt anything of the sort is going to take place here." Mima pointed out. "Besides, Yukari may have stopped her from blowing people up for the time being, but if she were to suddenly be overcome with the urge to hug you again…"

Marisa paled. "Um, yeah. Better part of discretion and all that, ze. Tell you what, you go up and talk to Three-Eyes, and I'll just wait down here."

"Excellent. Glad to see you still possess some measure of common sense."

Marisa winced. "Not cool, Master."

Mima kissed her forehead. "You know it's because I love you. Now, this will take just a minute."

She floated up toward the representatives of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the Palace of Earth Spirits. To her amusement, Remilia's little sister had seemed to have hit it off with Satori's Hell-Raven. Flandre now had Utsuho's astronomic cape tied around her neck and was apparently mesmerized by the movements of the celestial bodies, whereas Utsuho was trying on Flandre's helmet. Strangely enough, Remilia, who was never known for encouraging her sister to seek out social interactions, was doing her best to ignore all this. Mima had the feeling that she had not been the first to embarrass the little vampire today.

Good.

However, Remilia Scarlet was not her target. Mima's sapphire eyes focused on the tired-looking girl with short, pale lavender hair sitting on the topmost row. Throughout all the chaos that Mima and Marisa's arrival had brought, she had sat silently without reaction. Indeed, Mima's approach merely brought upon a raised eyebrow.

"What, not even a nod of acknowledgement?" Mima said, passing directly over Remilia's head. The vampire hissed but was apparently taking Yukari's warning to heart. Mima settled into the chair

"Mima," Satori said without inflection.

"In the ectoplasm. Interesting to see you here, by the way. I wasn't aware that Yukari had you under any sort of hold."

"She does not."

"Oh? You owe her for something then? Paying off a debt?"

"No. Our participation is voluntary."

"Is that right?" Mima settled in the empty chair at Satori's left. "Seems a bit dangerous if you ask me. And for no profit at all."

"The alternative is to participate in a hunt for a creature that may very well be more dangerous," Satori said. "It is a simple matter of weighing the possible paths and choosing the one that poses the least chances of a fatality."

"Is that right? So, she said you can sit out the Satsuki hunt in return?"

"Yes."

Mima nodded. "Smart. Though I never thought I'd see the day when Yuuka Kazami would become the lesser of two evils. So tell me something, Komejii: you haven't been arrested like Marisa or coerced like this one here." A portion of Mima's tail snaked out to nudge Remilia's head. The little vampire slapped at it and growled. "So that means you aren't in Yukari's bad books. Which means she's still listening to you." Mima leaned in closer, propping her elbows on her armrest and resting her chin in her hands. "So how much of this was your idea?"

"My idea?"

"Come on, I saw you walking in late with Yukari the last time we were here. You two are obviously in cahoots about something."

Satori turned to the redheaded catgirl sitting next to her. "Orin, would you please keep an eye on Utsuho? The ghost and I need to have a private conversation."

Orin frowned. "Uh, you sure about that?" she said, looking at Mima. "She ain't exactly _trustworthy."_

"She won't try anything. Not here, at least."

"If you say so, boss," Orin said dubiously.

"I do. This shouldn't take long."

"It won't," Mima promised.

The two of them moved to the opposite side of the row. Mima made sure to position herself between Satori and the view of her pets.

Once they had settled, Satori said, "You suspect me of masterminding…"

Mima did something.

"…your protégé's…" Satori blinked. "Arrest?"

Mima waved off that idea. "Nah, Yukari was planning on that even before Yuuka showed up. No, I'm just wondering who gave her the idea of taking everyone who had wronged her and throwing them at Yuuka."

"She…" Satori paused and started again. Something was clearly bothering her. "She is perfectly capable of coming up with such ideas on her own."

"Oh, sure, sure," Mima smirked. "You're right, I'm just being silly and paranoid in my old age. But something's really got me bothered. Why is it that as soon as Yuuka challenged her, Yukari warned me not to tell anyone, only to change her mind minutes later after talking to you?"

"I ran into her in the hallway and advised her not to withhold that information. Mima…Why are you…"

"Did you know? That was considerate of you. Were there any other suggestions as well? Such as how the immensely powerful witch that Yukari was planning to seize could be used as a weapon?"

Satori finally turned to look at her. "How…how long do you plan on doing that?"

"Doing what?" Mima said innocently.

"That…that music. Those songs you are playing in your head. Do you intend to have them going the whole time?"

"What, you don't like it? It's quite popular in the Outside World, at least in certain western cultures. They call it 'Country Music', presumably because it originated from those who worked and lived on the open country. Quite catchy too. Once you get it stuck in your head, it's _impossible _to get it out."

Satori's already heavy lids dipped even further. "You are planning on doing this the whole meeting, aren't you?"

"I don't know, are you planning on having that Third Eye of yours open the whole time?" When Satori didn't answer, Mima said, "Thought so. Still, if it bothers you so much, perhaps a little change in tempo is in order."

Mima mentally changed tracks.

This time, Satori's eyes actually popped wide open. She stiffened in her chair and started shaking all over.

"What…" she gasped. "What in…"

"Oh, this? Just a little diddy by another Outside World artist. Fellow by the name of 'Fighter Kid' or 'Warrior Child' or something to that effect. I quite like it, though I have to admit the lyrics don't make any sense to me. Tell me, what does it mean to 'Superman a Hoe'? Are they referring to the gardening tool? And how would one Superman it? That sounds all kinds of unpleasant."

Satori closed her eyes. She grimaced. "This is horrific. Please, stop this immediately."

"Oh, very well," Mima said. "I supposed I've worn out my welcome. But one last thing. The next time you decide to suggest that certain witches be used for certain plots, remember that sometimes those witches know even bigger witches, and those witches can have a real mean streak." She leaned in close and restarted the song. "YOOOOOOOOOUUUUUU!" she called in accompaniment.

Snickering to herself, Mima left the distressed Satori to rejoin Marisa on the floor.

"What was that all about?" Marisa asked.

"Oh, just clearing the air," Mima said. "I'll say this for Satori, she at least has taste."

"Huh?"

Mima waved off the question. "Never mind. At any rate, it looks like you do have her to thank for your inclusion in this game. I gave her something to ponder on in return, so there's no need for you to seek out revenge."

Marisa cleared her throat. "Uh, Mima? Remember how I said I actually want in on this and how it's a hell of lot better than sitting in a jail cell?"

"Oh. Yes, you did." Mima shrugged. "Well, I'll send her an apology card later. In the meantime, we'd better find seats of our own, preferably away from the crowd. I for one am curious about these mysterious other members of our team."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that," Marisa said. She hopped on her broom and the two spellcasters took to the air and made their way to the seats across from where the others were located. "Who do you think it is?"

"Not sure. Maybe Suika and another Deva." Mima settled her being into one seat as Marisa sat down next to her. "I suppose we'll find out." The ghost's eyes narrowed. "Odds are, I'm not going to like it."

…

"_And I don't blame her!" Yuuka shouts, though the sudden action makes her flinch in pain. She takes in a slow, deep breath, holds it for several seconds and lets it out. "I'm sorry, it's just…Why would anyone associate with such monsters? Despicable ones at that. Murderous, ill-mannered, completely without respect for the lines that aren't to be crossed…"_

…

Yukari stood near the court's insanely tall door, waiting for Ran to return. Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Mima took Satori aside for what she supposed to be a private conversation. That was uncharacteristically foolish on Satori's part. While Mima was in no position to use any of her spells, the ghost had a mean streak several miles long. And she was creative enough to not need magic to satisfy it.

A small nudge to the border of audibility and inaudibility and Yukari listened.

True to form, Mima's intent for talking to Satori was malicious in nature. Yukari sighed as Mima smugly left her prey to rejoin her little witch. At least it was nothing worse than irritating music, but still…

Yukari sought out Satori's mind, felt those horrible notes as they repeated over and over, and gently weeded them out, making her forget them entirely. Satori blinked. She looked down to Yukari, who smiled and gave her a small affirming wave. Satori nodded her thanks and quickly moved to rejoin her pets.

Yukari shook her head. It was ironic that the very ability that made Satori so useful as an information gatherer also made it extremely easy to break her. No wonder she didn't go out much.

Still, that little incident, combined with Remilia Scarlet's recent humiliation (as entertaining as it had been) only confirmed what Yukari had been suspecting. Even here, in the heart of enemy territory, Mima was pursuing her petty grudges. As useful as her power would be in the coming battle, she needed to be kept under control. Satori couldn't do it, Remilia most certainly couldn't do it, Yukari herself would be too busy to keep an eye on her, and she was not about to risk Ran. Shinki and Sariel were straight out, Byakuren would definitely not do it, Kanako might have had a chance, but not a large enough one to risk the Youkai Mountain's popular new deity and everyone else were either too weak or unwilling to get involved. Which meant…

Yukari smiled when Ran sent her a confirmation. The final two members of Operation: Defoliation were on their way.

She turned and said, "All right, thank you for waiting. Looks like the rest of the gang is almost here. We can soon begin."

"About time," Mima remarked. "Though the delay seems unnecessary. Why didn't you just gap them straight here?"

"It wasn't a matter of distance traveled," Yukari said. "They arrived here with me. They just needed to finish something first."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"Dinner, I believe."

"Huh? Dinner?" Marisa said in an incredulous tone. "Wait, they think eating _dinner _was more important than your big, super-secret Yuuka killing meeting thing? And you let them get away with it?"

"Given the persons in question, yes. When it comes to such matters, saying 'No' can be rather difficult."

"Wait," Mima said, her brows knitting together as the pieces came together. "You're not saying…"

Almost as if on cue, the two heavy obsidian doors swung open, revealing three people on the other side. One of them was Ran, who was standing with her heavy sleeves covering her clasped hands, the perfect picture of detached serenity. Just like always. Nothing particularly noteworthy there.

The other two, however, inspired much more in the way of comment. Remilia Scarlet actually leapt to her feet in surprise, causing all of those ridiculous medals she was wearing to rattle. Sakuya Izayoi almost jumped out of her seat as well, until she remembered that open shock would ruin the whole "Perfect and Elegant Maid" image she liked to convey. Orin, who was under no such compulsion, whistled and said "Daaaaammmnnnn." However, Utsuho, who was still wearing Flandre's helmet, just looked confused. Flandre herself was likewise bewildered.

"Remi?" she said in a loud whisper. "Who're they?"

Remilia blinked. She sat back down and laid a palm over Flandre's hand. "Flandre? Do you remember how I once told you that there might come times in which I will be delighted to explain everything afterward but for the time being remaining silent would be in our best interests?"

"Uh, kind've."

"Now would _definitely _be one of those times."

But it was the reactions from the magic practitioners that were the most amusing. Marisa was staring slack-jawed, apparently at a loss for words. As for Mima, the ghost was starting to hunch over, her fingers gripping tightly at her armrests. Yukari had a feeling that she was now putting two and two together and did not like the look of four.

For their part, the newcomers did not seem overly concerned about their less than enthusiastic welcome. The shorter of the two was standing patiently, mimicking Ran's detachment. The other simply looked around in gentle interest and said, "Now, Youmu."

"Yes, my lady?"

"It seems these people are surprised to see us, Youmu."

"Yes, my lady."

"Many of them seem familiar. Have we met these people, Youmu?"

"Yes, my lady. We have worked with the purple-haired vampire and her maid in the past, during the endless night incident. You've also known Satori Komejii for years. As for the human witch-"

"Hey, it's the ghostly girls!" Marisa shouted in delight. She slipped out of her seat and quickly hopped from one chair to the next, all the way to the ground.

"Damn, I didn't know you guys were gonna be here, ze!" she said as she ran up to the pair. "Where the hell have you been? I thought I'd see you at that Ringleader bullshit of a meeting."

"Miss Kirisame," Youmu said graciously. "Our apologies. We were out and missed the call."

"Hey, no big. You're out having fun, stuff gets missed. And stop looking so stiff!" Marisa held out her right hand, fingers curled in a fist. "Come on, Doubletrouble. Don't leave me hanging."

Youmu blinked. "What? Oh, right. That thing you showed me." She hesitated, and then slowly pushed her own fist against Marisa's.

"That's more I like it, ze!" Marisa laughed. She turned and held her open palm in the air. "Up high, Yuyuko!"

Clearly bemused but not at all bothered by Marisa's familiarity, Yuyuko returned the high-five.

"All right! That's what I'm talking about." Marisa then looped an arm over both their shoulders and led them into the room. "So, haven't seen either of you for months! What you've been up to? Still treating the world like one big buffet?"

"A buffet would be nice," Yuyuko said wistfully. "Though as we recently discovered, peaches can be dangerous."

"Peaches, huh? You're telling me. You think they're all sweet and scrumptious, and the next thing you know you're biting into one of those gross soft spots. And then the juice gets everywhere and you're all sticky for none of the fun reasons."

As everyone stared as the single youngest person in the room chatted away with the eternal lord of Gensokyo's dead, Yukari looked up at Mima. The Evil Spirit was fuming. Apparently she had her own ideas as to why Yuyuko had suddenly entered the game.

Yukari smiled. As awful as the situation was, it did come with its small rewards.

"All right," she said to the staring room. "That's everybody then. Shall we begin?"

…

_Yuuka idly scratches at her ruined cheek. The large crystals on her fingers glimmer in the shade of the umbrella. "I must admit, it is odd to see so many people sit around and talk about how to kill me. I should be offended, but I can't help but find it flattering." _

…

"Now, first things first," Yukari said. She had taken her customary place in the throne of the Youkai Queen. At the topmost seats to her left were the magicians and ghosts. To her right were the vampires, maid and denizens from the Underground. All told, ten people in all. Hardly enough to justify the use of a room that could seat ten dozen, but it gave her an excuse to sit in the big chair and look down on people. She had come to terms with her narcissism a long time ago.

"It appears that I need to clear something up," she continued. "This is _not _a war council. It is not a strategy session. It is not a meeting of the minds, a collaboration on a battle plan or an open forum. The time and place have already been decided. I have already privately spoken to everyone worth speaking to" she indicated first Satori and then Yuyuko "and the battle plan has been written out. So this little get-together serves one purpose and one purpose only. I tell you what your jobs will be, and you promise to carry them out. Am I understood?"

Yukari watched as this was greeted by nods, some of them genuine, others sullen and resentful. She went on. "I couldn't care less what kind of ideas you have, so if anyone is foolish enough to speak out of turn, you will regret it. As it stands, half of you either had no choice or only agreed to assist because the alternatives were worst. Do your part well, and the score will be settled between us. Clean slate. But until then, make no mistake. We are not friends. We are not true allies. This is penance. And whether or not you come out of this with clean records is entirely up to me. So, please try not to get on my bad side." Here she shot a meaningful look, first to Remilia and then to Mima and Marisa.

"Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get to the meat. As you all know, I am currently dealing with a bit of a pest. A pest named Yuuka Kazami." Again, there were nods all around, combined with a scattering of smirks. "It seems that the hullabaloo caused by Rin Satsuki's escape has drawn her out. Presumably, she's looking to capitalize on the chaos for the sheer hell of it. And she's so confident in her own abilities that she's been getting her kicks by harassing me personally. Thus far, she's stirred up a great number of the wild youkai through that damned bounty, attacked and tortured a number of GPF officers, harmed both of my Shikigami and killed three humans, all the while dancing around and saying 'Nyah nyah, try to stop me!'"

Yukari steepled her fingers in front of her face. "I am about to show her the error of her ways. And you're going to help."

The lights dimmed, and in the center of the room an illusion came to life. It was a three dimensional map of a barren wasteland, showing the surface of the earth, the sky above and about a mile of the earth below.

"Despite her taste for pandemonium, Yuuka does at least observe some of the more traditional rules of combat. Fortunately, it is those rules that allow me, as the challenged, to choose the time and place. The time will be noon this Saturday. The place will be here, in the Blasted Lands."

She motioned with one hand, and the map started to rotate. "Nearly twelve square miles of wasteland, the Blasted Lands are mainly known for its canyons, large networks of underground caverns and for being the single most infertile place in all of Gensokyo. Barely anything grows there at all. As such, it is also the least populated area. Which makes it the perfect place to battle someone known for using plants as weapons without worrying about collateral damage. But as I have recently discovered, Yuuka possesses many plants from outside of Gensokyo, some of which might even thrive in such an environment. So as a precaution, the entire ground will be temporarily poisoned."

This pronouncement was met with surprised reactions and mutterings. Yukari said, "Don't worry. As I said, the place will be returned to normal immediately after Yuuka's elimination. And it's harmless to you. Just try not to eat the dirt."

She had to resist a titter of laughter when she saw that Yuyuko actually looked disappointed. Not that it would hurt her anyway. Yukari moved her will, and the map stopped spinning. It sank partway into the ground, and a section of the surface started blinking yellow.

"The actual fight will take place here, on the Skillet Plateau. In addition to being the widest flat surface, it also has the most solid ground beneath it, with none of the caverns beneath that the rest of the area contains. This should keep the battlefield as level as possible, and her out in the open."

Yukari's eyelids dipped. "That's where you people come in. I'm going to be dividing you into three teams, and hiding you in other parts of the Blasted Lands, far enough from the battlefield to avoid attracting her attention." The map immediately rose up again, and three different caves in three different locations along the far ends of the area were highlighted with red circles. "When the time is right, I'll be bringing you in, one at a time. Given the powers and…personalities present, it would be best if you weren't at play at the same time. Get in, do your job, and get out to make room for the next team. Got it?"

Without waiting for affirmations, Yukari said, "Now, the first team will be composed of Marisa Kirisame, Mima and Youmu Konpaku, with Yuyuko Saigyouji acting as team leader. Given the number of spellcasters and spirits, you will be known as 'Team Halloween'."

That got a grin out of Marisa and a laugh out of Yuyuko. Mima, however, did not look amused.

"Now, I will work to move Yuuka toward the center of the plateau and keep her isolated and distracted. When that happens, you will receive a signal in the form of a flashing light, which will turn into a gap within five seconds. It will take you to the far end of the plateau, with another gap at the opposite end. Enter the first gap immediately and make for the second one as fast as you can. And on your way, I want Marisa and Mima to rain hell down. Yuyuko and Youmu will provide support and prevent any of Yuuka's surprises from reaching you, so I want you to take all that firepower and devastate the area. But save the best stuff for Yuuka herself. The second gap will take you back to your hiding place, and I will collect you once everything's over. In and out. Understood?"

Yuyuko and Youmu indicated that they did. Marisa looked disappointed, but she reluctantly nodded. Mima did not move at all.

"Now, for the second stage, Satori and her pets will move in. Their name is Team Fire, which acts as both a descriptor and a job description. As soon as Team Halloween has left the area I will open a gap to your location, which will bring you directly above Yuuka. When that happens, your job is simple." She locked eyes with Satori. "Scorched earth. Utsuho Reiuji will concentrate her power upon Yuuka herself, while Rin Kaenbyou will fill the air with flame, so as to eliminate any of her airborne tricks that Team Halloween might have missed. Spores, petals and the like. I will ensure that none of the fallout leaks beyond the area, so don't hold back. Satori, make sure they stay coordinated, and do not remain longer than seven seconds, ten at the absolute most. Again, move in and move out."

"I understand," Satori said.

"And for the coup de grace, we turn to Team Vampire. Remilia, your gap will open as soon as Team Fire starts to make their exit. You will appear on a large stone pillar just outside of the plateau. If the pillar is destroyed by then, then you'll appear in the air where its top used to be. You can fly, deal with it. And as soon as you exit, there are two things that are to happen. First, the maid is to freeze time." She looked at Sakuya. "As I understand it, you can allow others to continue moving once you have activated that pocketwatch of yours, correct?"

The maid nodded. "So long as I retain physical contact with them upon activation."

"Excellent. Make sure you do so. And when that happens, it is time for us to end the fight. Flandre, you will take Yuuka's eye in your hand, and crush her. By then, she should be weakened enough so that-"

"No," Flandre said.

Remilia looked scandalized. "Flan, what are you doing?" she said, gripping Flandre by her shoulders. "Haven't you been paying attention? We don't have a choice here!"

"Don't care," Flandre said as she folded her arms. "I don't wanna."

"You don't…Why you obstinate little brat!" Remilia cried. Do you want to bring more horrors upon us? Don't you think I've suffered enough?" Remilia turned to Yukari with wide, pleading eyes. "I'm…I'm so sorry about her behavior! I don't know what's gotten into her, I swear-"

"Calm down, stop talking, and sit down," Yukari commanded. Shaking, Remilia obeyed.

Yukari addressed Flandre next. "Miss Scarlet, am I to understand that you are refusing to do your part in all this?"

Flandre's response was to stick out her tongue.

"Really. And you do understand that your sister is correct, that you do not have a choice in this matter?"

"Don't care. 'Sides, Sakuya's gonna make you freeze like everything else, right?" Flandre let out a slightly deranged laugh. "You can't make me do anything!"

Yukari rolled her eyes and smirked. "Oh, I can't? Miss Scarlet, must I remind you who you're talking to?" When Flandre frowned, Yukari leaned in closer and said, "Let me put it like this. I walk the boundaries of time and space, and I've been doing it long enough to know exactly how to manipulate them however I wish. Miss Izayoi's power, while impressive, still operates using those same boundaries. And as long as it does, it still must bend to my will. _Especially_ if I know it's coming."

"So all that to say this. Yuuka will be frozen. But I will not. So yes, I will still be able to make you do whatever I want."

Flandre gaped. "But that's _cheating!"_

"Cheating? Of course it is. This whole operation is about cheating. We are going to be cheating to kill Yuuka, and I will be cheating to make sure you do your job. Understand, Miss Scarlet, that despite your overwhelming power, it means nothing to me. You are a purely destructive force with absolutely no finesse whatsoever. And even the strongest man in the world can be felled by a child if hit in the right place with the right weapon. Even a diamond can be shattered if struck at the right angle. And there is not an angle I do not know."

Flandre bared her fangs and snarled. It looked for the world that, disadvantage and consequences be damned, she was going to try to murder Yukari again.

"Don't even think about it," Yukari said evenly. "And while you're at it, don't think about trying to assassinate me along with, or instead of, Yuuka. I've stopped your power from working on me twice already, and I'll do it again. And if you decide to rebel, I will become upset with you. And do you know what happens to people I am upset with?"

The map suddenly burst into flames. Those who either didn't see it coming (everyone except Satori) or were in the least be vulnerable to fire cried out and shielded themselves from the inferno. Flandre herself was so startled that she immediately leapt into the air and flew to the far corner of the ceiling, where she clung and screeched in terror.

To Yukari's partial surprise, it was not Remilia who immediately flew to her side, but Utsuho Reiuji, with a worried Orin close behind to bring Utsuho back. This was a bit of an unforeseen development. If those two developed any sort of close relationship, it could further complicate things.

She sighed and glanced over to Satori. _Make sure she still does her job, _she thought. Satori glanced at her and nodded to indicate that the message had been received.

Yukari flicked her fingers and the flames ceased immediately. "I take it we understand each other," she said to the terrified Flandre, who was shaking in the arms of Utsuho, who in turn was ignoring the tugging at her sleeve and frantic pleas of Orin. "You don't have to like me. Place my picture on your wall and use it for target practice if it makes you feel better. But until this is over, you do what I say. And if any moves against me, they will be added to my list of threats. People on that list do not last long. Remember that."

Utsuho pushed off Orin and turned her head to glare at Yukari. "You jerk!" she shouted. "She's just a kid! Why do you have to-"

"She tried to murder me minutes after her arrival. She was about to try again. I'm not giving anyone any leeway here. You follow my rules, or you pay. Now, sit back down. All three of you."

"Come on, Okuu," Orin murmured. "Let's go back."

"But-"

"Utsuho. Orin. Come back here, please," Satori said. She didn't get up or raise her voice, but the command was there.

"And the same goes for you, young lady!" Remilia was quick to throw in. "Come back here this instant!"

There was a brief moment of hesitation, and Utsuho allowed Orin to lead her back. She kept one arm protectively around Flandre, which just made Yukari roll her eyes. Well, birds of a feather…

"What have I been telling you this whole time?" Remilia demanded in a loud whisper as soon as they returned. She shoved a finger at Flandre's seat. "Now, sit down and behave!"

Flandre positioned herself in Utsuho's lap and shook her head.

"What?" Remilia gaped. "Was that a 'No'? How dare you! You have been nothing but disobedient this whole-"

"Remilia, may we continue?" Yukari called. "I really don't care where she sits, so long as she is sitting."

"I…Yes," Remilia said. She quickly sat back down and stared at the ground.

"Thank you. And just to reiterate for all of you, I am well aware that very few of you like me. But seeing how I am standing between your home country and potential apocalypse, you are just going to put up with me. Try to sabotage me, and you leave Yuuka free to wreak havoc. Which in turn allows the Shadow Youkai to pick up her rampage and set Gensokyo aflame. If that happens, you're on your own when she shows up on your doorstep. But if you're willing to work with me and not get in my way, I do my best to keep you alive."

When she got her murmured agreement, Yukari decided to continue. "Now, to pick up where we left off. Once Flandre has caused Yuuka to…spontaneously combust, Sakuya will restart time and Team Vampire will immediately fall back. When that happens, I will use one of these."

She reached into her robe and extracted four round crystals, each the size of a large marble and completely clear. She held them out and rolled them in her hand, letting a light illuminate them and reflect off the hundreds of tiny facets.

"These crystals are constructs, each of them containing an extremely powerful sealing spell. As you know, once a youkai, fairy or other similar immortal is killed, their body dissolves into its life energies, which in time reconstructs into a new body. And as soon as one of these comes into contact with this energy, it activates, immediately sucking it in and trapping it. Once that happens, it takes an unbelievable amount of power to crack the crystal and release the captured energy. Yuuka will be prevented from resurrecting and rendered helpless. She will be finished, and your obligations will be fulfilled."

Yukari extinguished the light and put the crystals away. "Now, I understand that we are dealing with a notoriously unpredictable enemy here, and that the first casualty with the enemy is always the plan. Despite our preparations, something might very well go wrong. If this is to happen, I expect you to take advantage of your own prowess and improvise. But whatever you do, do not allow her to escape. Try to keep her within the boundaries of the plateau."

Mima loudly cleared her throat. "And if she is to discover our hiding spots before the battle actually begins?"

Yukari glared at her, wondering if she should reprimand her for the interruption, but relaxed. The ghost had a point, after all. "Again, do your best to draw her out into the open. But if the worst-case scenario was to happen and you find yourselves cornered, then once again you're going to have to work with what you've got. Fortunately, each team has a significant amount of firepower at its disposal. Stick together, help each other, and try to summon help from me and the other teams. If you can't and are incapable of escaping, try to kill her. Each team will be provided with a sealing crystal of your own, in the off-chance that you manage to kill her yourself. In addition, you also will be armed with some of my personal equipment, in addition to your own. Use it well and use it wisely."

Then she glowered. "Oh, and on a side-note, these crystals were designed by me, and will not work on me. So don't get any…Wait. What?"

Yukari stared in disbelief. Marisa's right hand was sticking straight up and waving about. And she was using her left to point insistently to the right.

"Marisa," Yukari said flatly. "Maybe you decided to sleep through the last five minutes. This is not a Question and Answer session. Did you completely miss the part where I'm not tolerating interruptions?"

"Hey, hey, easy there," Marisa said, defensively holding up her gloved palms. "I'm not trying to piss you off, ze. You hold all the cards, I get that. I just really need something cleared up."

"This better be good. Because otherwise, you'll be finding yourself with considerably fewer fingers."

Mima leaned back in her chair with half-lidded eyes and calmly cracked her knuckles.

"Okay, gotcha," Marisa said, a fresh sweat breaking out on her forehead. "It's just…those crystal thingies. They're like super-powerful youkai traps, right? Well, what if Yuuka ain't a youkai?"

Yukari rubbed her chin. "Hmmm, you'll need your thumbs to operate your weapons. The middle-fingers maybe? It might do wonders for your attitude."

Marisa paled. "Hey, w-wait a minute! I'm serious here! She's like a really weird-ass immigrant, right? From outside of Gensokyo? What if she ain't a youkai, and is just pretending to be one to blend in?" She shrugged her shaking shoulders. "I-I just wanna make sure this whole plan will still work out, you know?"

"Fascinating. And…where exactly comes this theory?"

"From me, actually," Mima said.

"Oh really? Based upon what evidence?"

"From my own encounters with the lady in question," Mima murmured. "And as much as I'd hate to ruin your carefully constructed strategy, I'm afraid it isn't a question of 'if' she's something other than a youkai. No offense, but I'm surprised you haven't noticed it yourself."

Yukari raised an eyebrow. "Is that right? And what is she, exactly?"

"That I was unable to discern, unfortunately."

"Fascinating. Well, you can fill me in on all the details later. But to answer your prodigy's question, these crystals are not youkai-specific. They will work on any sort of supernatural creature. And whatever she is, I think we can all agree that Yuuka certainly qualifies."

"True enough," Mima said. "I just hope they're enough."

"These things can contain a dragon. They're enough."

"Can they? You know, I've always wondered what happened to that Dragon God fellow…"

"Hilarious. Now, if that's _everything," _Yukari said in a voice that left no question that it damned well better be. "Then you all will need to go finish making preparations of your own. Be quick about it, and prepare to leave early Saturday morning…Yes, Yuyuko?"

Yuyuko put her hand down. "Yes, I was wondering if breakfast will be provided?"

"Sure, why not?" Yukari muttered. She snapped her fingers, and the map disappeared and the lights returned. At the far end of the room, four gaps opened up.

"The far left is for our friends from the Netherworld, the second-to-left for Marisa and Mima, the second-to-right for the denizens of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the far right opens at the Palace of Earth Spirits," Yukari said. "And remember, if you're not a volunteer, you will be under heavy scrutiny until then. Don't make me come over there."

…

"_Oh dear, it seems that no one is getting along," Yuuka mock-gasps. "Well, maybe a few of them are, but not enough. I fear this team will tear itself before I even get there…" Then she blinks. A confused look washes over her face, and she shakes her head. "Wait, what am I saying? The battle is long finished! Everything that was going to happen already happened! Forgive me. Going through all these memories, I sometimes get lost in the past. Ah well. The past can be a bewildering place to wander. Almost as much as the present. Where does one end and the other begin? And don't even get me started on the future. One moment you're convinced that it doesn't matter what you do, everything will fall over themselves to work out in your favor, but then that _one _thing happens, that one thing you could have never predicted, and suddenly you're cut down to…Ah, but listen to me ramble. I apologize, I'm only delaying the story unnecessarily. Let's wrap up Yukari's little group therapy session, shall we?"_

…

Remilia Scarlet's entourage was the first to leave. No doubt the repeated humiliations caused by everyone's complete lack of respect and Flandre's disobedience had driven her to gather together what little dignity she retained and make a hasty exit.

Unfortunately, she found herself facing one last obstacle in the form of Flandre. Apparently the unstable vampire had decided that she would much rather leave with Utsuho. Yukari watched with mild interest as Remilia loudly made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that she would not hear of something so ridiculous, and if Flandre did not come with her that very instant…And about that point Remilia's whole case fell apart as she was unable to think of a fitting punishment. She then found herself under assault from Utsuho herself, in the form of an angry lecture about how she shouldn't be so cruel to her sister. Despite the fact that it represented the breakdown of the group's command structure, Yukari couldn't help but be amused as the vaunted aristocrat and team "Leader" was unable to adequately debate with her kid sister and cloudheaded fool. It was not until both Satori and Sakuya intervened and calmly spoke their respective wards that they reluctantly agreed to part ways. Yukari shook her head and slipped out of her seat to float down to the ground.

As Remilia huffily left with Sakuya and Flandre in tow, Yukari walked up to Satori.

"For the time being," Satori said before Yukari could so much as open her mouth. "Her control is wavering, but not enough to cause Flandre Scarlet to violently revolt. They will do their parts. Reluctantly, but despite her murderous actions, Flandre does fear you."

"And she is right to do so," Yukari said. "Good work. And what of our other, ah, involuntary team members?"

"You will have no problems from Marisa Kirisame," Satori said. "She is motivated by a desire for freedom and violence. She will follow her instructions, though she wishes for a greater part to play."

"I see. Well, too bad."

"However, she and Mima are planning on looting Yuuka's abandoned mansion once this is all over."

Yukari shrugged. "Not at all surprising. And they're welcome to whatever they find." She didn't outwardly mention how by the time they got there, there would be precious little to find. It didn't matter. Satori got the message anyway.

"And as for…the other one?" Yukari asked. She let her gaze briefly flit to Mima. While Marisa chatted away with Yuyuko and Youmu near the gaps, the Evil Spirit of Makai had not left her seat. At the moment, she was leaning over the hump of her tail and staring unblinkingly at Yukari, a gesture that could be anything from a challenge to an expression of discontent to an attempt to psyche Yukari out. Most likely it was all three.

Satori shook her head. "I was unable to read anything of any worth from her. She insisted on playing those…noises throughout the meeting. In interest of preserving my sanity I had to tune her out."

"I really can't say I blame you," Yukari admitted. "Sorry about that. That ghost can get real nasty."

"On that we agree. I will be leaving now." Satori glanced to her pets, who were fretfully waiting next to their exit home. "Utsuho needs to be reassured that Flandre is not the victim of domestic abuse, at least not to the extent that she is imagining."

"Good luck with that. I really don't want to think about the possible repercussions of them liking each other."

"It is my poor fortune that I must." Without another word, Satori turned and left.

_Well, that's done, _Yukari thought. She took a deep breath and turned. _All right, you incorporeal bitch. Let's see how you like playing in my league._

As predicted, Mima was now floating toward her, displeasure written all over her face. "Well," she said. "That was interesting."

"Seeing how eventful this evening has been, you're really going to have to be more specific," Yukari said.

"A fair point. But while Remilia's temper tantrums always make for good entertainment, I was actually referring to your battle plan."

"It is what it is. If you have any complaints about it…"

Mima shook her head. "No, it's workable enough. I just hope you're ready to adapt when everything starts to go wrong."

Yukari folded her arms. "I really hope that's not an expression of intent, Mima."

"No," Mima said with a slight smile. "Don't worry. I said I'll do my part to help, and I'm not going back on that."

"Well, good. And by help, you do mean 'Help me kill Yuuka and _not _immediately backstab me after', correct? Because I know how you love to twist the exact meaning of words."

"No more than yourself. But yes, I do mean help you beat her, without sabotaging the whole operation. You need not watch your back for me or Marisa."

"Glad to hear. Is there anything else, then?"

"Well…" Mima drawled as she scratched her cheek with one green-nailed finger. "There is one issue that's been, oh shall we say, niggling at me. I'm sure it's nothing, but…"

"Out with it, then."

Mima cast a dramatic look over to Yuyuko and Youmu, who were still talking and laughing with Marisa. "Those two. Strange that they would just show up out of nowhere, despite having absolutely no part in this mess up until now."

"Yuyuko is one of my oldest friends. Is it so strange that she would come to my aid?"

"Normally? No. But something does smell rather…rotten about all this. I can't help but note that they were placed within the same team as Marisa and I. I would assume that I would be placed in direct responsibility for the girl."

"You know what they say about people who assume?" Yukari said. "And if you think I'm going to let you lead anything, then you're a fool. Had you not shown up, Yuyuko would have been given control of Marisa alone. She has more than enough power to do so, and they've worked together in the past. Plus, as you can clearly see, they have no issues with each other's company."

"Maybe not, but it still seems like overkill. Having the Queen of the Netherworld watch over a single human, strong as she may be? I would expect her to be acting as one of your shooters instead of a handler."

Yukari shrugged. "She showed up at my place and wanted to help. I needed someone to keep an eye on Marisa. Besides, Yuyuko may be powerful, but it's not geared toward doing large amounts of destruction in a very short time. Honestly Mima, what about her has got you so worked up? You're not still mad about being kicked out of the Netherworld, are you? Because Yuyuko doesn't even have a real say in that. Go yell at the Yamaxanadu if you have a bone to pick."

"No, no. It's not that. It's just I can't shake the feeling that Yuyuko was intended to only be Marisa's handler from the beginning. Seems to me-"

"That I was counting on you joining?" Yukari finished for her. She shook her head. "Mima, if there's one thing I've learned during our long years of acquaintance, it's that I can't count on you to do _anything. _And even if I had somehow staged thing to draw you in, would it change anything? Your prodigy will still receive her pardon, our score between us will be clean, and I will concentrate my efforts on bringing down Satsuki without wasting any more time with either of you."

"I see," Mima said icily. "Well, I suppose you have a point. We'll be leaving then. Wouldn't want to take up any more of your time."

She turned and made her way to Marisa. Yukari watched as the young witch greeted her former mentor and moved to follow her toward their way home. She also noted how Mima was stalwartly ignoring the representatives of the Netherworld, a gesture that was returned by Youmu. Yuyuko, however, had no problems with staring openly at Mima in that strange, calm manner of hers.

Mima and Marisa passed through the gap, heading back to the Forest of Magic. Yuyuko blinked and shook her head. She turned to Yukari and shot her a friendly smile and a wave. Yukari nodded and returned the wave.

After they had gone as well, Yukari closed up the gaps and sighed. Well, she had survived it. The operation was a go, and everyone was more-or-less on board. Granted, there was definitely going to be some messes to clean up later, but she could deal with that when the time comes.

"That…could have gone worse," said a soft voice behind her.

Yukari almost jumped in surprise, but then relaxed. "Gods, Ran," she said as she turned. "You know, I almost forgot you were there."

"Um, thanks?"

Yukari smiled and patted her Shikigami on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Believe me when I say that in these sorts of situations, being unnoticed is a good thing."

"No arguments here. And forgive me for asking, Master. But do you really think this idea is going to work?"

"You mean without a hitch? I'd be very surprised. No, but it gives us something to work with. I suspect that most of the battle will be improvised. Fortunately, I'm good at that." She waved her hand, and one more gap opened, this one leading to her house. "Come on," she said with a weary groan. "I really need to take a nap."

…

"_The sleep of the just?" Yuuka says. "I wonder what she dreams of. Does she feel the same fears as those she professes to protect? The same doubts and insecurities? Does she dream of her loved ones dying or, much worse in my opinion, rejecting her? Does she see the whole of Gensokyo burning under the sky while she stands helpless to do anything? Does she see the Barrier crumbling away and the corruption of the Outside World closing in like a flood? The top of the mountain may have the best view, but it is a terrifying place to stand."_

_Yuuka shakes her head. "Especially when one must work so hard to keep that mountain in place, with every step being a battle. So many plans and plots and schemes. Conspiracies, manipulations, blackmail. All hallmarks of the game of politics. And I really must give the devil her due. While she may find the necessity of it to be bothersome, she is quite adept at playing that game." _

"_Now, me? I'm a simple woman, my friend. I have no time for these overly complicated strategies. I am confronted with a problem, and the solution is made clear to me. I suppose it's a gift, in its own way. One that people like Yukari must find frustrating." Yuuka's fingers dip into her sugar bowl and come out holding a single white cube. "Because when you take a person like me, someone who has no patience for such thing, and present me with carefully formulated plan, then, well, I simply cannot help but tear them down."_

"_You'd think they would learn, in time. But no, they form their plans, they carry out their plans, and they expect them to work. And it is in that moment, in that very moment, when I see the look in their eyes as their mechanisms start to unravel, that they realize the utter futility of even employing a strategy against me. For as long as it lasts, that is. Because more often than naught," Yuuka says, a satisfied smile curling her ravaged lips, "they never know what hit them."_

_With that, she crushes the sugar cube between her fingers._

…

Saturday had come. The storm had arrived. Above the expanse of the Skillet Plateau, the black clouds were full, rolling and angry. It almost reminded Yukari of the horrid weather that sprung to life whenever the Shadow Youkai asserted herself. However, unlike that unnaturally cold squall, this was the real thing. The wind tore at her clothing, forcing her to keep one hand on her hat.

Her eyes surveyed the flat wasteland all around her, from the cracks in the thirsty earth to the bizarre stone formations beyond the plateau to the darkened horizon. Her…_assistants _were already in position, waiting for their signal. It galled her, how much of this depended on so many others. She trusted them enough to do their jobs, but if one thing were to go wrong, than it might very well take the whole operation with it.

Something hit the back of her hand. She looked down to see a single drop of water rolling down her thumb. A second followed, and then a third. Then, almost as if a dam had burst, the rain started pouring down. Yukari sighed and mentally pushed the boundary between moisture and dryness, forming a shield against the downpour. The last thing she needed was an additional distraction.

"Good day to you!" a cultured but slightly deranged voiced called to her. Yukari looked up, her sharp eyes easily picking out the approaching figure even through the rain.

"Lovely weather, isn't it?" Yuuka said. Her umbrella was open above her and twirling merrily. "Admittedly, I much prefer the sun, but a time for everything, eh? Though I do wonder if it will do this dry land any good. So much water to drink, but nowhere to take it." She gave the ground a stomp of her heel. "Of course, the poison you've stuck in the ground can't be helping any."

"A precaution," Yukari said. She started walking in a slow circle, her steady gaze never leaving Yuuka's smug red eyes. "I've learned not to underestimate your tricks."

"Have you? Ah, so sure of yourself." Yuuka shrugged and laughed. "Well, here I am, and here you are. A meeting of two titans. Now, what shall we do with ourselves?"

"Tradition suggests a clash," Yukari answered. Almost as if on cue, lightning cracked across the sky directly behind her. Thunder boomed, and Yukari's hand went to the ornate handle of the steel rapier she wore at her side. The blade whistled through the air as Yukari whipped it from its scabbard and fell into a duelist's stance.

Yuuka's eyes were wide with glee. "Ooooh, right down to business! I like!" She folded up her umbrella and held it up in a challenging salute. "Well, then." Lightning flashed again, illuminating the perfect teeth of her smile. "En garde."

…

_Hey, guess who's finally back after a near month and a half! Really sorry about the wait, guys. You remember how, after the last chapter went up so quickly, I made note of how I had been blessed with a period of time free from schoolwork? Yeah, this was the exact opposite. And in addition to four papers I needed to write, two finals to study for and an oral presentation to prepare for, my computer decided to be a dick and crash on me twice, each time erasing a full evening's work. Fortunately, I'm on summer break now, and the next couple chapters will be mostly action, so they should come out quicker._

_Anyway, I really can't think of a whole lot to comment on here, except that I'm (obviously) experimenting a little with styles, and hopefully it won't blow up in my face._

_Oh, just on a side-note, thanks to a suggestion I got on the TV Tropes Touhou thread, the last chapter has had a few lines added. Reread the conversation between Yuuka and Mystia and see if you notice anything new._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	29. The Storm, Part 2

The Storm, Part 2

_The Eye_

_Yuuka falls silent. She sits still, staring down at her teacup, which now contains nothing but dull green tea. You squirm in your seat, wondering if you should say anything. It seems that she's forgotten that you are even there, and you are in no hurry to remind her. _

_Still, to leave now without her permission could end very badly. Just because she isn't noticing you now doesn't mean that she wouldn't react to sudden motion. And this is a lady who talks to plants and spies on people through her teacup. Not only that, she does so successfully. Clearly not someone that should be made upset. _

_As such, you remain seated, feeling rather awkward. _

_That is when you feel a sudden prickle in your left nostril._

_Feeling the panic mount, you try to will away the sneeze. But no amount of wrinkling your nose or holding your breath is accomplishing anything. It continues to grow and grow and grow until…_

_Yuuka jumps in her seat as the sneeze explodes out of your nose. "Oh!" she exclaims, her lips forming a perfect "O" shape. "Gesundheit! Gave me a bit of a shock there. I'm sorry, my mind must have wandered. It tends to do that these days, as I'm sure you have noticed."_

_Shaking her head, she says, "Well, we should probably continue. Things were just about to get good, too. All that dramatic thunder and wind and dark clouds and brandishing our weapons and talking about…"_

…

**Yukari**

"Rules?" Yukari said incredulously. _"Rules?"_

"But of course," Yuuka said. Her umbrella was still raised in challenge, but she had yet to actually attack. "This is a very high-profile battle. A clash of titans, as you so elegantly put it. It only stands to reason that guidelines be established to ensure fair play."

"All right," Yukari shrugs. "How about this? We fight until I kill you. And I keep killing you until you stop coming back. Does that sound fair enough for you?"

Yuuka laughed at that. "Ah, straight to the point. We really should have done this a long time ago. So how does this sound? Anything goes, so long as this is kept between you and me. Whatever weapons, whatever tricks, whatever you have at your disposal, you may use them. Anything that might give you an edge, feel free to employ. Sans outside interference, of course. And the same applies to me. This will be an all-out, no-holds-barred brawl, guaranteed to reshape the landscape and render all current maps of this area obsolete. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Yukari said without hesitation. Though the fact that Yuuka had specifically forbid outside interference worried her. "I was planning on doing that anyway."

"Very good! And as for the terms of victory-"

"I kill you," Yukari said, again without hesitation.

"Yes, my death would put an end to our little clash. As would yours, so don't get too cocky. But seeing how I have no intention of dying and neither do you, may I also suggest an 'Uncle Clause'?"

Yukari blinked, and the tip of her sword lowered a four inches. "Uncle…clause?"

"Yes. Death or surrender."

Her eyes hardening, Yukari stiffened the arm holding her blade. "I don't think so. I'm here to make sure you never get in my way again. Tap out all you want, I'm still going to cave in your skull."

Even though it didn't seem possible, Yuuka's grin grew. "We'll see. Now, I suppose you've had enough talk. Shall we begin? Good. Go!"

Before Yukari had a chance to respond, Yuuka let out a cry of glee and leapt into the air. She flew straight forward, her umbrella swung in an arc intended to slam right into Yukari's neck.

Yukari reacted immediately, bringing up her sword to block the blow. At the same time, she sent a crackling ball of energy surging up the blade.

Blade met umbrella with an earth-shattering impact that sent dust and stone chips flying away from the two combatants. Yukari held her ground and smiled as she watched her nasty little surprise travel toward Yuuka. Then her eyes widened when she realized that a glowing green sphere was moving down Yuuka's umbrella, on a direct course with her own.

Time seemed to slow down. Yukari looked up to lock eyes with Yuuka. "Clever girl," she whispered.

The conflicting energies met, and Yukari and Yuuka were flung backward from the resulting explosion. As Yukari tumbled across the desolate landscape, she could hear Yuuka's deranged laughter echoing from all around.

…

**Team Halloween**

As Mima impatiently waited in the stony cavern, lit only by floating lights she had provided, she wondered how she could have fallen this far. She had gone from a terror comparable to the Shadow Youkai to just one of Yukari's many pawns. While she was always happy to give Marisa a hand, the massive blow her ego was now taking meant that the young witch now owed her _big. _

She folded her arms and glowered at her companions. Yuyuko was facing one of the walls, her upper half deep into a hole as she rooted around for…something. Her little serving girl, whose name Mima wasn't even bothering to remember, was standing nearby and staring at Marisa with an expression of utter bewilderment. And as for Marisa herself…

"I'm sorry, but I really don't understand," said the serving girl. "What exactly is wrong with her?"

Mima rolled her eyes and glanced over to Marisa. The young witch was now armed to the teeth with a variety of weapons, spells and other tricks, both her own and those supplied by Yukari. She was also pressed up against the stone wall of the cave, excitedly scratching bizarre formulas, equations and other markings with a sharp rock as grinning manically, reciting what sounded like nonsensical gibberish.

"All right," Mima said. "For the last time. A few days ago, Marisa was temporarily cut off from magic. And during this time, she had her ass severely handed to her by someone who was no match for her sheer raw power but knew something about close quarters combat. And to keep this from happening during this battle, she decided, against my advice I might add, to consume several potions, potions that have increased her speed, strength and agility. And when the adrenaline _really _kicks in, the potions' effects will be increased tenfold, turning her into a superhuman."

"Oh. Okay. But what does that have to do with her going crazy and scribbling on the walls?"

"Imma tryin' ta find the secret of why beer so good!" Marisa shouted at her. She let out an earsplitting cackle and returned to her calculations.

"Unfortunately, the potions are of her own creation," Mima said with a sigh. "And while effective, they have some rather nasty side-effects. For one, the ones she consumed really shouldn't be combined, and when they wear off she is going to be one sick little puppy."

"I'll be fine, bring on the poppies!" Marisa roared.

The serving girl blinked. "Oh, and…?"

"And the main ingredient she used so happens to be mushrooms found around the Forest of Magic. Many of which have mood-altering effects and hallucinogenic properties. And it seems that she has consumed a great deal of them, more than she should. This has unfortunately put her in an altered state of consciousness."

"Uh, okay," the serving girl said. "So, what you're saying is…"

"Do I have to spell it out for you?" Mima demanded. "Ding-dong, the witch is _baked!_"

"Like a cake made from steak!" Marisa cackled.

"Wait, what now?" Yuyuko asked, her voice muffled. She pulled herself out. "Youmu, does such a thing exist?"

"No, my lady. I believe Marisa was simply…_attempting _a metaphor."

"Oh," Yuyuko said, sounding disappointed. "Never mind then." She turned her attention back to the hole. "I'll get you yet," she muttered as she shoved herself back in.

If Mima were fully corporeal, she had no doubt that she would now be suffering from a major headache. She was stuck with someone that was either a complete and utter idiot or a conniving genius who projected an over-the-top airheaded personality to throw people off (even after so many years, Mima still wasn't sure which one it was) and someone of literally no importance but who had somehow gotten into her head the idea that she was people. And to add insult to injury, these annoyances had been placed in a position of authority over her. Yukari's assurances be damned, there was no way that hadn't been deliberate.

Then she glanced over to Marisa, who had evidently forgotten all about her research into the world of alcohol enjoyment and had now turned her attention to juggling rocks. It was just her luck that the only person worth talking to who would show up high as a cloud. Granted, to arm herself with every advantage available made sense, but when the side-effects made her just as annoying as the ghost girls (if such a thing were possible), then Mima wished she had devoted more research into time manipulation so she could skip to the end of this ridiculous battle.

"Um, pardon me again, Madam Mima," the serving girl said.

Mima shot her a venomous look. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry, but is it really the best idea to have her in this state? This is after all a delicate operation, and an important one as well. Should she really spend it so-"

"I'm sorry, are you lecturing me?" Mima cut in.

"No, I'm just-"

"Oh really? That's good to hear. Because for a second there, I could have sworn that you were lecturing me."

The serving girl just looked confused. No doubt the lout she served had neglected to introduce her to any kind of discipline. "I'm not, I'm simply saying-"

"You've said more than enough. And I'll be the judge of whether or not Marisa is fit for duty. All you need to worry about is keeping your head down and your mouth shut and-"

"HEY, BODY-PILLOW!" Marisa bellowed at Youmu.

There was a moment of confused silence, and then the serving girl said, "Um, yes?"

"Can I borrow your swords for a sec?" Marisa jabbered. She held up the rocks she had been tossing into the air. "These are get_ting _too easy! C'mon, be a friend, I'll take you dancing!"

Mima found herself wishing that Yukari would hurry up and send for them already. Or better yet, that Yuuka would attack them directly. Even that had to be better than this. One thing was for certain, this was the last time she would allow Marisa to talk her into working with people she hated.

…

**Team Vampire**

"What a name," Remilia growled. She leaned back against a stalagmite and slumped to the ground. "What a ridiculous name."

Sakuya cocked her head. "Mistress?"

Remilia started poking at nearby rocks with Gungnir. "Team Vampire. Can you think of a more uncreative name? Out of all the possibilities out there, and she decides to name us after my species. It couldn't have been Team Scarlet or something equally appropriate, wouldn't you agree? And it isn't even accurate! I mean, you're not even a vampire!"

Sakuya cleared her throat. "Mistress, I am not a 'Scarlet' either."

"Don't test me, Sakuya," Remilia growled. "You're still part of my household, so that's close enough. And it's _miles _more accurate than 'Team Vampire'."

"Yes, Mistress," Sakuya said, bowing her head.

The three of them, Remilia, Sakuya and Flandre, were in the cave Yukari had left them in. Despite the teasing her uniform had garnered a few days back, Remilia had still prepared herself by donning a full suit of armor, sans helmet (she hated the things), specifically designed for her small frame. It was a bit cumbersome, and it clanked something awful, but the protection it offered was far superior to that of her dresses. Sakuya herself had traded in her maid uniform for her old monster-hunting outfit, consisting of a tight striped leather suit, black gloves and boots and a grey hooded cape. Flandre, however, had downright refused to wear anything other than her trademark red-and-yellow dress, despite all of Remilia's attempts to convince her otherwise. She had been tempted to have Sakuya freeze time and suit Flandre up by force, but Sakuya had pointed out that doing so would risk having Flandre destroy a perfectly good suit of armor, so finally Remilia had judged the problem to be more trouble than it was worth.

A pebble flew through the air and hit Remilia in the forehead. "Ow!" she cried, her hands reflexively going to the point of impact. "Flandre, stop that already!"

From her spot against the far wall, Flandre glowered at her older sister. "Then let me join Utsuho's team!"

"It's not up to me! And why you would want to be on _that _team is beyond me."

Flandre picked up another pebble. She drew her hand back to throw, but jerked back in surprise when she saw that her hand was now empty. Putting two-and-two together, she turned her murderous glare over to Sakuya, who was now holding the stone.

"Don't interfere!" Flandre spat.

Tossing the pebble aside, Sakuya said, "Young Mistress, please. Your sister is doing all she can. Attacking her will solve nothing."

"It'll make me feel better!" Flandre shouted back. "This is all her fault anyway!"

"Oh, it's all my fault, it's all my fault," Remilia groused. "That's all I've been hearing for days. And yes, I'm quite sick of hearing it, thank you very much. So unless you have something new to contribute, please sit on your hands and _shut up!"_

Another pebble came flying at her face. Sakuya intercepted it before it got halfway.

"All right, that's it!" Remilia shouted as she leapt to her feet. "When this is over, you are in serious trouble, young lady!"

"I don't care! What are you going to do, ground me?"

"Oh, I'll think of something, trust me on this."

"You are the meanest team-leader person ever," Flandre said. "I'm moving in with Utsuho after this is over."

Remilia actually laughed at that. "Oh, heavens help me! Go right ahead, see if that pretentious troglodyte will accept you!"

"Utsuho's not a trogydity! And yes she will!"

"I was speaking of her master. Do you honestly believe Satori Komejii will just let you move in? Or anyone else for that matter?"

"Mistresses, please!" Sakuya pleaded. "This is accomplishing nothing. You are sisters! Family! Surely that must-"

Her attempts at reason went totally ignored. The two vampires continued to bicker, almost as if they had forgotten that they were only moments away from assassinating one of the most dangerous beings alive. Even though it went against everything she had devoted her life to, Sakuya found herself sympathizing with one of Flandre's points. Serving under Satori Komejii would certainly be easier. At least it would be considerably more quiet.

…

**Team Underground**

"All right," Satori said. "One more time, please."

"Uh, okay," Utsuho said. She took a deep breath and recited, "When the beeping starts, that means Yukari Yakumo is about to open one of her weird gap-things. We're gonna go through and, and we're gonna arrive above the Biscuit Plateau-"

"Skillet," Orin corrected.

"Right, the Biscuit Skillet-"

"No," Satori said. "The Skillet Plateau."

"Right, right. Sorry. Um, and then we're gonna be right above that Yuuka person, and she's gonna be all injured because of Team Christmas-"

"Halloween."

"Right. Them. The ones with the ghosts and stuff. And Orin's gonna set everything around us on fire, and I'm gonna…" Utsuho frowned. "I'm sorry, I know you said it's okay, but are you _sure _it's okay?"

"Yes," Satori said. "Once again, you are allowed to 'Cut Loose', as they say. Our intentions are fatal, the target is more than deserving, and to not do everything in our power to end her would be the greater sin."

Utsuho was still unsure. "But…ever since I, you know, went crazy and stuff, people keep telling me that using my power against another person is evil. But now you're saying I have to. It doesn't make sense."

Orin squeezed her shoulder. "I know, Okuu. We're just making this one exception. She is an evil person who hurts people because she thinks it's fun. We're trying to stop her before she hurts anyone else. We're the good guys, promise."

"But, but what if she's like I was? Just really messed up and confused?"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Satori said. "Yuuka Kazami has received no sudden power-ups in recent history, and despite her proclaimed love of chaos, her actions have been too methodical to be driven by pure madness. She is deliberately aggravating this situation out of sadism, not insanity."

"Sadism?"

"It means that you enjoy hurting people and watching them get hurt," Satori explained. "It is a common mark of an evil person."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth and she _heard _Utsuho's reaction, Satori sighed inwardly at the tactical error she had made. True enough, Utsuho's next words were, "I…okay. But what about those people on the other teams? And Yukari Yakumo?"

Orin's cat-ears wiggled. "What do you mean, Okuu?"

"You know how that one loud vampire who kept getting made fun of, Flandre's sister? I mean, I didn't really feel sorry for her, because she was a jerk. But still, they really liked it when she got embarrassed, and not just because they felt sorry for Flandre. They just liked to watch it happen. Isn't that…that word you said? Doesn't that make them evil?"

"Some of them, perhaps," Satori admitted. "However, there are varying degrees of evil. And none of the people we are working with are nearly as bad as the woman we are going up against."

Utsuho was still unconvinced. "But I've never even met this woman. I just know what other people tell me."

"Utsuho," Satori said gently. "Do you trust me?"

"What?" Utsuho said, stiffening in surprise. "Of course I do!"

"Do you believe that I would tell the truth to you?"

Utsuho's wings started twitching in agitation. "Yes! Why wouldn't I?"

"Then will you trust me when I say that Yuuka Kazami is, in fact, a very evil person, that she is evil of by her own personal choice, and if we do not stop her, many innocent people will get hurt?"

"I…" Utsuho looked down at the stony ground of the cave floor. "Yeah. I guess."

"Thank you." Satori reached up to touch Utsuho's cheek. She gently drew Utsuho's gaze back up to her own and smiled. "I know it's hard, what you've been asked to do. And I do not enjoy making you do it. But please believe me when I say that it is for the greater good, and if we don't do this we will find ourselves in a much worse situation."

"Okay, Satori," Utsuho said with a reluctant nod. "But…uh…"

Even though she already knew what was on her pet's mind, Satori said, "What is it, Utsuho?"

"After this is over, can we do something about how Flandre's big sister treats her? Because that isn't at _all _right."

…

"_Such a strange collection of characters," Yuuka sighs. "To be honest, I'm a little insulted. Even when faced with my impending presence, they still devoted their attention to their little dramas. At least Yukari took me seriously. Still does, in fact. Perhaps even more so than before. I know her little toys do." A hissing laugh escapes her ravaged throat. "After all, I can make a very persuasive argument, even when trying to convince so many at once."_

…

**Yukari**

Yukari was not taken off guard for long. Moments after the overload had knocked her back, she was already back on her feet and at the ready for the follow-up.

Unfortunately, Yuuka was nowhere to be found. Other thanYukari herself, the plateau was empty.

Yukari remained perfectly still, reaching out with all of her senses. When that failed to produce any results, she said, "You know, that's usually my trick."

Yuuka's laugh echoed through the air, perfectly audible over the rain. "I don't doubt it."

"So," Yukari said as she turned in a slow circle, her sword held at the ready. "Should I disappear as well? Wait for you to blink?"

"You can try, though you would be waiting for a long, long time."

The air changed almost imperceptibly. Yukari whirled hard to the right, barely escaping being hit by a blast of green energy. As quick as thought, she slipped through reality and called down fire to engulf the attack's most likely place of origin.

Nothing was hit but stone.

Yukari waited. When Yuuka failed to reveal herself, she stepped back onto the plateau. "All right, hide-and-seek is it? That's not like you, Yuuka. I thought you favored full-frontal assaults."

"Mmmm, I do enjoy my fair share of full-frontal," came the disembodied answer. "But for now, I think I'm going to enjoy frustrating you a bit."

Yukari frowned. "What's this all about, Yuuka? What's your game? Did you really go through all this trouble just to piss me off?"

"That's assuming that it was any trouble at all," Yuuka said. "I do love my work."

"Yeah? Well, word has it that you're pretty fond of Gensokyo as well."

"It is a nice place," Yuuka agreed. "Everything's so pretty, and all my stuff is here."

A sharp whistling drew her attention. Yukari side-stepped as several dozen foot-long thorns, all of them sharp as knives, impaled the place where she had just been standing.

"So why do this now?" Yukari demanded once she was sure that there wasn't going to be an immediate follow-up. "Don't you understand what's going on? I'm trying to save this damned place, and you're just distracting me."

"Oh, have I got you worried that much? Honestly Yukari, it's just a bounty and a brawl. And you are doing a fine job of keeping things together. I read that little article you put in the papers. Nice work on not directly trying to shut me down, by the way. Going straight for the reputation." Yuuka laughed. "I guess you wanted to avoid people going after Rumia just to spite you. Did it work, by the way? I haven't really been keeping track."

Yukari shook her head. "Some, but not as much I'd like."

"Still have more than your fair share of bounty-hunters getting in the way?"

"Yes."

"What a pity. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll think of something."

Yukari's eyes narrowed to slits. "Thanks for the moral support. But to change the subject…"

"Yes?"

Yukari suddenly whirled and thrust her blade in the direction of a seemingly random cloud. There was a flash of lightning and thunder boomed. Yuuka cried out in surprise and tumbled to the earth.

Yukari gestured.

The ground surged up to meet Yuuka, slamming into her body and driving her straight back into the clouds. The sky suddenly filled with flashing lights as Yuuka was electrocuted with every available watt of electricity to be found. The pillar crumbled away, leaving Yuuka's limp body again in gravity's grip.

Not content to have her rival tumble lifelessly to the ground, Yukari squeezed her free hand into a fist and pulled. Yuuka jerked in midair, hovered for the briefest of moments and then, as if she were pulled by a tether, shot right towards Yukari. Or, to be specific, Yukari's upheld blade.

Yuuka let out an audible gasp of pain as her body was impaled right up to the hilt. Her confused eyes locked with Yukari's steel gaze. "Wh-what…" she managed to sputter.

Yukari reached out and covered Yuuka's face with her hand. "Never try that whole 'Taunt your enemy out of empty air' trick on the person who invented it," she said.

With that, she set Yuuka on fire.

…

"_Erm, well," Yuuka says as you both stare. "Ahem. Perhaps that _particular_ instance wasn't all that convincing. But you know how it goes. You win some and lose some. Short-term inconveniences to achieve long-term victories and all that. But that wasn't really what I was talking about. No, I was referring to these…"_

…

**Team Halloween**

Mima stuck her palms on either side of Marisa's head and locked eyes with her former apprentice. "Okay, let's give her a little bit of a detox," she muttered.

Marisa's body was already trembling, but it really began to shake as Mima flushed out a fraction of the chemicals in her veins.

The serving girl, who was watching in fascination, said, "Um, just a little bit? Shouldn't you get rid of it all?"

"Oh, that's brilliant," Mima said with a roll of her eyes. She released Marisa, whose head started lolling back and forth. "Just nullify all the physical advantages she's gained and make her sick _now. _I just need her at something approaching lucidity. Now, Marisa. I need you to pay attention. Do you remember where you are?"

"Uh, uh," Marisa said. "The cave. Yukari's cave. Thing. Waiting for the signal."

"Right. And why are we here?"

Marisa blinked a couple time, twitched her head and said, "To help kill Yuuka Kazami. Point A to Point B, five seconds of destruction. In and out."

"Close enough," Mima said as she drew back. "At least she's not raving. Though if Yukari doesn't hurry up and get things moving I'm going to start-"

"Gotcha!" Yuyuko exclaimed. She withdrew from the hole and held her hand up in triumph. Struggling in her grasp was a small brown fairy, barely more than seven inches tall. She squirmed and bit at Yuyuko's fingers in her attempts to escape.

"Good job," Mima said sarcastically. "Leave it to you to find the only fairy for miles. Now let it go, you don't know where it's been."

Yuyuko's response was to toss the fairy in her mouth and start chewing. The fairy's frenzied shrieks were loud and short-lived.

A heavy silence followed, with everyone's staring eyes on the snacking ghost. Then Marisa said, "Oh…okay. Was that the mushrooms playing tricks on me or did that really just happen, ze?"

"Oh, that happened all right," Mima answered.

"Shite." Marisa slowly shook her head. "That's gotta be the most fucked up thing I've ever…No, wait. What you guys did to Cirno's bird-friend was even more fucked up."

Youmu winced. "Please don't bring that up. That's not my fondest memory."

"H-hey, it hasn't exactly treated me to months of sweet dreams either, Bodybag. And seriously, I've seen some real freaky stuff, but that was really, really freaky. I mean, piss my panties freaky. I mean, 'Oh my gods, are they actually doing that?' freaky. I mean-"

Yuyuko, who was blissfully unaware that she was being discussed, swallowed. She covered her mouth and let out a small burp. "S'cuse me," she murmured.

Marisa turned to Mima. "Hey Master, are you _sure _I really just saw all that? Because I'm really starting to doubt my eyes."

"Yes, Marisa. That just happened. Be thankful that you're under the influence at the moment. It lessens the chance of you actually…Huh?"

The little brown fairy appeared, newly regenerated, her upper body desperately crawling out the back of Yuyuko's semi-corporeal neck. The ghost frowned and reached up to scratch. The fairy let out a shrill scream and shoved her way to freedom. Then she darted out of the caves as fast as her gossamer wings could carry her, screeching all the way.

"Okay, now I'm firmly convinced that I'm still seeing things, ze," Marisa stated. "Because that was just too damned weird."

"Keep believing that, you'll be happier for it," Mima told her. "And to be honest, I'm really starting to regret agreeing to this. I mean, this is completely degrading. Do you want to know where I used to spend my time before battles about two hundred years ago or so? Atop fortresses, with hundreds of troops arrayed before me. Not stuck in some hole in the ground with a stoned witch and two completely-"

Something changed.

"NOBODY MOVE!" Mima shouted.

Marisa leapt up, heart slamming against her ribs as her eyes darted frantically around. "What? What?"

"Something's different." Mima's sapphire eyes narrowed to slits. "Something's changed in the air. It's interfering with my magical senses." She turned to Yuyuko. "You can feel it too, can't you?"

Yuyuko thought for a moment, and then said, "Yes. The surrounding energies are being tampered with."

"What? Really?" Marisa said. She frowned. "Hey, I can kinda feel it too, ze. Everything's all…staticky."

With one smooth motion, Youmu drew both her swords and held them in a defensive position. "Then by all means, let us find the source of the disturbance and-"

The ground between them started to crack apart. Everyone moved back and stared as a head-sized hump of glowing blue bell-shaped flowers pushed its way out of the ground.

"Holy crap," Marisa breathed. "A glowing blue mushroom!"

Mima said, "Marisa, those aren't…Oh, shit."

The flowers parted, revealing two burning red eyes set within a woman's pale face. The intruder looked around and grinned. "Ah, there you four are!" Yuuka Kazami said. "Sorry, I would have been here quicker, but this cavern is rather difficult to find."

"Holy crap, a talking mushroom!"

Mima decided not to correct her prodigy this time. "It's her!" she shouted. "Kill her!"

Her command shook her companions out of their surprised stupor. Yuuka's head quickly ducked back into its hole to avoid being disintegrated by the torrent of firepower that was unleashed.

Mima immediately swooped down toward the gaping hole that was now in the center of the room. "Gone!" she spat. "Well, I'm not in the mood to be led around. Yuyuko, get in contact with Yukari immediately. I'll try to raise the other teams. We need them here, ASAP."

"I can't," Yuyuko said.

"What?"

"The interference. It's stronger," Yuyuko explained. "I can't get through."

"Damn it," Mima muttered. "All right, we're just going to have to kill her ourselves. Yuyuko, you still have that crystal? Good. Now, when I give the word, we're going to-"

"Why don't I just save you the trouble and come right to you?" Yuuka's voice broke in.

"What?"

The wall Marisa had been scribbling on exploded. Marisa yelped and leapt out of the way. Mima, who was in no danger from the flying stone-fragments, simply whirled and launched a pillar of flame straight into the new opening.

There was a pause, and Yuuka's voice returned. "All right, look. Pragmatism is certainly admirable, but may I make my dramatic entrance already?"

Mima's response was more fire. This time, Marisa joined in, letting loose with one continuous Master Spark from her hakkero.

"That's enough!" Yuuka shouted. Several things, long, gnarled and twisted things, emerged from the flames and lashed out. Marisa and Youmu tried to dodge, but found themselves struck in the stomach and shoved against the far wall. Being (mostly) incorporeal, Mima and Yuyuko didn't bother to get out of the way. But to their surprise, they were also lifted up and likewise slammed against stone.

Mima struggled, but found herself held tight. She tried teleporting away, but it seemed that the interference extended to that as well.

"_Now_ may I come in?" Yuuka said, sounding slightly irritated.

"Sure, go ahead," Mima groaned.

Through the smoke emerged Yuuka Kazami. Mima actually raised an eyebrow when she saw what they were dealing with.

Yuuka had evidently found a way around the poison problem. She was using her own body to transport her plants. As before, her hair was covered with those glowing blue flowers. Her body was covered with what honestly appeared to be a suit of armor made entirely from tree roots. It was those same roots that held Team Halloween in place, extending out from her hands. On her back was what appeared to be a small chunk of meadow, complete with grass, weeds and wildflowers. Mima found herself reminded of some of the forest spirits she had met in other lands.

"Uh…" From her place against the wall, Marisa squinted. She blinked and shook her head. Then she squinted again. "Okay. Now I _know _I'm still hallucinating."

Yuuka surveyed her captives. "Well, look who we have here. A human witch, a ghost witch, a human ghost, and a full ghost. That's nearly all the variations on a common theme. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I was to understand that my tussle with Yukari was just to be between her and I. With that in mind, what are you four doing here? No, wait. Don't answer. That bit's not at all difficult to figure out. No, the real question is this." The roots tightened, making Youmu gasp. "What am I going to do with you?"

…

**Team…Vampire?**

"Mistress Scarlet," Sakuya said as she stared.

Remilia ignored her. She was too preoccupied with yelling at her sister.

"I've looked after you for literally centuries!" she snapped. "I clothe you, feed you, protect you from those that don't understand you, clean up your _constant _messes, and this is the thanks I get? 'Oh, Remilia is such a meanie, I want to go run off with some moronic bird that I've only actually interacted with for all of _half an hour!' _So nice to know that I'm so appreciated."

"Mistress Scarlet," Sakuya said, more urgently this time. "You must-"

"You keep me locked up underground!" Flandre shouted back. "You never let me go to do _anything, _while you go around with that stupid umbrella whenever you want!"

"Oh, why is that I wonder? Hmmm, here's a theory. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that you've _destroyed _every other place I've provided for you? Perhaps it's because every time you get out, the body count racks up so fast that entire areas find themselves depopulated? Honestly Flandre, is the necessity of these precautions really so difficult to grasp?"

"Mistress Scarlet, please. You must-"

"Quiet Sakuya, I'm dealing with something here!"

"Ah," Yuuka said. "And how long will that take?"

"As long as it has to," Remilia snapped. "So you two can just stand there and wait! Honestly, does no one understand the meaning of the word 'patience'?"

Yuuka looked at Sakuya and shrugged. For her part, Sakuya was less inclined to do as her mistress had instructed.

"My Mistresses, you need to stop arguing. Right now," she begged. "She's here."

Remilia rolled her eyes to the heavens. "And I told her that she's just going to have to wait until-"

"Who's that?" Flandre said, pointing at Yuuka.

"Stop trying to change the subject!" Remilia said. "We have yet to address the issue of your-"

Sakuya grabbed Remilia's head and, over the sound of the little vampire's angry protests, forcefully turned it toward Yuuka, who was standing and waiting patiently for Remilia to finish.

"What do you think you're _doing?" _Remilia demanded as she wrenched herself out of Sakuya's grasp. "Have you gone mad? Did you not hear me when I said to…Wait."

She looked at Yuuka, who smiled and waved. Then she looked at Sakuya. Then at Flandre, and then back to Yuuka.

"Hold up," Remilia said. "Is that…" Her eyes widened as the realization finally dawned. "Oh. No."

"Hi there," Yuuka said pleasantly. "Are you finished? Because there are some things we need to discuss." Then she frowned. "By the by, what exactly is that thing you're wearing?"

Remilia screamed and threw herself back, putting as much distance between her and Yuuka as possible. "Flandre! What are you waiting for? Kill her!"

"Why?" Flandre blinked. "Who is she?"

"Are you blind? That's _Yuuka Kazami! _My gods, any other time I have to talk you out of killing everyone you meet, and the one time I need you to actually explode someone-"

Yuuka cleared her throat. "Look, if this is a bad time, I really can come back later."

"DO IT!" Remilia screamed to her sister.

Flandre needed no further prompting. She lifted her hand in the air and clenched it into a fist.

"Kyuu," she whispered. Then she frowned. "No, kyuu! Kyuu!" She let out a scream of frustration. "Why does this keep _happening?"_

"Well, as I understand it, Yukari prevented it by sealing you off from your own power," the very much un-exploded Yuuka explained. "And I did it by shrouding my Eye."

"You know about the Eyes?" Flandre gaped.

"Of course! Doesn't everyone? Now, I believe it's time for us…No, none of that please." Yuuka pointed, and to Remilia's utter shock her fingers literally shot out, becoming a mass of green vines and leaves that slammed right into Sakuya's stomach. The maid gasped as the wind was driven from her, and she fell to her knees. Both the knife and the pocketwatch she was holding fell to the ground.

"You people with your underhanded tricks," Yuuka said, shaking her head. "Is it really so difficult to participate in a straight fight? Come on now, I'm giving you three-on-one odds here."

"It's more than that!" Remilia shouted. She held up Gungnir in her shaking hands, as if that would ward the danger away. "Just you wait until the others get here!"

"Ah, no," Yuuka said. "They won't."

"What?"

"You see, I took the liberty of blocking all communications from this cave. And even if you could somehow raise them, I regret informing you that they are currently dealing with problems of their own. So I'm afraid it's just the four of us."

She held up the arm that had struck Sakuya. Disgustingly enough, the entire thing had become a grey vine, flexible and whip-like. Two curved blades perched on the end like a pair of pincers.

"So, what do you say, ladies? You creatures of the night?" Yuuka asked. "Care to try your strength against a _real _monster?"

…

**Team Underground**

Satori, Orin and Utsuho slowly backed up, their eyes focused upon their enemy. For her part, Yuuka made no threatening moves, seemingly content to remain in place and watch them.

"I don't see why you're so surprised," Yuuka said. She stepped out of the hole she had created, carefully moving across the pile of newly created rubble. "Honestly, did you really expect everything to go off without a hitch? It's like Yukari said, the first casualty of every encounter is the plan."

"You knew," Satori said.

"Knew what, dear?"

"Our location. The plan. Down to quoting specific bits of the actual discussion."

"Well, yes."

"This is her, right?" Utsuho said. She started to nervously finger the controls on her control rod. "The person we're supposed to be fighting?"

"Yes, it is," Satori said. To Yuuka, she said, "You were watching us."

"Again, yes."

"How?"

"How?" Yuuka repeated, sounding amused. "You out of all people are asking that question? Why not just pick the answer from my mind? Oh wait, I know why." Yuuka flicked her flower-filled hair, sending flashes of light running through the blue petals. "But trust me when I say that it's for the best. This little mind of mine is not something you want to peek in."

"Boss, she's doing something to our communications as well," Orin murmured. "I can't get through to the other teams."

"I know," Satori said. "It is those Mykr's Sirens she's wearing. They have the unfortunate effect of disrupting freefloating magical energies."

"Sounds like someone's been doing her reading," Yuuka said. "Though I must insert a little addendum. These Sirens are my friends. As such, it is not my energies that are being disrupted. Just yours."

"Oh," Orin said. "Well, that sounds incredibly unfair."

Yuuka laughed. "Oh, come now kitty-cat! Look at the numbers! You can't blame me for bringing along any advantage I can."

Orin glanced at Satori. "Hey boss, she called me kitty-cat. Can we stop talking and kill her now?"

"You're welcome to try," Yuuka said. She spread her arms invitingly. Black bark surged into existence on her arms, back and shoulders, overlapping with layer after layer. Most of the mass was concentrated around her hands, which grew to more than three times the size of her head. Yuuka squeezed her gargantuan fingers into two huge hammer-like fists.

"What," Orin said flatly.

"My sentiments exactly," Satori agreed. "Utsuho, please?"

"Yeah, okay," Utsuho squeaked as she stared. "I got it."

She took a step forward and pointed the end of the control rod directly at Yuuka. Her eyes closed while the pupil in the center of her chest narrowed to a slit. "Running program: BattleMode. Startup initiated."

…

"'_Yuuka, how have you made division of yourself?'" Yuuka monotones mockingly. "'An apple, cut in four, is not more identical than these four creatures. Which is Yuuka?' Though for the record, I've always found that quotation to be in bad taste. What did that poor apple ever do to him?" She laughs. "Still, quadruple the Yuuka, quadruple the fun! Now, what say we dispense with the neat little order that these scenarios are adhering to and let the chaos take its course? Now watch as everything comes crashing down. Around and around they go…"_

…

**Team (SCARLET!) Vampire**

Not surprisingly, Flandre was the one to make the first move. Evidently fed up with having her murderous intentions curbed, she snatched up Laevatein and swooped straight at Yuuka's face, screaming the whole way.

In response, Yuuka lashed out with her whiplike limb, wrapping it around Laevatein's shaft. She pulled, and Flandre was smashed right through the wall.

"Well, that was easy," Yuuka said to the gaping Remilia and recovering Sakuya. "One down, two to-ARGH!"

Yuuka doubled over and stumbled forward. Her normal hand clutched at the deep, burning slash that cut its way down her back. Behind her, Flandre lifted Laevatein for a second blow.

"I hate you!" the mad vampire screamed. She brought the mystical weapon down with stone-crushing force. "Leave! Me! ALONE!"

Yuuka's face twisted into a grimace of pain. She took three more hits before she managed to twist her body around and catch Laevatein in mid-swing.

"That hurt," she hissed as she straightened up. She held up her arm and pulled Flandre right off her feet. "That really, reallGAH!"

Yuuka looked down to see the bloodied head of Gungnir protruding from her stomach. She turned to see Remilia on her feet.

"You will release my sister," Remilia Scarlet declared. "Else I will introduce you to a pain unlike any you have ever-"

Yuuka's vine-limb shot out and wrapped around Remilia's waist.

"-oof!"

Remilia was pulled into the air and yanked toward Yuuka at neckbreak speed. At the same time, Yuuka thrust Flandre forward, headfirst. There was a loud _crack _as Flandre and Remilia's foreheads smacked.

"They're quick and opportunistic, I'll give them that," Yuuka muttered as she tossed the stunned vampires aside. "Still, time is pressing, and…"

She looked up to see six silver knives hurtling straight at her face.

…

**Team Halloween**

"You'll understand if I finish this quickly," Yuuka explained as the roots holding her captives in place started to tighten. "I need to go support myself in that duel with Yukari in only a few minutes. So sorry, nothing personal. Well, maybe a little. To half of you, at least. But to the other two, no hard feelings?"

Mima didn't respond. She was focused on freeing herself. The roots were of Ghostwood, taken from a tree native to the Netherworld, which explained why they were able to hold her in place. Also, Yuuka seemed to have reinforced them against spell damage, which limited a great deal of her usual solutions. And, just to add insult to injury, the presence of Mykr's Sirens was screwing up her concentration. Sometimes being a purely supernatural being had its drawbacks.

She could hear Marisa struggling and cursing nearby. The poor girl had to be in great pain. It would be a terrible way to go, crushed to death while unable to fight back. Mima wished she could do more for her, but at the moment she couldn't think of a thing.

_Mima, _she heard her own voice say.

_Yes?_

_Stop being an idiot. _

_What are you-Oh. Right. Okay, so this is kind of stupid._

Mima quickly shrank herself down, faster than the roots were contracting. Then she darted out through their grasp and into the open air. Once free, she focused on Yuuka's now gigantic face and charged straight forward.

She got about halfway before Yuuka noticed the miniature Mima coming for her. "Oh," Yuuka said. "Well, that's clever."

Mima didn't bother to respond. Instead, she shot two beams of cold straight at her target's face.

"Nice try," Yuuka said as the roots curled up to block the attack. "And honestly, come on now. I know you can do better."

Mima stopped. She coughed into her fist.

Yuuka frowned. "Wait, do you smell something…" Her eyes rolled upward and she gasped when she saw that the flowers in her hair were now on fire.

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait," Yuuka yelled as she beat at the flames. "How did you _do _that? I was looking at you the whole time!"

"I did better," Mima growled. She took advantage of Yuuka's distraction to launch another attack at her opponent's face, this one a ball of acid.

This time, it hit.

"YAAAHHH!" Yuuka cried as she clutched at her face. She lurched back, taking her network of roots with her.

At the same time, Mima felt the interference open up. She wasted no time. "Yukari, can you hear me?" she shouted through space. "Plan's gone all FUBAR. Yuuka's here, and she's-"

Mima was cut off when a tendril whipped out to wrap itself around her neck. At the same time, the interference returned anew. Mima looked up to see Yuuka straightening up. A thick blue mist had appeared around the flowers, dousing the flames and allowing them to regenerate. And the damage done to Yuuka's face was already starting to heal.

That didn't mean she was any less angry though. "Oh, you are going to suffer for that," Yuuka snarled through reforming lips. "I'm going to pop that pretty head right off your-"

It was then that Yuyuko reached up with one hand and grasped at the roots holding her in place. A shiver ran down the whole network. Then it suddenly convulsed violently and fell limply to the ground. Given that Yuuka's armor was made of the stuff, she found herself dragged down by the sudden dead weight.

Marisa and Youmu fell to their knees, coughing and holding their throats. Yuyuko merely brushed herself off.

Mima frowned. She returned to full size and surveyed the mess of withered tendril. "Oh, right," she said. "Ability to cause death. And I guess you of all people would be able to affect Ghostwood. Nifty. Though I really have to ask. Why the _hell _didn't you do that to begin with?"

Yuyuko looked at her. "I didn't think of it until now. It's so hard to concentrate with this mess in the air. It feels like my head is filled with space."

"So, pretty much the same as always? Nice." The two humans struggled to their feet. Marisa growled as she flipped her hakkero into her grasp, and Youmu seized up her swords.

"All right, ladies," Mima said as everyone directed their attention to Yuuka, who was still struggling to free herself from her own armor. "I think this nonsense has gone on long enough. Who's in the mood for a good old-fashioned beatdown?"

"I am," Youmu said.

"Fucking seconded," Marisa snarled.

"Agreed," Yuyuko put in. "Her rudeness is not to be tolerated."

Yuuka glared up at them. "Murderers," she spat. She held up a fistful of limp Ghostwood. "What did they ever do to you?"

"Oh, shut up you psychotic treehugger," Mima snapped. Her palms glowed with red light. "And if I were you, I'd just roll over and give up. Do the math, Yuuka. You're tough, but it's four-to-one, and we aren't exactly lightweights."

"Two-to-one," Yuuka said. She succeeded in freeing herself and stood to her feet.

"Uh, no. There are four of us, and one of you. Look, I know you're kind of nuts, but I know you can count."

"I can," Yuuka said. She smiled, which was never a good sign. "It's simple matter of fractions. Four-to-two rounds out to two-to-one."

"What?" Marisa said. "What the hell are you talking about, ze? There's only one of-"

Yuyuko shrieked in pain. Everyone whirled around to see her fall to her knees. Her shaking fingers clutched at a long, deep wound in her back, from which rose a faint pink haze.

Unnoticed by everyone, a hole to the outside had appeared in the wall behind Yuyuko. Within stood a little girl in a green dress with golden curling hair. Her lips were twisted in a sadistic smile, and in her hands was a razor-sharp scythe that was easily twice as tall as she.

"Whoopsi-daisy," Elly singsonged. She held the handle with both hands, threw it over Yuyuko's head and yanked it back against her throat.

"Good luck, Master!" she called as she threw herself backward out into the open air, taking Yuyuko with her.

"My lady!" Youmu cried.

"No, wait!" Mima called, but it was too late. Youmu had already leapt through the hole.

"As I said," Yuuka grunted. "Two-to-one."

She opened her hands and flexed her fingers. They twisted and warped, elongating and sharpening to points. The consistency changed, morphing from pink flesh to the grey bark of Ghostwood.

"Now," she purred as she spread her claws. "What say we try that again?"

With that, she leapt through the air and at Marisa's throat.

…

**Team Scarlet**

_Get up, _Sakuya said as she pushed herself up. _Fight through the pain and get _up.

Though pulling in breath was still a painful battle, Sakuya managed to place her feet under her and lever herself into a crouch. She looked up and grimaced.

Yuuka Kazami had both of the Mistresses in her grasp. Both were unconscious, but fortunately the fact that their bodies had not turned to dust meant that they were still alive, at least for the time being.

Sakuya was not about to let that change.

Her hands automatically went for her pocketwatch, only to come up empty. A quick glance confirmed that it was still some feet away. A problem.

Sakuya broke into a stumbling run that gained strength with every step. Realizing that she would need a distraction, she pulled out three knives in each hand. As Yuuka slowly turned her head toward the maid, the blades were flung forward with perfect accuracy.

Yuuka screamed and dropped the vampires so she could grab at her punctured face. "Again with the _face!" _she cried. She flung her arm forward, and Sakuya's eyes widened when she saw the blast of green energy flying toward her.

There was no time to change direction, so instead Sakuya threw her upper body back, bending it down as far as it would go. Her legs folded under her and she slid forward. The rough stone scraped her knees and shins bloody, but as enough power to take her head clean off passed mere inches above her nose, it seemed to be an acceptable sacrifice.

The beam passed by to disintegrate the far wall. Sakuya snatched up her pocketwatch and rolled over her shoulder and up to her feet. Without losing stride, she continued her path toward her Mistresses as her thumb pressed down on the watch's button, all the while giving thanks that she had long reinforced the watch from being damaged by something so common as a fall against stone.

Unfortunately, it had not been reinforced against other things. The watch immediately started shrieking. Sparks and smoke puffed out of its gears. Sakuya turned it off immediately.

Okay, so even the watch was being dampened by whatever had cut off their communications. That was fine. Sakuya could adapt. And she did, specifically by leaping fully over Yuuka, throwing knives as she did so. Sakuya hit the wall feet-first and rebounded off, all the while filling the air with blades. Yuuka tried to block, but she was still blinded and clumsy, resulting in her being pierced multiple times, further enraging her.

Sakuya had no intention of waiting for her to recover. The maid snatched up the two fallen vampires and sprinted toward the cavern's exit, leaving the thrashing Yuuka behind. There was no thought of eliminating her now. Flandre was the only one of the three with the power to make that happen, and she would be doing no destroying for the time being. The only thing to do now was to retreat and try to contact Yukari. Hopefully, this disaster of an operation was not yet beyond salvaging.

…

**Yukari**

About ten minutes into the fight, Yukari was starting to feel uneasy.

It wasn't that she was having trouble matching Yuuka's power. Quite the opposite, actually. And it wasn't that Yuuka was pulling out several tricks that she had failed to prepare for.

No, the problem was that things were going _too _well. While Yukari certainly had no objection to things working in her favor for once, the fact that they were to this degree was making her suspicious.

At the moment, she had taken back the page Yuuka had stolen from her book and stepped in between the dimensions. From there, she watched as the supposed flower youkai reeled and clumsily tried to defend herself as Yukari pounded her from all sides.

Despite her unease, Yukari was not letting that stop her from tearing Yuuka down verbally as well as physically. "What's wrong, Yuuka?" she taunted, letting her voice fill the open space. "What happened to all that big talk I've been hearing from you? What was that you said, again? 'Come and get me, Yukari. I'm waiting'?"

A circle of red lights appeared in the air around Yuuka. They shot inward, one right after the other, each exploding on impact. Yuuka cried out as she was batted about.

"You had me thinking that this was going to be difficult!" Yukari called. "Is this seriously what I was so worried about?"

Yuuka tried to push herself up with her trembling arms. Yukari unleashed a wave of invisible force, crushing her back down into the rain-soaked ground.

"Come on! This was supposed to be a clash of the titans, not a routine extermination! I've pulled weeds out of my garden that were tougher than you!"

"There's no call to say such nasty things," Yuuka muttered. She painfully levered herself to her knees, one hand clutching at her ribs. "And if I'm such a disappointing opponent, shouldn't you start calling in your teams to eliminate me?"

Yukari sighed. "Yes, I might as well. Goodbye, Yuuka Kazami. Goodbye, and good ridd-" Then the full magnitude of Yuuka's words hit her and she choked. "Wait! What did you just say?"

Even though Yuuka couldn't see her, she still turned to leer at the empty air. The rain washed the blood and dust from her face. "I said, isn't it time you called up your little friends? Specifically, Satori Komejii and her pets in that cave four point eight miles southeast from here, Remilia Scarlet and her entourage eight point two four miles north from here and that collection of spirits and spellcasters you've got holed up seven point nine miles to the northwest? I'm sure they're growing impatient."

Yukari said nothing.

"Now, if I recall, it was Team Halloween that was to strike first," Yuuka continued. She pushed herself up onto shaky knees and held out her hand. Her umbrella flew from where it was lying into her grasp. She straightened and opened it above her. "Through one gap and into the other, bringing down destruction the whole way. Team Underground was to follow, with the cat unleashing an inferno while the bird cooked the flesh away from my bones. Once they were gone, Team Vampire would make their appearance, over…there I believe?" She pointed off into the distance. About a mile-and-a-half away was a jutting stone pillar, right on the edge of the plateau. "The human maid would then use her powers to stop time, and that cute little undead girl would turn me into vapor."

Yuuka scratched her chin. "After that, I believe I was to be sealed up in a piece of jewelry? Not the most dignified endings, I'll admit. Still, the whole sealed power thing is attractive in its own right. Has a bit of a genie-in-a-bottle feel to it. Though it probably wouldn't work out, as I've always been a bit selective about whom I grant wishes for. This whole forced servitude to anything who gives the thing a rub really doesn't appeal to me at all."

Yukari wasn't listening. She was too busy trying to contact the teams. However, it was as if an impenetrable darkness had fallen on the caves. She couldn't so much as touch them.

"What. Did. You. Do?" she demanded.

"Who, me?" Yuuka said. "Oh, not a lot. Just made sure that our you-and-me tussle _remained_ between you-on-me." She giggled. "Actually, that's the reason why I haven't been able to put up much of a fight. It seems I'm just not myself today. To be specific, I'm only one-fourth of the woman I was." She paused, and said, "One-fourth, Yukari. You can put two-and-two together, can't you?"

She could. And the fact that she hadn't counted on Yuuka doing something this insane enraged her. However, she didn't have time to dwell on that shortcoming. She reached into the seams of reality, preparing to move herself as close to Satori's location as possible.

That was when what felt like an icicle drove itself through her brain. She gasped and stumbled back into the physical world. Rain hammered down on her, unnoticed through the pain.

Something slammed into her back and she tumbled to her knees. She looked over her shoulder to see Yuuka standing over her, fully healed with her umbrella twirling merrily over one shoulder. And in hanging in her hair, along the undersides of her arms and along the brim of her umbrellas were dozens of small bell-shaped flowers, all of them blue and glowing.

"Sorry about bringing these out," Yuuka said, not sounding sorry in the slightest. "But I can't have you leaving the ring. Besides, isn't it best that they fight their own battles?"

With that, she lashed out with her right foot. The toe hit Yukari squarely in the stomach and knocked her onto her back. Yuuka stepped onto her gut with one foot and pressed down.

"You know," Yuuka said. "Like _you _were supposed to? Cheaters never prosper, Yukari."

…

**Team Underground**

_Initiated BattleMode? Y/N_

_Y_

_Initiating BattleMode. Standby…_

_13%_

_29%_

_45%_

_69%_

_82%_

_98%_

_BattleMode initiated._

_Spellcard System activated._

_Override._

_Caution! Overriding Spellcard System is illegal and may do damage to your system. Are you sure you want to continue? Y/N_

_Y_

_Caution! Are you absolutely sure? Y/N_

_Y_

_Caution! Utsuho, are you going crazy again? Y/N_

_Huh? Y-I mean N! Override already!_

_Please enter password for Spellcard System Override._

_Password "Password?" is incorrect._

_Password "Wait, what was the password again?" is incorrect._

_Password "Satori, I forgot the password!" is incorrect._

_Password "Oh, wait, that's right" is incorrect._

_Password "Falken's Maze" accepted. Spellcard System overridden. Removing Safety Locks…_

_Please standby…_

_Caution! Safety Locks removed. Lethal Force…Authorized. Please be cautious._

Utsuho opened her eyes. Her vision was now overlapped with a red targeting grid. Infrared allowed her to see even in complete darkness, and the grid automatically picked out targets and identified their threat level. It made fighting so much easier.

And at that moment, there was one target that she really wanted to pick out.

Her gaze swept the cavern. Yuuka Kazami was not difficult to find. A huge gathering of heat in the form of a massive humanoid, she was sitting on a rock with her oversized hands on her knees. Utsuho's targeting system locked on. She lifted up her Third Leg and started to charge her attack.

It was then that she noticed the two other heat signatures lying at Yuuka's feet. Neither of them were moving.

Utsuho faltered, and her attack cut off. The targeting grid exploded into static, only to be replaced by her normal vision. "What did you do to them?" she screamed.

"Oh, so you are finished?" Yuuka asked. "Sorry, it looked like you needed a couple more minutes to get ready, so I decided to wait." She stood up and nudged Satori's head. Utsuho's master was out cold, as was Orin. "But these two were ready to go. Unfortunately, it turns out that the short one is pretty helpless without the use of her Third Eye. The cat got in a few good hits and the odd burn or two, but these hands were made for smacking, and smack them they did." Yuuka shrugged her enormous shoulders. "But they were never the brawn of this team anyway. So, now that you're up and moving, are you ready to rumble?" She smacked her gigantic fists together.

Utsuho was. She most certainly was. She no longer doubted that Yuuka needed to be destroyed. Now the only question was how quickly she could do it. She once again took aim and, with a shout of absolute rage, let loose with enough energy to melt stone.

It passed right through Yuuka's body to burn away at the far wall.

Utsuho blinked. "Wha-"

Something incredibly hard hit her from behind. Utsuho yelled as she was knocked forward. She tried to bring herself to a stop, but a large stalagmite got in the way.

"Ow, ow, ow," she groaned as she sat up and rubbed her head. That was going to leave a bump.

"Oh, my! I can't believe that actually worked!"

Utsuho looked up to see Yuuka Kazami, presumably the real one, smiling at her.

"So sorry, dear. It's just I've always wanted to try the old illusion decoy trick. No hard feelings, right?"

Utsuho gaped. "That was an _illusion? _But it had heat and everything!"

"Mmmm-hmmm! Warming up an illusion really isn't that difficult. I could have made it solid if I wanted to, but that would have ruined the effect. But enough of that. Let's get started for real."

With that, she seized up Utsuho with one hand and smashed her back-first through the stalagmite. Utsuho's body exploded in pain. Her vision erupted into spots. As such, she almost didn't notice when Yuuka picked her up again and slammed her three times against the wall.

"Come on, let's see some fight!" Yuuka shouted. She released the Hell-Raven, letting her slide to the ground. "I heard about how you almost brought apocalypse down upon Gensokyo. Surely, bringing it down on one humble little youkai should be easy!"

Utsuho didn't respond.

Yuuka sighed. "A pity. And I waited for you and everything. Ah well, hopefully Yukari won't be as disappointing." She drew back one enhanced fist and brought it down, intending to end Utsuho with one crushing blow.

A single slender arm snapped up, seizing Yuuka's fist and stopping it dead in its tracks.

Yuuka frowned. She tried pushing down, but the hand holding her in place gave her no leeway.

It was then that she saw Utsuho's eyes. They were open and burning with the same inferno that filled the eye in the center of her chest.

"BattleMode reinitiated," Utsuho said, her voice a strange monotone. She lifted her Third Leg. "Activating Lethal Spell: Solar Sign-Plasma Storm."

…

**Team Scarlet**

It was just Sakuya's good fortune that she had several lifetimes worth of experience of dealing with these sort of situations. Otherwise, rushing blindly through a pitch-dark cavern too dangerous to fly through on bleeding legs while carrying two vampires, small as they were, might have proved difficult. As it was, she was just slightly inconvenienced.

Still, it did mean that escape was troublesome, especially with an angry Yuuka not far behind. Sakuya could hear her thrashing somewhere back in the darkness. If nothing else it made for a great motivator.

Noticing a pinpoint of light in the distance, Sakuya altered her course toward it. She just hoped that the storm had yet to start with the rain. Despite the shielding Yukari had provided, moving through falling water at high speed would be extremely unpleasant.

As there didn't seem to be anything in between her and the light, Sakuya hugged the two vampire girls as close to her as possible and took flight, narrowing her body and shooting straight toward the exit.

The good news was that when Sakuya exploded out of the tunnel, it wasn't raining. The bad news was that this was due to the fact that they still weren't outside. They had emerged into a cavern the size of a small cathedral. The light was coming from several large holes in the ceiling. At least that meant that they had a way out, though the water pouring in meant that they would have to fight through the rain after all.

However, now that they had some cover, it was time to check on the Mistresses and call for backup. Sakuya flew toward a shelf of rock that stuck up from the ground at a diagonal angle. She took shelter beneath it and carefully set Remilia and Flandre down.

To her relief, neither were badly hurt. There was significant bruising on their foreheads, but that was a small price to pay for going up against someone like Yuuka. And their natural recuperative abilities would take care of that in short order. She shook Remilia's shoulder and was pleased when she got a soft moan in reply.

That taken care of, it was time to salvage this disaster of an operation. She closed her eyes and concentrated. "Yukari Yakumo, can you hear me? We have been found out. Yuuka Kazami somehow discovered our position and attacked. I managed to get us away, but the Mistresses are currently unconscious. Please send help. We are located…Yakumo, are you even there?"

Silence. Odd. They should be well out of range of Yuuka's interference, but there appeared to be no improvement. Granted, Sakuya was no magician, but she should at least be able to send a communication to someone of Yukari's caliber, especially if Yukari was supposed to be keeping an eye on them.

"Yukari, are you there?" Nothing. "Please respond. If you can hear this, we are in a large cavern not far from where you placed us. I cannot judge our exact position, but it appears to be right under the surface, with numerous holes leading to-"

"Sakuya?"

Sakuya looked down to see Remilia getting up. The little vampire still looked woozy, but otherwise okay.

"What happened?" Remilia muttered. She touched her forehead and winced.

"The fight went against us, and both you and your sister were knocked unconscious," Sakuya explained. "I managed to distract her long enough to get us all away, and am now attempting to raise Yukari Yakumo. Unfortunately, this has proven unsuccessful."

Remilia shook her head. "What? Wait, I don't…" Then she saw Flandre.

"Flan?" she yelped. Remilia quickly scurried to her sister's side. "Oh gods. Flan, are you all right?" She grabbed Flandre's shoulder and shook it as hard as she could. "Flan, answer me!"

Sakuya's sharply honed instincts went off and she pulled Remilia out of the way, just in time to avoid being hit by Flandre's sudden backhand. "No touching!" Flandre shouted as she pushed herself up.

Both Sakuya and Remilia slumped in relief. "Oh, thank the gods," Remilia muttered. "And excellent job, Sakuya. I fear to think of what would have happened had we not escaped that monster."

"Thank you, Mistress."

Flandre tried to stand up but ended up falling back down. "Remi, my head hurts," she murmured.

"Yes, it's just our good fortune that we seem to have equally thick skulls," Remilia said. "Sakuya, now that we are all conscious, we should vacate these premises immediately. If Yukari is unreachable, than I fear that things may have gone wrong on her end as well. At any rate, it would be in our best interests to return to the Scarlet Devil Mansion as quickly as possible."

"Yes, Mistress," Sakuya said. "Though I should point out that-"

Unfortunately, whatever it was that Sakuya wished to point out would remain forever lost to history, for at that moment she was interrupted first by a thunderous boom that shook the very air, followed by a great crash. The three of them rushed to the edge of their shelter to see that a huge chunk of the far wall had been destroyed. And to their great dismay, Yuuka hovered in the center of the hole.

The monster had retained her flexible vine of a right arm and the flowers in her hair. But she was now supported by several more bright green vines that protruded from her back and clutched at the nearby rock walls in a manner that reminded Sakuya uncomfortably of both an octopus' tentacles and a spider's legs. Given that Yuuka could fly, the additional limbs were probably just for effect, as a means of intimidation. Sakuya had to admit that in this regard they were very effective. Especially since several of them were holding the same knives she had thrown at Yuuka.

Yuuka looked around. She sniffed the air and said, "Ah, this is the place. Fe-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of three someones that I very much need to hurt." Her vines tensed up and she leapt into the cavern. From there, she continued to remain suspended as the vines moved her around and felt about for her prey. "Come out, come out wherever you are."

…

**½ Team Halloween**

The ghostly girls were gone, taken by the little crazy girl with big-ass blade. That left Marisa and Mima alone with one seriously unhinged Yuuka Kazami. Who so happened to have claws made of wood. By this point, Marisa still wasn't convinced that she wasn't just imagining the whole thing, but it why play the odds? Especially if said crazy Yuuka with claws was leaping at her, claws open and grasping.

It was just the witch's good fortune that, despite Yuuka being a hell of a lot stronger, Marisa was so much faster. And with all those lovely potions she had consumed, Yuuka might as well have been diving through syrup.

Unfortunately Marisa, who was never a shining example of mental health even at the best of times, really wasn't working with a full deck at that moment. So while leaping out the way was a simple enough manner, she somehow found herself on Yuuka's back with her legs wrapped around her throat immediately after. She had no memory of consciously deciding on this course, but she did know that she was blasting away at those damned blue flowers with lasers of every known color straight from her fingertips, all the while making machine-gun noises. Granted, despite what she had read, she still wasn't clear on what a machine-gun exactly was, she only knew that she wanted one. But in the meantime, she had to settle for this.

"Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch!" she chattered. "Eat hot death, motherf-"

Someone grabbed her by the back of her collar and yanked her right off. "Hey!" Marisa yelled at Mima. "Put me ba-HOLY SHIT!" She pulled up her legs just in time to avoid having them bitten off by the honest-to-gods giant toothed flower that had suddenly sprung out of Yuuka's back.

Growling in anger, Yuuka started to turn around. Mima dropped Marisa. She lifted up her hand and spoke a word. Piercing yellow light exploded out of her palm and slammed into Yuuka's chest, knocking her back against the wall. Mima kept the energy flowing, holding Yuuka in place.

"I'll admit that you came prepared," Mima calmly told her struggling adversary. "Ghostwood and Mykr's Sirens. The perfect weapons against beings such as I. But there have been others who have used similar precautions against me, others who thought they could adequately prepare themselves with that which I am weak against. And they all thought that by doing so, they may attain victory. Do you realize how many of those people are corpses now, Yuuka Kazami? The answer is _all of them!"_

Marisa pumped her fist into the air. "You tell her, Master!"

"Well, whoop-dee-doo for you," Yuuka said. "I'll just have to be the first then." She started to push herself forward, step-by-agonizing-step. Though Mima did not let up, she kept forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other. Even as her blouse burned away and the flesh underneath started to cook, she kept moving forward.

"You may have survived and won countless battles, but none of them were against me," Yuuka said as she slowly closed in.

"Sure they were. We've fought before."

"Not like this, we haven't." Yuuka was only ten feet away now. "And believe me when I say this is the last time you'll ever pester me."

Mima rolled her eyes. She kept the juice going while preparing another surprise. "Who's writing your dialogue? And by the way, your hair's on fire again."

Yuuka blinked. She reached up to confirm that, yes, the Mykr's Sirens were once again burning. "How do you keep _doing _that?" she screamed as she beat out the flames. "All right, that is it!" The air filled with a sharp whining as something charged up. "Now, it's my turn to-"

"MIMA, DUCK RIGHT NOW!"

Even though Mima knew she could handle this, she obeyed immediately. A second later a blazing white star hit Yuuka in the center of her ravaged chest and knocked her back once again. This was followed by another. And another. And another. Soon the air was filled with the ordinance.

Mima looked over her shoulder. Marisa was hovering in the air and glowing with a brilliant white radiance. Surrounded her were twelve magical circles. And each one was firing off those shooting stars in rapid succession. The witch's head was thrown back as she laughed madly, all the while hammering Yuuka down with far more power than she should have. A full half of the cave was demolished and brought crashing down on Yuuka as a result.

Finally it ended. The circles disappeared and the glow faded away. Marisa dropped to the floor. She tried to stay on her feet, but her knees buckled and she fell back onto her butt. "Whooeee!" she grinned as she swayed back and forth. "What a rush!"

"Indeed," Mima said. "I don't recognize that one. Is it one of yours?"

"Nope! You know those freaky black spellcards Yukari gave me? Well, I've been wanting to try them out for days now, and figured that now would be a _great _time to cut them loose! She said it's called 'Starlight Starbright', and it's supposed to be the _safest _one she had. Which makes me really wanna know what the most dangerous one does. Hey, looks like Yuuka isn't gonna be moving for awhile. What say we kill her now and call it a day?"

"A capital idea," Mima said. "Except that we find ourselves without a sealing crystal. Yuyuko unfortunately took it with her."

"Right. Scythe girl." Marisa pulled herself up to her feet. She swayed a little, but kept steady. "Eh, one thing at a time then. Pound her first, worry about sealing her ass later."

A roar of pure rage cut into their conversation. The rubble exploded, and a monstrosity crawled out. Yuuka had apparently decided that her humanoid form was becoming a hindrance and had discarded it for something…much less human. It was now more of a grasping mass of grey limbs covered with flowers, many of which possessed some sort of open, hungry maw. Her head and shoulders remained, however. Though her mouth was now filled with considerably larger teeth than she had before.

Mima reacted instantly, raising her glowing hands to attack. Yuuka, however, was already moving, and hit her with a huge mass of foliage that sent Mima's shot bouncing harmlessly away and knocked the ghost up through the ceiling. She disappeared in a cloud of dust and falling stone.

Marisa gaped as she watched her mentor disappear. Then she looked at Yuuka. "Okay. Definitely swearing off mushrooms," she choked. "I mean it this time, ze."

"Well, credit where credit's due," Yuuka said. "I have to say, that was rather impressive, coming from a Human." She cocked her monstrous head to one side. "Tell me, where did you learn such attacks, Miss…?"

A significant paused followed, and then Marisa realized that Yuuka was waiting for her to introduce herself. "What?" Marisa blanched. "You don't recognize me? Seriously?"

"Should I?"

"I'm Marisa freaking Kirisame!" Marisa jabbed her thumb against her chest. "The Mad Witch of the Forest of Magic! Mima's only real apprentice! I'm like the most powerful Human alive!"

"That…really doesn't count for much, actually."

Marisa threw her hands into the air. "Oh, come on! Me and my buddy Reimu Hakurei stormed your mansion and kicked your ass like something whatever years ago!"

"I truly doubt that," Yuuka said. She pursed her lips as she thought. "Though I do recognize the name of Reimu Hakurei. Would you be her sidekick then?"

"Are you _serious? _Okay, looks like I'm gonna have jog your memory." Her hakkero appeared in her hand. "And by 'jog', I mean stick my boot so far down your throat that you'll be pissing _shoelaces!"_

Yuuka surprised her by laughing. And not in the expected mocking matter either, but a genuine chuckle of amusement. "Oh, calm down. I'm just giving you a hard time. Of course I remember you. Hello, Marisa. You're looking well."

Marisa lowered her hakkero. "I, uh…Thanks? You're hideous, by the way."

"You're too kind," Yuuka said with a gracious nod. "But seriously, it has been awhile. Perhaps not as I judge such things, but definitely for you. I mean, look at you! When last we met, you were just a little bud of a thing! Now…you're _still _pretty scrawny to be honest, but you've certainly grown up."

Marisa was getting impatient. "Yeah, yeah. The breast fairy visited and everything. Look, can we just _do _this thing already?"

"The breast fairy?" Yuuka asked. She sounded horrified. "Good heavens, does such a person actually exist? What a revolting thought." She looked Marisa up and down. "Though if I were you, I'd file a complaint. It seems you might have been shortchanged."

"Huh? What are you…" Then Marisa got it. "That's it Kazami, you're fucking _dead!" _she yelled as she thrust her hakkero forward. "MASTER SPARK!"

Despite the beam's size, one of Yuuka's branch-like limbs effortlessly deflected it. "Oh please," Yuuka said. "Have you forgotten who invented that spell? And your technique's off, by the way. What you _should _be doing is…"

Marisa wasn't listening. Even before the Master Spark finished she had already started running toward Yuuka. It was fortunate that she had the foresight to drink all those enhancement potions. Even though her ability to distinguish illusion from reality was questionable at the moment, and even though she was going to feel like shit tomorrow, it did mean that, for the meantime, she was as nimble as a monkey. A rather useful trait to have while leaping your way through an evil jungle.

She hopped her way across the network of roots and branches, ducking grasping vines and dodging carnivorous flowers. Yuuka took notice and tried to form a net to catch her, but Marisa just leapt forward without hesitation, twisting her body through the trap with only inches to spare and landing on her feet. A sloppy grin covered her face. Sure, she could die at any moment, but there was just no getting around how _awesome _this was.

Not that she let that slow her down. Yuuka's big ugly face was now in range. Marisa darted forward and lunged. As she flew through the air, she drew her left arm back and flexed her fingers a certain way.

The leather and steel gauntlets that Marisa wore were more than just protection against chafing. Each one had a secret compartment with a spring loaded mechanism that Marisa had designed herself. The one on the right held her spellcards. One flick of her fingers, and the next one would pop into her hand, ready for use.

As for the one on the left, that one held something that was much less…subtle.

A triangular blade shot out from its hidden sheath, eleven inches of tempered steel and fused with every weapon enhancement spell Marisa could get her hands on, from armor piercing to rust proofing and everything in between. Marisa landed full on Yuuka's face and thrust it right into the abomination's right eye.

The whole of Yuuka's bizarre garden lurched as Yuuka's head jerked back. She cried out in pain and surprise. Marisa didn't waste any time. She yanked out the blade and brought up her other arm. One of Yukari's black spellcards leapt into her fingers. With one fluid motion, she activated it and shoved it right into Yuuka's screaming mouth.

And then she was off, making her way back and dodging the convulsing plants that threatened to crush her. She leapt off the roots onto stone and sprinting to where her broom had fallen. Seconds later she had mounted it and launched herself in the air, flying toward the hole Mima had been smashed through.

A blast of intense heat nearly caused her to lose control, followed by a roar of rage that didn't sound like it had come from Yuuka. Marisa glanced over her shoulder. What could only be described as an angry pillar of fire with freaking flaming _tentacles _had erupted out of Yuuka's mouth. It spun like a whirlwind while its appendages lashed out, scorching Yuuka's horrific body. Yuuka screamed as it roasted her from both without and within.

Marisa tried to tear her eyes away from the horrible sight. She had seen a lot of gnarly shit in her time, some of it actually real, but that? That was definitely going to be returning in her nightmares. It wasn't until one of the pillar's arms slammed into the wall a mere seven feet from where she was floating that Marisa jolted out of her stupor.

She quickly turned herself around and got out of the collapsing cavern as quick as she could. The next logical step would be to find Mima. And after that? Well, after the horror and post traumatic shock had died down enough, it would be nice to go up to Yukari and say something down the lines of "I got her and you didn't!" Despite what she had just seen, Marisa was wearing a crazy grin. She was starting to see why Yuuka enjoyed chaos so much. Sometimes it was just plain _fun!_

…

**Yukari**

Mykr's Sirens. Of course. It just _had _to be Mykr's Sirens.

Of course, that in itself wouldn't be a problem. Irritating area effects aside, they were just flowers. And Yukari Yakumo was…Yukari Yakumo. Normally they should have no more effect on her than a vague discomfort, perhaps a humming in her teeth.

But it seemed that being attached to Yuuka had amped up their effects a good thousand times over. Or perhaps Yuuka herself was responsible for the effect, and the flowers were just for show? Either way, Yukari, who was long accustomed to slipping in and out of dimensions and having them obey her every whim, felt like someone had taken that part of her and smothered it with a soggy blanket filled with lead. She had to manually close down most of her magical senses just to make the headache go away.

Of course, Yuuka was not about to give her a break. At the moment, she had Yukari by the neck and was thrusting her facefirst into the ground over and over.

"What part about 'Don't send any more pawns after me' did you fail to understand?" Yuuka said. Despite the rancor of her words, her voice never lost that pleasant inflection. She might as well have been lecturing a schoolchild for cutting in line. "I thought I had made myself perfectly clear. This was to be between you and I. But no, you had to go and gather together a ragtag gang of miscreants. I mean, really. Remilia Scarlet? Mima? That despicable Yuyuko What's-Her-Family-Name?" She stopped pounding Yukari's face into stone and held her up by the back of collar. "Given the sort of things they've done, am I really the worst monster in this?"

"No," Yukari said. Her hands suddenly shot up to seize Yuuka by the neck. A second later she had flipped her adversary over her shoulder to land back-down in the rainwater. Yukari spat out a gob of bloody mud. "You're just the one who got in my way." With that she heated up her palm until it was searing hot and pressed it into Yuuka's face.

Or at least she tried to. Yuuka managed to get her hands up and seize her by the wrist before she made contact. "That I'll grant you," she said in a conversational tone, almost as if she weren't using every ounce of strength to keep her flesh from being seared off. "But it's just so inconvenient, having to go dig up and wipe them out. I did warn you that I would break any puppets you send after me, didn't I? You really-"

"Stop talking," Yukari said wearily. She knocked Yuuka's elbows out of the way with her other arm, allowing her superheated palm to fall the rest of the way.

Unfortunately she only had contact for a couple of seconds before Yuuka managed to squirm out of the way. The psychotic creature rolled back into a crouch, the severe burn on her face was already fading away.

_Now that there? _Yukari thought. _That_ _is just not fair. _She herself healed more quickly than most people, but it wasn't nearly to that degree. This was going to be a problem.

However, first she was going to deal with the problem of the flowers. Not only was she now cut off from a significant part of her arsenal, she now had no way of rescuing her teams from whatever Yuuka was subjecting them to. Which was aggravatingly ironic, seeing how she had brought them here to come to her aid.

Still, at least her short-range abilities were unaffected. And in that regard, she still had plenty in the way of firepower. Purple energy surged around her hands as she stood to her feet and started walking toward Yuuka.

That was when she found her movement halted. She looked down to see that a lime-green vine had sprouted up from the ground to wrap around her right ankle.

"What?" she said, surprised. "But…the poison! How did you-"

Yuuka held up her left hand and smiled. From her index finger trailed the source of the vine, which slithered down to disappear into the ground.

"Well, that's disgusting," Yukari muttered. "Okay, try this on for size."

With that, she thrust both hands forward and fired off all the energy she had been gathering. For some reason Yuuka didn't even attempt to get out of the way, but instead took the hit right to the chest and was blow off her feet. The force ripped the buried part of the vine right out of the ground. Yukari looked down and realized that she was still attached.

"Oh, this is not-"

Yukari was pulled right off her feet and sent flying through the air right after Yuuka. Grimacing, she ignited a torch at the end of her finger and twisted her body around to cut the vine off. Once she was free, she braked hard in midair, forcing herself to a stop.

Yukari let out a sigh of relief. Then her eyes widened when she saw that Yuuka had already rebounded off the ground and was heading straight toward her. Not only that, but her right arm had morphed and twisted, reforming itself into a huge curving blade.

"Say hello to my _ridiculously _oversized friend!" Yuuka cried. A second later she had slammed right into Yukari. The ancient youkai felt the point of the blade slice into her stomach and she was driven back down to the ground, Yuuka's hand around her throat and the blade slicing through her guts.

…

**Team Underground (Utsuho)**

_CAUTION! TARGET ATTACKING!_

_Attack avoided. Retreat back-left five meters. Firing stance adopted, target locked-on._

_Attack-type: Magma Burst. Fire._

_Attack blocked. TARGET ATTACKING! Taking flight. Safe cover detected. Moving to cover._

_Cover taken. TARGET ATTACKING!_

_Roll back. Crouch. Target locked-on. _

_Attack-Type: Spark Spray. Fire._

_Hit! Target blinded and attacking wildly. _

_Side-step seventeen meters to right. Target locked-on._

_Fire-Type: Pulse Beam. Fire._

_Hit! Target is down!_

_Reprioritizing. Satori and Orin located. Status: Unconscious. Moving to recover._

_CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION! TARGET RECOVERED AND ATTACKING! _

_Incoming fist. Dodge. Dodge. Sidestep left two meters. Target locked-on._

_Attack-type: Melt Beam. Fire._

_Hit! Target is reeling! Dodge past. Orin locked-on. Recovering…_

_Orin recovered! Satori locked-on. Recovering…_

_CAUTION! TARGET ATTACKING! Attack type switched! New enemy attack type-Vine Barrage! _

_Activating Auto-Fire. Multiple targets locked-on._

_Fire. Fire. Fire. Fire. Fire._

_Damage taken! Retreat! _

_Fire! Fire!_

_Damage taken! Fire!_

_Position overwhelmed! Retreat!_

_Exit located. Status: Open and within range. Loading tunnel maps…_

_Escape route plotted. _

_Retreating…_

…

…

_Escape successful. Cover located. Regrouping now._

_BattleMode deactivating…_

The cover in question was an alcove some ways away from the battlefield, just large enough to accommodate the two youkai girls. Utsuho gently set Orin's prone form down before allowing herself to collapse. While BattleMode made the second-to-second stresses of combat easier, it took a lot out of her.

She glanced out and down the tunnel. Yuuka Kazami didn't seem to be following. That was a relief. Utsuho wasn't sure what in the world that woman was, but she had been scary beyond all reason. Someone had said that she was a flower youkai. If that was the case, then Utsuho was definitely going to be avoiding gardens from here on out.

Then she saw to her unconscious friend. Orin was starting to stir, something that Utsuho was pretty sure was a good sign. She breathed a sigh of relief. At least Orin was all right. Utsuho didn't know what she would do if her friend had been _really _hurt. Utsuho hated being alone. Despite all her power, she was terrible at figuring out what to do. Which is why she relied so much on smart people, such as her fellow pets (Orin especially) and Satori…

Utsuho felt like someone had kneed her in the stomach. Satori. She had left Satori behind, with that monster. Not only that, but the reason Satori had been hurt in the first place was because Utsuho had taken so much time to get ready. And now there was no way to get her back.

Oh gods.

Satori was gone. Utsuho had failed her.

She felt a lump form in her throat. Her vision blurred with tears, screwing up the infrared in the process. She closed her eyes and let out a choking sob. What was she going to do?

Orin groaned. The redhead catgirl twitched, blinked her eyes and pushed herself up with a groan. "Oh gods," she moaned as she held her head. "Did someone get the number of the mountain that just fell on me? The hell happened?"

Utsuho looked down. She couldn't meet Orin's eyes. "I-I went into BattleMode, b-b-but I took too long! And…and Yuuka attacked you guys, and I tried fighting her off, I really did, but she was too strong! She kept healing herself and trying to punch me and throwing stuff at me, and then she went all crazy with all these tentacles and…" She fell forward, throwing her arms around Orin while she cried into her shoulder. "I'm sorry Orin! I couldn't get her away!"

"Whoa, whoa, hold up!" Orin said. She grabbed Utsuho by the shoulders and moved her back up. "Are you saying that freak still has Satori?"

Feeling absolute wretched, Utsuho sniffed and nodded.

"Oh," Orin gulped. "Oh crap."

"I'm sorry, I really am!" Utsuho cried. "I tried shooting the tentacles, but there were too many of them, and I kept getting hit and then that whole retreat program took over, and then-"

"Whoa, hey. Calm down! It's not your fault, okay? It's not your fault. You did the right thing getting us out of there. It's what Satori would have wanted you to do. So stop blaming yourself."

"But…but Satori is…"

"Listen. We're going to get her back, okay?" Orin placed a hand against both sides of Utsuho's face and held her so that their eyes maintained contact. "That's what we're going to do. You and me, we'll kill that freaky bitch and get the boss back. All right?"

Utsuho nodded again. She sniffed and wiped her nose with her arm. "Okay. So…how do we do it?"

Orin squinted into the darkness of the tunnel. "I dunno. We'll just have to make it up on the fly." She grabbed Utsuho's hand. "Come on. Let's go get her."

…

_Yuuka's hand covers the teacup. You jerk back at the sudden interruption and stare at her in surprise._

"_So sorry to break the flow of things," Yuuka apologizes. "But you'll be wanting to pay extra close attention to this next part. I can guarantee that you'll find it most…enlightening."_

_With that she uncovers the teacup. Your eyes dip down as the scene begins to reform…_

…

**Team Underground (Satori)**

Satori never had much cared for fighting. Despite it being something of Gensokyo's national pastime, it was just something she did not enjoy. For one thing, it just seemed like an unnecessary waste of energy. For another, even with the edge her Third Eye gifted her, she still lost on occasion. Which meant some very unpleasant awakenings taking place afterward.

Such as the one she was experiencing at that moment. Consciousness returned slowly, bringing with it a massive pain in her skull. She winced and her hand reflexively went to her head.

"Ah, you're coming around," said a nearby voice. "Good. I wanted to show you something."

Even though the cavern was dimly lit, the light still hurt. Satori blinked a few times and squinted through the haze. She could just barely make out the hulking but still vaguely humanoid form of the speaker. Though the shape seemed too warped to properly pinpoint is identity, the two glowing red eyes framed by a blue haze left no doubt that she was now in a lot of trouble.

"Hello there," Yuuka said. "Sleep well?"

Satori tried to speak, but her tongue felt thick and swollen. "Oot…su. Ho. Oh…Rin?"

"Your pets? They just left, I'm afraid. Though I'm sure that they'll be back soon, mounting some daring rescue attempt. But we have plenty of time to talk in the meantime."

"Talk," Satori mumbled. "Abow…Wha?"

In answer, Yuuka reached up with one oversized hand to lightly brush the flowers in her hair. "To begin, I must apologize for depriving you of those mind-reading abilities you so depend on. But in this case, it was actually in your favor. It's like I said, my mind is not something you'll be wanting to peek at."

Her teeth flashed as she grinned. "And here is the reason why," she purred. "Enjoy."

The blue glow of the flowers started to fade. Satori steeled herself, bringing to mind every technique she knew of to block out unwanted transmissions. She was not about to seal off her Third Eye, but she also had no intention of hearing what Yuuka wanted her to receive. And so, as the interference slowly dimmed away, she calmed her mind and secured her thoughts from…

…something got through…

…something that…

someth…

_And she was…elsewhere._

_Gone was the cave. Gone was the feel of stone, the cold damp air, the heavy sound of Yuuka's breathing. Gone was the pain in her head and the dim shadows seen through blurry vision. Even the natural sensations of Satori's body were gone. _

_They were all gone. The only thing that was, the only thing that mattered, was The Thing that Satori now Saw, floating alone in an endless dark void._

_It was…simply indescribable. Unimaginable. Beyond her means to so much as conceive. It would be impossible to fully put to words what she Saw, but if one absolutely had to make an effort, one would have to begin with the endlessly huge stalk that formed the majority of its body. A vertical mass of pulsing material, it seemed to stretch up and up for eternity. It was not flesh, it was not stone, it might not even be energy, at least not of any kind that had been yet discovered. But it most certainly _Was, _and Satori nearly felt her mind smothered by the sheer horror of its mere presence._

_She thought it would never end. She thought that it would extend upward for all eternity, connecting the roof of the universe to the floor. But end it did, expanding out into a disc that dwarfed most galaxies. Something was moving along the circumference of the disc. Though Satori did not wish to See anymore, she found herself propelled up against her will. She shot up around the edge and back, forced to take in the sheer scope of The Thing._

_The moving things that ringed the disc resembled tongues. Tongues that writhed and lashed out and curled around themselves in a sickening manner. The disc itself was covered with millions upon millions of beaklike mouths that endlessly opened and closed, revealing slimy gullets that were lined with row after row of curved teeth. Satori's vision moved further and further back, revealing more and more of the disc, until she finally Saw the entire scope of The Thing. There, in the center of the disc, was a curving mound composed of the same unidentifiable material as the stalk. Even though Satori had no way to judge such things, she somehow knew that this mound alone nearly matched the eye of the Milky Way galaxy for size._

_All of this falls short of what Satori really experienced in that moment. To fully describe The Thing runs the risk of exposing others to the same insanity that Satori was subjugated to. Can one truly put to words the overwhelming revulsion that one experiences when encountering something so incredibly wrong, so utterly alien, that its very existence is an affront to reality? Can one explain how its presence seems to change the very nature of the way things are? How everything once believed to be true is warped and violated and made not mean anything anymore?_

_She tried to look away, but her Vision was fixed upon The Thing. Its very existence violated her sanity. It overwhelmed her entire being. Right was wrong. Black was white, up was down was left was right was diagonal was all of the above all at once and then not even they had any meaning anymore as all was everything and everything was nothing and nothing was what shouldn't even exist except that it did it was right there despite being counter to anything and everything an absolute abomination except did that word even mean anything anymore it is so hard to tell when even names cease to matter…_

_And then the mound surged and slid open, revealing a staring eye made from hellish flame and pain. It filled the entirety of her Vision. It filled the entirety of her Being. It was everything and everywhere. And, with a Voice that could collapse suns and shatter solar systems, it spoke a single Word._

_**HI.**_

_Then she felt herself slipping away, away from the horrible Thing, away from the insanity, the pain, the absolute wrongness. She forced herself along every agonizing step of the way, desperate to get away, to return to reality, even though she was no longer certain that it still existed, or if it had ever existed at all. In the distance, she heard the shrill sound of someone screaming, and she clung to it, using it as a beacon, even moving closer and closer, never once realizing that the voice was her own, back in her body, not until she finally clawed the last bit of the way back into normality and…_

…her vision cleared up just in time to see the heel of Yuuka's boot come down on her face.

…

**Me**

Yuuka allowed the additional mass of her hands, shoulders and arms melt away and return to normal. Gnarled bark became pink flesh and red cloth once again. She knelt down and gently picked up the large, clear crystal that had rolled out of Satori's clothes. Then, as she casually rolled the crystal over her knuckles, she watched and waited.

Satori's body was starting to dissolve into a fine, lavender mist. Her life energies. If left to themselves, they would eventually gather together and reform her body, allowing her to resurrect. Such was the way of the youkai, to always return anew from death. Whether this was a blessing or a curse frankly depended on who you spoke to.

However, that would only happen if Yuuka were to permit it. And as it just so happened, she intended no such thing. Once the ruler of the Underground had fully disintegrated, Yuuka held the crystal right into the purple cloud.

There was a slight rushing noise, and the mist started to swirl around the crystal. It drew in ever tighter and tighter, forming a vortex as it was literally sucked in. Yuuka had to laugh at the sight, as it had suddenly reminded her of bathwater going down a drain. The sheer absurdity of the comparison struck her as funny for some reason.

And then it was done. The mist was gone, and the once clear crystal now shone with the same gentle lavender color. Yuuka held up the crystal and slowly turned it around, letting its light illuminate her face.

"The universe said to me, 'Madam, I exist!'" she said. "'However,' I replied, 'The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation.'"

With that, she laid the crystal in her palm and covered it with her fingers. When she opened them again, her hand was empty.

…

_You slump back in your chair, grimacing and clutching at your head. It feels like someone was driving a metal spike right through each eye. It feels as if your brain were hemorrhaging. _

"_Easy there, easy," Yuuka says. "I know. It's always a bit of a shock. Though what you just saw was heavily edited and watered down. Even what that little digger went through was far from the full experience." Here her fingers gently move over the lavender crystal she wears. "Had she truly beheld yours truly as I once was, she not only would have ceased to exist, but all memory of her and everyone she was close to would have been erased from living memory."_

_The only response you are able to come up with is a groan of pain. Yuuka's words seem to be coming through a very long tunnel. _

"_I must admit though, seeing that makes me all kinds of nostalgic," Yuuka continues on. "Of course, I've fallen on hard times since then. Made some mistakes, got involved in the occasional poor decision. Along the road I've lost the overwhelming majority of my power and influence. As a result, I am a far cry from what I once was. No doubt my former…contemporaries would find me almost as insignificant as the mortals they prey upon. I don't complain though. Mine is a good life, and I have been introduced to so many wonderful things as a result of my…banishment. So many new pleasures. But there once was a time where this world would have been shattered to nothingness simply by being in my presence. There once was a time where even beings such as Yukari herself would feel lesser than a microbe by comparison. It kind of makes all of her posturing seem silly as a result, doesn't it?" _

…

**Yukari**

When the stars stopped spinning, Yukari found herself flat on her back with rain pelting her face and Yuuka crouching over her and driving that blade right into her stomach.

"Painful, isn't it?" Yuuka said. "I'm almost tempted to decapitate you right here and now. But honestly, where would be the fun in that? Especially since all I have to do is move my friend up just a centimeter…" Yukari gasped as the blade slowly moved upward.

Yuuka held the pressure for a full three seconds before saying, "No, you don't like that, do you? But what would happen, say, if I were to move it in the other direction? Just take it all the way down and split you right through. Rather symbolic, isn't it? Oh, and just out of curiosity, would this be your first-"

Yuuka stopped in midsentence. She frowned, confused, and looked down to see Yukari's arm thrust right into her chest, black ichor dripping down the elbow.

"Oh," she said. "Well. That kind of hurts."

"Yeah, speaking of symbolic," Yukari grunted. Then bright light exploded in the cavity she had created and Yuuka was launched into the air, taking that abominable blade with her.

Now free, Yukari rolled over and clutched at her open wound. It was deep and painful, but fortunately Yuuka had yet to do any real cutting. Yukari would live. She just wished her powers were geared toward more traditional healing.

She was not without options, however. Though the pain and the magical interference meant that she couldn't concentrate on repairing the internal damage, she could at least close up the exterior. Yukari placed a hand over the cut and grimaced as the skin slowly sealed itself back up.

Once she was no longer opened like a slaughtered pig, she turned her attention to Yuuka. The flower-lover had landed a good distance away and was now just scrambling to her feet. From the look of things, nearly a good third of her abdomen had been blown away. Of course, it was already in the process of knitting itself back together, but Yukari was in no mood to just let Yuuka put herself back together.

She strode purposefully through the rain, golden eyes shining through the darkness. "You sick, sick monster," she said. "You want to play games? You want to just inflict pain for your own vile pleasure? I don't. I do not have the time to indulge you. I'm working to rescue this country from abominations that are worse than you. I'm trying to save everyone's lives here, but the whole world just seems bound and determined to work against me. Even the people who are supposed to be my allies are challenging me at every turn. I'm having to resort to threats and blackmail just to get some cooperation, just like I always have to do."

Yukari's entire body suddenly flared bright red. Yellow electricity surged and crackled all around her. "And then we have you. So set on getting in my way and making things difficult. And not for personal gain or because you have some sort of grudge. Those I could almost respect. But no, you do it just because you find it funny. Because it amuses you. So fuck you, Yuuka. You've been a thorn in my side for only maybe a couple of weeks, and already I'm sick of you. I've had it with your mind-games, I've had it with your damned plants, and I've really, _really _had it with that annoying smile of yours. You want to cut me off from using borders and dimensions against you? Fine. That just means I'm going to have to hurt you the old fashioned way."

Yuuka stumbled to her feet and stared at Yukari. And then, in such an infuriating manner that had to be deliberate, she smiled. "Oh, you're making me hot."

"Not yet," Yukari said. "But I can promise, this will."

With that, she leapt into the air and came down fists-first. Her knuckles slammed into the wet stone and she discharged the energy she had gathered.

The response was immediate. Sheer, raw power surged out from her in a massive shockwave, blowing away water and disrupting stone. Yuuka was bowled over and knocked sprawling.

Then the ground started to crack apart. Fissures opened up as stone pillars forced their way up, only to fall crashing back down into darkness. The Skillet Plateau was literally coming to pieces.

But it didn't stop there. Flames erupted within the gaps, rising up to lick the sky. Soon the whole place was aflame, with the only sanctuary being the columns that had somehow managed to survive.

Of course, this was no danger to someone who could fly. And with the interference still going strong, Yukari was limited to what she could power with her own body. So she would just have to make good on her promise to do things the old-fashioned way.

Yukari started moving, jumping from column to column, swiftly making her way toward her target. Yuuka was again struggling to stand. Yukari bunched her muscles and leapt into the air. At the height of her arc, she sent a spinning blue missile Yuuka's way. It hit, and sent her flying backward into the center of the nearest pillar, smashing it in two and sending the top half careening down into the flames.

A moment later, Yuuka found herself pressed down by two green beams of energy pouring down from Yukari's hands. She looked up and managed to recover her grin, weak as it was. "So, damnation is it? Going to send me to Hell?"

"Oh, believe me, I'd love to make you Shinki's personal problem," Yukari said. "But no. I'm not even going to grant you that."

"Just as well. You'd have a hard time of it. I seem to have left bits of myself lying all over the place."

Yukari shrugged. "Then I get to hunt them down and get rid of them too. Might be fun."

"Is that a hint of sadism I hear, Yukari?" Despite the fact that she was literally pinned down right over a lake of fire, Yuuka laughed. "It seems you can learn to enjoy yourself after all."

"Believe it. This is just a taste of the banquet I've prepared for you."

Yuuka cocked her head. Even though she had the upper hand, Yukari felt an involuntary chill. Yuuka didn't seem at all worried. Instead, she looked downright eager.

"Then by all means," Yuuka purred. "Let us enjoy it together."

With that, she slammed her elbows back into the stone that held her aloft. It shattered beneath her. And with gravity pulling her from below and Yukari shoving her down from above, her body plummeted straight down with absolutely no resistance.

But Yuuka had yet another trick up her sleeve. Four vines popped out of her back and whipped upward to wrap around Yukari's torso. Realizing what Yuuka intended, Yukari didn't fight it, but allowed herself to be pulled down as well. She added to her own momentum and swooped down to hit Yuuka in midair. Her hands closed around her throat and they both fell into the inferno.

…

_Bang._

_All right, now that the mood's been thoroughly ruined, I've got two things I want to touch on. The first is to give a very big thank you to Cygan Angel for her help in editing this chapter! As many of you have pointed out, I tend to overlook things, so having a second pair of eyes is a real big help. Thank you again!_

_The second is another thank you and an advertisement. It seems that Imperfect Metamorphosis now has a dedicated thread on Spacebattles, courtesy of RoboJesus, AKA GLH (thanks dude!). At the moment, there are only a handful of posts, as I'm pretty sure only three or four people on that site have even heard of IM. However, as I'd hate to have a perfectly good thread go to waste, it would be awesome to see some of you guys over there. If you would like having a place to discuss recent chapters and theories, that would be the place to do it. And I'll definitely be lurking about, so if we can get it up and running, that would also be the place to ask questions, offer suggestions and requests, get updated on when the next chapter can be expected, receive previews and all that good stuff. Criticisms are also welcome, though the same rules about politeness apply. Anyway, same deal as before. Check my profile for the link._

_So yeah, a big thank-you to Cygan Angel and RoboJesus, and hope to see you guys over at Spacebattles!_

_Until next time, everyone!_


	30. The Storm, Part 3

The Storm, Part 3

_The Fury_

_In time the pain starts to subside. The horror, however, takes much longer to die away. You feel as if someone has reached deep into your soul and touched something buried and primal, something you had no idea you even had. Touched and mutilated it._

_As you struggle to bring the storm within your mind under control, Yuuka remains patient and sympathetic. "Perhaps I should have skimmed over that nasty little bit," she murmurs, her tone worried. "My sincere apologies. Still, it was necessary that you learned of that before being taught about something else."_

_Confused, you ask Yuuka to clarify._

_In answer, she plucks the lavender stone off the gold band around her finger and holds it up. "You see, when the smallest bit of my mind leaked into Satori Komejii, it nearly broke her. Now to be honest, I found it hilarious. It sounds cruel, I know, but imagine for a moment that there is a rude person who takes enjoyment out of peeking through windows and spying on other people. Now, say this person looks through the wrong window and beholds an ancient man, covered from head-to-toe with warts, standing full in the nude and pleasuring himself." She laughs as you start gagging. "A vile image, I know, but would you not also be amused by the irony?"_

_Yuuka places the crystal back onto the ring. "However, irony is a double-bladed weapon. As fate would have it, poor Satori was not the only person to be forced to learn something that they'd rather have not known and suffer for it." She sighs and shakes her head. "It's amazing, really. You can go through life thinking that you know everything there is to know and that you've got everything figured out, and the universe will still surprise you. Sometimes I believe that reality is in fact sentient and in possession of a crueler sense of humor than my own. Hard to believe, I know."_

_You wonder what in the world she's talking about. Or at least, you would be wondering if your head still didn't hurt so much. If she's being deliberately vague just to make things more confusing, than she's certainly succeeding._

"_Well, I suppose it's too early to touch on that," Yuuka says. "We really should be getting back to the tale." Her twisted smile turns down. "Because this is where things start to get a little worrisome."_

…

_**Me again (the one that went after Yukari. Such a brave girl)**_

The Skillet Plateau was now completely destroyed. The smoke from the fires rose thick and dark, forming a black pillar that could be seen for miles. What few stone spires remained were crumbling away, their bases weakened by the intense heat. As for the heat itself, it could be felt even from several meters away, forming a sweltering curtain that no one sane would even dare to approach.

And near the center of the inferno, a skeletal hand suddenly thrust itself out of the fire. It grasped around before coming to rest on one of the few remaining pillars. It was joined by its twin, and Yuuka Kazami hauled herself out of flame. Or at least, what was left of her did. While she still wore a mostly human form, she was now more scorched flesh clinging to bone than a living person. Only her eyes remained whole.

Yuuka pulled herself upward, hand-over-hand, meter-by-meter, painfully moving upward like a wounded spider escaping a flood. Finally she reached the top and lay still, letting her flesh heal.

When she was capable, a harsh laugh rasped out of her throat. "Well now," she croaked. _"That _was a trip. Yukari doesn't do things in halves, does she?"

With that, Yuuka sat up and peered down into the flames. "I wonder what's keeping her, though. Surely that alone couldn't have finished her. Is she just being obstinate again?"

She shook her head. "Well, I suppose I can't blame her. It is her way. After all, I wouldn't want someone faulting me for acting according to my nature. We all have our little habits and ways of doing-"

"Ahem."

"Ah, there you are!" Yuuka said as she turned around. "And looking so…dramatic! I love it!"

Yukari floated several feet in the air, her arms folded and her glowing gold eyes glaring down at her nemesis. And there was not a burn on her.

"Well, credit where credit's due," Yuuka said admirably. "You're looking remarkably well for someone who had just been pulled into a raging mile-wide firepit. Or is it just your makeup? You really must introduce me to your-"

"Shut. The hell. Up."

Yuuka was lifted right off her feet by an invisible force. She was thrust backward, to slam spine-first into the sheer sides of the pit. Yukari watched dispassionately as Yuuka was scraped along the wall. Then she pulled Yuuka back into the air so that their eyes were meeting.

"My gods," Yukari muttered as she shook her head. "You really love to hear yourself talk, don't you? Not even burning you to a crisp can make you stop."

Her eyes glanced down, and Yuuka suddenly plunged back down into the fire, only to reemerge a second later, scorched anew.

"And for your information," Yukari said as Yuuka hurriedly slapped away the flames. "A few days ago I had the misfortune of having my own fire turned against me. It hurt a bit more than I'm comfortable with. So I took steps to keep that from happening again."

"Smart," Yuuka coughed, her voice strained and smoky. "Well, that round goes to you. Shall we move onto the next one?"

"Yeah, about that," Yukari said. "A couple of problems with that idea."

Yuuka tilted her head.

"First, you made the mistake of letting me know that I'm only dealing with one-fourth of yourself. Now, up until now, I thought you had brought along the full package. As such, there were certain tactics I refrained from using, as I was sure that they wouldn't work. But now that I know that you don't have the defenses that I thought you would, I really see no reason to hold back anymore."

"Ah," Yuuka said. "How careless of me." She paused, and then said, "This is going to hurt, isn't it?"

"Oh, a lot," Yukari agreed. "And by the way, that's quite the lovely smooth head you're sporting there."

At first Yuuka didn't seem to understand. Then she reached up to touch the top of her head, which was still healing and perfectly devoid of hair. And flowers.

"Oh," she said. "Oh dear."

"Yeah. I really hate those things, by the way." Yukari said. "And don't try to grow them back. It's kind of difficult to surprise me with the same trick twice."

Yuuka's body suddenly stiffened. She grimaced as her arms were forcibly stretched to either side, fingers splayed out. Her legs shook as they pointed straight down.

"Again with the symbolism," she said. "What's next, white lilies in the snow?"

"Funny," Yukari said. "But getting back on subject, once I realized how much the scales were tilted in my favor, I could have rushed away, right to my companions' aid. But it seems your other selves are using those godsdamned flowers as well, and I really don't feel like searching through that mess. Besides, it's not like I especially care for about half of them, and I trust the ones I do care for to handle themselves." She smiled. "Besides, why go hunting for Yuukas when I have a perfectly serviceable one right here?"

"And you say I talk too much," Yuuka observed.

"We all have our little hypocrisies," Yukari said. "But I agree. Enough chit-chat. Let's have some fun."

With that she suddenly stretched her arms out in front of her, fingers curled and grasping. She motioned upward, as if she were hoisting a great weight.

And below came a deep rumbling.

Curious, Yuuka glanced down. The center of the flames was now lurching upward, rising higher and higher with every surge. It reminded Yuuka of an ever-increasing heartbeat. Made of fire.

Yukari thrust her arms to either side, and the flames shot up and twisted in a corkscrew as it rose up behind her. It took shape, forming itself into a serpentine body with clawed hands and curved spines running down its back. A triangular head appeared at the tip, with burning yellow eyes and a wide tooth-filled maw. More flames rose from the pit, attaching to the main body and spreading into two incredibly huge wings.

"Oh," Yuuka said as she stared. "Oh…my. Oh my goodness. That's…that's amazing. That's beautiful."

"Thank you," Yukari said. "Oh, and what was that you said earlier? Something about meeting your ridiculously oversized friend?" She glanced back to the flaming dragon that hovered obediently right behind her. She smiled. "Well, now meet mine."

Yuuka felt the restraints holding her in place disappear, freeing her to move.

"You," Yukari said as she pointed at Yuuka. "Start running. Flying. Whatever. And you," she pointed now to the dragon. _"Fetch!"_

…

"_Okay, even I have to admit, that was pretty impressive," Yuuka says as you gape at what's taking place in her teacup. "Still, for all her criticisms, Yukari is not immune to tactical errors. And taking the time to summon a huge dragon of fire just to torment me was a significantly large one. I understand that she had been under a great deal of stress and needed some way of burning it off…Pun unintended, but I wish it was…But really, she should have just torn that piece of me apart and gone after the other ones. Wasting time like that only makes sense if you're just looking to have good time. And Yukari really had too much running to indulge in personal satisfaction." _

_Yuuka stops. She frowns. "Hmmm, never thought I'd be the one to say such things. I must have been more seriously injured than I thought." She sighs, and then continues. "Well, point still stands. Had she not been so focused on making that bit of me her outlet, she might have found that her fellows were not faring as well as she had thought. For example…"_

…

**Team Scarlet**

The many-limbed monstrosity that was Yuuka Kazami moved slowly through the room, her tentacle-like vines feeling around rocks and into cracks. It was an eerie sight. When she was in the darkness, all that could be seen were the red searchlights of her eyes and the blue glow of the flowers. Beyond that, there was only a monstrous shadowy outline. But then she would move under the holes in the ceiling, into the light and rain, and the whole of her twisted form would be revealed. Sakuya had trouble deciding which one was worse.

"I know you're in here, girls," Yuuka called, her voice echoing through the open air. She chuckled and started clanging the blades at the tip of her vine-arm together. "Oh vampires, come out and play!"

Sakuya glanced down at the two vampires at her side, who were also staring at Yuuka. Their night-vision was considerably sharper than her own, so to them it would be all the same. "Do not move," she hissed.

"I had figured that, thank you," Remilia hissed back.

"But what are-" Flandre started to say in her normal voice. Remilia quickly slapped a hand over her sister's mouth and shushed her.

It was too late. Yuuka suddenly turned her body around directly toward that. "What was that?" she said as she lurched her way forward. "A squeaking rat, two fluttering bats? A mole-in-a-hole, a…I can't think of any more rhymes."

Realizing that Remilia and Flandre's eyes would be just as visible as Yuuka's, Sakuya quickly motioned them back further into the cover of the slab. Then her hand slipped into the folds of her cloak. She gripped one of her weapons.

"Oh, don't be like that," Yuuka said as she swayed. "I came all this way to play with you, and this is the reception I get?" There was a rustle of motion, and two objects appeared in her hands. "Look, I even brought your toys."

Sakuya almost choked. Yuuka was holding Gungnir and Laevatein. That wasn't good no matter how you sliced it. It was bad enough that Yuuka had cut them off from the majority of their powers and now fully outclassed them, but if she had armed herself with the weapons of gods…

Then she heard the angry growling coming from behind her. Sakuya's eyes widened when she realized that Yuuka _using _the weapons was the least of their worries. She turned around to prevent the disaster she saw coming, but it was far too late.

"That's _mine!" _Flandre cried. Her bizarre wings snapped open and she shot out from under the slab and darted straight for Yuuka.

"Flandre, no!"Remilia screamed. She tried to grab at her sister, but she might have been trying to seize a lightning bolt.

"Ah, there you are!" Yuuka said cheerfully. "Goody!" With one smooth movement she tossed both weapons into her normal hand and whipped back her vine-arm. It completed its arc and shot forward, the tip whistling as it cut through the air.

However, as quick as it was, Flandre was faster. She twisted her body out of the way, neatly dodging the blade while honing onto Yuuka, fingers outstretched and fangs bared.

"_FLANDRE!" _Remilia shrieked. The little vampire was nearly frantic. She whirled toward Sakuya and said, "What are you _waiting _for? She's going to get herself killed! Help her already!"

"Yes, Mistress," Sakuya said, though she doubted her chances of success. Still, the Young Mistress was in danger, and the order had been given. Her path was clear.

From within her cloak she withdrew a long metal tube with a pump-handle. Keeping it held tightly in her grasp, she scanned the area, trying to judge the best way to attack Yuuka. But the darkness and the fact that she was constantly moving made it extremely difficult.

That was when Yuuka's body suddenly lurched back with a roar of outrage. Sakuya's eyes widened when she saw that Flandre had somehow grabbed onto the place where the vine-arm and the shoulder met and torn it clean off. Yuuka staggered as a green sap-like substance oozed out of the wound. The younger Scarlet then wasted no time in taking advantage of Yuuka's momentary distraction and darted in deeper to wrest Laevatein out of her grasp.

"Mine!" she yelled as she held up the legendary wand. The cave was suddenly filled with crimson light as Laevatein burst into brilliant flames.

…

_Yuuka slumps forward and massages her forehead with her fingertips. "All right, so I forgot about that part. But you know how the fortunes of battle can change. Let's change the focus a bit."_

…

**½ Team Halloween (Marisa)**

Move. Move as fast as possible and don't stop. Just keep moving and don't look back. Just keep moving and don't…

A brief look back. Yep, Yuuka was still there and still pissed. And ugly. Marisa refocused her eyes on the winding stone corridor ahead of her. Her hakkero was fixated on the tip of her broom and functioned as a headlight as she tore through the underground at breakneck speed. She was now completely relying on her enhanced senses and reflexes to keep from running into a wall, and even then it was a terrifying experience. If she slowed down in the slightest Yuuka would catch her. If she miscalculated a single turn she would end up as a bloody mess all over the stones. And if she ran out of tunnel she would be screwed at both ends.

Her face was plastered with a mad grin. It was days like this that made life worth living.

A sharp right was coming up. Marisa pulled her broom hard and was pleased to see that the tunnel had evened out. Good, it would give her time to-

Then she sucked in a sharp breath. She had run out of tunnel. A dead end was coming up fast, with no branches paths. Acting purely on reflex, she grabbed the hakkero and screamed "MASTER SPARK!" The end of the tunnel disintegrated in a cloud of dust and stone chips. Marisa plunged right in. Hopefully it had been enough…

The smoke cleared and Marisa got a second shock when she saw yet another rock face coming right at her. "Shit!" she screamed as she yanked the broom straight up. There was no visible ceiling and the air roared in her ears as she flew higher and higher and higher…

Marisa shot into open air and continued up for a several meters before regaining the presence of mind to bring herself to a stop. She was now far above ground, with the surface of the Blasted Lands extending in every direction. The rain was now coming down hard, but in her exhilarated state she barely even noticed.

Marisa remained still for a moment, panting hard and listening to her heart pound in her ears. Her hands were shaking hard as she gripped her broom handle and her eyes wouldn't stay still.

Then she grinned. "Holy shit, that was _awesome! _I can't wait to tell Alice and Reddie about _this!" _

Then she noticed sometime moving in the distance, something large and flashy. She moved in for a closer look.

"Huh?" she said when she got it. "What in all the hell…"

What could only be described as a huge headless worm made up of grey roots, green vines, branches and bright flowers was doing battle with a small but quick-moving point of light. The light kept zipping around the beast, dodging its lunges while pelting it with blasts of energy and glowing missiles.

Marisa recognized it in an instant. "Mima!" she cried. She popped another black spellcard into her hand and kicked the broom into high-gear while yelling, "I'm coming, Master!"

…

"_You see?" Yuuka says as you watch. "I seem to be doing fairly well there, and they both look pretty desperate. But then, when confronted with something as intimidating as that, most people would-"_

…

**½ Team Halloween (Marisa again)**

At first Marisa thought the spellcard had failed. Certainly there seemed to be no immediate effect. The only difference was that everything was steadily growing darker, and even that was hard to tell through the rain-

A piercing cry cut through the air

Marisa looked up and nearly had a heart-attack. Black smoky _things _were swirling down from the clouds, things that she might have mistaken for pieces of the clouds themselves if it weren't for the fact that they had freaking _death-heads _with burning lights in their eye sockets.

"This has been a very freaky day," she said, not daring to so much as blink. Her grip on the broom tightened as the phantoms flew and howled all around her. "So…what exactly am I supposed to do now?" She raised a trembling finger and pointed toward the mass of foliage that was fighting Mima. "Uh…Sic her."

To her surprise, the phantoms immediately broke off and screamed their way toward Yuuka. They slammed right into her overgrown body, exploding into little black puffs. And everywhere they hit, plants withered and died.

The Yuuka-Worm bellowed as the phantoms kept hitting, forcing her down. For her part, Mima simply hovered and watched the bizarre spectacle with an expression of utter bemusement.

Then she looked up to see Marisa coming toward her. "Oh," she said. "Well, there you are. Took you long enough."

Marisa gaped. "What?" she squeaked. "That's all you can say, ze? Not, 'Oh Marisa, I'm so glad you're okay!', or 'I was so worried!', or 'What in the hell is with those freaky ghost things you're commanding?' or something like that? And hey, I just fought freaky giant plant Yuuka twice and _won! _Wow, thanks for caring!"

"Oh, calm down," Mima said. "I knew you were all right. If something that happened to you, I would have known, bloody blue flowers be damned." Then she smiled. "Though you're right. You are doing _extremely _well."

Marisa grinned in return. "Hey, thanks!" She looked down at the hideous, shuddering mass beneath them. "So, can we kill her now? We were saying something about killing her, right? Because I really wanna kill her now."

"There's considerably more Yuuka than there used to be," Mima pointed out.

"Mima, I've still got seven more of Yukari's Holy-Shit-Did-That-Just-Happen spellcards to use, I haven't even used any of my own tricks yet _except _for the hidden blade which was so very awesome, I'm hyped up all to hell and if I don't burn this energy off soon I'm gonna start talking like a freaking chipmunk!"

"All very good points. And I'm getting a little sick of her too. So, would a major deforestation be in order then?"

"Aw, hells yeah!" Marisa cheered. She pumped her fist in the air, and red lightning shot down to meet it. "Break out the chainsaws and flamethrowers, it's time for some environmental unfriendliness!"

"How do you know about chainsaws and flamethrowers?" Mima asked.

"Tell you later. Hey Yuuka!" Marisa called. "Did you enjoy that? Well, here's one of mine!" She hurled the ball of power straight down. "Spectacular Supernova!"

…

"_Again? Is this thing broken?" Yuuka frowns as she flicks the side of the teacup, sending ripples across Marisa's sweaty, grinning face. "I must have been hurt more badly than I thought, because I don't remember any of this. I was certain things were going better."_

…

**Team Underground (what's left of it, anyway)**

A large black cat slowly padded her way through the stone tunnel. She kept near the wall as she approached the entrance to the cavern beyond. A short stalagmite with a wide base stuck up from the ground near the entrance. The cat hid behind it as she cautiously peeked inside the cavern.

The cavern was dimly lit, but the cat had lived her entire life Underground. As such, her eyes were sharper than even her surface-dwelling kin. She scanned the interior, searching for two specific individuals.

Shadows moved. The cat stiffened when she saw a tall woman moving through the center of the room. The other individual was nowhere to be seen.

The cat slowly backed away and slinked back into the relative safety of the tunnel. As she moved further and further away, her body morphed and changed, becoming that of a red-haired young woman.

Orin quickly returned to where Utsuho was crouching. "Okay, Yuuka Kazami's definitely still there," she whispered. "I couldn't see the boss, though. Yuuka must have moved her."

"Acknowledged," Utsuho said, her voice a low monotone. Her eyes glowed a dull crimson in the darkness.

"Good. Okay, you remember the plan, right? You distract her the best you can, and I'll run in and find the boss. Then we all run like hell, got it?"

"Understood."

"Alrighty then." Orin took a deep breath. "Okay, let's go."

As they made their way back toward the cavern, Orin found herself suddenly jealous of Utsuho. At least she had some sort of cool, mechanical alternate personality she could shift into whenever things got hot. At that moment, Orin was so angry and so scared that it was all she could do to keep one foot moving in front of the other. Sure, she looked calm and determined, but she had literally decades of experience in appearing composed, even when she felt like she was about to lose her mind. As far as she could remember, even before they had met Satori, Utsuho had always looked up to her. And even now that Utsuho had somehow become the single most powerful entity in the Underground, she still looked up to Orin, trusting her to know what to do. Orin wasn't going to betray that trust by freaking out now.

Even if they were about to attack someone so dangerous that Yukari had assembled ten of Gensokyo's best to take her down. And they were going to do it on their own.

Sometimes, just sometimes, life really, _really _sucked.

The neared the jagged mouth of the tunnel. Orin steadied herself the best she could and whispered, "You ready?" When she got Utsuho's confirming nod, she pointed and said, "Okay, _go!"_

Utsuho obeyed immediately. She leapt into the cavern and spread both her legs and wings to brace herself. The arm sheathed by her Third Leg snapped up, its tip glowing as she searched for her target. A split second later Orin shifted into cat form and bounded into the room, hugging the shadows and searching for Satori.

She expected the shooting to start immediately. She expected the air to fill with flashes of light as Utsuho hit Yuuka with everything she had. She expected to hear charging attacks, explosions and battle cries.

But there was nothing. Utsuho remained planted where she was, cannon outstretched with nothing to point it at. Yuuka Kazami and the boss were both gone. The room was empty.

Utsuho kept her Third Leg pointed straight out for a moment longer before letting it drop. "Error. No targets found," she declared.

Orin leapt off the wall and shifted back into youkai form. "You think?" She looked about the room as feelings of confusion and frustration grew within her. "I don't get it. I just saw her here, I know I did! And this cave's only got the one exit!"

"That's assuming that I need a physical exit in order to leave," said Yuuka's voice, seemingly from all around.

Orin yowled and whipped around. Her heart beat fast and her hair stood up on end. She frantically searched the cave with wild eyes. Nearby, Utsuho's Third Leg had snapped back up.

"Where are you?" Orin demanded.

"Somewhere. Everywhere. Nowhere," Yuuka said. She laughed. "Does it really matter?"

"I'm thinking it does, yeah! And what the hell did you do with Satori?"

"Oh, not much. Just, shall we say…_crystallized_ her worldview." She laughed again. "Okay, so that was a little cheesy, even for me."

Orin had a sudden sinking feeling. "Wait, you're not saying-"

"Caution!" Utsuho yelled as the air filled with a sudden klaxon alarm. Her Third Leg snapped into focus directly at Orin's feet.

"Utsuho, what-" Something horribly strong grabbed her by the ankle. Orin looked down and cried out in shock when she saw a pale hand protruding from the ground, its long, slender fingers seizing her foot.

Stone rumbled and smashed apart as Yuuka Kazami rose from the ground. Orin was literally pulled off her feet and dangled upside-down as Yuuka lifted her in the air.

"Target locked-on!" Utsuho shouted. She aimed for Yuuka's head and declared, "Fire!"

Orin didn't even have time to tell her to stop. Yuuka yanked her up and shoved her directly into the path of Utsuho's atomic fire, forcing her to take the full heat.

It hurt. Of course it hurt. A Human would have been burned down to the bone. A youkai wouldn't have fared much better. Fortunately, Orin had lived her whole life among intense heat. Her job description included tending what used to be the very fires of Hell, after all. And she spent a considerable amount of time with Utsuho, who was somewhat accident-prone. As such, instead of turning into a blackened corpse and disintegrating, she was only mildly scorched and made to feel very, very sick.

"Orin!" Utsuho cried, her voice returning to normal. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean-"

Orin didn't respond. Yuuka dropped her into a heap and grabbed her darkened forehead. "It's time for kitty to go night-night," Yuuka sang.

Orin's eyes crossed as they tried to focus on Yuuka's hand. There was a sharp whining, a blinding green flash, and then Utsuho was left alone with Yuuka.

…

"_Ah, now that's _much _better!" Yuuka says cheerfully. "See, it isn't all grim. And it gets even better!"_

_You decline to respond. Having just witnessed an innocent woman turned into vapor right in front of her friend, it is difficult to say anything at all._

"_At any rate, I think I'd better quit with the commentary and just let the events speak for themselves," Yuuka says. "We'll just finish with this one here and let things take their course."_

…

**Utsuho (The only one left)**

Utsuho grunted as Yuuka swung her back into the wall. One of Yuuka's hands gripped her Third Leg, forcing the barrel upward. The other held her by the throat.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Yuuka said. "I know it had to be unpleasant. But the good news is that she'll be back soon enough, right?"

_Don't listen to her, _Utsuho thought. She tried to focus, tried to return to BattleMode and regain the strength that it gifted her. But she couldn't summon up the self-control even for that.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Tears dribbled down her cheeks, leaving filthy rivulets through the dust. She had been told to do what everyone was afraid she might do and blow things up, and she couldn't even do that right. And now the people she loved had suffered for her failure. First Satori, and now Orin.

"There, there, there," Yuuka murmured. She gently wiped Utsuho's tears away. "Don't cry. You'll ruin your good looks. You are very pretty, you know. I'm tempted to take you with me. If anything your master could use the company."

"Satori?" Utsuho's eyes snapped open. "What h-happened to her? What did you do?"

"Oh, don't worry about her. She's safe." A vine slithered out of Yuuka's back. A pink bud formed on the tip, which blossomed into a flower. And sitting on the center of the flower was a large round crystal, glowing with soft purple light.

"Huh? What's that? What is…" Utsuho gawked when she realized what this meant. "Let her go!" she begged. "She didn't do anything to you! Please, let her go!"

"Hmmm, no." The flower closed up and the vine shrunk and disappeared. "I'm not done with her yet. Though I regret to tell you that our business is now finished. I'm needed elsewhere, it seems. Good show, though. It was quite enjoyable."

The hand holding onto the Third Leg suddenly tightened. Utsuho screamed as metal crunched and circuitry sparked and fried. Tiny roots snaked out of Yuuka's fingers to dig into its inner workings.

Yuuka released her hold on Utsuho's neck and brought her hand to her mouth. She licked the tip of her index finger. A single drop of some kind of black substance remained behind.

Then she looked down to the large red eye that stared out of Utsuho's chest. "Yatagarasu, I presume?" Yuuka said. "Or what's left of him, anyway. A strange fate for a strange god. I've met him, actually. Funny fellow, a bit vague. Ah well." She held the drop over the eye and let it fall. It spread through the crimson like a cloud of ink. Utsuho gasped as a sickening feeling washed through her.

"And with that we are finished," Yuuka said. The roots retracted back into her hand and she dropped Utsuho to the ground. "Please extend my compliments to the kitty when she comes around. Toodles."

She left Utsuho there, crying and clutching at her Third Leg, trying to get it off.

And then it spoke in a calm, mechanical voice. _"Self-Destruct Activated. Remaining Time: Thirty Minutes."_

…

**½ Team Halloween (the **_**other **_**half)**

The odds were two-to-one. The two included a spirit of great age and even greater power. It also included a master swordswoman, descended from multiple generations of warriors, who was blessed to wield blades famed for their ability to cut through almost anything.

On the other side was a crazed little girl named Elly wielding an oversized scythe, a type of blade that was not even designed to be used as a weapon. With this in mind, the battle really should have been a no contest. All advantages went to the representatives of the Netherworld, or so it seemed.

So then why, as Youmu reflected as she desperately twisted her body to avoid being cut in half, were they being beaten so badly?

Well, part of the problem was Yuyuko herself. Despite being the heavyweight of the fight (magically speaking, of course), she just couldn't seem to get it through her head that this was not a danmaku duel. As such, instead of simply cutting to the chase and hitting the girl with all sorts of mystical force, she just kept hovering and filling the air with dazzling patterns and starbursts of glowing butterfly-shaped bullets in shades of red, pink and blue. It was very pretty, and if Youmu were not currently fighting for her life, she might have been more appreciative of her lady's skill. As it was, they only gave Youmu one more thing to have to look out for.

At the moment, Elly was focusing most of her attention on Youmu, pausing only to deflect any bullets that came too close with her blade. Youmu was doing her best to fight back, but even though the number of things that couldn't be cut by her blades was next to zero, Elly's scythe seemed to be on that list. Elly blocked a downward slash with the handle and swung the scythe around to knock a swiping cut aiming for her legs aside. She then brought the handle up and smacked it against Youmu's face, making stars explode in her vision.

Instinct took over, and Youmu rolled backward to avoid the decapitating slash that followed. She tried to shake the dazedness away. Even that ended up taking too much time and the scythe was swinging in an outward arc toward her again. There was no time to leap over it, and the rocks prevented her from rolling out of the way. So she did the only thing she could: fall to her knees and bend her body as far back as it would go. Her eyes crossed to follow the scythe as it passed literally inches over her body. Youmu braced herself, read to roll to her feet as soon as the blade was clear.

But then, just as the flat of the blade was directly over her face, it stopped. Youmu stared at it in confusion. What-

The scythe came straight down smacked her in the face. Youmu once again saw stars and she was dropped flat on her back.

"Problem, little half-breed?" Elly said. She swung the blade downward, forcing Youmu to quickly cross her own swords in front of her to block the attack. "Finding me difficult? You're not wondering why-"

Elly stopped talking. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder and frowned in annoyance. Youmu suddenly found herself seized by her shirt and yanked right off the ground as Elly leapt aside to avoid a swarm of blue butterflies.

"Stupid ghost princess with her stupid bug-bullets who doesn't know a real duel when she sees one," Elly muttered as pulled Youmu behind a boulder large enough to shield them from Yuyuko. She threw Youmu to the ground and held up her scythe.

Youmu braced herself in anticipation of the blow, but Elly didn't bring it down. Rather, she seemed to be waiting for Youmu to do something.

"Hurry up, now," Elly said impatiently. "As we were."

Youmu stared, and then she slowly crossed her blades in front of her.

"That's better!" The scythe came down to clash against the swords. Elly reapplied the pressure as she picked up where she left off.

"Now, as I was saying, you must be wondering why little old me is winning, aren't you?" Elly giggled. "Well, I mean besides the fact that your master is completely useless."

Actually, Youmu was wondering why she had allowed herself to be returned to this position, but she grunted, "Enlighten me."

"Glad to. Be right back."

The pressure suddenly disappeared as Elly leapt into the air. She lighted on top of the boulder and threw herself toward Yuyuko.

"My lady!" Youmu cried. She flew after her, cutting down glowing butterflies as she went. "Look out, she's coming right for you!"

Yuyuko noticed, and activated one of her spellcards. The sky filled with a shimmering field of violet as a brilliant backdrop displaying a country scene came to life behind her.

"No, my lady!" Youmu shouted in frustration. "Not spellcards! Use something that doesn't-"

It was too late. Elly spun as she shot upward, literally drilling her way through the clouds of danmaku that surrounded Yuyuko. The Princess of the Netherworld brought her hands up to protect herself, but it was too little too late.

The pole of the scythe smacked into her belly, doubling her over. Elly spun her weapon around and slapped it against Yuyuko's back. The brilliant shroud of the spellcard exploded into sparks.

"My lady!" Youmu screamed. She pushed herself to go faster, but then Elly yanked back Yuyuko's dazed head and held the tip of her blade against the ghost's throat.

Youmu stopped immediately.

"It's like this," Elly said to Youmu. Her rain-soaked face was split with a predatory grin. "Even in this world, where all rules are lightly enforced, there are certain predator-prey constants. Fire will burn wood, wolves will prey upon rabbits, scissors will beat paper, and against ghosts, Shinigami will always, _always _win. It's the circle of life and death."

Then she leaned in close to Yuyuko's ear. "By the way, my master told me to say something clever as I finished you. She said that the phrase 'Eat this!' would be appropriate. She said you'd know what it meant."

Instead of responding to the jib, Yuyuko just turned her head and blinked in confusion. "I know her, don't I?" she said. "Where do I know her from, Youmu?"

Elly's blade flashed three times, and Youmu screamed as Yuyuko fell limply down to the earth, trailing pink vapor the whole way.

…

"_Oh, well done Elly! Do it for Mystia!" Yuuka cries, startling you once again. She squeals in delight and clasps her hands together. However, the sudden motion seems to pain her, and she winces while quickly separating her ruined fingers. "Ow, I always forget not to do that."_

_Then she glances up and notices your surprised expression. "Oh, so sorry. I told you that I'd be quiet. My apologies, I just love that bit so much. Well, enough about that. Moving on."_

…

**Team of Scarlet Devil Vampires**

Sakuya and Remilia stared in awe as two of Gensokyo's most powerful and feared beings engaged in mortal combat right in front of their eyes. One of them was Remilia's younger sister. They wasn't sure exactly what the other one was, but Yuuka Kazami was certainly capable of some impressive feats.

But despite all the dread she inspired in others, despite all of her overwhelming power, Yuuka was losing. Even without her ability to destroy with a thought, Flandre was going all out on her foe. And she was succeeding magnificently.

Laevatein burned with consuming fire. Flandre swung it to either side, cutting away at Yuuka's vines as they tried to reach her. Then she pointed the tip at Yuuka and screamed as a pillar of flame so dense that it was almost physical shot out. Yuuka cried out as she was driven to the ground, some of her vines instinctively curling around her in a protective ball while others thrashed about in pain.

"Oh, well done Flandre!" Remilia said as she clasped her armored hands together. "Well done, indeed! Isn't she magnificent, Sakuya?

"Yes, Mistress," Sakuya said automatically. Truth be told, she was more concerned with seeking an opening to begin her own assault. Flandre may have overwhelming power, but she lacked the presence of mind to employ it correctly.

However, Sakuya had multiple lifetimes worth of experience in taking advantage of just about every single opportunity presented to her. Flandre's actions may be lacking in finesse, but they made for an excellent distraction. All Sakuya had to do was sneak around and find the place to-

There. She spotted it. While the protection provided by Yuuka's burnt and ragged vines shielded her from violence from above, there were a handful of gaps closer to the ground. Of course Flandre would never think of using those, preferring to continue hammering away in rage, but it was perfect for Sakuya.

"Stay here," she said to Remilia.

Her Mistress looked up to her and blinked in confusion. "What? Why, where are you…Sakuya, where are you going? Don't leave me alone here! Come back! Sakuya!"

Though it pained her, Sakuya disobeyed. She skirted her way around the battlefield, running from shelter to shelter and staying well out of the way of Flandre's stray fireballs and Yuuka's thrashing vines.

She made it to the cover of a dome-shaped boulder and crouched behind it. She quickly examined the pump-handled tube in her hands and nodded her satisfaction when she found it to be in working order. Then she peered out to take stock of the situation.

Not much had changed. Remilia had fortunately obeyed, though she was watching Sakuya with obvious agitation. Flandre was still bearing down on Yuuka, her rage driving her beyond reason. For her part, Yuuka's vines were quickly being hacked and burned away, only to have new ones sprout to life to replace them. However, something was strange about Yuuka's demeanor.

Sakuya had taken up position directly behind Yuuka's head, and as such she could clearly see her face. Instead of grimacing in worry, pain or fear, the expression on Yuuka's face was of absolute delight. For a moment Sakuya disgustedly believed that Yuuka was receiving some sort of sick masochistic pleasure from the beating she was receiving. But no, that wasn't it. It wasn't a look of ecstasy, it was one of complete admiration. Bizarrely enough, though she was on the receiving end of Flandre's wrath, Yuuka was enjoying the little vampire's display as much as Remilia had, if not more.

Well, so long as Yuuka remained focused on what was above her Sakuya would not begrudge her entertainment. Sakuya honed in on those glowing blue flowers in Yuuka's hair. The magical interference that was screwing up their abilities had to be coming from somewhere, and those were the most likely culprits. Sakuya braced herself, waited until the vines moved enough to give her a wide enough opening, and started sprinting.

She bounded off and soared forward. As she neared, she could hear Yuuka speaking. "Magnificent," her target said. "Absolutely magnificent. Oh Yukari, if you only knew the jewel you possessed."

Sakuya twisted her body as she moved through the vines. She quickly righted herself, pointed the end of the metal tube directly at the top of Yuuka's head, and pushed down on the handle.

A ball of orange chemical flame spat out from the end of the tube. It washed over the flowers and set them ablaze. As Yuuka's body lurched in response, Sakuya threw the tube aside and flicked two knives up into grasp. A moment later Yuuka had something else to think about.

"Ah, gods_damn_it!" Yuuka cried as her remaining hand went to her bleeding and burning face. "Why! Is it always! The _eyes?"_

Sakuya didn't bother providing her with an answer. Instead, she flew upward, out of the nest of pain-maddened vines and into Flandre's line of sight.

"Young Mistress!" Sakuya called to the startled vampire. "Go kyuu now!"

"Huh?" Flandre said, clearly not comprehending.

"Her eye!" Sakuya said. "Try to crush her eye again!"

"But it doesn't-"

"Now! Before she thinks to grow them back!"

Flandre was still obviously confused, but she held up her hand and looked down at Yuuka. The writhing creature was just in the process of removing the sharp silver blades from her eyes, and had yet to see to the flames in her hair. Flandre closed her fist and whispered "Kyuu…"

Yuuka's twisted body exploded into splinters and green mist.

…

**½ Team Halloween (the not-quite-as-despicable half)**

"Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!" Marisa gaped as she watched the giant burning plant-worm topple and collapse. "Look Master! Look at it burn! Burn! It's burning down! Hahaha, look at it go! Fire! Fire!"

"I see it," Mima said. Unlike her prodigy, she was not so enthused by the sight.

"What's wrong?" Marisa said. "We beat her, and Yukari didn't, ze! Can'cha see how pissed she's gonna be? We can rub it into her face every time we see her and leave her little notes that say 'We got her and you didn't!' on her doorstep. Little notes attached to potted plants. That are on fire! It'll be awesome!"

"It was too easy," Mima said.

"No, we're just too awesome," Marisa countered.

"This is a fact, but I am starting to believe that we have just cut off the hand. If we are to finish this, we need to kill the head.

Marisa's racing heart fell, just a bit. "Oh yeah. The big one that was chasing me. Shit, I forgot!"

"Well, no worries. She should be long any moment now." Mima frowned. "Unless of course she's just stalling to annoy us. That would be just like her."

"Can't we just go down and find her, ze?" Marisa asked.

"No. Because that would be stupid."

"Not if we just blow the hell out of the whole fucking place and pull her out of the dust!"

"I…" Mima blinked. "Rather like that idea, actually. Okay, let's do it!"

"Sweet! All right, let's try this one!"

Marisa popped one of Yukari's loaned-out spellcards into her hand. She tilted the broom at a downward angle, so that she was facing the ground, and activated the spellcard. The red letters started to glow with a fiery light, while an aura the color of midnight surrounded the card. It lifted from her fingers and floated away to hover a few feet in front of her.

"Uh, you maybe might wanna get back a little," Marisa told Mima. "I'm not really sure what any of these do, so if things start going hey crazy, it would probably be smart to-"

The card blazed with a sudden brilliant purple light. Marisa cried out and shielded her face with her arm as the card started to spin around and around.

And then Marisa found herself surrounded by eight purple magical circles, each one of them containing the familiar eight-pointed star that she used in so many of her own spells.

"Okay," she said. "This is starting to look a hell of a lot like Non-Directional Laser. Is Yukari cribbing my notes here?"

And then sixteen more circles appearing, right outside the first ring. A third ring of even more circles came into being right outside the second. And then a fourth one appeared. And then a sixth, seventh and eighth, each one progressively larger and containing more and more of the encircled stars.

One final circle, this one larger than the others, materialized directly in front of Marisa. The young witch gaped as it wildly spun around and around. The other circles followed suit, making Marisa feel as if she were in the center of some great gear-driven machine.

"Oh…This is gonna be big," she whispered. "This is gonna be really, reallyWHOA!"

In unison, each and every one of the circles unleashed a beam pure destructive force, in varying shades of purple, red and blue. The center beam twisted around like a corkscrew, presumably to cut through anything and everything in its way while its smaller fellows disintegrated the leftovers.

"HOOOAAAHHHH!" Marisa screamed. She pumped her arms in the air in absolute ecstasy. She was already hyped up on magical potions and adrenaline, and the thought of controlling so much power at once was absolutely glorious.

"GO!" she gibed as she stared without blinking. The nature of the spellcard fortunately prevented her from being blinded by the same force she had let loose, and she intended to enjoy every second of it. "Go! Go! Go, go, go! Hahahaha, burn! Explode! Go boom! Boom! Boom for the boom goddess! Bow down and worship my boomness! GO!"

At her side, Mima cleared her throat. "Um, very impressive. But unless you're intending on digging right to the earth's core, I suggest you start directing your glowing phallic imagery so as to widen the effect?"

"Huh? Oh, right! Okay, let's do it! Come on, baby. Move for momma!" Marisa pulled her broom to the left. To her delight, the beams moved with her.

"_Fucking A!" _she crowed. She swung the broom back and forth, destroying several square miles of the Blasted Lands in the process. Vaporized stone billowed up in a swirling cloud as canyons fell to pieces and underground caverns collapsed in on themselves, taking the top layer with them.

This was hands-down the most beautiful thing she had experienced, much less actively been the cause of. This had to be what it felt like to be a goddess. No, strike that, this had to be what it felt like to be _the _Goddess, the head honcho, the big cheese, looking down upon the puny mortals and delivering judgment and destruction as She willed. She didn't even care about the humiliation that had brought her here. If she ever saw Yukari again she would kiss her right on the mouth. This was worth a thousand beatings. This was beyond magnificent, this was a rush like nothing else, this was absolutely orgas-

And then it was over.

The spellcard timed out, and the beams cut out as the circles disappeared. Unprepared for the sudden change in pace, Marisa nearly fell off the broom. She clutched it tightly, staring down at the gaping black hole she had created. It had to be several miles long, and she couldn't even see the bottom.

"I…Oh, shit," she breathed. "Oh shit. That was, that was…Hehehehe…"

She instantly popped the next spellcard into her hand. "Let's _do _that _again!"_

Mima instantly grabbed her wrist. "No, no. No more indiscriminate harbinger of the apocalypse for you. Save it for Yuuka." She glanced down. "Oh, and stay away from that dust. It cannot be good for you, what with all the poison Yukari's pumped into the place."

"Foolish mortal, goddesses need not fear poison, ze!"

"Huh. Okay then," Mima said, giving her a sidelong look. "Well, tell you what, your worshipfulness. What say we find the giant crazy plant lady and smite the unbeliever?"

"Yes! Her soul shall writhe in flames eternal, and she shall look up at me and know that I am the motherfu-"

Something very large, very long and green rose out of the hole. It was similar to the plant-worm that Marisa and Mima had vanquished earlier, only this one was nearly twice its size. And at the top was Yuuka's enormously bloated head.

Monster-Yuuka was angry, that much was obvious. Her snake-like neck swung back and forth as she searched for the source of the disturbance. Then she caught sight of Mima and Marisa. Her mouth opened wide to issue a challenging bellow that shook the teeth in Marisa's skull.

"Kill?" she said to Mima. "Kill that, can I?"

"Oh, yes. That my dear is what we call a weed. Weeds are made to be killed." Mima's hands erupted into green flame as her eyes started to glow. "Let's go do some gardening."

Marisa let out another whoop of delight and together they charged.

…

**Yukari (taking a little break)**

Yukari hovered far above the flaming pit. She was sitting cross-legged on one of her gaps. The rain was repelled away from her by a small barrier, and she was sipping from a cup of hot tea as she watched the scene taking place.

Below, Yuuka was doing battle against the flame-dragon. Yukari had to give her credit, she was doing…decently. At least she was fighting back, and had at one point managed to throw the thing against the pit's wall.

But all-in-all, it was a rather one-sided event. If it weren't for the fact that Yuuka was healing herself like mad, she would have been reduced to ash and smoke about a minute in.

As Yukari watched with no small measure of satisfaction, she wondered if she should just finish things up and go help the other teams. It was rather annoying when she thought of it. After all, she had brought them here to help her. But then, none of them were particularly small-fry, and one-fourth of Yuuka really wasn't much of a challenge, once you figured it out. Perhaps she should just trust them to handle themselves and enjoy the catharsis.

Something several miles off caught her eye. It was a continuous line of brilliant light. She frowned at the displayed and zeroed in her vision onto the source.

To her surprise, she saw Marisa Kirisame sitting on her broom and employing the "And the Sun Rises Red" spell she had leant her. The witch was obviously having a good time as she blasted away at whatever she was blasting. Furthermore Mima was hovering behind her.

Yukari relaxed. No doubt their target was Yuuka. Marisa was on good terms with Yuyuko and Youmu, and wouldn't turn on them so easily. Presumably the Netherworld representatives were somewhere out of sight. Yukari would know if Yuyuko were to ever meet her second end, and that had definitely not happened.

She turned her attention back to Yuuka, who had her entire bottom half burned away and was now crawling away from the dragon with her fingers. As for the dragon, it was also seemed to be enjoying itself as it kept the flames going mere inches away from Yuuka's body, driving her forward.

Yukari took another sip of tea.

…

**The **_**other **_**½ of bloody Team Halloween. You know, the incompetent half.**

As Yuyuko's limp body fell, Youmu immediately tried to rush to save her. Unfortunately, Elly chose that moment continue her attack. Youmu was forced to defend herself as Elly's scythe flashed forward again and again and again.

While Youmu was quick enough to block the attacks, they kept coming. She gritted her teeth as she was driven further and further back, each blows sending tremors up her arms. Keeping this up was foolhardy. Sooner or later Elly would break through, and Youmu's service to her lady would end prematurely. She needed some kind of break, some kind of opening…

Fortunately, while she did not possess quite the large arsenal of tricks as some of her teammates, Youmu did have a couple. One had been taught to her by her father, a technique developed by her ancestors and perfected as it had been passed down from parent to child. As far as special abilities went, it wasn't as impressive as some of the others found in Gensokyo, but with a little creativity it could give her the edge she needed.

With a slight mental tweak, Youmu slowed time.

Suddenly Elly's blinding-fast slashes and thrusts came to a crawl. Her scythe was in the process of swinging back from one strike, and its movement dwindled until it might have been moving through thick syrup. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the expression on Elly's face as she realized what had happened was actually pretty funny, as her maniacal grin slowly molded itself into a jaw-drop of surprise.

Unfortunately the technique was a two-way street, and Youmu was likewise hampered. However, she had been expecting it, and the speed of thought was unaffected. She studied the situation, judged where Elly's blade was most likely to go, and begun the necessary movement move out of its path. At the same time, her wrists turned into the correct position, ready to strike out as soon as they were able.

As soon as she was ready, Youmu let the current of time retake its natural course. Things sped up immediately, and Elly's blade continued on its intended path. However, Youmu was no longer there. She spun out of the way and swung her shorter sword at Elly's neck.

"No!" Elly cried as she tried to compensate. To her credit, she was still incredibly fast and managed to avoid what would have surely been a decapitating blow. That didn't stop Youmu from leaving a painful-looking red line along the little Shinigami's jawline.

Youmu slowed time again. She watched as Elly reeled back in slow motion, judged the quickest way to press her advantage, and sped things up again.

This time it was Elly with the look of panic as she brought up the scythe to block Youmu's downward slash. Youmu turned her swords so that the blades were facing outward. She then let then slide along the scythe's handle in either direction, toward Elly's fingers.

"Ow!" Elly cried as she released the scythe. She stared as her hands. Once again, she had moved in time to avoid losing entire pieces of her body, but both of her index fingers were now cut nearly to the bone.

And then Youmu kicked her in the stomach and clocked her over the head with the hilt of her katana.

Her opponent dealt with, Youmu turned her attention back to Yuyuko. Her lady was lying motionless on the ground below, the glow of her body shining through the rain's haze. Youmu immediately started toward her…

…only to gasp in pain as someone punched her in the kidney. Bloody fingers seized her by the left wrist, and a palm thrust itself against her elbow, popping the joint out of place and causing her to drop her shorter blade. As Youmu reeled from the sudden pain, her other arm was twisted behind her back and the bones of her thin wrist were squeezed together, forcing her katana out of her grasp. Both swords spun to the earth.

Elly hissed as she wrapped her legs around Youmu's torso and grabbed her neck in a sleeper-hold. "Tip number one," she snarled. "Never turn your back on your opponent. Tip number two: if you have the opportunity to finish your opponent off, take it. Tip number three: Shinigami aren't knocked out that easily."

Youmu might have answered, but Elly was squeezing tightly with all her limbs, and the world was quickly growing dark.

…

**Team Scarlet (honestly now, is this the only team that managed to stay together?)**

Tiny bits of Yuuka were settling to the ground like snow. Sakuya squinted and waved the stuff away from her face. At her side, Flandre was watching the particles with an expression of entrancement. She grabbed handfuls of the stuff and rolled it around in her palms. She sneezed, upsetting the clumps she had gathered.

Even though the stuff was irritating her eyes, Sakuya forced her vision to remain focused on the place where Yuuka's main body had been. She felt a twinge of satisfaction when she saw a cloud of pale green mist rising up through the dust. Excellent.

She turned toward Remilia, who looked absolutely stunned by what she had seen. "Mistress Remilia!" Sakuya called.

Remilia jolted, and looked up at her. "Oh! Uh, yes?"

Sakuya gestured toward the mist. "The crystal! Seal her before she regenerates!"

"Oh!" Remilia's eyes widened. "O-of course! Right away!"

As the small vampire patted her armor in search of the sealing crystal, Sakuya returned her attention to the cloud. She frowned. Was it her imagination, or was it starting to move unnaturally? It did seem to be gathering together into a dense ball. And the bottom was thinning out and stretching downward, forming a stalk that reached toward the ground. That couldn't be good.

"Hurry!" Sakuya called.

"I am, I am!" Remilia said in frustration. "I _know_ I have it stashed somewhere-"

As quick as thought, an arm of mist shot out and hit Flandre in her midsection. She squeaked in surprise and was driven against the far wall. Remilia instinctively looked up only to be similarly hit and immobilized.

The cavern suddenly filled with tendrils of green mists that slammed into the walls, the ceiling and the floor. Stone pillars were smashed apart and the ceiling lurched upward as the wispy limbs forced their way up. Sakuya saw several of them whipping toward her and twisted her body out of the way. That unfortunately only put her in the path of several more, and she was forced to break hard and throw herself backward in the opposite direction. And so she continued, desperately dodging and reacting, all the while making her downward while only barely managing to avoid being hit herself.

And then something hit her, and hit her hard. She was thrown sideways to the floor, slammed into it at an angle, and the world spun round and round as she rolled to an ungraceful stop.

Sakuya blinked and tried to figure out what had happened. It hadn't been one of the tendrils. She was still moving freely, or as freely as her woozy body would allow. Her arm didn't feel right though, and her vision wouldn't focus. She tried to sit up, but a wave of nausea rose up to fight her.

She squinted and saw several stone fragments hitting the floor nearby, likely from one of the destroyed pillars. That had to be it. One of them had run right into her and knocked her for a loop.

Well, such things could be recovered from. Yuuka had not captured her, so there was that at least. Now all she had to do was move quickly and free the Mistresses. True, things were definitely set against them, but Sakuya had been in tight spots multiple times, and she had always come out ahead. Well, she had survived at least. All she had to do was get up. Just as soon as the room decided to sit still and that rushing in her ears went away.

Sakuya rolled onto her side and stared as the mist contracted and solidified, becoming rough bark. A leafless tree now stood in the center of the cavern, its naked boughs reaching everywhere, touching everything. Remilia and Flandre themselves were pressed against the floor and wall respectively, their bodies immobilized by thick clusters of branches that pinned down their limbs and pressed their torsos against the stone. Special care had been made to ensure that Flandre's fingers were spread wide and prevented from closing.

The only part of the tree that did not contribute to the web of branches was the top, which was perfectly round. Green shoots appeared on the dome. These grew large, sprouting leaves and red blossoms. The largest of these swelled up, becoming gigantic and blooming. The petals opened to reveal the source of the problem herself, aggravatingly alive and well and sitting in the middle of the flower like some sort of forest nymph.

Yuuka looked around at the chaos she had created. She tried to stand, but apparently dying and resurrecting with such gusto had taken something out of her, as she staggered and sit back down. "Oh, goodness me," she muttered. "That was…That was very interesting."

Then she looked at her staring captives. "Well. What a bizarre place we have found ourselves. What to do now, I wonder?"

Sakuya would have raised challenge, but right about then everything went dark.

…

**½ Team Bloody Halloween**

Wind tore at her hat. Rain slammed into her face. An incredible amount of energy, some of it natural and some of it artificially induced, sang through her veins. She was crouching forward, balanced on the handle of a wooden broom, one hand gripping the brim of her hat and the other holding onto the tip of the handle as she circled a twenty-story monstrosity made out of plants, blasting it with balls of flame from the six multicolored spheres spun around surrounded her. If an outside observer with no knowledge of the events that had led her here were to see her now, they would likely conclude that she was completely insane. In fact, if an insider with full knowledge of said events were to see her now, they would still conclude that were was completely insane, and probably only moments away from getting herself killed.

And Marisa Kirisame could not care less. She was having far too much fun.

She twisted and turned as she flew in tight circles around Yuuka, dodging the thrashing tentacle-like vines that tried to catch her and the predatory flowers that tried to swallow her, all the while dousing Yuuka with as much fire as she could. A mental buzzer went off in her head, telling her that her spell was about to time out. So she put some distance between her and Yuuka, turned to face her target and thrust her finger at it. The flame-spewing spheres shot forward, hitting Yuuka in six different places and erupting into huge fireballs of red, yellow, blue, green, orange and purple. That actually seemed to hurt Yuuka, as her monstrous worm-like body lurched back. Her grotesque head turned to face Marisa and her mouth opened, revealing dozens of needlelike teeth.

And then Yuuka's back exploded in bursts of bright viridian. Yuuka roared as she doubled over, her conjured garden shaking with pain. Mima came into view behind her. The (formerly) Evil Spirit of Makai had changed her appearance somewhat. She had grown four arms in addition to her stock two, and from her back six massive purple wings were unfurled. Marisa, who had seen her in this form many times before, had once asked her why she chose the number six. Mima's answer has simply been, "Because it pisses Shinki off". Marisa had declined to inquire any further.

However, this form did have practical advantages as well. Four of the arms were holding emerald spears of blazing power. She hurled one of the spears at the back of Yuuka's head and another at what passed for her neck, setting them ablaze with more of the green flame. Yuuka roared again and reflexively turned her head toward her new assailant. This just allowed Mima to throw the remaining spears right into her eyes.

As Yuuka thrashed about, Marisa held her hands close together. White energy collected between her palms, forming a sparking ball that grew larger and larger with every passing second. When it was about the size of a watermelon, Marisa thrust her hands forward and screamed, "Booya, Ugly!"

The ball arced forward, leaving a shining tail behind. It split into four shooting stars which slammed into the side of Yuuka's head, her neck, her midsection and the base of her body.

Marisa and Mima both flew upward to meet near the clouds and survey their work. Yuuka was in pain and on fire in every color of the rainbow, but she was recovering.

"Tenacious, isn't she?" Mima remarked. "What is it about weeds being so hard to kill?"

"Heck, I don't mind!" Marisa gibed. "Just means we can kill her some more!"

"Fair enough. This time we might want to concentrate on getting rid of those beds of Mykr's…Those glowing blue flowers. It's what she's using to shroud the place, and preventing me from accessing some of my more interesting tricks."

"Great! Let's get to it then!"

"Of course. I was thinking…Uh, you do know that you're glowing, right?"

Marisa grinned. "Hey, look at where we are! What's not to get excited about, ze?"

"No, not glowing with excitement," Mima corrected. "I mean _literally _glowing."

"Eh?" Marisa looked down at the arm holding the broom. True enough, it was surrounded by a bright white aura.

"Where in the hell…" Marisa mused. She didn't remember casting any spell that would cause something like that. But then again, her memory wasn't exactly that great at the moment. She shrugged and pointed a finger at Yuuka. The power she had supposedly gathered leapt off of her to form a tightly focused beam. Marisa closed one eye and stuck out her tongue as she concentrated on writing her name on Yuuka's body.

She ran out partway through her surname. "Gah, figures," she complained.

"Marisa Kiri?" Mima read out loud. "Sounds like an exotic dancer. Which would be quite fitting, actually. You know, given your history."

"Shaddup. It was one time and I was drunk."

"And a couple thousand yen richer when it was over, if I recall," Mima smirked. "Not bad for a night's work."

Marisa threw her hands into the air. "Hey, why are we talking about my embarrassing little misadventures when we should be _killing the_ _giant plant lady?"_

"Okay, okay," Mima said with a gentle smile. She looked over Yuuka's shaking form with a critical eye. "Hmmm, burning them off doesn't seem to work in the long run. She just keeps regrowing them. Say, what say we skin her?"

"Sounds like fun!" Marisa grinned. "How?"

"Do you remember that encounter we had with that wind serpent right after your eleventh birthday?"

"Yeah, what about…Oh! Oh, ho ho!" Marisa laughed. She hopped back into a sitting position and stuck out her hand. "All right, I was wondering when we could do this one again!"

Mima placed one of her hands in Marisa's. "Well, it does seem appropriate, given the shape of things."

"Sure it's gonna work, though? What with all the interference?"

Mima nodded. "I believe so, so long as we don't drift too far apart. And I don't see that happening, do you?"

"Nope!" A soft green light appeared between their hands, warming Marisa's palm. They both looked down.

Yuuka had finally lurched upright. The last bits of fire were being extinguished, and the burnt areas were swiftly regenerating. She looked around, evidently confused as to why her adversaries had disappeared. Then she looked up.

It was as good a signal as any. Marisa and Mima swooped downward. As they closed in, Mima shouted "Now!" and they flew apart. As their hands separated, a crackling green beam appeared between them, tethering them together.

As they descended, the two spellcasters started to chase each other in a circle, using the magical tether as both an anchor and as a way to coordinate their movement. They went faster and faster, until it seemed that they had become a rapidly falling green disc.

Yuuka blinked her massive eyes in confusion. "Wait, what in the…Oh. Oh dear."

The effect the whirring disc had as it came down on Yuuka was rather akin to that of a weed-whacker. It washed over her, cutting away skin and hair from her face and shaving away several layers of bark from the thick stalk of her body. The leaves, flowers and smaller vines were cut away entirely as Mima and Marisa swept her clean.

They descended further and further into the hole Marisa had created, reducing Yuuka into a naked stalk with a bald and flayed head at its top. At long last they reached the base, where their spinning finally came to rest and the tether vanished.

"Okay, hit it!" Mima called from the opposite of Yuuka's now much thinner body.

Marisa, who was now even giddier from the rush, wasted no time in popping out another black spellcard. "Okay, do something awesome, ze!" she said as she activated it.

It complied. A thick maroon mist swirled around Yuuka's stalk. It solidified, becoming a clinging goo that vibrated with her frenzied movements. Marisa wasn't sure what that stuff was, but it definitely didn't like plants. She stared in fascination as the tender green flesh sizzled away beneath it. Yuuka's thrashings took on a new level of urgency.

And then Mima made her move. Now free from the dampening effects of the Mykr's Sirens, she directed her will toward the swirling storm above and harnessed its raw power. As Yuuka whipped back and forth in her efforts to free herself, her ravaged face looked up just in time to see multiple thunderbolts coming right down upon her. She opened her mouth to roar, but then the bolts hit and it became a scream.

As Yuuka slowly toppled forward like a tree cut off at the base, Mima took the opportunity to sidle up to Marisa. "You were right earlier," she murmured. "We are just too awesome."

Marisa held up her fist, and Mima bumped it with her own.

…

**The Dying Half of Team Halloween**

For someone who appeared to be a ten-year-old girl, Elly's physical strength was impressive. She forced Youmu down to the earth, all the while squeezing the air out of her lungs and preventing any oxygen from reaching her brain.

Youmu was fading fast. Already she could hear the blood rushing in her ears as her consciousness slipped away from her. She tried to struggle, but Elly had every possible advantage over her. She was too strong, locked in too tight, and Youmu was hurt too much to fight back. She couldn't even slow time, and even if she did, what good would it do her? This was it, this was her final…

A voice spoke, as if from very far away. _"Now _I remember where I know you from."

The pressure around Youmu's throat and ribs immediately released. She didn't get up though. It seemed like too much trouble. And for the life of her, she couldn't think of why she should get up in the first place.

Another voice spoke. "You! Up already?" There was a whooshing noise of something moving very fast through the air. "Well, I'll just have to cut you again."

Youmu frowned. Why was everyone talking so loud? She wished they would be quiet and let her fall asleep. Sleep sounded so good right now, and everything was so nice and warm.

"You are the Shinigami that once worked for the Yamaxanadu Jamshid Eiki, brother of Yamaxanadu Shiki Eiki," said the first voice. "You served him for forty-three years before your negligence allowed the soul of a serial killer to escape and return to the physical world. Fearing your master's wrath, you fled, seeking refuge in the Twisting Ether. It was there that you met Yuuka Kazami and swore yourself to her service in return for sanctuary. And thus have you lived since, following her from the Twisting Ether to the Dream World. And from there, to Gensokyo."

There was a pause, and the second voice said, "H-how did you know that?"

"But that wasn't the first time you had ran away, is it? I wonder if your current master knows of how little Elizabeth MacLeod allowed her little brother to drown back in 1793 because she was too busy spying on the neighbor's boy."

"Shut up!" the second voice shouted.

The voices were obviously not going to stop talking. Youmu grimaced and forced her eyes to open. She could just barely make out two blurry figures: one tall and glowing and the other short and holding some sort of long stick.

"That was the first time you ran away," said the first voice, which evidently belonged to the tall figure. "You couldn't bear to face your parents, so you hid your brother's body and immediately fled to the city, hoping to start a new life there."

"I said shut up!" shouted the short figure. "You think you know me, Yuyuko Saigyouji? You think you can beat me this way?"

Yuyuko Saigyouji?

The name jolted Youmu's dozing mind, giving it the boost it needed. She remembered where she was. She remembered what had happened to her. And she remembered what she was supposed to do.

Though her body still felt like jelly, she managed to force her eyes open the rest of the way. She took in slow, deliberate breaths. It hurt her throat, but she forced the oxygen into her lungs anyway.

Yuyuko was standing nearby, talking to Elly. Her lady was hurt, and hurt badly. Youmu could see the deep slashes cutting across her chest, side and over one shoulder. Pink mist rose from the wounds, though Yuyuko didn't seem to notice. "But the city didn't provide the exciting new life you were expecting, did it? First was the workhouse, where you shared a bed with three other girls and spent all day working the cotton mills. And then one day you got into an argument with one of the boys and shoved him into the machinery, costing him his hand."

"Shut up already!" Elly screamed. She lunged forward and slashed at Yuyuko with her scythe. Youmu's vision was still too blurry to make out what happened next, but it didn't seem like she had succeeded, as Yuyuko was now standing atop a stone as she continue to dig up pieces of Elly's past.

"After you ran away from that, things got even worse," Yuyuko said, as if she had not just narrowly avoided being cut in half. "Because then you found yourself working in the coalmines, spending endless days in the darkness and the cold, opening and closing the doors for the coal wagons. But then you failed once again. Fell asleep on the job, and another girl was crushed as a result. And so you ran away. Again."

Youmu's whole body was trembling with pain and fatigue, and her dislocated arm felt like it had been ran through with daggers of ice, but she managed to bring herself to her knees. Coughing, she looked to her right and saw her wakizashi lying in the mud.

"Will! You! Shut! Up!" Elly cried, punctuating each word with a swipe of her scythe. Yuyuko managed to keep just out of reach, floating backward in a circle that led Elly around and around.

Youmu forced the stiff fingers of her working hand to close around the wakizashi's handle. She pushed herself to her feet. The world swayed worryingly, and she had to fight a sudden urge to vomit, but she managed to stay upright and keep her stomach under control.

"And then you stowed away in merchant craft bound for the East, hoping that a new world would give you the escape you craved. But not even that worked. Had Jamshid not appeared to you as you lay starving and diseased in the ship's hold, you would have died as you had lived; a cowardly failure, unable to face the consequences of your own incompetence."

"Incompetence!" Elly shouted back. "I'm one swing away from turning you into a piece of ectoplasm! And don't think I don't know what you're doing. You're trying to get to me, play games with my mind. Make me screw up. Well, I've got news for you, you…you…"

Elly stopped talking. She looked down to see the tip of Youmu's blade protruding from her left shoulder.

"What…" she whispered, sounding more confused than anything.

Youmu pulled the blade out. It had definitely not been the killing blow she had intended, but in her state it was all she could do to stagger forward and stab at whatever she could hit. She took a deep breath and straightened up.

But it seemed to do the trick. The angry look on Elly's face dissolved into one of complete bewilderment. She touched the wound on her shoulder. "I don't…How did this…"

Then she looked up to see Yuyuko and Youmu standing side-by-side. Despite their wounds, they were standing up straight. Youmu held her blade up in challenge, and Yuyuko's hands were glowing with power. And from the look of things, this time it was not danmaku.

Elly looked from one grim face to the other. She started shaking. "Wait, this wasn't how…It wasn't supposed to go like this…"

The look of uncertainty on her face gave way to fear. She slowly backed away. "Don't touch me," she said. "Don't either of you dare touch me, or I'll…I'll…"

Then she whirled and jumped into the air and flew away as fast as she possible could.

Yuyuko and Youmu remained where they were. When they were certain that Elly wasn't coming back, they collapsed against each other.

"Oh Youmu, thank goodness she left," Yuyuko muttered. "I don't think I had enough energy to last another thirty seconds."

"Agreed, my lady," Youmu said, her voice painfully raw.

"And excellent timing, Youmu. Despite your injuries, you were able to recover and take advantage of the distraction I had provided. Your father would be proud."

Youmu managed a shaky smile. "Thank you, my lady. But speaking of those injuries…"

"Here, Youmu. Let me see."

Yuyuko gently picked up Youmu's dislocated arm. Youmu tried not to wince too much at the touch, but it was very difficult.

"Youmu, if I may…"

Youmu nodded numbly.

Yuyuko held Youmu's loose elbow and her upper arm. She gave former a quick twist and a shove. It popped back into place. She held it a moment longer, letting the warmth from her otherworldly fingers seep into the joint and ease the pain.

Youmu breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, my lady. But what of you? You are also injured."

Yuyuko looked down and blinked. It seemed like she was honestly surprised to see her own wounds. "Oh, my. Did she do that to me, Youmu?"

"Yes, my lady."

Yuyuko passed a hand over the gouges. They closed up behind it, preventing any more of the pink mist from escaping. Youmu shook her head. Sometimes, having an entirely spectral body had its advantages.

"Unlike you," she said to Myon, who was just now coming out of its hiding place. "Some help you were."

"I'm sorry, Youmu. Did you say something?"

"Ah, no my lady. Nothing of significance."

"Then it's all right then, Youmu."

Though Youmu would have preferred to remain sitting in the warmth of her lady, it was raining, and her blades were out in the open. She pushed herself to her feet with a grunt, was pleased when the world remained steady this time, and went to retrieve her katana and wakizashi. She dried the former the best she could and wiped the latter clean of Elly's blood.

"Now, Youmu," Yuyuko murmured as Youmu sheathed her blades.

"Yes, my lady?"

"It seems that we were victorious, Youmu."

"Yes, my lady."

"And yet, it seems that we were only attacked so as to prevent us from assisting Mima and Marisa Kirisame in battle against Yuuka Kazami, Youmu."

Youmu's heart sank, but she said, "So it would seem, my lady."

"As such, Youmu, we have two paths ahead of us. We can either return to the Netherworld to recover, or continue to do our parts, despite being hurt."

That was a difficult choice. On the one hand, coward she may be, Elly had done a number on them. Though Youmu's arm had been put back into place and the hurt (mostly) soothed away, it was far from being fully functional. And nearly being strangled to death while having her ribs crushed made breathing a bit painful. Fortunately, her heritage meant that Youmu recovered more quickly than plain Humans, but not by that much. And that wasn't even touching on the damage done to Yuyuko by Elly's scythe. The spirit princess was immensely powerful, but she was not invulnerable.

But on the other hand, that would mean abandoning Mima and Marisa to fight Yuuka Kazami alone. What little Youmu had seen of the woman had been a strong indication that she was a major-league heavyweight. The two magicians would need all the help they could get. She and Yuyuko might have been brought into this operation to keep an eye on those two and control them if necessary, but that didn't mean Youmu didn't still regard them as comrades-in-arms. She had worked directly with Marisa on quite a few occasions, and despite the severe differences in temperament the two enjoyed an easy relationship, almost a friendship of sorts. And while she bore no love toward Mima, she did not bear her any ill will either.

Youmu sighed in weary resignation. Even though it was probably not the smartest idea, there really was only one way this was going to go. It was the only way she was going to be able to live with herself afterward.

Her lady saw the look on her face and smiled. "As expected. Shall we return to the fray, Youmu?"

"Yes, my lady."

…

**Team Scarlet (so much for that)**

Remilia struggled against the branches and twigs that held her immobile, but even with her considerable vampiric strength it did no good. She considered becoming a swarm of bats, but her bindings were so closely knit together that even the bats would be too large to slip out. Yuuka had done her homework.

It just wasn't fair. They had been _so _close to winning, so close! All she had to do was find the crystal and seal Yuuka up. Then they could have handed her over to Yukari, gotten their names scratched off her Bad List and gone on their merry way. Perhaps Yukari might have even shown gratitude. Perhaps they might have won her good favor.

But no, that was now denied them, and all because Remilia had failed to remember where she had stashed that stupid crystal in her stupid armor. Why was she wearing this thing anyway? It had done her no good so far.

And to top it off, she now had the tip of a particularly thick branched shoved into her mouth, which had grown in such a way that her fangs were now driven deep into the bark. It was large enough to prevent her from speaking. And it tasted foul.

Nothing wrong with her eyes though. She looked up at her sister. Remilia's imprisoned limbs started shaking as she watched Flandre try to move her body enough to tear herself free. As someone who had lived her entire life with incredible strength, being rendered powerless must be terrifying, even moreso than it was for Remilia. And, just to add insult to injury, a branch as thick as man's arm wrapped around her face and covered her eyes.

"Remi?" Flandre called out. "Where are you, Remi? What happened? I…I can't _see_, Remi! I know you're here, I can smell you, but I can't see you! Say something! Sakuya? Are you here? What's happening to me?"

Remilia wished she could respond, wished she could console her sister in any way, even through a lie, but the branch shoved into her mouth prevented that. Which, as she noted with a feeling of horror, had to be Yuuka's reason for muting her and blinding her sister. Flandre was terrified and instinctively seeking comfort from the person she was closest to, and that person was not only prevented from giving it, but Flandre was likewise prevented from knowing the reason why her cries were being ignored. And though she was a centuries-old supernatural monster and (in some circles) a legendary powerhouse of destruction, Flandre would forever have the mind of a child. For a child, there is nothing more terrifying than being abandoned by someone you trusted.

Remilia had heard many tales of Yuuka's cruelty. She had never realized how true they were up until that moment.

Yuuka took her time in coming down from the tree. Those blue flowers, which had to be the reason for all of their technical difficulties, grew back as she did so. Which meant that they were still on their own.

If there was any sort of silver lining in this catastrophic storm, it was that though Yuuka's body was now completely whole, recovering from Flandre's onslaught had taken quite a bit out of her. She moved carefully across the floor, holding onto the spiderweb-like network of branches for support. But she kept coming, moving closer and closer to Remilia.

Then she stopped and looked down at the imprisoned girl. The look on her face was one of pure self-satisfaction. If Remilia could have spit on her she would. "Well, well, well, little Remilia Scarlet," Yuuka said in a low voice. "The Scarlet Devil. Catchy title, by the way. Oh, don't look so surprised. Of course I've heard of you. Or rather, once I had learned that our mutual friend Yukari Yakumo had shanghaied you into our nasty business, I made a point of looking you up."

She looked Remilia up and down and tsked. "Well, I really should apologize on my opponent's behalf. It really doesn't look like this game has done you any favors. And just taking what I heard of your argument earlier with your sister, you really do seem to be under a lot of stress at the moment. I imagine that with the difficulties of looking after such a problematic family member, being sucked into this war would only complicate things further." Yuuka snapped her fingers. "That's it! Tell you what. Why don't I make things easier for you and remove a major headache? You want your life to be simpler, don't you? Well, don't you worry your pretty little head. Auntie Yuuki knows just how to make that happen."

Remilia felt her already cold blood chill even further as Yuuka crouched over her. Yuuka pointed a finger, and a green shoot snaked out of the tip. It slithered downward and crept over the surface of Remilia's armor, searching for a way in. Remilia closed her eyes when it found one and crawled in. Her body twitched as she felt it moving around inside, searching.

"You know, there's something that's always fascinated me about you vampires," Yuuka said as she worked, almost as if they were meeting for drinks one afternoon. "I mean, as far as monsters go, you're pretty high up on the hierarchy. Universally feared, in possession of great power, and don't get me started on your reputation as godlike lovers. It seems that whenever you're brought up, people are either deathly afraid of you or they want you to throw them down and jump their bones. Sometimes both. And yet…Here we go!"

The shoot mercifully exited Remilia's armor. She opened her eyes and received a shock when she saw that the end was holding the very sealing crystal she had been unable to find. Yuuka held it between her fingers and peered through it at Remilia, its multiple facets reflecting a thousand scarlet eyes.

"Clever little thing," Yuuka said. "Small, portable, but I imagine it can get lost very easily. But what was I saying? Oh, yes. Vampires. At any rate, despite this incredible mythos your people have accumulated around yourself, there are probably more ways to kill or weaken you than any other immortal species. And many of them are extremely silly. I mean, really? Direct sunlight? Are you just deathly allergic to the ultraviolet? And what of your weakness to running water? Specific religious symbols? _Garlic?"_

Actually only the first two were correct, but Remilia couldn't have corrected her even if she had wanted. Just as well, as Yuuka was far from done.

"And then there are the ones that are oddly specific. You can survive having any number of essential organs torn out, regenerate from any injury, but if your head and your neck ever part ways, then that's the end of the road for you. And of course, there's my personal favorite. The all-time classic."

Yuuka held up her right arm. Out of the sleeve came brown roots that reached up over the hand and came together to form a sort of spherical covering. Out of the top of this a long, sharp point grew. Remilia's entire body clenched in fear when she realized what Yuuka was doing.

"The stake through the heart," Yuuka mused. "Why is that, I wonder? Well, I suppose the heart bit makes some sense, given the whole blood motif you've got going." She traced the point in small circles over the breast of Remilia's armor. "But why a stake? And why does it have to be made of wood? I've never really understood that part. Why wouldn't a blade work just as well? Or a metal spike for that matter? Is this another one of your strange allergies?"

She smiled, gave Remilia's breastplate one final tap and, to Remilia's immense relief, backed off. "Ah well, I suppose I should just be thankful that frightful creatures as yourself can be brought down by a humble plant. Now, to do as I promised…"

She turned and walked away. Remilia stared after her, wondering what that had been all about.

Then she saw that Yuuka was making her way toward Flandre. The feelings of panic surged back to life. She strained against her bonds but they held fast. She tried to bite her way through the wood gag, but only succeeded in driving her fangs in deeper.

As such, she could only watch helplessly as Yuuka drew in close to Flandre. Yuuka glanced at Remilia, winked and blew her a kiss. Then she looked back to her other captive.

"Flandre?" she said. "What in the world is this? Explain yourself!"

Remilia made a choking sound. It was _her_ voice. _Yuuka _was using _her _voice. _Yuuka _was speaking to her _little sister_ using _her voice!_

"Remi?" Flandre said. She tried to turn her head toward the sound of the voice. "Are you there? Help me!"

"And why would I do that?" Yuuka said scornfully, still using Remilia's voice. "Look at you! All you had to do was one thing, one simple thing, isn't that right? And you couldn't even do that! Why should I save you from the consequences of your own actions?"

"What?" Flandre said, her voice filled with confusion. "But I tried! I tried, Remi, but-"

"That's Re_mi_lia to you, young lady!" Yuuka snapped. "And in light of your previous behavior, I'm tempted to just leave you there. Honestly, I don't know why I've held onto you for so long. All you bring is trouble. I should have just gotten rid of you ages ago."

_Don't listen to her, Flan! _Remilia begged. _It's not me! I'd never say something like that, no matter how angry I was!_

Unfortunately, her pleas went unnoticed. "W-why are you saying this? Why are you saying these things, Re…Remilia?" She was on the very verge of tears now, as was Remilia herself.

"Oh, don't act like you don't know!" Yuuka snapped. Despite the scorn of words and her borrowed voice, the look on her face was one of naked delight. "You've been nothing but a burden from day one. I should just do us both a favor and cut you loose."

"What?" Flandre gaped. "No! P-please Remi-"

"REMILIA!" Yuuka roared.

There was a pause, and then Flandre said in a small voice, "Please Remilia, don't do that. I…I'm sorry, I…"

"Oh, save your whimpering. It's not like you're ever going to change. Besides, I thought it's what you wanted. To go off and be with that idiotic bird, was it not? Well, news flash for you, Flandre. She has got to be the only person in the world stupid enough to actually want you. And there is no way she'll be able to hide you. Have you forgotten that her master reads minds? And even if she did, it wouldn't be long before she tired of your insufferable self as well. More likely than not she'll lose patience with you and turn you into a cinder! You'll be better off fleeing as far away as you can." Yuuka sighed dramatically. "Though I suppose it would be too cruel to just release you into the wild. It wouldn't be long before everyone's after you as well, most likely with the intent of ending you as painfully as possible. And you are my sister after all, as much as I loathe the idea. If anyone's to do the deed…"

Oh, no. No, no, no. Remilia's mind was nearly paralyzed with dread. She watched as Yuuka held up the pointed stake that covered her right hand.

"Here you go," Yuuka continued in Remilia's voice. "One last mercy. Not that you deserve it, of course. Goodbye, Flandre."

"Huh?" Flandre said. "What are you-"

Yuuka plunged the stake right into Flandre's heart.

…

**½ of Bloody Stupid Team Halloween**

Marisa scratched her head. "Yah'know, this is getting kinda old. Seriously, what does it take to kill her?"

"An excellent question," Mima grunted. "By my calculations, we should have destroyed her completely about seven times over. At least. Of course, not knowing her exact species complicates things, but even someone as strong as, say, Yukari should have at least been temporarily reduced to vapor."

They were both high in the air, staring down at the huge crater. At the bottom, Yuuka was again struggling to recover from their latest onslaught, this one involving a storm of ice, meteors and a swarm of tiny, angry microscopic fairies (Mima had been responsible for that last one). Like all their previous attempts, they had kicked ass. And just like before, Yuuka had somehow managed to survive.

"Perhaps this calls for a change in tactics," Mima said. "It's obvious that just hitting her with everything we've got over and over isn't working."

"Hey, why don't we try from the inside out?" Marisa suggested. "Like, turn really tiny and let her swallow us-"

"No."

"Aw, come on! I've done it before. It's not that bad."

"Ha ha, but seriously, we need to…You're not joking, are you?"

Marisa shrugged. "This one time? Like three years ago? I accidentally shrunk myself to the size of a termite. And before I could change back this stupid maple tree youkai wandered up and swallowed me whole."

"Ah," Mima said. "I did not know that."

"Sorry, I kinda forgot about it myself until now. Anyway, it was really gross and sticky, and I didn't have my hakkero or spellcards along. But I could still use all my other spells. And as it turns out, youkai insides aren't reinforced against being spontaneously combusted. It was kind of fun, actually. Except for the part where I ended up smelling like liver and pancakes for two weeks straight, ze."

"Well, that certainly sounds like an adventure," Mima said with a sigh. "But I feel obligated to point out that a maple youkai and Yuuka Kazami are hardly the same thing. For one, Yuuka seems to be a shapeshifter. She can probably change her insides to crush or chew us up if we were to enter, no matter how small we got."

Marisa's face went a little pale. "Okay then, no swimming in someone else's digestion then."

"I'm honestly relieved you're willing to discard that option," Mima said. "But you're right. We do need to find an alternate solution. I assume you're still opposed to calling up Yukari and letting her finish this?"

"Fuck yeah. This is our win."

They looked down again. Yuuka's giant stalk of a body had coiled itself up like a snake, and her head was slowly taking in huge breaths and releasing them.

"I think she's preparing for something," Mima noted.

"Yah think? All right, enough is enough."

Marisa took in a deep breath of her own, cast a voice-amplification spell, and yelled, "HEY, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE!"

Yuuka looked up. Her huge, bulbous eyes narrowed.

"LOOK, WE WERE JUST NOTICING THAT YOU WERE PREPARING TO DO SOMETHING! BUT WE'VE BEEN KINDA KICKING YOUR ASS FOR AWHILE NOW, AND CAN KEEP DOING THIS ALL DAY IF WE HAVE TO, ZE! AND WHILE IT'S BEEN A LOT OF FUN, IT IS GETTING A LITTLE REPETITVE. SO WHAT SAY WE JUST SKIP TO THE END AND HAVE YOU DIE SO WE CAN GO HOME? COME ON, YOU KNOW IT'S GONNA HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER."

"Oh, brilliant idea," Mima groused. "That's even worse than Reimu's little speech a few days ago."

"NOT COOL, MASTER! BUT SERIOUSLY, LEAFY. WHY DON'T YOU JUST GIVE UP?"

"You do know that's not actually going to work, right?" Mima said.

"HEY, IT'S WORTH A SHOT! OH, HELL. I FORGOT TO TURN OFF…WAIT, WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING, ZE?"

Despite Marisa's call to surrender, Yuuka was doing nothing of the sort. Rather, she was focusing on growing back her arboreal covering. However, instead of a mess of vines and flowers, this time it was in the form of several large prickly brown spheres that puffed up out of her body like fungus.

"THE HELL IS THAT SHIT?" Marisa asked.

"Seed pods," Mima said. "She's changing tactics before we are. This isn't…Wait, Marisa!"

Her warning came half-a-second too late. Marisa had already created several comet-like explosives and let them fall right over Yuuka. However, Mima was still an extraordinarily powerful magician. She waved a hand, and a thin green barrier appeared beneath them. Marisa's bombs hit the shield and exploded without even getting close to Yuuka.

"HEY, WHAT GIVES?" Marisa said, throwing her hands up the air in indignation.

"They're seed pods, dimwit!" Mima snapped. "Blow them up and they'll just release the seeds!"

Marisa stared. "OH. UH, GOOD POINT." She slowly lowered her arms.

"Instead, we should be using spells that burn the pods with the seeds inside. I suggest-" Mima winced in pain. Below her, her shield shattered into sparks. "Ah! Not again!"

The pods had burst open even without Marisa's help. And out floated hundreds, if not thousands, of fist-sized…things. And each and every one was glowing blue.

Marisa slapped a palm across her face. "AGAIN WITH THE FLOWERS? JESUS, I AM GETTING SO SICK OF THOSE THINGS! COME ON, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!"

"She has," Mima said. The ghost winced and rubbed her forehead. "Looks like she hybridized them with something else. And you really don't need to keep that voice-amplification spell…" A handful of the seeds caught a draft and floated up more quickly than their fellows. Mima snatched one out of the air and frowned at it. "Oh. Well, that's not good."

"EH?" Marisa said as she nervously kept her distance from the things.

"Leech seeds." Mima held the seed toward her. The blue flower sat on top, while the bottom was a nasty-looking cluster of curved thorns and a wriggling root that looked an awful lot like a tongue. "She's combined them with leech seeds. Mykr's Leech, I guess it would be called now?"

Marisa made a face. "THE HELL IS THAT?"

"It's a parasite. It digs into your skin and feeds off your blood. I think she's targeting you specifically."

"AW SHIT." Marisa swallowed noisily. "CAN THEY BURN?"

"Certainly, but there is a rather lot of them. I think we should…Oh dear."

Yuuka roared, and the cloud of seeds rushed upward.

"MOVE!" Mima shouted, her voice briefly as loud as Marisa's. She tossed the seed away and started to spray the cloud with liquid fire. "They can't hurt me, so…What?"

The Mykr's Leech she had just tossed aside suddenly attached itself to the back of her palm. Its thorns hooked in while the root tried to push its way through her ethereal skin.

Mima grimaced and threw her other hand over the flower. The whole thing crumbled to dust. "Never mind, they _can _hurt me. Seems they've been modified even further." A moment later she realized that she had remained stationary while the bulk of the cloud flew up towards them. "Oh, this is going to suck-"

"MIMA!" Marisa screamed as her former mentor was overrun by Mykr's Leeches and disappeared. She would have flown to her rescue, but the cloud was moving so fast that she had to immediately soar upward to avoid being consumed herself.

Marisa flew higher and higher, eventually going right through the storm clouds. She cast a quick warding spell to keep herself from being struck by lightning, and kept going through the clinging vapor. She just needed to find a place to regroup and collect her thoughts. Then she could figure out a way to save Mima and wipe out Yuuka once and for all.

And then she was out of the clouds and in the sunshine. Marisa let out a small cry of surprise and flipped her broom up and over so that she was hovering upright.

What she saw made her glad she had skipped breakfast. The Mykr's Leeches were already there, floating up out of the dark clouds below and into the light of day. Marisa looked up and gasped. They were there too, moving above her and around her, coming in close and caging her in.

…

**Team Scarlet (well, one of them at least)**

Flandre's body went completely rigid as the pointed tip tore through her blouse and sank right into her chest. Her mouth opened as if to scream, but no sound came out.

And then she seemed to relax. Her limbs slumped in the branches' grasp and a long, slow breath whistled out of her mouth, the sound of which was not dissimilar to a deflating balloon.

Remilia stared in shock. This couldn't be happening. There was no way this was possible. This had to be another nightmare. She was asleep, the battle with Yuuka was still coming, and all of the stress was causing her subconscious to dream up the absolute worst case scenario. That had to be it. Flandre was fine. All she had to do was wake up and go downstairs to see her. That's it. All she had to do was wake up…

Flandre's skin faded to grey and her body crumbled to dust, leaving behind a small red cloud that held her shape for the briefest of moments before falling apart.

A muffled scream built inside Remilia, restricted by the branch but losing none of its intensity. Flandre's clothing, now empty of their owner, slipped down between the branches as the dust billowed all around them. They continued to flutter their way toward the floor only to alight on one of the many tree limbs that connected the room. A small twig stuck up from the newly created hole in her blouse.

"My point exactly," Yuuka said. "You can be killed by a well-placed stick! How exactly have your people become so feared?"

Then she held the sealing crystal into the red cloud left behind by Flandre's demise. The mist slowly contracted and entered the stone, filling its clear facets with a blood-red glow, changing them to scarlet.

"A pity you didn't bring more of these along," Yuuka remarked as the last of the haze entered its glittering prison. "I could have collected the whole set. Instead, I have to pick and choose. I suppose that's a dilemma that all collectors must face, sooner or later." She held the crystal in front of her face, letting the chaotic crimson light wash over her features. "Still, all things considered, I do believe I've made the right choice. I don't believe your sister really is as uncontrollable as you believe. She just needs a gentle hand and an understanding heart and the ability to return to life from just about anything."

With that, she opened her mouth and placed the crystal on her tongue. Her lips closed and she swallowed.

_Please God, _Remilia begged as tears rolled freely down her face. _I know I haven't spoken to you since I was Human, and I know you probably don't listen to people like me, or anyone in Gensokyo for that matter, but please. Let this not be real. Let me wake up._

Then she smelled something warm close by. Remilia looked down out of the corner of her eye and, to her disbelief, saw Sakuya crouching behind a stalagmite. Even through the shadow cast by her hood Remilia could see that Sakuya's face was heavily bruised, with a large purple swelling partially closing her right eye, and her right arm was hanging lifelessly at her side. But she was free, she was alive, and she was there at Remilia's side.

"Don't move," Sakuya whispered. "Don't look at me, don't acknowledge my presence at all."

Remilia quickly averted her eyes.

Yuuka was moving again, walking across the room on the branches of her tree, balancing as if she were walking a tightrope. "You know, it's funny," she said as she moved in seemingly no set direction at all. "I honestly can't decide if I'm annoyed or pleased that you people showed up at all. I mean, I do understand that you had no real choice in the matter and that Yukari had forced you into this through some horrible means or another, so please don't take this as me lecturing you. But still, this was just supposed to be a good-natured brawl, between me and her. We would both show up and the appointed time and place, I would knock her around, she would knock me around, the overall geography of the area would be irreversibly altered, and then we would shake hands and go home. People used to do those sorts of things all the time! In fact, they still do! Isn't this supposed to be Gensokyo's national pastime? Having completely pointless fights because oh why not?"

As Yuuka ranted, Sakuya slipped out from behind the stalagmite and starting moving through the darkness, catlike and silent. Even though Remilia dared not look at her, now that she had Sakuya's scent, she could still keep track of where she was going, even though she had no idea what her chief maid was up to.

"But no," Yuuka continued. "She had to go and screw everything up. Bring in a bunch of people who had no business being here in the first place. That is just plain shameful, if you ask me. I mean, look where it's gotten you. And your sister. And everyone else, for that matter. Had Yukari just done the honorable thing and faced me on equal terms, none of this would have happened. And yet…"

Sakuya was now near the tree itself, on the opposite side as Yuuka. Though Remilia was doing her best to remain still and not give away her position, she was nearly driving herself mad with feelings of worry and anticipation. What was Sakuya planning?

"…and yet," Yuuka said. She stopped pacing and shook her head. "And yet, I'm actually a little glad she tried to cheat. Just a little, mind you. I cannot, on principle, condone her actions. But thanks to them, I may have gained more from this excursion than a chance to stretch my muscles and use them to pound Yukari's face unrecognizable. I have profited. Gained future prospects. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with them, but I'm already working on a few ideas."

She shrugged and smiled. "Well, I suppose that's enough of me blabbering on and on. You're probably getting bored, and are anxious to go for my throat. And I really need to wrap this up, so what say I give you one last opportunity to go down in a blaze of glory? Look, I'll even let you have your spear!"

The bindings holding Remilia in place withdrew. She quickly leapt to her feet and looked up to see Gungnir spinning through the air toward her. The shaft smacked against the palm of her hand. Remilia stared first at the weapon in her hand, and then at Yuuka.

Yuuka grinned and spread her arms wide. "Come at me, sister!" she taunted.

Remilia was more than happy to oblige, but right about then was when Sakuya made her move.

It did not end well.

…

**Yukari**

Yukari sighed and shifted her weight. She supposed she had wasted enough time. As enjoyable as it had been, it really was time to wrap things up.

The dragon had Yuuka pinned down with one burning claw and was breathing down a constant stream of super-heated air. The heat and fumes were enough to melt away her skin as quickly as it regenerated, but not so much that she was incinerated.

"Hold," Yukari said. "Let her up."

The dragon obeyed. It withdrew from Yuuka's ravaged body and perched on the edge of the crater, waiting on its master's word.

Yukari dropped the teacup into the gap and closed it up. Then she floated down to where Yuuka lay. She waited as the burns lightened and the flesh was made whole. Soon after Yuuka's clothing also regenerated and covered her newly healed limbs.

Yuuka's eyes opened. "Well…" she said in a weak voice. "I guess I was right."

"Really. About what?"

"About how much that was going to hurt." Yuuka coughed and sat up.

"Hmmm, true enough. But seriously, were you expecting anything less?"

Yuuka's perfect teeth flashed. "Actually…I was…expecting more."

Yukari rolled her eyes. "Oh, very droll. Be honest, Yuuka. When was the last time you experienced pain anywhere near that level?"

"Last Saturday…At my weekly…poker meeting."

"Excuse me?" Yukari said.

Yuuka shrugged. "Sorry…Sounded funnier…in my mind."

"I'm sure it did." Yukari shook her head. "Well now, one-fourth of Yuuka. It's been fun, but all good things must come to an end. Plus, I need to root out your other pieces and kill them too."

"That won't…be too…difficult."

"No, I'm sure it won't." Yukari held up one hand. "But at any rate, this is endgame. Goodbye, you sad sack of shit."

With that, she gathered her will together.

It was something she had done numerous times in the past. If she wanted to kill someone quickly and permanently, the best way was to grab the core of their essence and tear it apart. Of course this became more difficult, sometimes even hazardous, when dealing with creatures that were on her level, which is why she had refrained from doing it up until now. But as she was only dealing with a fragment of Yuuka, she saw no reason to hesitate.

She felt the supernatural energies of Yuuka's being as they twisted around the monster's physical form. Chaotic, violent and incredibly deadly, but she had seen worse. As such, she had no problem in taking her will and plunging it into Yuuka's essence.

The effect was a bit different from what she had been expecting.

Yukari recoiled as her head erupted in pain. She stumbled backward, clutching at her face. With an effort of will, she blocked away the pain and opened her eyes. As she withdrew her trembling hands, she saw that her fingernails were bleeding.

Marisa and Mima had been right. Yuuka was no youkai. There were very few beings whose essence could have that effect on her while being so much weaker than her. Which meant…

Oh no.

"Problem, Yukari?" she heard Yuuka say mockingly. Though oddly enough, the voice was not coming from the Yuuka sitting before Yukari. Rather, it was coming from somewhere behind her.

Yukari had started to turn around when something wrapped around her waist. Her mind had just enough time to register a dull green vine topped with two pincer-like blades before she was yanked right off her feet and sent tumbling through the air.

It was a short trip. A massive boulder-like hand came down on top of her, and Yukari was nearly pounded right through solid ground.

Coughing and spitting out dirt, Yukari pushed herself up to see that two more Yuukas standing over her, each wearing identical grins. One had replaced her right arm with the flexible vine that had flung her into the air while the other had layered her hands, arms and shoulders with more than five times their normal mass.

"So sorry we're late," said the one with the vine-arm. "Your friends gave us a wee bit more trouble than we had expected."

"Speak for yourself," said the one with the huge fists. "They barely even touched me."

"Yes, well, I do believe my opponents were just a little bit higher on the competence scale."

"Now, now…don't fight…" said the third Yuuka, the one Yukari had been tormenting. "After all…we are on the…same team, aren't we?"

"She does have a point," admitted the whip-fist Yuuka. "I apologize."

"No, no, the fault was mine," said the hammer-fist Yuuka. "I started it, after all." She looked down at the dazed Yukari. "Well, shall continue where we left off?"

"Oh yes, let's."

Yukari felt two oversized hands reach under her armpits and hoist her up. She was then flung into the air. The vine-limb cracked forward again. She was seized by the leg and snapped back into the earth.

Yukari tried to get her bearings, but then she was being pulled up again. Yuuka swung her round and round over her head. Once, twice, and then Yukari was snapped forward toward the large-fisted Yuuka, who was drawing back her right arm.

The next thing she knew, Yukari was slowly inching back to consciousness. She was lying face-up in the dirt at the end of a trench dug by her body. All three Yuukas were standing over her, waiting. The two newcomers had allowed their arms to return to normal and were supporting Yukari's Yuuka between them.

"Ah, that was quick," said the one on the left. "You are a hardy one."

"Tell me…about it," said the one in the middle. "It's amazing…what she can…" The rest of the sentence dissolved into a fit of coughing.

"Easy there," said the one on the right. "Don't exert yourself. You've been through a rough ride."

"But you still performed spectacularly," the left-hand one was quick to say. "Way to take one for the team!"

Yukari forced herself back to full consciousness. "You are…other fragments of Yuuka, I presume?"

That prompted a laugh from all three of them. "What a silly question! Of course we are!" said the one on the right. "We just finished up with those scalawags you brought along and ran here to support our sister-in-arms."

"You know, Yukari, you really should choose your help a bit more wisely," said the one on the left. "Raw power is no substitute for actual ability."

Yukari choked as both of them held up her own sealing crystals. One shone with a pale violet light while the other burned with violent crimson. "What did you do to them?"

"I warned you," said the one on the left, the one with the crimson crystal. "Send any more puppets after me, and I would break them. I did nothing more than what was promised."

"I'm pretty sure there are survivors though," said the other. "Though they would not be in the best shape at the moment. Feel free to scrape them from the rocks once we're done here. That is, of course, if you don't require someone to put you together yourself."

"Speaking of which, I believe we've been apart for far too long," said the one of the left.

"But what…of our sister?" said the one in the middle. "She is…not here yet."

"Give her time, she'll catch up," said the one on the right. "But I don't think she'll be offended if we were to start without her."

With that, both of the Yuukas placed their crystals into the hands of the weakened Yuuka in the middle. At the same time, they leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. Yukari's vision blurred for a moment. When it cleared, there was only one Yuuka standing before her, holding both crystals between the fingers of her right hand.

"Now you see them," Yuuka said. She made a magician's flourish, and the crystals vanished. "Now you don't." Then she held up her fist. There was a loud _crack! _and a flash of light. When it cleared, her umbrella was once again within her grasp.

Yukari quickly took stock of the situation. All right, so now this Yuuka had three times the power as the one she had been fighting. And once again, she couldn't just reach in a tear her apart without risking damage to her own soul. And from the looks of things, she had lost at least of the teams. This was not good.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw, to her chagrin, that the dragon of fire she had summoned was still sitting perched on the lip of the crater. That was the problem with these constructs. They only responded to specific commands. Absolutely no initiative whatsoever.

"Get her!" Yukari screamed.

Yuuka raised an eyebrow. "Who are you…Oh. Right."

The dragon roared as it lunged into flight. Its mighty wings beat the air and left a trail of flame as it charged towards Yuuka.

Yuuka didn't flinch. She merely braced her legs and pointed the tip of her umbrella at the beast. As the dragon opened its mouth to incinerate her, a sudden sharp whining sound pierced Yukari's eardrums.

There was a green flash, and Yukari's dragon simply exploded. The sky filled with brilliant flashes like fireworks, and flaming bits rained down on the earth.

"I think we've had enough of him," Yuuka said. "Once again, I remind you. This fight is supposed to be between you and me."

"One-on-one, eh? Then what were those other Yuukas then?"

"No, not one-on-one," Yuuka corrected. "You and me. They were still me, so it just became you and me and me and me. Still well within the bounds of the rules."

…

"_The rules, the rules, the rules," Yuuka murmurs. "They're put there for a reason, you know. And yet so many people disregard them. Now laws, laws you can safely disregard. In fact, you should do just that. They're silly, they're impersonal, and it's so much fun to see those bumbling lawmakers throw temper tantrums when you refuse to do as they say. But the rules? Those developed for specific situations? Ah, ignore those at your own peril. They are put in place for a reason. And without them, where would we be?"_

_For a moment you're afraid that she might require an answer, but fortunately that is not the case. "Chaos. That's what we would be reduced do. Pure, unadultered chaos."_

_She leans back with a smirk of satisfaction. "Now, I know what you're thinking. 'But Yuuka, I thought you enjoyed chaos! I thought that causing chaos was your calling card! Your M.O.!' And you would be correct." She spreads her arms, indicating the perfectly ordered and peaceful area around you. "But that does not mean I do not appreciate the value of order."_

_She plucks both the lavender crystal and the scarlet crystal off the rings and holds them side-by-side. "Order," she says, displaying the lavender stone. She then holds up its scarlet counterpart. "And chaos. Organization and entropy. The two forces that make the world go 'round."_

_A spectacular sequence appears in the teacup. A great red star goes nova, consuming all the planets in its system. A tiny white bud blossoms into a beautiful white flower. An angry mob sets a center of government ablaze. A mother breastfeeds her child. A dormant volcanic mountain suddenly erupts into flame. Microscopic life appears on a planet devastated by war._

"_Brahma_ _creates_; _Shiva destroys_; _and_ _Vishnu_ _preserves_,"_ Yuuka continues. She holds the lavender crystal in front of her whole eye and the scarlet one in front of her eyepatch. "One cannot exist without the other to define it. There are many that commit wholly to one or the other. As for myself, I see the beauty in both." She closes her fingers around the stones. "Of course, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't find chaos to be so much more fun, but I like to think that I compensate with the world I've created. Tear down the worlds of others while building up my own. And as such, while I am the nurturing mother and protector to all within the bounds of my realm, in others I am become Death, the destroyer of world. And as such, balance is achieved. It is the natural order of things."_

_Yuuka stops talking for a moment. She leans back in her chair and frowns. "And yet….that is the problem, isn't it? The natural order of things? I always found it to be so simple. Even as my life drastically changed, the order remained the same. And in the end, everything was the same, just different. But now…is the order I knew the correct one? Or was it entirely fabricated? If so, where do I fit in this new reality I have discovered? Am I subject to the whims of a higher consciousness with no will of my own? Or is it my actions that shape the actions of my new friend? The puppet or the puppeteer? I must confess, I do not know."_

_She clasps her fingers in front of her and tilts her had. "More to the point, where do you fit in this, my friends?"_

_Friends? You look around, but there is no one else there._

"_What is your part to play in all this? Do you even have one? Or is yours the most important piece of this puzzle? Ah, that is the question of the hour. That is, after all, why I brought you here."_

_Your heart skips a beat. Wait, Yuuka was the reason why you've suddenly come to this terrifying beautiful place? If so, then why?_

"_Unfortunately, that is a question that is not so easily answered," Yuuka says. "But fortunately, now that I have gotten a more broad view of the gameboard, I can get to work on putting together the pieces. It promises to be quite illuminating."_

_She smiles, and her single eye stares right into you. You try not to look away, but after awhile, it's all you can see._

…

_You know, this transition from italics to italics really ruins the effect._

_Anyway, I guess an explanation is in order as to why this one took over a month to come out despite only being fifty pages. Fortunately this time it wasn't due to laziness (though the Team Scarlet bits fought me a bit at the beginning). Rather, this was a severe case of me underestimating just how long The Storm was going to be. I thought I could make it a trilogy like Deep Within, but it just kept going and going and going. So finally, about last Saturday, I hit page eighty with the end still nowhere in sight and thought "Screw it, let's just make it a four-parter". The good news about that is that as a result, I've already got a good sized chunk of the fourth part done, so it won't be nearly as long. Promise. _

_All right, on to the chapter itself. This is kind of a difficult chapter to do any sort of commentary for, as it's probably the darkest one yet. To tell the truth, even though the scenes were planned out months ago, I still found myself becoming very uncomfortable during the Utsuho and Flandre scenes. I know that there's been some real cruel things done thus far to various characters, but that was probably the first time I found myself being disturbed. Not enough to not do them of course (the plot gods demand it!), but it was still rather…disquieting. For me at least. Make of that what you will. _

_As for Yuuka herself, I'm finding that the best way to portray her is as a walking contradiction. Even going beyond the nice, cultured woman who loves children and flowers being so incredibly terrifying, she also disproves of profanity but freely uses it whenever she loses her temper and breaks her own rules whenever its convenient, but provides an explanation as to why. And perhaps by doing so, she becoming consistently inconsistent and there is no contradiction at all. And maybe I should stop trying to explain how Yuuka works because quite frankly, that girl baffles me._

_Anyway, business. Tomorrow I'm going to be leaving for the San Diego Comic-Con and won't be back until Monday. As such, I won't be able to respond to…anything until then. Fortunately I have my phone set up to receive emails and update me on new reviews and comments, so feel free to leave me any feedback, positive or negative, you might have, and I'll respond to what I can when I get back, as well as correct any errors in this chapter. Also, my lack of an internet connection does not mean a lack of access to Word, so I do plan on using my evenings to finish up the next chapter, so hopefully it'll go up in about a week or so. _

_Also, if by some weird coincidence you are also at the Comic-Con and happen across a tall white guy cosplaying as Harry Dresden on Thursday, it's probably me. Or not. I dunno, I don't actually keep in touch with other tall white guys who cosplay as Harry Dresden on Thursdays. _

_Well, I think that's everything. Until next time, everyone!_


	31. The Storm, Part 4

The Storm, Part 4

_The Devastation_

"_Boo!" Yuuka says. She laughs as you're startled out of your trance._

"_So sorry," she says. "But you seemed to be getting lost in my eyes. Well, eye. Not that I blame you. It is rather beautiful. But too much of a good thing may not be healthy in the long run, and I need your attention here where it belongs." She laughs again. "Also, it isn't as if I could just snap my fingers or clap," she says, showing you her withered hands. "I might accidentally break a finger."_

"_At any rate," she continues. "You're no doubt noticing that the last we heard from little Team Scarlet, the maid was about to launch a surprise attack on yours truly. And the next thing you know, Yukari is being assaulted by that very same yours truly, with this little beauty in hand." She holds up one hand, displaying the scarlet stone. "No doubt the sudden transition has caused you to imagine all matter of horrible outcomes for that ill-fated attack. Torn off limbs, crushed skulls, piles of entrails, pools of blood, dusted vampires, the list goes on!" Her eye glitters mischievously. "But what really happened may surprise you. It certainly surprised me. Shall we take a look?"_

…

**Team Scarlet (or rather, the only non-Scarlet **_**and **_**the only truly competent member of the team. Interesting how that worked out)**

When Sakuya had come to, she had at first feared that she had been unconscious for hours, but what she observed told her that it had only been a minute or two. There was that at least, though if she did not find a way to start fighting the haziness of her own mind it wouldn't make that much of a difference.

And so, as Yuuka fished around Remilia's armor for the sealing crystal, Sakuya calmed herself and did her best to concentrate on one of the many mental techniques she had learned through the years to combat situations such as these.

As Yuuka backed away from Remilia and made her way toward Flandre, Sakuya had cleared her head enough to sit up.

And as Yuuka taunted Flandre using Remilia's voice, Sakuya managed to push herself up onto unsteady legs.

And then Yuuka staked Flandre right through the heart and sealed up her life energies. From that point on, Sakuya no longer needed any sort of mental tricks in order to fight her way through her injury. However, it did help to keep herself under control and not rush Yuuka in a rage-driven attack that would likely end in her very messy demise.

Though her body still hurt and she couldn't move her right arm, Sakuya was able to ignore it and start moving. Her mission was more-or-less the same as before: don't get spotted, find an opening and eliminate those annoying blue flowers. Her tube-of-napalm had been only good for one use, but she had many other ways to quickly kill large amounts of plants at her disposal.

As she passed Remilia, she spared a second to check up on her Mistress. To her distress, Remilia was looking right at her. Sakuya quickly whispered, "Don't move. Don't look at me, don't acknowledge my presence at all."

To her relief, Remilia obeyed.

Fortunately, Yuuka was indulging in a bit of an extended monologue, and had yet to take notice of Sakuya. That left her free to put Yuuka's disturbing tree between them. Insofar as cover went, it was far from her first choice, but Yuuka had already smashed everything else to pieces.

Once there, Sakuya reached into a pouch on her belt and extracted a small, silvery sphere. Pulling this off with only one arm was going to be tricky, but doable. She watched as Yuuka freed the Mistress and returned her spear to her, all the while taunting her to give into a suicidal frontal charge.

That seemed a good a time as any to strike.

Sakuya steadied herself the best she could and leapt up over the tree, arm bent and ready to hurl the sphere right at Yuuka.

Unfortunately she was interrupted. The large flower that perched on top of the tree suddenly animated and snatched her between its petals, leaving only Sakuya's head and shoulders free. Her arms and legs were pinned fast.

Sakuya grimaced. She looked up to see Yuuka staring at her.

"Um, well, all right then," Yuuka said. "Look, I know you're fast running out of options, but was hiding behind something created by the very energies left behind by my body _really _the best idea? I suppose I could chalk that one up to desperation, but when you really think about it-"

Sakuya crushed the sphere in her fingers.

Acid fell with the fragments. Though Sakuya's gloves and clothing protected her from the worst of it, some still managed to eat through the material and burn against her skin. Fortunately, it was not intended for use against meat, and as such the worst she would suffer were some incredibly irritating welts for a few days. The flower, however…

It was almost as if it were in actual pain. The flower started to swing about, its petals lurching open. It was enough for Sakuya to fight her way out and into the air.

Spasms were shaking the entire network of branches. A shrill shriek was filling the air. It seemed to be coming from the tree itself. Perhaps it was. Sakuya didn't care. Her attention was focused on Yuuka, who was stumbling backward and clutching at her forehead. Apparently the bond with the tree was something of a two-edged sword.

However, at the moment Sakuya had a different target in mind. She quickly snatched up a second sphere and, once she had spotted an opening through the branches, threw it at Yuuka's face.

It sailed through shadow and light, spinning as it flew on a direct course with its target. Sakuya pulled out her pocketwatch, ready to stop time the moment Yuuka's flowers were destroyed.

And that was when Yuuka suddenly hunched over, unintentionally bringing herself out of the sphere trajectory.

Sakuya didn't hesitate. The pocketwatch went away and was replaced by one of her knives. Even through the dark, she could still map out the line of the sphere's travel in her head. She did a couple of quick calculations, waited for half-a-second, and then hurled the knife with all her strength.

This time she found her mark. The knife hit the sphere and smashed it open. Acid flew out and splattered all over the top of Yuuka's head. She recoiled in pain, her hands clutching at the dissolving mess in her hair. No doubt she would be able to replace the flowers in a matter of seconds. Sakuya wasn't interested in giving her one. She snatched up her pocketwatch and activated it.

This time it worked. Time slowed to a halt. The tree and the dying flower ceased their thrashing, with droplets of nectar mixed with acid hanging in the air next to the partially-eaten petals. Yuuka was stuck with her back arched and her head thrown back, her hands in her acid-filled hair and her mouth open in a cry of outrage. Remilia had likewise stopped moving, right as she was reflexively looking away while shielding her face with one arm and one wing.

Sakuya glanced down at her pocketwatch and allowed herself a smile of satisfaction. This quickly disappeared when she saw that the hands were vibrating in a worrying matter.

Then yellow sparks flashed inside its face. Damn it, she had to move fast.

Sakuya bolted to her Mistress' side and picked her up. The pose Remilia had adopted made her a little awkward to lift, but no different from carrying a statue of the same size and proportions. Sakuya was able to get her arm around Remilia's waist and bring her off the floor.

Then she started bolting toward the exit, sometimes flying, sometimes hopping from one branch to the next. Yuuka's wooden web made navigating difficult, but fortunately the tunnel mouth remained open. From there she would have to play things by ear, but she was reasonably certain that she could find someplace safe. From there…Well, one thing at a time.

And then the mechanical shrieking began. Sakuya looked down and saw that, to her horror, the pocketwatch was now shaking violently as the clock-face behind the crystal surged with electricity.

_Oh no, _she thought. _Not now. Come on, just a little longer. I'm almost there, just last a little longer._

The watch gave one last shudder, let out one final scream, and died.

Remilia suddenly came alive in her arms. "What?" she said. "Huh? Sakuya? Wait, what are you doing? Let me go!" The small vampire started to struggle in Sakuya's grasp. "No, don't take me away! Don't you understand?"

"Mistress, please don't fight me!" Sakuya begged as she tried to keep Remilia in place. "We can still get away, we can-"

Despite her best efforts, Sakuya was no match for her Mistress' strength. Remilia broke free and stared at her with wet eyes.

"She killed Flandre!" Remilia cried. "I can't let her get away with that!"

"And I'm not letting either of you get away at all," Yuuka growled. She straightened up to stare daggers at Sakuya, acid dripping down her face. A gesture, and the branches near the exit contracted, tearing apart the mouth of the tunnel and collapsing it. Then she reached up to grab the dissolving mess of foliage and literally lifted it out of her head. Sakuya could actually see small, white roots leaving tiny holes in her skull. It was a sickening sight.

But not as much as the next one. New vines and leaves grew from these holes, and buds quickly formed to blossom into new flowers. Yuuka's web of magical interference was renewed.

"You clever, clever little girl," Yuuka murmured as her burning crimson gaze pierced into Sakuya's icy blue eyes. "That's, what, the third time you've gotten the drop on me today? Congratulations, I am now taking you seriously."

Yuuka floated through the air toward the tree. That wasn't good. Sakuya quickly filtered through the list of tricks she had at her disposal and tried to find one that was long range, would work with Yuuka looking directly at her and didn't somehow require the use of her time-stopping abilities.

Yuuka reached the tree. Her feet touched down over the corpse of the giant flower.

"Sakuya?" Remilia said. "I must agree with her. Your tactics have proven to be extremely effective. So I'm going to let you take charge. What do we do now?"

Yuuka started to lift up her right arm. Angry green energy collected around her hand.

"I…" Sakuya shook her head. "Hit her with everything we've got?"

Remilia didn't hesitate. She hurled Gungnir at Yuuka, and followed it up with a swarm of fat-bodied red spheres. Sakuya followed suit, running across the branches and throwing as many knives as she could with only one arm. This was followed by a handful of exploding pellets, four small bombs and all six poisoned-tipped bullets from the antique revolver she had worn on her belt.

With no element of surprise, the results were predictable. The network of branches simply contracted, forming a wall around Yuuka and blocked nearly every single attack. The only one that managed to get through was Gungnir, which cut through three different attempts to stop it without slowing down. It hit its mark, slamming right into Yuuka's midsection and partially coming out the other side.

Yuuka looked down. She grabbed the handle with one hand, grimaced, and pushed the spear the rest of the way out.

"Okay, now what Sakuya?" Remilia said. "That was just the first part, right? You have a plan? What do we do next?"

Sakuya looked at her Mistress. She bowed her head. "I am…sorry, lady Scarlet."

Remilia looked at her, uncomprehending. And the realization filled her face. Sakuya, who had never been someone overly given to emotion, felt her walled-off heart break as her Mistress was hit with the reality of their defeat and impending demise.

"My turn," Yuuka purred. "Here comes the rain again. And _here! Comes! THE SUN!"_

She thrust her glowing hand into the air, all fingers spread wide. A viridian bolt of energy shot upward and blasted right through the ceiling. Thousands of cracks spread outward like a shockwave, and the entire roof of the cavern started to come down, bringing down torrents of rainwater with it. Remilia and Sakuya immediately retreated away from the center, the former to avoid the running water and the latter to avoid the falling stones.

But it didn't stop there. The ball continued upward to disappear into the dark clouds overhead. There it exploded, and the clouds were literally blown away. Sunlight streamed down, mixing with the stone and water.

"Find cover!" Sakuya screamed to Remilia. "Don't let it-"

Remilia was way ahead of her. Her body erupted into hundreds of bats that swarmed all throughout the cave, searching for some place safe from the light and water. Sakuya found herself caught up in the swarm and the next few moments were a swirling mass of confusion as she was covered with flapping wings, desperate squeaks and scratching claws.

And then, water. And then, light.

And then, darkness.

…

"_No, wait. Complete disaster. Guess you were right after all." Yuuka shrugs. "Though if it's any consolation, they did do the best they could with what they had. Anyway, let's get back to Yukari."_

…

**Yukari**

Yukari was seized by the scruff of her neck and pulled off her hands and knees. Yuuka slammed her face right through a nearby boulder, breaking the rock in half. Then she turned and ran Yukari through another rock. She started running, with one hand on Yukari's neck and the other holding her by the waist. Yukari found herself smashed through five pillars in succession before being tossed a good quarter-mile.

Given what she was, it didn't hurt as much as it sounds. But that didn't mean it was at all comfortable. Especially since Yuuka had been smashing her through stuff for the last five minutes or so.

Things were obviously not going Yukari's way. Now that Yuuka had received a serious upgrade (or regrade?), things had taken on a whole new shade of difficulty. For one, she was now much more resistant to Yukari's meddling. Gone was the time when Yukari could just throw her around like a ragdoll. And every time Yukari tried to step between dimensions, out would come those damned flowers. And if she tried to block their growth, she would receive another nasty shock like the one when she had tried to tear Yuuka's essence apart. If there was any consolation it was that Yuuka kept the flowers away so long as Yukari kept her physical form and didn't try to leave, most likely in the interest of keeping this conflict a case of strength vs. strength.

Of course, it wasn't as if it had been a one-sided affair. Yukari was perfectly capable of taking a ridiculous amount of punishment as well as dealing some of her own. This momentary advantage of Yuuka's was just the latest in a sequence of back-and-forth. For example…

Yuuka charged toward Yukari, her pounding footsteps sending miniature shockwaves through the earth. She leapt in the air and came down right at Yukari, her right fist targeted right at Yukari's head.

At the last possible second, Yukari rolled out of the way and Yuuka's fist went right through solid rock. Before she could withdraw, Yukari connected with a thunderous kick to the midsection that lifted Yuuka a full five feet off the ground. While Yuuka was still in the air, Yukari slammed one hand into her stomach and brought the other down on her neck, turning her around and making sure Yuuka landed solidly on her head.

Yukari leapt back and held her hand in the air. Her sword, the one she had brought with her, came spinning through the air right into her grasp. Yukari waited until Yuuka managed to right herself before flinging the blade. It hit Yuuka over the right kidney and stuck.

A snap of the fingers and lightning cracked down from the sky to hit the hilt of the sword. Unlike the scorching bolts Yukari had hit Yuuka with at the match's onset, this was a continuous circuit of electricity that surged down from the sky to flow through the metal blade into Yuuka's body. Her flesh and clothing dissolved away as lightning crackled all over her, illuminating her from within as it destroyed her. Yukari kept the juice going for a full ten seconds.

And then she thrust her palms outward and hit Yuuka with a blast of pure destructive force.

Yukari waited as the dust cleared. To her disappointment but utter lack of surprise, she saw Yuuka lurch to her feet. Yukari's fists clenched in exasperation. It was that damned healing ability of Yuuka's. It had been annoying enough when she had only been dealing with the quarter, but now it just took things into unfair territory. Yukari could do tremendous amounts of damage if she was of a mind (which she was), but what good would it do if her opponent could simply shrug it all off?

Yuuka walked toward Yukari, taking her own sweet time as she did so. She reached behind herself, grabbed the hilt of Yukari's sword and yanked it out. "That's the third time you've used the might of this storm against me," she said as she tossed the blade aside. "I think I might be developing a taste for it." Then she pointed her finger at Yukari and there came a sudden rising whine.

Fortunately Yukari saw it coming and got her hand up in time. The green flash hit her palm and rebounded up into the air. Yukari seized it with her mind, redirected its trajectory and brought it down on its creator.

This time she didn't even wait to see if Yuuka was going to recover. This was insane. She was in the most serious fight in over a century and she was resorting to fisticuffs and lightning bolts.

Yukari eyed the massive basin that took up the place where the Skillet Plateau had used to be. Her dragon hadn't even used a fourth of the flames that burned within. She held up her hand and pulled that fire out of the hole. It rose into the air, a literally miles-wide blanket of pure flame.

She took hold of that blanket and twisted it around itself to form a cylinder. Then she turned started it spinning around and around like a drill.

Yuuka once again emerged from the small hole her blast had sent her into. She caught sight of what Yukari was doing and smiled. "And what's this? Another dragon? It's pretty, but haven't you learned your lesson from the last one?"

"You could say that," Yukari said. She motioned, and the colossal tube of fire shot forward, right at Yuuka.

Yuuka held up her hands and literally caught the cylinder. Though her smile took on a strained look, she managed to hold it at bay. "Impressive," she said to Yukari. "But not very practical."

In response, Yukari moved her hand. The back end of the cylinder curved up to loop around Yuuka and slam right into her back. This surprised her so much that she released her hold on the front, and was such scorched from both ends.

Yukari formed a fist, and the looping cylinder contracted fast to envelop Yuuka. She squeezed it tighter and tighter, increasing the heat and pressure within. The core of the fire started to turn white.

And suddenly it exploded, sending the flames riding the shockwave outward. Yukari squinted and shielded her eyes. Yuuka was making her move. Where was she…

And there she was. Yuuka had leapt into the air. She had morphed yet again, and was now trailing a cluster of long stalks topped with red and purple flowers with petals shaped like a raptor's beak. Her hands had changed as well, with the fingers extending to twice their normal length and ending with nails sharp enough to tear flesh. Combined with her glowing eyes, the overall effect made her look like some kind of wraith sailing through the air.

It looked like she was going for another physical attack. It was just too bad that Yukari wasn't interested in letting her. Blue flame appeared in her palms and she studied Yuuka's trajectory, ready to shoot her out of the sky.

But then Yuuka surprised her by stopping in midair before she even reached the zenith of her arc. The stalks whipped in front of her and the flowers opened their "mouths" to spew some sort of sickly green substance at her. Yukari quickly threw up a shield, only to realize a second too late that it wasn't energy. It splattered all over her, sticking to her body and burning wherever it touched skin.

Yukari recoiled. She grimaced and quickly sought out the boundary between the stuff and her body. She found it and repelled it off of her.

Yuuka hit her a second later. Yukari was driven to the ground with Yuuka crouching on top of her. Yuuka immediately started cutting at Yukari's face with those distorted nails of her while the flowers chattered and hissed as they snapped at the border youkai, tearing away small strips of skin.

Yukari let out a genuine roar of pain and rage. Her entire body erupted in blinding golden light. Yuuka found herself thrust back by a blast of tremendous force. She took the fall like a pro, flipping and twisting her body around so that she landed in a crouch, ready to spring again.

But as she looked up, she saw six spinning red discs hurtling right toward her. They slashed right through her body, shredding the predatory flowers and driving her back. She hissed as her sliced and burned flesh flowed over her, reforming itself.

Yukari came out of nowhere. Yuuka was hit by a vicious backhand that drove her face into the mud. Yukari held up her hand and squeezed it into a fist. The skin glowed red hot for a second. When it cooled, her hand was now metallic grey. She then slammed it into the back of Yuuka's head repeatedly, each hit sending off a metallic clanging sound. Her breath came out in angry grunts with every blow.

Yuuka endured four such blows before lurching up and driving her sharp elbow into Yukari's stomach. Yukari took the blow with a grunt and grabbed Yuuka to yank her to her feet.

For a brief moment the two women were face-to-face. Golden eyes sank into crimson ones as rain washed down their faces and plastered their hair to their skulls. Both were panting heavily, and the back of Yuuka's head was bleeding profusely.

And then Yuuka smiled. "You know," she said. "I think you're getting the hang of this."

Yukari spat in her face.

That proved to be a mistake. Yuuka's grin vanished immediately. "Now that," she growled. "Was very rude." Her flesh boiled and expanded, and Yukari found herself snatched up and pulled off the ground. She tried to dismember the limb holding her, but only found herself slammed back into the ground. Repeatedly.

By the time the pounding stopped, Yukari was flirting with unconsciousness. Given her age and power, she could easily shrug off attacks that would disintegrate most giants. But she wasn't invulnerable. And Yuuka was just so _strong._

Yuuka lifted her up and flung her forward. Yukari found herself flying limply through the air only to land in an untidy heap more than two miles away.

She blinked several times. Again, the world was swimming worryingly in front of her eyes. It was difficult to focus her thought. Her hands clenched and she sealed off the dazedness so that it couldn't touch her.

Yukari sat up. Her joints protested the movement, so she sealed off the pain as well. It was going to be hell when she finally dropped those seals later on, but better then than now. Then she looked up. What she saw made her sigh.

Yuuka was a good twenty feet tall and layered with so much mass that she was hunched over like some sort of gigantic gorilla with green hair and a red skirt. Her knuckles dragged on the ground as she lumbered toward Yukari.

With a roll of her eyes, Yukari took to the sky. All right, now this was getting ridiculous. Even among beings for whom the impossible was merely challenging, there should be boundaries.

Yuuka let out an earthshaking bellow and lunged for Yukari. Yukari maintained her distance, constantly flying just out of reach of Yuuka's tree-sized arms and let power well up inside her. When she felt that she had enough, she pointed at the Yuuka and let loose with dark blue blast that was only the width of a strong man's arm but denser than most metals. It hit Yuuka in the center of her chest and shot out the other side. Yuuka roared as she staggered back.

Yukari then focused her attention on the ground beneath Yuuka's feet. While becoming a giant certainly sounded impressive on paper, there were a number of reasons why it was an impractical tactic to use against normal-sized-but-still-incredibly-powerful beings such as Yukari. A small infusion of will, and the consistency of the stone changed. To liquid.

Yuuka's bellow changed from one of rage to one of surprise as she found herself plunging through what had only moments ago been solid rock. Her own mass suddenly was working against her as it bore her down into the murk.

With a weary sigh, Yukari solidified the stone once again. She didn't think for a moment that Yuuka was going to be held for long, but it did buy her some time to think.

The teams, the ones that she had brought here. Presumably two had been wiped out. Judging by what she had seen of Marisa's antics earlier and the color of the sealing crystals that Yuuka now had in her possession, she was willing to bet that Team Underground and Team Vampire were now out of the game, with Satori and Remilia being the ones sealed away. She wasn't overly upset about losing Remilia. As far as she was concerned, Yuuka could keep her. But Satori was a definite problem. In addition to being one of her allies, Satori was also a longstanding community leader with a great deal of influence. And though her species meant that that she wasn't especially beloved by those she ruled over, people still tended to react unfavorably when their leaders were killed off in someone else's war. Which meant yet another thing Yukari would be needing to focus on, lest she had the whole of the Underground rebelling against her.

Yuuka had also said something about survivors. More than likely that meant Satori's pets. Being youkai, they were more-or-less unkillable, and despite her strength Yuuka had yet to display the same disregard for immortality that the Shadow Youkai had. But it was probably safe to write off Sakuya Izayoi. Despite her skill and artificially lengthened life, she was still Human. Flandre Scarlet could go either way. It was entirely possible that she had managed to survive, but given the rain and the fact that the Yuuka that had gone after Team Vampire had shown up alive and well, it was also possible that she didn't. And to be honest, Yukari wouldn't be especially grieved if that were the case. Either way, she could check up on them later.

The status of Team Halloween was up-in-the air. Unless they had perished only recently, Mima and Marisa were probably still active, if that brief glimpse of the havoc Marisa was wreaking was any indication. But Yuyuko and Youmu hadn't been with them then, which was somewhat worrying. On a whim, Yukari checked that general area. To her surprise, the blackout caused by the Mykr's Sirens was gone, and the souls of every member of Team Halloween was very much active. In addition, she also sensed something that was near-identical to the fourth of Yuuka that she had been fighting earlier, so presumably their battle was still going. She smiled at that. Well, there was that then.

She considered bringing them over to help her deal with Yuuka. It would certainly be useful if for no other reason than to keep her off balance. But perhaps she should let them finish off their battle first. If that piece of Yuuka managed to escape and rejoin with the whole, then things would just get worse.

The ground below started to crack apart, signaling the end of her break. Yukari steeled herself. All right then, what bizarre trick did the flower-loving bitch have for her this time?

As it turned out, it was another big one. Yukari found herself reminded of the fable of _Jack and the Beanstalk._ It certainly seemed like Yuuka was going for something similar, given that a green stalk as thick as a redwood tree was now thrusting up out of the ground. However, she was reasonably certain that the giant from the story in question was humanoid, and not an oversized red flower with black spots like the one perched at the very top.

Half a moment later Yukari realized that it was an enormously overgrown version of those flowers that had spat that clinging goo at her a moment ago. The flower reared back like a snake and its beaklike petals spread as it hissed at her.

Yukari rolled her eyes. Fine, she would just kill this one too. Her right arm glowed yellow as she prepared to cut it down.

But then she found herself perplexed when she heard a very familiar rising whine from behind her, as if something were charging up. She started to turn in its direction.

A moment later she was blinking rain out of her eyes as she stared up at the giant flower. She was lying flat on her back on the ground. But how had she gotten there? She didn't remember falling.

Then saw a normal-sized Yuuka hovering in the air over her, smiling and waving down at her. Her umbrella was held in one hand, and smoke was rising from the tip. Ah, that explained things. The flower had just been a distraction. And Yukari had just been tagged by a blast strong enough to disintegrate even the hardiest of youkai. And at point-blank range no less.

That had been quite clever. Simple, but effective. Of course, Yukari would have to return the favor. Perhaps a solar flare to the face would do the trick? Yes, that would do nicely. All she had to do was get up and continue to make Yuuka hurt. Though for some reason, doing so was surprisingly difficult.

It was then that Yukari realized that there was more than rain stinging her eyes. Blood. Huh. And come to think of it, she seemed to be bleeding from a great many places. That blast sure packed a punch. Yukari made a mental note to look into learning something similar for herself. And while she was at it, she should also look into acquiring the same sort of regenerative abilities that Yuuka possessed. It would certainly come in handy. Perhaps Eirin Yagokoro could help her with…

Darkness rushed up to consume her, and Yukari blacked out.

…

"_You know, as poorly as things may have turned out for me in the end, it is nice to see when things were going so well," Yuuka says. "Pleasant memories do sustain us through hard times, after all. And upon reflection, we learn-"_

_The scene in the cup shifts, showing a different face entirely._

"_Oh. Her." Yuuka's smile disappears. "Right. Well, every silver lining does come with a dark cloud attached, I'm afraid."_

…

**Team Halloween**

Marisa was fighting a valiant battle against the Mykr's Leeches. Master Sparks mixed with thunderbolts, shooting stars and pillars of fire. Hundreds of the little monsters were disintegrated before they even got close to her.

She was still losing.

It didn't matter how many of them she destroyed, hundreds more floated up to replace them. Yuuka must be churning them out like an assembly line. And they were getting closer with every wave. For the first time since this battle started, Marisa was getting scared. Not by a lot, but if she was going to go down, she would much rather it wasn't due to being sucked dry by a bunch of hungry baby plants.

And then there was the fact that Mima had been overwhelmed by the things. The ghost was insanely powerful, but she wasn't invulnerable. Marisa owed her literally everything. There was no way she could leave her to be consumed by these things.

Pain shot through her foot, sharp enough to break through the haze of anger, fear and raw energy that enveloped Marisa. She looked down and saw, to her horror, that one of the Leech Seeds had latched onto her boot with its thorns. The tongue-like root was squirming against the sole, searching for a way in.

"AGH!" she cried. "ICKY THING GET OFF!"

She quickly kicked it off and blew it to pieces. But there were so many more closing in. She wasn't going to last much longer. She had maybe a minute before enough of them broke through-

By chance, her eyes fell upon her gauntleted hands. With this came a sudden realization that brought with it a profound feeling of foolishness. Maybe Alice was right. Maybe she needed to lay off the mushrooms.

She popped a black spellcard into her right hand and activated it in short order, all the while begging whoever was listening that it would be enough. So far she had been lucky with these things, but all it took was having one go wrong…

The spellcard took effect immediately. Hundreds of tiny violet pinpoints of light surrounded Marisa and formed a tight sphere. A few Mykr's Leeches drifted close enough to the lights and burned when they touched.

"OH," Marisa said. "COOL! A SHIELD! BUT, I THOUGHT THESE THINGS WERE MORE BLOWY-STUFF-UPPY THAN-"

Each and every single one of the lights fired out a laser. On the whole, it was not dissimilar to the spellcard Marisa had used to dig Yuuka up. Only this time, the beams were as thin as needles and firing off in all directions. They cut right through the clouds of Mykr's Leeches, burning perfect little holes all the way through.

And then the sphere started to spin around Marisa, moving the beams with it. Every single one of the seeds were cut to pieces as a result. It was now more like her Non-Directional Laser, only with more laser. Much, much more laser.

"FUCKING SWEET!" Marisa crowed. Her earlier excitement returned in full force. These things were the best ever. It seemed like every time she used one, it was exactly the one she needed.

But there was no time to just sit and kill seeds. She didn't know how long this thing was going to last, and she had to save Mima and stop Yuuka from making these things. With a mad cackle she swooped back down into the storm clouds and came out over the Blasted Lands.

As expected, those godsdamned seeds were literally everywhere. She growled and continued downward, her eyes searching the area. Mima was nowhere to be seen. Marisa was reasonably sure that her former mentor wasn't dead (or whatever he equivalent was), but her absence was exactly filling her with optimism.

Unfortunately she didn't have to search. Yuuka came first then. Kill her, and all of the seeds would follow. Maybe. Probably. It was worth a try.

Fortunately, Yuuka was very easy to find. She was still where Marisa had left her, only now she was upright and swaying back and forth in the wind. Her stalk was covered with pods, which were releasing the leeches by the hundreds.

Marisa's eyes narrowed. She adjusted the direction of her broom and charged.

Mykr's Leeches were literally chewed up as she approached. The beams reached Yuuka long before she did, shredding the seed pods all along one side and causing the monster recoil.

Yuuka turned to face her. The look of irritation on her face gave way to delight, even with the lasers cutting her face to pieces. "Marisa!" she cried through constantly shredding and regenerating lips. "There you are! I was worried you had left!"

"LIKE HELL!" Marisa shouted. Good thing she had neglected to deactivate the voice spell. "I'M NOT LEAVING UNTIL I'VE BEATED YOUR UGLY ASS INTO THE GROUND."

"Heh, good luck finding it."

Marisa would have responded, but right about then the spellcard timed out. That was all right, though. It had done its job in clearing away the Mykr's Leeches. And now that Marisa was at the source, she could get to work getting rid of the pods themselves. She immediately started flying tight circles around Yuuka, unleashing a continuous fire spell as she did so. Curiously enough, though Yuuka continue to regrow the pods as quickly as Marisa burned them, she had stopped releasing seeds, seemingly content to watch Marisa fly around her.

"By the way, would you mind not doing that?" Yuuka said at last. "It's kind of uncomfortable."

Marisa was flying tight circles around Yukari, incinerating seed pods as she went. "YEAH, WHEN YOU STOP GROWING THESE BACK, ZE!"

"Done."

"HUH?"

Marisa pulled herself to a stop. The last of the burning pods fell from Yuuka. And though the flesh of the stalk healed itself, the pods themselves did not return.

"There now, just as you asked," Yuuka spoke down to her. "Now, I have to admit, I'm getting as tired of this as you are. So what say we try talking this out?"

"YOU'RE BATSHIT!" Marisa yelled back. "AND WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MIMA, YOU FREAKY-"

Marisa sensed something moving behind her. She whirled around, ready to blow whatever it was to pieces, but even with her enhanced reflexes it was faster than her. The vine hit her in the side, knocking her right off the broom. Four more whipped into view and seized her by the wrists and ankles, spreading her limbs and clamping down on her hands.

"Gotcha!" Yuuka gloated. She brought Marisa up to eye-level. "You're a tricky little one, there's no doubt of that. And if the circumstances were different, I'd be tempted to let you go out of respect. But unfortunately I did warn Yukari that I would break everyone she sends after me, and you do qualify. So congratulations for making a better showing than creatures a hundred times older and more powerful than you, but I'm afraid I must-"

Four flashes of light, so quick they might have been imaginary, darted past Marisa's vision. And then the vines fell away in pieces and she was being pulled away from Yuuka at incredible speed.

A moment later, and Marisa found herself on her hands and knees on the edge of the crater with her head feeling like it was spinning around in circles. The sudden transition from free to facing death to free again, all without warning, had confused her beyond belief. Her arms gave way and she flipped onto her back, which gave her a good view of her rescuer.

Her eyes bulged when she saw who it was. She sat up instantly. "DOUBLETROUBLE!" she shouted happily.

A battered-looking Youmu stood over her, steel gaze focused on the equally confused Yuuka. "The number of things that cannot be cut by my blade is close to zero!" she called. She held up her katana in challenge. "And plants are _not_ on that list!"

If Marisa could have reached her she would have kissed her.

"You again!" Yuuka snarled. She loomed over the two girls. "What have you done to Elly, you horrible, horrible person?"

"She was defeated and has fled," Youmu answered. "You will deal with us now."

"Oh, I'll deal with you, all right. I'll make you wish…" Yuuka's voice trailed off. She looked puzzled. Then she sighed. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but would that be your master sinking her fingers into my base?"

"Yes," Youmu said.

"Ah. I suppose I should have seen that coming." With that, Yuuka toppled over and crashed into the side of the crater.

Marisa scrambled to the crater's edge and peered in. The bottom was impossible to make out, but there did seem to be something pink and glowing down there.

"THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?" she asked.

Youmu winced. "Yuyuko caused the base of her stalk to die. And Marisa, I don't know what is making your voice like that, but please-"

The crater wall that Yuuka had fallen against exploded outward. Yuuka let out gasp as she was thrown forward by the blast. Several vines sprouted out of her and thrust themselves against the ground, preventing her from crashing face-first. A second later a thunderbolt impacted against her head, driving her the rest of the way down.

A small cluster of smashed Mykr's Leeches were hurled from the dust of the blast to fall into darkness. And then Marisa got another happy surprise as Mima emerged from the side of the crater. However, the ghost was not in good shape. Her clothes were torn, her hat was missing, her wings had been plucked of most of their feathers and her body was emaciated. And she was very, very angry.

Yuyuko floated up out of the darkness to hover above Yuuka. She locked eyes with Mima and, though neither spoke a word, an understanding passed between them as Mima flew up to take position opposite Yuyuko. Youmu was next to take to the air, stopping at a point over Yuuka and between the spirits while being off to the side, forming a triangle.

Marisa understood what was going on. She held up her hand, and her broom flew up to join her. Then she mounted it and flew to the point opposite Youmu, turning the triangle into a square.

Mima said, "Marisa, please turn off that voice amplification spell. The time for shouting has passed."

Marisa nodded and did so.

Below them, Yuuka managed to turn herself around to see all four members of Team Halloween glowering down at her. Despite her tremendous size, she seemed unsure of what to do next.

Finally she said, "I'm still bigger than all of you."

"Yes," Mima said. "How about that? Makes you easier to hit."

…

**2/3 Team Underground**

Despite the fact that she had been somewhat baked and then violently blown to molecules, Orin had died more than a few times in recent history. Her job was a dangerous one, after all. And though she was more-or-less safe from youkai exterminators, accidents still happen. Also, her essence had not been damaged in the slightest. As such, she was able to fully resurrect with no ill effects.

That didn't mean she liked what greeted her.

She was still in the same cave. Yuuka was nowhere to be seen, which was something of a relief, even though that created problems in itself. Namely, the problem of the boss still being missing.

Utsuho, however, was still there. She was huddled against the wall, crying softly to herself. Something was wrong with her Third Leg. She kept pushing and clawing at it while she sobbed.

"Get off," she begged. "Please get off. Oh gods, please get off."

But that wasn't all. Utsuho was surrounded by a humming greenish-yellow aura that bulged and pulsed randomly. Orin could feel the heat of it even from several feet away. This was very bad. Utsuho was losing control of her own immense energy.

Orin shook off the last bits of resurrection-induced haziness. "Utsuho?" she said as she ran over. "Okuu? Are you okay? What happened?"

Utusho looked up at her with tear-blotched eyes. Sudden relief filled her face. "Orin!" she cried as she stumbled to her feet and rushed over to embrace Orin. "You're okay!"

"Of course I am!" Orin said. The heat of Utsuho's body made her grimace. She pushed her off and said, "What happened to you?"

Utsuho held up her right arm. Orin's jaw dropped when she saw that the Third Leg had been literally crushed against her arm. What dials and lights hadn't been smashed or shorted-out were spinning and blinking like crazy. Sparks flashed and thin smoke sputtered out. It was obviously very painful. Orin could see blood trickling out from under the smashed control rod and over Utsuho's upper arm. It sizzled as it passed over her glowing skin.

"She broke it," Utsuho said, her voice nearly cracking. "She broke it, and I can't get it off!"

Orin swore loudly and immediately tried to assist her. She grabbed onto one of the struts and tried to pry it loose, but even with both of them working together it was jammed tight.

"Damn it, what did she do to you?" Orin growled as pulled with both hands. The power leaking from Utsuho was starting to sting. "I swear, the next time I see her, I'm gonna-"

Her fingers slipped and she fell flat on her back. She rebounded back to her feet in an instant.

"Okay, that didn't work," she said. "Uh, don't you have some sort of mental bond with it though? I mean, can't you order it to loosen up? Or at least stop all that radiation from leaking?"

Utsuho shook her head. "No, nothing works. She did something to me. I can't control _anything!"_

She showed Orin the eye in her chest. Orin gulped when she saw that the normally fiery red had been turned black, forming a completely darkened half-sphere.

"I can't fix it," Utsuho wept. "I…I don't know what to do!"

"Okay, okay," Orin said. "Um, let me think." Then an idea struck her. "Okay, Yukari Yakumo. She can help. Just hold on for a few seconds."

Orin didn't have the near the same amount of power that other members of Yukari's hit-squad possessed. Her own abilities, while very dangerous under the right circumstances, were specifically geared toward doing her job. And given the lack of spirits in this barren wasteland, she was somewhat limited in what she could do to call for help.

But the person on the receiving end was one of the, if not the, most powerful persons in Gensokyo, and was exceptionally skilled in picking out even the smallest of details. Perhaps if Orin called out loud enough, Yukari would be able to pick it up.

_Yukari Yakumo! _she thought with all her might. _It's Orin! Yuuka found us and attacked. We lost Satori. Yuuka's got her locked up in that crystal. And Utsuho's badly hurt and about to explode or something! We need help, bad. Or else this whole place is going to go to be fucked up from the fallout! _

No answer. Orin called out again, shortening the message and sending it out as strongly as she could. Even if Yukari didn't care about them, she wouldn't want to deal with the consequences of the damage Utsuho would cause if she wasn't fixed.

Still there was no answer. Orin felt plenty of panic but very little in the way of surprise.

"Okay, she's not answering," Orin said. "Which means Yuuka's probably keeping her busy or…"

Her voice trailed off. She didn't want to think of the "or".

She shook her head. "Okay, um. Hold…hold tight the best you can. I'm gonna go out and look for help. Maybe Team Halloween or something. Just hang on, and I'll be back as soon as I can."

"How soon?" Utsuho asked, her voiced sounding strained.

"I dunno. No way of knowing."

Utsuho swallowed. "Orin, I don't think we have a lot of time. I don't think I'm going to last much longer."

"Look, you can do it, okay?" Orin was quick to say. "You're tougher than you give yourself credit for, and-"

"No, it's not that! I mean we literally don't have much time."

"Uh, what?"

Almost as if it were reacting to Orin's cue, a mechanical voice, polite but garbled by the damage to the control rod, spoke. _"Caution. Time remaining to self-destruct: ten minutes. Again, if you feel this self-destruct has been activated in error, please consult the user's manual that has been uploaded into your brain. Thank you, and have a nice day."_

"I can't stop it," Utsuho cried. "I've tried everything, but it just keeps counting down."

The fear Orin had felt before was nothing compared to the sheer horror that welled up inside of her now. Her legs went weak, and she slumped against a nearby wall and slid to the floor.

"Oh," she said. "Oh no."

…

**Yukari**

_Yukari?_

_Hmmm?_

_You really should consider waking up._

_What time is it?_

_12:47 PM. Why?_

_Then piss off. I don't get up until six at the earliest._

…_okay, seriously. Put yourself together and get up._

_Who the hell are you?_

_Your sense of self-preservation. And now would be an excellent time to stop debating and just do as I say._

_Why?_

_Because Yuuka's about to eat you._

Yukari's eyes snapped open. The giant flower had wrapped a springy shoot around her and was lifting her to what passed for its mouth.

She screamed and thrust her hands out. Invisible force rippled out of her palms and slammed into the flower, shredding it to bits. Yukari kept screaming as she directed the force downward and tore the stalk apart. She didn't stop until it was reduced to nothing more than a heaping pile of mulch.

Someone nearby slowly clapped their hands in mocking approval. Yukari turned to see Yuuka hovering nearby, her umbrella hanging on her arm as she applauded. "Bravo, bravo," Yuuka said. "That was quite a quick rebound. Though correct me if I'm wrong, but would all that screaming mean that your composure is starting to crack? You really should learn to keep your cool while under pressure. I recommend deep breathing exercises myself. And have you been getting sufficient rest? Regular sleep is also essential."

Yukari swallowed. She squeezed her trembling hands into fists and forced them to stop shaking. "I…thought that summoning creatures was against the rules."

"You've already done that dragon thing," Yuuka said with a shrug. "As such, I believe I was entitled to at least one."

"I…" Yukari shook her head. Everything was going completely wrong. Her plan had unraveled beyond repair, her allies had been defeated, and now…

"How did you know?" Yukari said.

"Beg pardon?"

"The plan. My plan. My allies. The teams, their hiding spots…How did you know all that? Was there a traitor? Did you sneak more of your plants in? And if so, how did…"

"Ah, I see," Yuuka said. She shrugged. "Well, no to the first, yes to the second."

"How?" Yukari demanded. "Who was the carrier? Was it Yuyuko? Who?"

In answer, Yuuka held one hand directly over the other, palms facing each other. She slowly pulled her hands apart. A shining rectangle of light appeared between them and expanded as her palms separated.

The rectangle flickered, and on it a scene appeared. Yukari felt her heart sink when she recognized her own front room. The viewpoint was strangely clouded and bobbed up and down, as if it were that of a cloud.

"_Will she be awaking soon?" _she heard a voice say. It sounded like Youmu, but it was warped and distorted, almost as if it were coming from under water. _"I know she doesn't like to be woken up, but I'm afraid that this might be important."_

The view shifted to show Yuyuko and Youmu standing side-by-side. But strangely enough, she was seeing it from a point directly next to Youmu's hip, which made even the small girl look imposing.

It was then that Yukari realized what she was seeing. "Myon?" she said in disbelief. "Youmu's phantom-half? But it was in the room when I cleansed it of plant-life!"

Yuuka's smiled flickered. "Ah, yes. It was. Oh, and thanks for reminding me of that. We'll need to talk about that later. But please wait until this little memory has finished before jumping to any conclusions. There is much you need to learn."

The view changed again. Now Yukari was looking at her Shikigami, Ran Yakumo. From this perspective, the already tall Ran looked like a nine-tailed giantess. _"I'm sorry, but there still are several hours before she's likely to awake. Yukari has been under a lot of stress lately, and tends to sleep more soundly when she exhausted."_

"_She's never had a problem with us waking her up before," _Yuyuko said.

"_Well, actually…" _Ran shook her head. There was a weary note to her voice. _"Never mind. Look, normally she'd be thrilled to see you. And if you're willing to come back when she's gotten her rest, I'm sure she'll be thrilled to see you then. It's just that right now it would be a really, really bad idea to disturb her."_

"_But-"_ Youmu started to say.

"_No, it's all right, Youmu," _Yuyuko told her servant. _"Ran is right. Yukari needs her sleep."_

Ran bowed her head. _"Thank you for understanding. I'll be sure that she sees you as soon as she rouses."_

"_Thank you," _Yuyuko said. _"I'm sure it can wait until then. After all, Yukari most likely has more important things than Yuuka Kazami to worry about."_

"_That she…What?"_

"_Oh, it's nothing. We just ran into a really nasty person who doesn't seem to like Yukari at all. She said her name was Yuuka Kazami, and she seemed really angry about something. We just wanted to know what it was all about, but I'm sure it isn't that important."_

Despite the severity of her situation, Yukari couldn't help but smile in appreciation. Apparently some of her traits had rubbed off on her ethereal friend after all.

Ran slowly backed away. Even through the film of Myon's body, Yukari could see that her face had gone ash-white.

"_I'll…I'll get Yukari r-r-right away," _Ran stuttered.

She turned to leave. As she did so, the haze of Myon's body suddenly disappeared as the view lurched forward toward Ran's tails. Soon Yukari was watching Yuyuko and Youmu's forms recede as her Shinigami ran down the hallways toward her room. Apparently whatever it was that Yuuka had smuggled into Myon had left it for a new carrier.

"Ran?" Yukari said as horror rose up within her. _"Ran?"_

"Mmmm-hmmm!" Yuuka banished the magic screen and put her hands on her hips. "It was a gamble, but again it paid off! Luck does seem to favor me as of late. After all, had that lovely canine been in the room during your act of mass-murder, I would have lost my eyes in your household." Her grin took on a whole new level of unpleasant. "And I'm just so glad that I didn't. It doesn't take long for the spores to multiply, you see. And in addition to learning every intricate detail of your overly layered plan to kill me _and_ break all the rules along the way, I was also able to bear witness to some juicy extras as well." She leaned in close. "And let me just say, that little Chen of yours is just _adorable, _both with clothing and-"

Moving so quickly that it could be reasonably argued that she had teleported, Yukari slammed her fist into Yuuka's stomach. The flower-lover's eyes bulged and she was partially lifted off her feet. Yukari took advantage of her momentary advantage and grabbed Yuuka's head with both hands. She shoved it down while bringing her knee up. This time she was rewarded with the very satisfying feel of Yuuka's nose caving in.

Yuuka reeled back a step, blood gushing from both nostrils. Yukari drew her hand back, intending to blow her away with a blast of energy that would make the Master Spark look like a penlight. However, before she could thrust her palm forward, something wrapped around her wrist and held her tight. She had just enough time to register the green vine winding around her arm before Yuuka swung the back of her hand against Yukari's face.

The force of the blow was enough to nearly drive Yukari to the ground, but she managed to keep her feet. Yuuka attempted to follow it up with an uppercut, but this time Yukari was able to get her head out of the way. She let Yuuka's fist pass by literally inches away from her face before driving her own into Yuuka's partially healed nose, crushing it anew.

The vine holding her suddenly pulled back and threw Yukari away from Yuuka. Yukari rolled with the toss and landed on her feet, ready for whatever Yuuka had for her.

But for her part, Yuuka merely sniffed and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe her nose. "All right then," she said. "No more bringing up the Shikigami. Consider that lesson learned." And then, almost as an afterthought, she said, "Touchy, aren't we?"

Yukari considered rushing forward to hit her again, but instead decided to go onto her next question, the one that had been burning within her ever since the pain of Yuuka's essence had forced her to recoil. "What are you?"

Yuuka cocked her head. "Again I say unto thee: beg pardon?"

Yukari grit her teeth. "What. Are. You? You're not a youkai. I don't think I've ever felt an essence like yours. What are you?"

"Hmmm, that is the question," Yuuka said. She folded her arms. "Are you sure you wish to know the answer?" She opened her hand to reveal the lavender crystal. "Satori Komejii found out right before I crushed her face, and in light of what she had learned, it was probably a relief."

"_TELL ME!" _Yukari roared.

Yuuka raised an eyebrow. She closed her hand. "Wow, you really are on edge. All right then. Here's a hint: before Gensokyo was even envisioned, before humanity looked up to the sky and worshipped the gods they have now forsaken, before the dust cloud that would in time form this solar system came into existence, I was."

Yukari felt like tearing her hair out. "Do you realize how many beings there are that could say that?" she demanded. "The list of species alone would take all-"

"Oh, not specific enough for you?" Yuuka said. "All right then. Tell me if this means anything to you?"

Then she spoke a phrase in a strange tongue. It was not a language that many would understand, or even comprehend. In fact, such was its nature that most beings wouldn't be able to hear it at all, as their minds would automatically filter it out as a means of self-defense. However, Yukari did understand the words that were spoken. And she recognized the language and finally understood exactly what she was dealing with.

When translated, the phrase meant "I AM THAT I AM."

"No," she said as her face paled. She backed away. "No, no, no, no, no."

"Incorrect, I'm afraid. The answer is very much 'yes'."

Yukari shook her head. It couldn't be. That was just too improbable. Too absurd. Too cruel. She couldn't be dealing with one of those. Not with the avatar of Azrael already running loose and whatever the hell Satsuki was. This was just taking things too far.

Yuuka cocked her head. "Yukari, are you all right? Perhaps you should sit down for a bit. Recover your-"

A broken pillar flew through the air and smacked right into her.

Yukari once again started screaming. She screamed as she seized up all nearby rubble with her will. She screamed as she hurled them right at Yuuka with all her strength. And when that failed to knock her out of the sky, Yukari screamed as she tore up the very ground for more ammunition.

The crust of the earth was ripped to pieces, some as large as houses and some as small as kittens. And all of them flew into the air in a thunderous wave that lurched right at Yuuka. She didn't even bother getting out of the way. Rather, she just smiled, rolled her eyes, and started blasting away at the swarm of stone with green energy.

However, while she succeeded in reducing the majority of the missiles to dust, there were literally thousands of them speeding at her from all sides. She might as well have been caught in the center of an asteroid field. And Yukari just kept them coming. Stones slipped past her defense to smash against her body. By themselves, she probably wouldn't even feel it. But as more and more of them struck her, Yuuka found herself starting to hurt.

Yukari's hands curled into claws. She slashed her right hand forward and several huge slabs rammed into Yuuka from the back, one right after the other. She kept the assault up, slowly forcing the monster toward the pit that contained the remains of the Skillet Plateau.

Finally Yuuka was directly over the pit. Yukari seized up a chunk of granite the size of an automobile and filled it with as much kinetic energy as she possibly could. By the time she was done, it was literally shaking with pent-up force. Yukari sent it directly over Yuuka's head and brought it down with all the speed of a falling comet. Then she dropped the storm of stone into the pit, filling it beyond the brim.

Yukari hovered in the air, staring with wild eyes at the heap of rocks. Her breath stuttered with fatigue and emotion. She didn't believe that she had finished Yuuka, not for one-

The heap literally collapsed in on itself, as if the bottom of the pit had fallen out. Yukari flew over to take a look. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw that a devouring maw and a tooth-lined gullet filled the entirely of the put. The fragments of stones tumbled down its throat to be swallowed up. If Yukari had any doubts as to exactly what she was facing, this all but banished them.

And then all along the edge of the things maw dozens of blood-red eyes opened to stare at her. The throat opened to let out a deafening roar.

Yukari shoved her hand into the air, and gaps filled the sky.

…

**The Outside World**

As far as phenomena went, this one attracted very little in the way of attention. A three-minute snippet on the eleven o' clock news, a few novelty stories on the occasional search engine's homepage, some scratching of heads from university professors and a full cover story by the local tabloids. Still, even though the incident was small and passed away from the public's memory rather quickly, it was still completely unexplainable.

The incident was this: at the exact same time, four different scrapyards across Japan were partially emptied. Witnesses claimed that it was as if a hole had opened up beneath the piles of twisted metal and swallowed them up.

"It was the weirdest thing," said a night foreman. "You know how when you put a pile of sand on one of those sieve things, the whole thing seems to just sink from the top down? It was like that. Only with metal."

Many claimed that the foreman had been drinking. Others pointed out that others had claimed to have seen the exact same thing, only several miles away. Terrorists, aliens and the government were blamed in no particular order, but as none of the accused stepped forward to take responsibility, in time people simply lost interest.

Perhaps the story would have attracted more in the way of attention had not an entire oil tanker disappeared while in dock in Australia. After all, who really misses a few tons of scrap? But given the rising gas prices, the tanker was a far greater cause for alarm.

…

**Yukari**

A hurricane of metal rained down from above. Broken steel girders, rusted automobiles, long-dead appliances and a dozen other varieties of junk rendered unrecognizable by their long sleep were wretched from their graves, pulled across the seams of reality itself and dropped right on top of the gaping mouth that Yuuka had become. She (or rather, it?) roared as the lining of her gullet was cut, sliced and punctured by the Outside World's refuse. Her many eyes closed, but the protection provided by her lids was minimal, and soon she was rendered blind.

Yukari kept the barrage going until the pile was nearly as large as the heap of stones had been. Then she thrust her will through the center of the scrap heap, shoving it aside and creating a perfectly round hole that led straight down Yuuka's throat.

Another gap, this one larger than the others, opened directly above the hole, and a massive steel ship plunged straight down nose-first, trailing anchors and seawater as it fell right into Yuuka's open gorge. Yuuka gagged and choked as the ship got stuck part way down.

Yukari squeezed her fist and ignited the ship's full cargo of crude oil.

Once again the pit erupted like a volcano. The explosion lit the darkened sky with brilliant light and flaming bits of metal were hurled hundreds of feet into the air. Yuuka let out a lingering wail of pain that reminded Yukari of the death howls of a mortally wounded humpback whale.

But she was far from done. As Yuuka's insides were torn apart by flame and steel, the gaps above her blinked, closing and reopening in the space of a millisecond. The reason for this was simple: they now connected to another place entirely. Someplace much, much hotter.

Days ago, when Yuuka had first sent Yukari her challenge through Kotohime, Eirin had wondered why Yukari simply did not use her godlike powers to tear Yuuka apart. She had then gone on to list several possible methods, one of them being opening a gap that led to the Earth's core and giving Yuuka a magma bath. Though Yukari had scoffed at such tactics then, she had since had a change of heart. Only instead of molten metal taken from the center of the Earth, she decided to up the ante by a bit.

Why settle for heat taken from a planet when there was a perfectly serviceable Sun available?

Plasma poured down, right on top of Yuuka. Her wail turned into an outright scream as she was incinerated. Yukari kept a barrier steady around the pit that extended several miles beneath the ground. The purpose of the barrier was simple: keep all of the overwhelming heat and solar material from escaping. It was a difficult task, holding all of that energy in, and in her weakened state it took all of her concentration. She closed her eyes and strained every available ounce of strength into keeping the barrier up.

It held. And once she felt that she had waited long enough, Yukari closed the gaps.

"I think this has gone on long enough," she rasped. With that, she enveloped the barrier with her will and made it contract.

Stone, flame, plasma, superheated air and vaporized metal all started to squeeze together as the barrier grew smaller and smaller. Within, Yuuka sensed the frenzied squirming of something large and fleshy. Despite the agony that the strain was giving her, she managed a small smile as she imagined the torment that her nemesis was experiencing.

She kept on squeezing and squeezing, forming the barrier into a spherical shape that continued to shrink smaller and smaller. The various elements inside had ceased to be discernible and were now just a brightly glowing ball of white matter.

And still Yukari squeezed. She didn't stop when it was the size of small hill. She didn't stop when it was the size of a large house. She didn't even stop when it was as wide as a bus was long.

But she did stop soon after. There was only so much she could take, after all.

With a sigh of immense weariness, Yukari sent one final command into the mass inside and let the barrier fall. Under her instruction, the sphere had cooled, becoming a dull gray sphere of metal about fifteen feet in width and height. Its incredible density quite possibly made it the heaviest freestanding object on Earth, and it was only due to Yukari's ignoring of such laws as gravity that it continued to float in midair. Had she held it aloft through will alone, it might have been too much for her. As it was, she didn't even bother with such things, preferring to simply banish gravity altogether in the area around the sphere.

Once she was done, Yukari examined Yuuka's prison with a critical eye. Or at least, she wanted to, but right about then her legs gave out from under her and she fell right on her butt.

She remained there for nearly a minute, panting heavily as her body informed her of the various aches, pains and injuries she had suffered. Her intestines still had the problem of not being connected correctly, her entire back was a bit on the roasted side, she still felt the aftereffects of trying to touch Yuuka's essence and she was covered with the evidence of all the times Yuuka had physically slammed her around.

For a moment, Yukari wondered if retirement was in order. It passed quickly, but the fact that it happened at all was certainly significant. She had not been this roughed up since her encounter with that Ellimist fellow who had fell out of that black hole two centuries ago, and he at least had the decency to apologize once the misunderstanding had been cleared up and take her out to dinner afterward.

And come to think of it, that might be the answer to her problem. Opening a gap to a black hole would be extremely dangerous, even moreso than the one she had opened to the Sun. But dropping the sphere into one would likely rid her of Yuuka for good. Then she could go hunt down that remaining piece of her nemesis, beat her to a pulp, and dispose of her the same way. It was something to think about, at least.

And then a crack formed on the side of the sphere. It was tiny, almost imperceptible even from up close, but Yukari felt it just the same.

She froze as terror locked up her mind. No, it couldn't be possible. It shouldn't be possible. It wasn't fair. Yuuka should be finished. After all that, she couldn't still be-

The hairline fracture grew and multiplied.

"NO!" Yukari screamed. She desperately tried to bring her will down to heal the coming rupture, but her power had been rendered slow and clumsy.

A chunk of the sphere exploded outward, sending a spray of super-dense metal that sank into the ground wherever they landed. And with them leapt…something.

Yukari stared as the something landed in a messy heap not far from her. When Yuuka had pulled herself out of the flames some minutes ago, she had at least been recognizable as humanoid, albeit a severely burned one. This was barely recognizable as bipedal. A black scratching thing that seemed to be equal parts diseased shadow and frail sticks.

It seemed to be unable to support itself on its limbs, so it squirmed in the mud and let out pathetic mewing cries. Then it shuddered once and lay still, curled up in the fetal position in such a way that it resembled a dead spider more than anything.

For a moment, Yukari allowed herself to think that maybe it was dead. But that desperate hope was fleeting, for then its limbs straightened and started to grow, and flesh began to regenerate on its withered skeleton.

Yukari felt sick. Even after all that, Yuuka was still healing herself. Perhaps that was a sign that Yukari should just cut her losses and leave. Perhaps she was truly outclassed here. Let Yuuka have this win and negotiate the end their rivalry later. That way, she might be able to put an end to hostilities, let Yuuka leave this with her ego strengthened and concentrate her efforts on finding Rin Satsuki. After all, that was the real threat. Yuuka was just a distraction. Better to end it now, even at the cost of her pride.

The very thought of it ignited a fire of pure rage inside of Yukari. Her breath came out in infuriated growls as her twitching fingers curled into claws. No. Completely out of the question. That thing had come into _her _country, had hurt _her _people and was getting in _her _way, all the while lecturing her on stupid things like honor and wearing a tremendously annoying grin. Enough was enough.

The thing was now Yuuka-sized, though it still looked like something a fire salamander might have shat out. Yukari allowed gravity to return, sending the sphere plummeting into the hole. Then she marched over to the pathetic thing, grabbed it by the armpits and hoisted it up so that its lolling head was level with her eyes.

"Hey," she said. "Bitch."

The thing's head stopped rolling about.

Yukari brought it mere inches away from her. "I," she snarled. "Have had. Enough. Of _you!"_

With that, she once again gathered her power and rammed it right into Yuuka.

…

**Team Halloween (comrades-in-arms, reunited once again. So wonderful, I could puke)**

It wasn't much of a fight anymore.

Yuuka Kazami was insanely powerful. Her control over an entire biological kingdom was absolute. Her raw energy was seemingly inexhaustible. She could recover from just about any injury, she could change her form at will, she had more tricks up her sleeves than an entire magician's guild and when she spoke, the laws of reality sat up and listened.

But that didn't matter anymore. Because she was now facing off against no fewer than four beings who were also in possession of incredible strength. Yuyuko Saigyouji ruled over all of Gensokyo's dead, and she had all of the power that came with the station, along with the ability to end the life of whosoever she chose. Mima had spent numerous centuries inventing ways to make magic her bitch, and she had used them well. She was perhaps the strongest and most versatile pure spellcaster in existence, and though both of these spirits had been injured by blade and parasite, they were far from finished.

And then there were the Humans. Though Youmu Konpaku had been outmatched in speed by Elly, Yuuka was not nearly as fast as her servitor. Youmu could run circles around her, and her mystical blades were quite capable of turning anything she grew into mulch. And finally, there was Marisa Kirisame. Though she was the most mortal member of Team Halloween, and though she had been born with less power than the average Human, she had spent all of her life making up for her shortcomings. Her natural brilliance in grasping magic's workings and her appetite for the rush brought by its power had caused her to recreate herself into one of the most potentially destructive beings alive. In her short time, she had created or stolen more methods of annihilation than most professional mages ever would learn, and she had mastered each and every single one. And though she had used up a great deal of her tricks already, she had plenty more to spare.

Had Yuuka been facing off against any one of these persons, the odds would be solidly in her favor. Two would be more difficult if they were willing to cooperate against her (as Marisa and Mima had demonstrated), but not outside of her abilities. But all four at once? That was a different story altogether. The team had gotten back together. They now knew what to expect from her. They had gotten the jump on her. And they were pissed off.

(Well, perhaps Marisa Kirisame wasn't especially angry, but she was just as focused on killing Yuuka as everyone else. And the fact that she was doing it for shits and giggles perhaps made her more dangerous)

Not that Yuuka didn't put up a fight. She was still the size of a small skyscraper with a virtually unlimited arsenal of deadly plants at her disposal. But it seemed that no matter how many vines and flowers she grew, Youmu would rush in to cut them away. Any poisons and parasites were summarily turned to ash by Mima. And in the openings they created, Yuyuko would slip in and render another portion of Yuuka's stalk lifeless.

Curiously enough, Marisa wasn't participating much. Sure, she would launch the odd comet and fireball Yuuka's way, but for the most part she seemed content to remain sitting on her broom above it all, watching her companions cut away at Yuuka piece-by-piece.

Youmu took notice. She quickly finished shaving off the thorny patch she had been working on and swooped up to Marisa's side. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Are you just going to sit there and let us do all the work?"

Marisa shrugged. "Eh, already did my part. I'm just waiting for you guys to finish up so I can put Yuuka away, ze."

"What?" Youmu said, her face filled with confusion. "What are you talking about?"

In answer, Marisa held up her right gauntlet, the one that contained her spellcards. She tapped the hidden sheath and grinned. "This is where I keep the spellcards I've been using, both mine and the ones Yukari gave me. This baby's empty now. Figured it out?"

"Uh, not really. Are you saying that you used them up before we returned, so you can't help out much?"

"Nope." Marisa's grin was now positively face-splitting. "Still had plenty left."

"Then what happened to them?"

"You know Reimu, right?"

"Reimu?" Youmu blinked. "Of course."

"Awesome. And you know how her charms work, right?"

"Certainly. She sticks them to an enemy youkai or other such being and…" Youmu's voice trailed off. She got it now.

Marisa waved a hand over the battlefield. "You guys gonna finish up anytime soon, ze? Because I can't really do anything you still there."

Youmu quickly swooped back down to where the two spirits were battling Yuuka. "My lady!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "Madam Mima! Fall back!"

"Like hell," Mima growled as she froze a good chunk of Yuuka's hair solid. "We're finally making progress!"

"What's wrong, Youmu?" Yuyuko asked. She was drawing away from the side of Yuuka's stalk, leaving a fair bit of it shriveled.

"Does it matter?" Mima shot back. "It can wait!"

Youmu pointed upward. "Marisa said she needs us out of the way so she can-"

Mima spun to face Yuyuko. "Move your dead ass and get as far away from Yuuka as you can!"

"But we are-"

Mima shot out a green tether identical to the one she had previously used with Marisa and hit Yuyuko in the stomach with it. She then dragged the confused ghost up toward Marisa as fast as she could, with Youmu following behind.

"Whatever you're going to do, do it now," Mima said to Marisa once she was in earshot. "Shoot the works."

"My pleasure," Marisa grinned. She entwined her fingers, flipped her palms around and cracked her knuckles. And then she activated the spellcards she had stuck to Yuuka's stalk. All twenty-seven of them. At once.

The four remaining black spellcards had been placed at strategic locations at what was left of Yuuka's base, the center of the stalk, and at the base of her head. Marisa's own cards had been interspaced between those. And while Marisa's spells weren't as overwhelmingly powerful as Yukari's, they were still illegal, lethal and very, very destructive.

Yuuka's stalk simply disintegrated as the crater filled with flames, fireworks and other explosions in a vast myriad of colors. Her overgrown head looked up at her combatants and, for one brief moment, a mournful look of resignation passed over her grotesque features.

And then, with nothing left to support it, it fell into the inferno. The floor of the crater, already weakened by the huge amounts of spell damage, collapsed under its weight and Yuuka's head fell into the caverns beneath.

"Very impressive," Mima murmured. "Though you really didn't need to use them all. A fourth the number would have achieved the same effect. Sometimes, less is more."

"Oh, come on!" Marisa protested. "That was awesome!"

"So is it over?" Youmu asked. "Did we win?"

"Not yet," Mima told her. "We still need to seal her up."

Youmu cast a doubtful eye at the fire still raging beneath them. Parts of it looked alive, and there were bizarre shapes moving through it. "W-we have to go in there? Are you serious? We'll get-"

Mima's patience snapped. She brought down all six fists in a punching gesture, and the entire floor of the crater exploded into flaming bits. They plunged down into darkness, taking the fire with them.

"There," Mima hissed. "You should have no further objections."

"None whatsoever," Yuyuko said calmly. "Let's go then."

The four of them descended into the cavern that had swallowed Yuuka's head. Mima led the way, with Marisa right behind her and Youmu following at a safe distance. Yuyuko brought up the rear.

Mima looked around. "Well, damn it," she muttered. "Of course it would be one of the cathedral sized ones.

The beam of light provided by Marisa's hakkero swept through the darkness, revealing numerous stone pillars and what could be described as subterranean hills jutting up from a field of mist half a mile below them. The witch let out a low whistle. "Holy mustard, does this place even have a bottom?"

"All right, stick together," Mima said over her shoulder. "I can sense that she's in here somewhere, but with all the spellcards Marisa just set off-" she shot the witch an irritated look "-it's difficult to get a lock on her. And seeing how we have no idea if she's taken on a new form, we're going to play it safe. So follow my lead and don't wander off from the group."

Youmu cleared her throat. "Um, I'm sorry, but wasn't lady Yuyuko put in charge of this team?"

The look Mima gave her could have frozen volcanoes. "You're not as cute as you think you are," Mima said. She turned her attention back to the gaping space below them. "All right, let's move!"

…

**Yukari**

The last time Yukari had attempted this, Yuuka had only been one-third of what she was now. And the effect had been akin to accidentally putting her hand on a red-hot plate and getting kicked in the stomach by an oni at the same time.

This time it was much worse. Ruined as she was, most of the damage was merely physical.

But this time Yukari did not recoil. Despite wanting to scream, she let her anger fuel her determination as she plunged deeper and deeper into Yuuka's essence, grasping for the core of her being.

It was like thrusting her hand through a thicket of six-inch steel thorns, all of them white-hot, in order to crush a single fruit with her fingers. A fruit filled with deadly poison and coated with acid, and the skin of which was so cold that merely touching it guaranteed the loss of a layer of skin.

She found it. It was there, a sick and corrupted thing, older and more sinister than anything she had ever experienced. And then, as she cried out in agony and clutched what was left of Yuuka's physical body to her, she took it and torn it apart.

Then Yukari's world exploded into white light. Vomit rushed up and exploded from her mouth in a fountain, a sickly cocktail of blood, green bile and black corruption. The last thing she could make out before collapsing entirely was Yuuka's body, now healed enough to at least resemble a badly decayed corpse, falling to her knees and staring up at the sky and screaming.

What was strange, though, was that the howls of pain formed themselves into words.

"It cannot be," Yuuka croaked in a voice that seemed to be woven from ash. _"It cannot be!"_

And then Yukari literally fell apart.

…

"_Now, what do you think I was reacting to?" Yuuka asks. "It was not the ravaging of my soul, I can tell you that much. Nor was I raging against my defeat." She slowly shakes her head. "No, I might have railed against such things under normal circumstances, but what happened to me was anything from normal."_

_Yuuka leans in close and smiles. It is not the wide, hideous grin that you have been growing accustomed to. No, this was a slow and small smirk of a magician about to reveal her greatest trick. "You see, when Yukari raped me in mind and soul, when she took my heart and ripped it apart, something happened then. I saw something, something I had never even dreamed possible." She giggles, a most disturbing sound coming from her. "But there will be plenty of time to describe that later. Now, back to the story."_

…

**Team Christmas**

Marisa was growing impatient. Of course, given that the potions had yet to wear off, anything that did not involve fire and explosions would make her impatient. But seeing how it was only a matter of time before the potion did wear off and render her violently ill, she wanted this business finished now before she became useless.

At the moment they were investigating a very weird looking rock tower. Mima had narrowed Yuuka's location to being somewhere inside it. And seeing how its top was smashed as if something heavy had landed on it, she was probably right. Unfortunately, it was also riddled with many holes, alcoves, nooks and crannies that Yuuka could be hiding in, and the top part had partially collapsed on itself.

In Marisa's opinion, it would be easier just to blow the tower to pebbles and scoop whatever was left of Yuuka out of the debris. In fact, she was coming very close to doing just that, but as she poked around one jagged crack in the tower's side, something made her hesitate.

It was the sound of breathing. From something very large.

Marisa cast a look at Mima. The spirit was sending tiny little flying points of light to seek through another hole about a half a mile below her. She looked up. Youmu was there, poking her sword through the part that had been broken off.

She bit her lip. Then she slipped inside.

The interior was small, but she could move around if she crouched. She swung her hakkero around, illuminating the walls and pieces of stone chips on the floor.

"What are you doing?" a voice asked.

Marisa squeaked and whirled around. Then she relaxed. "Holy shit, Yugogo," she said as her heart pounded. "Don't scare me like that!"

Yuyuko pushed her way inside, her voluptuous body squishing tight as she squeezed through the crack. The ghost glimmered with an eerie light. Marisa wondered why she didn't just float through the wall but deemed the answer unimportant.

"Why did you come in here?" Yuyuko asked. "Is Yuuka in here?"

"Maybe. I think I heard something, so I'm just checking it out."

"I thought we were supposed to stay together. At least, I'm fairly certain we were. I don't know. The plans we make always seem to be in a constant state of flux."

"Hey, it's not like I'm going far." Marisa turned her attention back to the small cave. She found a part where the wall sank into a small tunnel and followed it. The tunnel turned. "I'm just having a quick look, and then I'll be…"

Her voice trailed off when she got a look at what was at the end of the tunnel. She quickly backpedaled.

"Is something wrong?" Yuyuko asked.

"Wrong?" Marisa forced a casual grin. "Oh, uh, everything's fine, ze. Say, you know that one crystal Yukari gave you?"

"Of course. It's quite pretty. I keep it on my dresser at home."

Marisa stared. "You're kidding me, right?"

"No, why would I?" Yuyuko asked, sounding confused. "It matches the general theme rather well, and the colors it gives off are really quite…Oh. Wait, you mean the sealing crystal, don't you? The one create to entrap Yuuka."

"Yes! I am! What else would I be talking about?"

Yuyuko shrugged. "Well, you must understand, Yukari and I have known each other for a number of centuries, during which we have given each other numerous gifts, which does include a large number of items made from crystal. If you just say 'That one crystal that Yukari gave you', it might be referring to any number of-"

Marisa actually grabbed her own hair and started pulling. "Okay, will you shut up about the presents and just give me the _godsdamned crystal already!" _Then, as an afterthought, she added, "Please?"

"Certainly," Yuyuko said, completely unruffled by Marisa's rudeness. She reached into her bodice and pulled out a slender chain that circled her neck. The sealing crystal was attached to the end of it. She removed it and handed it to Marisa. "But what do you intend to do with it? Have you found-"

"Thanks, Yugogo!" Marisa said. She quickly scampered back into the tunnel. "Stay here, be right back!"

The tunnel opened to a small room the size of a large closet. At the top was a round hole that had been filled with rubble. More broken stones were freshly landed on the ground. And lying there in the debris was Yuuka's head.

Marisa held the hakkero steady, illuminating their opponent's features. Yuuka was not in good shape. In addition to be nothing more than a head the size of a couch, her skin was covered with burns and her bruised cheeks were sagging. Her eyes were swollen shut, and she was taking in slow, shallow breaths. How she managed this without a throat or lungs, Marisa couldn't figure out. But judging by the fact that she was neither healing herself or reacting to Marisa's approach, it seemed that she had finally been beaten unconscious or something else had been damaged within her.

The jittery feeling that Marisa had been running off of was picking up. Her arms and legs were trembling, and it was an effort to keep her own breath from coming out in frenzied pants. She licked her lips and slowly approached.

This was it. She was going to be the one to kill Yuuka. Not Yukari, not Flandre Scarlet, not even Mima. It was going to be her, the most "normal" member of this whole crazy shitstorm. Finally, she was going to prove to everyone that she was the next big thing. It didn't matter that she had been born lesser than everyone else. It didn't matter that she wasn't some naturally gifted shrine maiden, or a magician youkai, or a centuries-old spirit of pure magic. It didn't matter that she all her tricks had been scrapped together from things she had acquired from other people and whatever she could make from scratch. In the end, Marisa Kirisame was not going to let her lack of natural advantages keep her down. And this was how she was going to prove it.

And then Marisa was struck with a horrible thought. How exactly was she going to do it? Sure, Yuuka was lying broken before her, but Marisa had used up most of her tricks trying to beat her into this state. All of her spellcards were gone, she was had used up most of the energy she needed for her other A-list attacks, Yuuka was immune to Master Sparks, and none of her instruments were strong enough to…

Marisa was struck by a second thought, one that made her breath catch in her throat. She grinned, and reached into a side-pocket. From it she withdrew a metal tube that was about six inches long and as thin as an arrow. One end was pointed and painted red, with the depiction of a shark-like face right behind it. An opening was at the other end, surrounded by four red fins.

Some years earlier, soon after she had met Reimu for the first time, Marisa and Mima had stumbled across a series of ancient ruins that had not been there the day before. They had then been informed that a race was schedule to take place, from one of the ruins to the other, with the winner having one wish granted. As they had nothing better to do that day, Marisa and Mima had both participated. And though there had been several other competitors involved, including Reimu herself, Marisa had ultimately emerged victorious.

Of course, they had then discovered that the whole thing was a con thrown together by a teenaged researcher from a different planet who simply wanted a suitable subject to take back home with her. But the girl had underestimated her marks' ability to defend themselves, and had promptly had her ass kicked. Then her boss had found out what she had been trying to do and tore her a new one, after which she had forced the chump to live up to her promise and grant Marisa's wish.

Seeing how it had been a member of an advanced race she had been dealing with, Marisa had figured that they had to have some pretty nifty weaponry at their disposal. And being who she was, she had wanted a piece of that action. The result was coming into possession of a little something she called Mimi the Missile. Marisa had been ecstatic. A piece of highly advanced technology created for the sole purpose of going boom. It was the perfect toy for her, and she had been downright anxious to try it out.

The problem was that she only had one of them, and missiles tended to only be good for one use. And so she had kept it hidden away, waiting for the perfect opportunity to unleash its awesome power.

And now it had come. There would be no more fitting a time than this. Marisa flipped Mimi through her fingers and caught it in her palm. Then she ran her thumb down its side and gave a short mental command.

Mimi shuddered. And then it grew in her grasp. In moments, it was as long and she was tall and about as thick as a child. She could probably ride the thing if she wanted.

But as fun as that would be, it would probably just end with her dying horribly. So, as she held the missile in place with one arm, Marisa picked up a stone and threw it at Yuuka.

"Hey!" she said in a loud whisper. "Wake up!"

Another stone followed. It bounced off of Yuuka's puffy cheek. When that failed to produce the desire reaction, she growled and picked up her hakkero and aimed it at her forehead. The headlight narrowed and became a thin pulsing laser. It was not strong enough to kill, but it was strong enough to let Marisa burn the words "WAKE UP!" on Yuuka's forehead.

This time it worked. The disembodied head shook itself, and her bulbous red eyes opened to squint. Marisa grinned and waved, all the while tapping at the control panel set in Mimi's side.

"You," Yuuka growled.

"Me," Marisa said happily. "Hi!"

"You…" Yuuka inhaled deeply and begun again. "You have made…and excellent showing…but you can't…seriously believe…"

Yuuka probably had some defiant speech all ready for her, which would likely bring Marisa's status as a human into the light. No doubt Humans' inferiority to creatures such as Yuuka would have been mentioned, complete with a long bit about how the silly little monkeys will never ascend to their level. But Marisa wasn't interested in listening. The only thing that mattered was that Yuuka's mouth was open.

She tapped one final key and Mimi's rocket came to life. _Go get her, girl! _Marisa thought proudly as the missile shot forward. And as Mimi flew right into Yuuka's mouth, Marisa saluted in respect as the weapon laid down its life for the cause.

Yuuka's eyes bulged. She coughed and said, "Wait, what in the _world _did you just-"

And then she exploded.

Marisa realized almost half-a-second too late that being in the same small enclosed space with an exploding high-tech warhead was probably not a good idea. She quickly rolled back on her heels and came up with her hands outstretched, pumping a good portion of her remaining magic into an anti-fire shield.

The flames roared forward and washed against the shield. Marisa gritted her teeth and forced herself to hold it together. It would not do to let herself get cooked by her own explosion right when she obtained victory.

"Marisa?" Yuyuko said as she crawled toward the witch. "What did you blow up now? I thought you said Yuuka wasn't here." She reached over and placed her hands over Marisa's wrists. Marisa felt a sudden increase of energy and the shield became a whole lot easier to maintain.

The fire continued to rage for about ten seconds longer before finally dying. When it cleared, a huge portion of the tower revealed itself to be completely gone. In its place, a massive hole opened up to the cavern beyond. Marisa stared at the hole with her mouth hanging open and hands still in the air, powering a shield that was no longer necessary.

"Marisa, I do believe you can put your hands down," Yuyuko said. "Unless there is some kind of fire fiend in there. In which case you are quite right to keep them up."

Marisa squeezed her shaking fingers closed and lowered her arms. The shield extinguished.

"Now, what was that all about?" Yuyuko asked. "Because that did not look like a magical fire to me. Of course, I am no expert in such matters, so it's quite possible that…"

Marisa wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention. She pulled out the sealing crystal and held it tightly. Then she started to crawl toward the hole.

Then an angry howl filled the small space, shutting even Yuyuko up. A split-second later some kind of glowing green mist shot into the room and lunged right for Marisa's face. The witch screamed in shock and reflexively lurched back. The motion caused her hand to open and the crystal to fly out of her grasp.

As her death approached, Marisa closed her eyes. She wasn't a coward by any stretch of the imagination, but she was still human. And she really didn't want to watch.

Her death never came. Marisa opened her eyes.

The crystal was hanging suspended in the air and spinning round and round. The mist had run right into it before hitting Marisa, and was now being drawn into its facets. Marisa stared slack-jawed as the entire glowing cloud was sucked up into a wild vortex that grew larger as more of the mist was pulled from the hole. A sharp whining that sounded very much like an angry shriek filled the place. Marisa threw her hands over her ears and waited.

Then it was over. All of the mist had been absorbed. The crystal was now glowing with a soft green light. It hovered for about half-a-second before it fell to the ground, where it landed with a small _plink! _and rolled to bump against Marisa's knee.

"Ah, I understand now," Yuyuko murmured. "You wished to do the deed yourself, and thus did not tell me that you had found Yuuka. Very clever."

Marisa stared at the crystal. Despite doing everything in her power to achieve exactly what she had just accomplished, she could hardly believe that it had worked. It went against every bit of sense.

But then, wasn't pulling off the impossible exactly what magicians were supposed to do?

Marisa reached with one trembling hand and picked up the crystal. It was warm to the touch.

A slow grin spread over her face. "Game, set, and match," she whispered. She started to laugh, which began as a low chuckle before evolving to a more deranged fit of giggles and finally escalated to all-out insane cackling.

And right about then Yuyuko had to grab Marisa by the shoulders and drag her out of the stone tower, which had begun to collapse.

…

**Sakuya**

Consciousness took considerably longer to return this time. And it was much more painful.

The darkness retreated, and Sakuya slowly became aware of the gentle sound of rain. She twitched, grimaced when that brought pain and waited for it to fade away.

When she was able, Sakuya slowly and carefully opened one eye. Though everything was once again hazy, she was able to make out enough to learn that she was lying in a pile of rubble, partially wedged under a large chunk of rock that stuck out at an angle. Rain fell upon the stones directly in front of her face, splattering her with tiny, cold drops.

Sakuya took stock of herself. In addition to her unresponsive arm, her left ankle was now on fire, meaning it was at best twisted. Every breath felt like sandpaper, so she had probably broken some ribs as well.

Well, seeing how she had been expecting death, this quite a step up. Sakuya blocked out the pain the best she could and gingerly maneuvered out from under the stone. If she could get out into open air, she could start flying and reduce the amount of movement necessary just to get about.

"Mistress?" she choked out in a voice rubbed raw. She coughed, and said, "Are you there?"

Nothing. Sakuya braced her good hand against the side of the rock and pushed herself out into the rain. She tried to sit up, but that just brought a fresh burst of agony, forcing her back down again.

Was this how it was going to end? After all the monsters she had hunted, all the battles she had fought, was this it for her? To die, lying broken in the rain, having failed her duty to protect her Mistresses? A casualty in someone else's war?

To hell with this. Sakuya steeled herself and rolled over to her stomach. Her chest screamed obscenities at her, but she disregarded its protests. She had been hurt before. She could take it.

Then she placed her good hand on the ground and pushed up. She managed to get her right knee under her, and from there she used a combination of her working limbs and her natural flight abilities to get herself upright. She couldn't stand on her left foot, but she managed to prop herself against the rock she had woken up under, gasping in pain.

She looked around. She was near the wall of the huge debris-filled crater that the cavern had become. Broken stone lay everywhere, and the open sky loomed overhead. Yuuka was gone, and the storm clouds had returned in her absence. Sakuya didn't much mind the rain. It was miles preferably to waking up to see that leering grin staring down at her.

"Mistress?" she said. She wasn't really expecting an answer, but she had to try. Even if there was only the slightest chance that Remilia had survived, Sakuya had to find her. And, failing that, she needed to find concrete proof of her Mistress' death.

Of course, had Remilia really perished, there would be precious little to find…

Sakuya banished that thought from her mind. "Mistress!" she called again, louder this time. She held onto the stone and half-walked, half-hopped her way around its edge. "Remilia! Are you-Ah, damn it! Are you there?"

It was then that she heard squeaking.

…

**Team Halloween, may God damn their souls**

"And then she was all, 'Rawr, I'm going to eat you!', and then I was all like, 'Well, eat this bitch!' and then I turned on the rocket and launched it right down her ugly throat! Um, well, now that I think about it, she really didn't have much of a throat, but it did go in her mouth, ze!" Marisa laughed. "Oh man, you guys should've seen the look on her face. And since it was so huge, it just made it funnier. You know how your face gets when you're flying along and accidentally swallow a bug? It was like that. Only, she blew up right after. It was so freaking cool!"

Team Halloween were now out of the crater and in one of the many snug caves that dotted the Blasted Lands. Yuyuko was taking stock of how much of her essence had been lost to Elly's scythe and Youmu was busy wrapping a strip of linen into a makeshift sling her arm. Mima had the crystal that contained Yuuka and was off in a corner by herself as she studied the captured life force. As for her part, Marisa, the only member of the team not to suffer any injuries, was standing on a rock and telling story of how she had personally defeated one of the most powerful beings Gensokyo had ever seen.

It felt like being at the top of the world and having everyone who had ever underestimated her bowing down in reverence. It felt like being charged with pure lightning (something she could personally attest to). It felt like a thousand orgasms all at once. And the best part was that for the first time ever, she didn't need to lie or embellish the story in any way to make it seem cooler. The truth was already awesome enough.

"But right after then I realized I had just set off a real big explosion in a really tiny place, and that I was _in _that tiny place. I was literally about to be roasted alive by my own missile. 'Oh Marisa,' you guys say. 'You must have been so scared! Did you panic?' Hell no! I've been spitting in Death's face all my life, and I sure as hell wasn't let a little fire scare me, ze! So I rolled back and, quick as thought, I threw up this anti-fire shield that stopped the flames in their tracks!"

"She did do that," Yuyuko said. "It was very quick."

Marisa grinned at her. "Yeah, I sure did. But who had my back and was right there to help me keep the shield going? You were, that's who!" She shot the ghost an enthusiastic thumb's-up. "Who's awesome? We're awesome!"

She continued. "But then, after the fire was gone, was Yuuka gone for good? No, she was not!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Youmu asked. "I thought you said you had blown her up. I don't know of any creature that can regenerate that quickly."

"She didn't! That's the freaky part! Her life-energies went after me! Like, they formed this cloud of angry murder and went right after my face, ze!"

Youmu looked skeptical. She glanced over to Yuyuko, who nodded in affirmation.

"Yeah, I gotta give Leafy credit," Marisa said with a shudder. "She does _not _stay down. Makes me almost wanna go vegetarian if that's what plants can do. But yeah, she was all coming after me, so I _took _the sealing crystal, and I _threw _it at her!" Marisa mimed the action of throwing something. "And may the gods strike me down if the thing didn't work like a charm! And I mean the real charms here, not those fake-ass ones they sell in the Human Village." She frowned. "It was weird though. Like it got stuck in midair and starting sucking her up like a black hole or something."

"A black hole of what?" Youmu asked.

"Say what?" Marisa said as she stared. "You mean you've never heard of a black hole before?"

Youmu looked confused. "Well, I assume that it's a hole. That's probably so dark that it's black. Why, what else would it be?"

"Keee-rist, what are they teaching these kids these days?" Marisa said as she slapped a palm across her face. "Never mind, never mind. Point is, Yukari's shiny marble sucked Yuuka right up! And the next thing I know, I'm holding the Big Scary Garden in the palm of my hand!"

She shot a grin over to Mima, hoping that last bit would elicit some sort of sign of approval. But to her surprise, Mima just glanced at her and shook her head before going back to studying the crystal.

Marisa quickly wrapped thing up. "And uh, we booked it because the whole place was coming down, and that's the story of how I killed Yuuka!" She hopped off the rock.

Yuyuko started applauding while Youmu smiled and nodded in approval. Marisa ignored them and ran straight to Mima.

"Hey!" she said as she approached.

"Ah, hello," Mima said. "Again, congratulations on your victory."

"Uh, yeah. Thanks." Marisa glanced over at Yuyuko and Youmu. She lowered her voice. "Hey, are you pissed at me about something?"

"Pissed?" Mima raised an eyebrow. "No, why would I be?"

"Well, uh, it's just that ever since I killed Yuuka, you've been acting all weird about me. Come on, I just did the freaking impossible. That's gotta count for something."

Mima sighed. "No, Marisa. I'm not angry with you. Your victory was indeed the stuff of legends and well-deserved."

"Then what-"

"What I am is disappointed."

"Disappointed?" Marisa repeated. "What? Why? What did I do wrong? It went perfectly!" Then inspiration struck. "Wait, this isn't because I went off without telling you, is it? You're not upset that you didn't get to join in, are you?"

"Oh, for the love of…Is that what you think?" Mima said. She looked up from the crystal to give Marisa her whole attention. "That I'm pouting because you dealt the final blow instead of I?"

"Uh…"

"Marisa, let me remind you of something. Until today, I had no grudge against Yuuka Kazami. No outstanding rivalries. I am here solely for your benefit. As such, I couldn't care less who actually killed her. In fact, I am damned glad that it was you instead of Flandre Scarlet and cannot wait to see the look on Yukari's face when she finds out."

"Then what-"

"What disappoints me is how quickly the desire to be the hero caused you to forget basic tactics."

Marisa blinked. "Say what?"

Mima glanced over to Yuyuko and Youmu and lowered her voice further still. "Even decapitated and wounded as she was, Yuuka was still incredibly dangerous. The fact that she was still able to attack even after being killed is proof of this. And you went right after her without support."

"Wait, hang on," Marisa said. "Are you mad at me for not being…careful? Because I wasn't all pussyfooting? _You? _I saw an opportunity and I took it, ze! That's what you always taught me to do!"

"I also taught you to take advantage of every possible resource. And in this case, you confronted Yuuka Kazami face-to-face, which, while brave, should have gotten you killed. In case you haven't noticed, Yuuka isn't shy about surprise heavy attacks. And all this time, you had two very convenient bodies that you could have used to make sure none of those attacks were directed at you."

Marisa's jaw dropped. "Hold up, are you saying that you're upset that I didn't use Yuyuko and Youmu as meatshields?"

"But of course. To neglect doing so places yourself in unnecessary risk."

"I've been doing that all day!"

"They weren't there all day." Mima inclined her head toward the potential meatshields in question. "They were there then. That's my point. You fight hand-to-hand if you have to, but the minute a weapon or a shield makes itself available, then you snatch it up and-" Mima looked past Marisa toward Yuyuko and Youmu, who were staring at them.

"Do you mind?" she snapped. The two Netherworld denizens found something else to look at.

Marisa cleared her throat. "Uh, Mima? I know you're all for being all ruthless, but I kinda _like _Yugogo and Body Pillow," she said. "And putting other people between me and the person I'm trying to paste really isn't my style."

Mima rolled her eyes. "Marisa, I know you enjoy spending time with these friends of yours. I don't begrudge you that. And hell, I even like a few of them. Reimu's probably the first Hakurei I've ever said 'Good morning' to and meant it. But don't let your affection for them make you forget who is most important in your life."

"You?"

"Me? Good heavens, haven't you been paying attention? No, I mean you. You are your first and foremost priority. Isn't that what you were telling me a few days ago? That you need to do what is best for you regardless of what others think?"

Marisa frowned. "Yeah, but that didn't mean shoving people I like in front of a laser."

"Sometimes it does. I know it's hard to accept at first, but sooner or later you will have to."

"Um, yeah." Marisa grimaced. "No offense, Master, but I don't think I like the sound of this lesson."

"Well, you're still young," Mima said. A small twinge of an affectionate smile tugged at her lips. "Brilliant, resourceful and incredibly brave, but still young. I supposed that lesson can wait until later, after you've achieved immortality."

Marisa blinked. "Um, you mean like having my name go down in history?"

"No. What's the point of that if you're not there to accompany it? I mean true immortality." At Marisa's surprised look, Mima added, "Come now, you know it's bound to happen sooner or later. Maybe you'll become a youkai like that puppeteer friend of yours, maybe you'll find some great secret like the Princess of Eientei, maybe you'll forsake your mortal body and become a being of pure spirit without actually tasting death, as I did. I think it's safe to say that your disregard for the Reaper will become more-or-less permanent."

Marisa made a face. "…um, I dunno about that, ze. Sounds like it would get tiresome after awhile."

Mima shrugged. "It can, at times. But just when you think that you've seen it all, something new and interesting always pops up. Trust me on this, the reports of eternal life's negative attributes are greatly exaggerated. You'll see."

Marisa wasn't sure if she was comfortable with the subject of conversation, so she changed it. "So, uh, speaking of which, what's your beef with Yuyuko anyway?"

"Beef? Whatever do you mean?"

"I dunno, it's just that you really don't seem like you like her," Marisa shrugged. "Hey, come on. Maybe I haven't known you as long as most people, but I can at least pick up on when you're annoyed by something. You've been scowling at her ever since she showed up."

"Well, part of that is because she's only here to control us for Yukari," Mima said. "Surely you've figured that out.

"Sure, but so what? It's not like we're planning anything, ze. And hey, it's kinda flattering. I mean, Yukari's so worried about what we might do that she brings in the freaking ruler of the Netherworld."

"I suppose, but I really rather that it wasn't her."

"Why?"

Mima turned her attention back to the crystal. "Marisa, both she and I are eternal beings of similar composition, incredible power and influence but with completely different dispositions. Is it really too much to believe that somewhere down the line we might have had a bad encounter or two?"

"Really? She doesn't seem to mind you," Marisa said.

"That's because she has the attention span of a retarded sand mite. Or at least she pretends to. Either way, she's still not especially high on my favorite persons list."

Again, Marisa wasn't liking where the talk was going. If anything, Mima was giving her a very good reason to not live forever. Marisa had a nasty habit of acquiring grudges. And if she never died, that meant that, sooner or later, she would have everyone hating her.

While she had never cared much about other people's opinions of her, eventually becoming the target of everyone's scorn gave her an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. So once again she changed the subject. "So, uh, the crystal. You've been looking at it real intently. What'cha doing?"

"This?" Mima frowned at the crystal. "I've been attempting to gain a measure of Yuuka's essence and figure out exactly why she gave us so much trouble. I think it's clear by now that she's not a youkai. But unfortunately, Yukari knows how to make seals. Penetrating it without destabilizing it and potentially setting Yuuka loose is proving…difficult."

"Oh. Then why not just call Yukari to come and pick it up already? Bet she could tell you, and it's not like we have any reason to stick around here any longer."

"In time," Mima murmured. "But Yukari has never been known to part with information freely. I'd rather learn what I can while I've got Yuuka contained in front of me. Yukari can cool her heel a little longer." She snickered. "Though I must admit, I'm curious what's going through her head. She's probably sitting all alone, wondering why Yuuka never showed up."

…

**Yukari**

Death is a constant hazard for a youkai. Every day, they risked being ended by human exterminators or their own fellows. Of course, it was almost always temporary. Their body would dissolve into its base energies, which would then take a short "time-out", recharge and reform themselves into a new body, identical to the last one, only having healed itself of whatever damage had caused its demise.

Given her immense power and influence, it had been hundreds of years since the last time Yukari had tasted death. She had forgotten entirely what it was like, that strange swirling feeling of non-existence that accompanied it. Upon reflection, she might have noted its similarities to that strange twilight that existed between sleep and wakefulness.

At any rate, Yukari found herself opening her new eyes and staring out at the world. She was still in the Blasted Lands, lying on her side in a shallow bowl that had been scooped out of the ground. The bowl was filled with rainwater, which almost came up to her nose. Yukari blinked and slowly sat up.

She took stock of herself. Her body had healed through resurrection. The pain was gone, and her injuries had disappeared. She was once again whole.

In body, at least. Yukari still felt incredibly sick. Her essence had been ripped up and injected with what amounted to spiritual poison. That would not be cured by a physical regeneration. In fact, given the damage she had taken while crushing Yuuka's soul, it was something of a miracle that she had resurrected at all.

She tried to move only to double over. Nausea welled up within her, and she started heaving. Black corruption once again vomited out of her throat to splatter all over the wet stones. She stared at it as it congealed into a thick lump. That wasn't good at all. It was going to require several days of intensive spiritual cleansing to chase all of it out. It was just fortunate that the core of her essence remained intact.

Speaking of which…

Yukari's eyes narrowed. She looked up. Yuuka was still sitting nearby, her arms wrapped around herself as she shivered and cried nonsense to herself. The fact that she was in the same horribly broken state that Yukari had left her in meant that she had been successful in neutralizing her healing abilities. Anything she suffered from this point up would stick.

Despite the fact that she felt horrible, despite the fact that she did not trust any of her abilities, Yukari still stood up. Her legs were weak and her sense of balance refused to focus, but she still managed to stumble her way over to Yuuka and kick her right in the head.

Yuuka flopped over like the decomposed body she appeared to be. She didn't even appear to notice that she had been attacked. She continued to shiver while whispering, "It can't be. Just words on a page. It's all paper. And not even real paper."

Yukari didn't know what she was going on about and quite frankly didn't give a damn. She grabbed Yuuka's throat with one hand, yanked her up, and started pounding her face with clumsy but still powerful punches, punctuating each blow with a word.

"Get. Out. Of. My. COUNTRY!"

With a final wordless cry of anger, Yukari held up Yuuka and drove her backward through a nearby boulder. Then she hoisted her up and slammed her down again. And again. And again. And again, until the boulder was dust and Yuuka's state of consciousness was questionable.

Yukari snatched up a sharp piece of stone and jammed it into Yuuka's left eye. Dark fluid leaked out as she twisted the shard in the socket. Then she snatched Yuuka up once again and hurled her with all her might. It spoke of how much she had been weakened that Yuuka only flew about twenty feet before coming to a bouncing stop on the edge of the crater.

Yukari leaned over to vomit once again. She waited for the world to stop spinning. When it did, she marched over Yuuka, intending to do as much damage as she could in her state. As she approached, Yuuka coughed and weakly held up one hand as if to ward her off.

"Wait," she croaked. "Stop. Uncle."

Yukari cocked her head. "Excuse me?"

"Uncle," Yuuka said again. "Enough. You…you win. I give up."

Yukari almost burst into laughter. "You do? Too bad. I'm far from done with you."

"You…you should be," Yuuka wheezed. Then, bizarrely enough, she managed a ghost of her trademark smile. "After…all, you've got…you've got other problems to…worry about."

Yukari stared. This couldn't be good. "What?"

"Like, for say, that…that nuclear Hell Raven, whom I left beaten and broken back in that…little cave. But not before turning on…her self-destruct and…" Yuuka coughed "…and crushing the…mechanism that would…turn it off."

Yukari's eyes widened. "What!"

"And…by my count…she's got mere…mere minutes before she goes…critical. It should…be spectacular. Might take…the whole place…with her…"

Yukari gaped at her. This had to be a joke, some last mean-spirited trick to throw her off.

But why resort to a trick when she could do the real thing?

Yuuka actually let out a horrible rasping laugh. "Tick-tock…Yukari. Be seeing you." With that, she braced her hands against the side of the crater and shoved herself over.

"No!" Yukari cried. She rushed over as quickly as her weak legs would allow and looked over the edge to see…absolutely nothing. Yuuka was nowhere to be found.

Yukari wanted to scream. She wanted to blast everything nearby to powder in a grand demonstration of rage. She had been _so close…_

But Yuuka was right. If Utsuho was truly about to blow, then she simply didn't have the time.

Yukari wasn't sure if she could even use her powers. The damage her soul had taken made it an unsure thing. But what choice did she have?

She held up her hand, took a deep breath and immediately regretted it when it made her vomit once again. Once she got the heaving under control she summoned her power and opened a gap.

A pain like sandpaper grating against her lungs made her double over. But when she straightened up she saw that she had succeeded. The opening into the Borderlands hovered before her, connecting to the cave that she had left Team Underground in.

Realizing just how much she was going to have to use her power and just how much it was going to hurt, Yukari groaned and pulled herself through.

…

**The Last Moments of Team Underground**

"_Caution. Time remaining until self-destruct: five minutes. Please make sure that the impending thermonuclear explosion is sufficiently contained, and that all non-essential personnel have evacuated the area. Thank you, and have a nice day."_

Orin wouldn't have thought it possible, but Utsuho's condition had worsened in a big way. She was fading into unconsciousness, barely able to keep her eyes open. Meanwhile, the raw power surging out of her was increasing more quickly every second, and growing more violent all the while.

Orin herself wasn't doing so great either. As noted before, she was multiple times more resistant to being hurt by such things than even most supernatural beings. However, there was only so much she could take. And at the moment being in the cave with Utsuho was the equivalent of being trapped inside a leaking nuclear reactor.

Of course she could have simply left, but she hadn't. There was no way she was going to just leave Utsuho all alone now. In some ways this was just as bad as when Utsuho had first undergone her power-up and had been driven insane as a result. Orin hadn't abandoned her then, and she sure as hell wasn't going to do it now.

But then again, after the radiation sickness really started to take hold, it wasn't as if she could have gone anywhere even if she wanted to.

Now they were both holding onto consciousness with their last vestiges of strength. Orin was sprawled against the far wall, watching Utsuho with eyes that were quickly failing. She wondered if her life energies would be able put themselves back together after Utsuho blew. That blast from Yuuka alone had taken her out of the action for almost twenty minutes. She had heard stories of youkai that had been so thoroughly blown apart that they had never returned. She wondered what that would be like. Would she even be aware of her own lack of existence? Would she even care?

"_Caution. One minute remaining until self-destruct. If you are still hearing this message, may the gods have mercy on your soul or equivalent spiritual energy. Thank you, and goodbye."_

Orin was still awake to hear that. She managed to raise her head and look at Utsuho. Orin could see the fear in her eyes. She tried to favor her with a comforting smile, but was unable to tell if her mouth had even moved.

_Well, I guess this is it, _she thought. _Funny. Always thought I'd live forever in the fire. Never thought I'd die in it._

The light from Utsuho suddenly flared up, white-hot. Orin closed her eyes.

And then a pair of strong hands grabbed her by the collar, lifted her right off the ground and hurled her into the tunnel.

Orin gasped as she rolled over the stone. The shock was enough to jolt her mind back into gear. She looked and saw Yukari Yakumo standing at the mouth of the cave, looking in.

The surprise made Orin choke, but she didn't waste time in croaking out, "Help…her. She's gonna…"

"I know!" Yukari snapped. "Shut up and let me concentrate, or you'll lose what remains of your nine lives."

Orin obeyed. She remained where she was and watched.

Yukari took one look at the cave and her shoulders slumped. She muttered, "Oh, this is gonna hurt like a…" Without finishing the sentence, she threw her hands up, and a sparkling purple barrier appeared about six inches in front of the cave's entrance. Judging by how the stone glowed and seemed to swim where the energies touched it, it was safe to say that the barrier extended through the solid rock as well.

And, as Orin realized with another jolt, it probably wrapped around the entire cave. Yukari had no intention of helping Utsuho. She just wanted to contain the blast.

"No!" Orin gasped. She tried to crawl across the floor toward Yukari. "Wait…help her! Please!"

Instead of responding, Yukari screamed and fell back against the wall. Her hands went to her face and she fell to the floor, her body shaking in pain. Orin stared in horror when she saw some kind of black substance bleeding out of her ears and the side of her mouth. The barrier flickered, fading in and out of existence.

Through it, the light from Utsuho was almost blinding. Orin squinted. Though her eyes were weak and visibility was poor, from the look of things Utsuho had stood to her feet. But how? She shouldn't have the strength. Was it one of those strange bursts of strength people were gifted with when they were about to die?

She walked up to the barrier, looking like a shining angel striding through an apocalypse. Only the black circle of Yatagarasu's corrupted eye ruined the image. She reached up to put her hand against the failing barrier.

"Orin?" she said.

And then she exploded.

"NO!" both Orin and Yukari shouted at the same time. Yukari lurched forward and thrust her hand toward the barrier. It immediately increased in power and solidified. Behind it, a full-fledged nuclear explosion raged.

Yukari let out a wordless scream. More of the black substance poured out of her mouth, out of her ears, of her fingernails, out of her eyes. Her skin drew taut and black veins appeared.

But still she continued to keep the barrier going. She held up her other hand and squeezed it closed, even as the black fluid filled her palm. The radioactive holocaust within fought her, but even in her horrible state her will was not to be denied. It withdrew from the barrier, slowly shrinking into a glowing blob.

Then Yukari held her hand out to Orin. At first the catgirl thought that she was reaching for help and instinctively held her own hand out. But then the sick feeling started to recede and Orin realized that Yukari was drawing away all the radiation that had leaked and forcing it through the barrier to join its fellows.

The violent energies inside swirled tighter and tighter. The blob took shape, forming a torso, head, arms, legs and wings. It jerked, and it head was thrown back. A seam cut down its chest and opened, revealing a slitted red eye.

The energies flared one last time and the tunnel filled with a roar so loud that Orin blacked out for a few seconds. When she came to, Yukari was collapsing on her face as the barrier winked out of existence.

Orin half-crawled, half-stumbled her way into the cave. It had been blasted into the shape of a perfect sphere. And there, sitting fully regenerated at the bottom of the bowl with a brand new Third Leg on her right arm, was Utsuho.

The Hell Raven looked with a confused look on her face. She saw Orin and cocked her head. "Unyu?" she said in bewilderment.

Orin took a deep breath. She shoved herself over the edge. She slipped and tumbled her way down to Utsuho to grab her in a crushing embrace.

"You're okay, you're okay," she whispered as she held Utsuho's head against her chest. Tears flowed freely from her eyes. She didn't care. Utsuho was all right and in her arms. Nothing else mattered.

Someone made an impatient sound behind them. Orin and Utsuho looked up, and Utsuho let out a frightened cry. Orin didn't blame her. Yukari had appeared in the cave's entrance and was, to put it mildly, a terrifying sight. Her body was emaciated to an almost skeletal state. Those black veins swelled up under her tight skin, and that black fluid was dripping from every orifice. Despite this, she still managed to look more annoyed than anything.

Yukari wiped her face with her palm and only succeeded in smearing the stuff. She gagged and spat. Then she said, "Of course… she is. She is…a _youkai_…who is _immune_…to _flame, explosions and radiation in all its forms! _So _of course _she would come back quickly._ WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEEMS TO REMEMBER THIS?"_

Orin shot her a venomous look.

Yukari shook her head. "All right," she said, her voice sounding like a rusty can full of phlegm. "Obviously, mission…failed. Yuuka got away. And I'm…in no shape…to gap you back. Can…" she grimaced "…can you…"

She doubled over, clutched her stomach and threw up. When she was done, she picked up right where she left off as if nothing had happened. "Can you make you way back to the Underground without my help?"

Utsuho said, "Satori-"

"I know what happened to her," Yukari said, her filthy face twisting in annoyance. "And yes…I will do something about that. Just…not now."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Orin demanded. She broke off from Utsuho to face Yukari fully. "What the hell happened? What happened to you, or the other teams? What's going on here?"

Yukari glared. "I'll…send you a letter with all the details. But for now…please. Just go home."

"Without the boss? What, are you nuts? You said it was gonna be simple! In-and-out, what happened to that? How'd she even know where we were? What in the blazing hell is-"

"Go. The fuck. HOME!" Yukari roared.

Orin would have yelled at her more, but then Utsuho laid a hand on her shoulder. "Orin, I think we should go now."

"What? But Yuuka's got the boss!"

"I know," Utsuho said. Her restored eyes were wet. "But…I don't think we can do anything about it right now. I mean, look at her!"

Orin wanted to keep yelling regardless. She wanted to yell at Yukari for getting her and her friends into this. She wanted to yell at Utsuho for not backing her up. She wanted yell wordlessly at the sky.

But what good would it do? They were right. There was nothing they could do.

Orin closed her eyes, counted to ten and opened them again. "All right," she said with tremendous effort. "But…I want you to promise that you'll get her back. And soon."

"I'll do no such thing," Yukari said curtly. "Get out of here already."

Orin resisted the very powerful temptation to set Yukari on fire. And given the state Yukari was in, she probably could've succeeded.

Instead, she looked at Utsuho and nodded. She tried to lift in the air but was struck by a sudden wave of dizziness. Of course. The radiation may have been removed, but she had still taken damage from it. With that being the case, making it back home was going to be something of a chore.

Fortunately Utsuho displayed a rare moment of perception and scooped Orin up into her arms. Even though she felt sort of ridiculous, Orin didn't protest as Utsuho carried her out of the cave and into the open air.

…

**Yukari**

Once the survivors of Team Underground had left, Yukari collapsed into her own filth. She didn't care. She was beyond caring about much at this point.

The brief moment of being physically refreshed brought upon by her resurrection was gone. And now she was in more pain than any other time she cared to remember. It was as if an army of microscopic surgeons had taken a million tiny razors and shaved off the internal lining of each and every one of her blood veins. It was if she had been skinned alive, had needles stuck into all of her muscles, and then had the skin sewed back on with the needles still in place. And she had never felt so sick.

That was the price for exerting herself so much with her soul in such a state. If there was any consolation at all to be found it was that Yuuka was far worse off.

Yukari rolled onto her back and stared into the darkness of the cave. She still needed to check up on the other teams, but the very thought of opening another gap actually terrified her. And so she ended up doing something she so rarely did. She opened up her mind and started to call for help.

…

**Team…Do we really need to do this? You know who these jokers are.**

"Ah, there we go," Mima muttered.

Marisa, who was sitting on her heels and flicking rocks against a stalagmite, cocked her head to one side. "What's up?"

"I believe I've finally learned enough to figure out exactly what Yuuka is," her former mentor explained. She held up the crystal. "Credit to Yukari, this was one tough nut to crack. Took me near fifteen minutes."

"Great! So what was she? Besides ugly."

"Give me a second to process the data, and I'll be able to give you an answer." Mima closed her eyes. "Hmmm, yes. Definitely not a youkai."

"Yeah. Kinda figured."

"Hush. Now, let's…Wait." Mima's brow knitted together. "Wait, it can't possibly…"

"What?" Marisa said. She hated it when the immortal types got all cryptic. "What is she already?"

Mima didn't answer. She just continued to stare at the crystal with a look of disbelief on her face.

"What's going on?" Youmu said as she walked over.

Marisa gestured to Mima. "She said she figured out what Yuuka is, ze."

"Really now?" Youmu said. She looked at Mima with wondering eyes. "Then what is she? Or, was?"

"Dunno. That's as far as she got before getting all weird. Hey Mima! Finish your sentence, ze! You've got us moist with anticipation here!"

Mima jolted out of her reverie. "Oh! Well, now, that's something of a complicated question to answer."

"What is?" Yuyuko said. The ghost princess wandered over to the gathering. "What are we discussing, Youmu?"

"Oh, we were just speculating as to Yuuka Kazami's exact species," Mima said as she straightened. "I was going over the clues she gave us during the battle. With some more research, I believe I can begin to make an educated guess."

"Eh?" Marisa said. Then she caught the look Mima was giving her. "Oh. Well, fine. Okay, but don't forget to tell me when you're done."

Youmu blinked. "But I thought you said-"

"Oh, well," Yuyuko said. "I actually wouldn't mind knowing myself."

"I'll stop by after she tells me," Marisa said.

Yuyuko smiled. "That sounds splendid! I do enjoy sleepovers! We can-"

Everyone stopped talking immediately. Yuyuko's spine (or closest equivalent) straightened and her eyes widened. Mima frowned, which gave way to a look of realization followed by an admiring smile. Marisa's face twisted into a look of complete disbelief and confusion. And Youmu's reaction was a combination of Mima and Marisa's, with a frown giving way to complete bewilderment.

"Uh, did anyone else hear that?" Marisa asked.

"Loud and clear," Mima said. She started laughing.

"Wait, you heard it too?" Youmu asked. "But it sounded like lady Yukari!"

"It was, Youmu," Yuyuko murmured. Her expression was alien to her face. It was one of worry.

"But she was calling for help!"

Mima closed her eyes and inhaled sharply through her nose. "Oh, Yuuka. You wicked, evil, manipulative, _brilliant _girl."

"But, waittaminute!" Marisa said. "That doesn't make any sense! Yuuka came here! We fought her, we beat her! What does Yukari have to…" Her voice trailed off and she frowned.

"Has the dawn risen?" Mima asked her.

"Uh…Wait. Yeah. Last time we fought, Yuuka did this thing where she divided in two and started shotting Master Sparks at us, ze. So if she did that again, that means…" Marisa slapped a palm across her face. "Oh, you have gotta be kidding me!"

"What?" Youmu said. "What are you talking about?"

"We did not do battle with the whole Yuuka," Yuyuko told her.

"Nope," Mima said. "It was at most just a half. Possibly a third, if the other two teams were attacked at the same time. A fourth, if she insisted on arriving on time for the duel."

"A fourth?" Youmu said. "But that would be insane! Yukari would annihilate her!"

"Well, no one ever accused Yuuka of being especially cautious. She makes your own recklessness look like cowardice by comparison." Mima blinked when Marisa's face fell. "Oh, sorry. No offense intended. It was a simple simile. No slight upon your courage."

Marisa didn't smile, but she at least looked reassured.

"At any rate, even divided as she is, it seems that Yuuka has shown Yukari a thing or two, if the desperation of Yukari's cries were any indication," Mima said. "Especially since the…consistency of the message has indicated that the wounds were more than physical. Dear me, I feel that in her attempts to overchew what she has bitten off, our dear warden has come to suffer indigestion."

"But then we should go help her!" Youmu said, her voice rising in pitch. "That's what we're here for, isn't it?"

Marisa cleared her throat. "Uh…Look. As kick-ass as that fight was, I really don't got that long before the potions wear off. And I really don't wanna have killed one Yuuka just to get eaten by another."

"Not to worry," Mima said. "I do believe we are not being called as a cavalry, but as medics. This should be quite interesting." She smiled again at all of them. "Well then, I suppose we are not yet discharged of our duty. Shall we answer?"

"Of course," Yuyuko said. "That's what we're here for. And she is my friend." Then she turned to Youmu and Marisa. "You two, would you please follow the signal? Mima and I don't need to travel there physically. We'll meet you there."

"Gotcha," Marisa said. She mounted her broom. "Come on, Body Pillow! Race you there!"

Both Marisa and Youmu were incredibly swift, and were far away in mere moments. Mima made ready to go to Yukari's side in her own manner, but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She turned to Yuyuko and raised a single elegant emerald eyebrow. "Yes?"

"That crystal, please," Yuyuko said. "The one you pocketed."

"Already gave it to you." Mima turned away from her. "Stop thinking with your stomach for once and pay attention to what's happening around you."

"No, you did not," Yuyuko said. Her normally flighty voice took on a hard note. "You slipped it away the moment Youmu approached you and hoped your quickly invented excuse would divert suspicion. That crystal is rightfully Yukari's. And as the appointed leader of this team, I am to look after it in the meantime. Return it, please."

"Oh, are you, leader mine? And fantastic job with that, by the way. Backstabbed and humiliated by a rouge Shinigami, only to return and let me command the actual assault. And then you were deceived by Marisa out of delivering the final blow, which should have been your right as team leader and senior Ringleader. Not the most shining events to add to your résumé."

"You attempt to confuse and shame me with words," was Yuyuko's reply. "In hopes that I would become so focused on my own shortcomings that I allow you to slip away with Yuuka's essence. I know something of that tactic. I also know that if you do not give me the crystal with Yuuka's essence inside this second, I will _revoke_ your status as an exile from the Netherworld and see to it that you are welcomed back with open arms."

Mima handed her the crystal. "It seems I was right about you," she said.

"About what?" Yuyuko said as the crystal disappeared into the folds of her robe.

"I think you know."

Yuyuko blinked owlishly at her. "I don't understand." She looked around at the cavern. "Oh, yes. Yukari needs our help. I think we should go."

Mima shook her head. _Ah, Gensokyo, _she thought as she and Yuyuko started to fade. _Sanctuary to the forgotten monsters and rejected gods. If you only knew what matter of creatures you call master._

…

**Yukari**

Given the incredible amount of pain she was in, Yukari counted slipping back into unconsciousness as a blessing. As such, she was rather annoyed when someone decided to wake her up.

When she opened her eyes, her eyes were so covered with slime and mucus that it really didn't make any difference. She tried to speak, but evidently the stuff had bled into her throat as well.

Her hearing was at least functional though. It was still clogged, and the voices she heard sounded strangely distorted and far away, but she could still discern fragments of sentences.

"…could have done this…"

"…wounded in spirit. It's…caused…"

"…don't think I want…kiss her anymore…"

"…help me get her…"

Hands lifted her from the ground. An attempt was made to bend her body into a sitting position, but that sent such a sharp dagger of pain through her that she started convulsing. The attempt was immediately stopped.

"…corruption…do something about…"

"Oh, if I must."

Someone laid a warm hand on her forehead. Almost immediately the partially solidified gunk that blocked her orifices started to dissolve. Yukari coughed weakly as air flowed through her ravaged throat. At the same time, the fluid that had dried on her skin flaked away and turned to dust.

Though her eyes were now unobstructed, they were damaged. As such, Yukari could barely make out four blurry figures nearby. The one closest to her, the one touching her forehead, was a mostly blue-and-green humanoid blob. It didn't take much to figure out who that was. Behind her was a pinkish blob, a black-and-white blob and a green-and-black blob. Yukari felt her first twinge of relief. Team Halloween had survived and came to her aid.

Unless of course this was a hallucination. Or just another one of Yuuka's tricks. But in the interest of preserving her sanity, Yukari decided not to entertain such possibilities.

"Well, she's moving. Kind of," said Mima. Her fuzzy form moved out of the way. "Feel free to embrace her and weep in relief."

The pink lump approached. "Yukari?" it said in Yuyuko's voice. "You do not look at all well. Are you ill?"

Despite the agony it caused her, Yukari managed a short laugh. Now she knew that it was Yuyuko.

She tried to speak and found that, despite the rawness of her throat, she could, though not very much. "No…I'm not…"

"Shit, what happened to you?" Marisa said. She walked over and leaned in close. "I mean, I know Yuuka's dangerous, but _damn!"_

"As I said, her soul has been wounded," Mima said. "Not to mention corrupted. What you are seeing is a classic example of someone still insisting on using their powers in such a state. Still, at least it settles the debate of her soul's existence."

"She can do that?" Youmu asked, sounding alarmed. "Yuuka? She can harm souls."

Yukari grunted. "No…Did this…myself."

"Eh?" Marisa said. "What? You cut up your own soul? Damn, that's some hardcore emo shit right there, ze."

Yukari tried to shake her head, but only succeeded in flopping it to one side. "No. I…" The world started to swim around her. A loud rushing filled her ears. "…I…"

Mima laid a hand on her head again. Suddenly Yukari felt her weariness fade away, replaced with a strong infusion of energy. Her senses became fully alert and she could speak freely.

"What?" she said, staring at Mima. "Why?"

"Consider it a temporary loan," Mima said. "At least until you finish filling us in. Much as I enjoy seeing you like this the dying sentences and inevitable bouts of unconscious will get old very quickly."

"Ah. I suppose I should thank you, but I couldn't help but notice that you left the pain."

Mima snorted. "Do I look like the altruistic type? We've got a lot to tell each other. You go first."

Yukari did so. She described the early stages of the duel, how they had fought and her surprise at Yuuka's apparent lack of strength. She told them about how Yuuka had mentioned that she was only one-fourth of the whole and then had brought out the Mykr's Sirens, eliciting groans from Marisa and Mima, the former palming her face and saying, "Those godsdamned flowers! Can't we just blow up the planet they're from or something?"

Yukari skimmed over the thrashing she received after this and went on to how she had destroyed the Skillet Plateau and tormented Yuuka with a conjured dragon. Mima had interjected how stupid it had been that she had delayed so long just for the fun of it, and Marisa disagreed, saying she would have done the same thing and asked exactly how such dragons could be summoned. Yuyuko mentioned how she had always wondered how dragons tasted, and Youmu had to quickly bring the conversation back on its rails.

After they had shut up, Yukari stopped glaring at them and continued the story, with the arrival of the other two Yuukas, the reveal of the sealing crystals in their possession and her battle with the Three-Fourths Yuuka. She told them how she had received her spiritual wounding by driving her essence into Yuuka's and crushing the core of her being, receiving surprised looks and admiring nods all around. She finished with Yuuka's apparent escape and how she had stopped Utsuho from destroying the entire Blasted Lands in a nuclear explosion and her call for help.

"And the next thing I knew, you people were waking me up," she said. "So I assume you received my message. My thanks."

Marisa hadn't stopped staring since the bit about how her soul had been hurt. "Okay, I don't say this to a lot of people, but that was fucking awesome. If my own fight wasn't so godsdamned cool, I'd wish I was there too." Then she frowned. "Though it does suck about the other teams. I mean, I know I don't like Fangs, and Three-Eyes is kinda annoying, and Knives somehow manages to piss me off every time we work together, and Four-Ears once taught me what a fried ham must feel like, and Psycho-Vamp nearly hugged me to death on at least four different occasions, two of them in the last week, and Egg-Brain made me spend two naked days at your house, but…Actually, you know what? Screw those guys." Then her face brightened. "Oh yeah! Thanks for arresting me and forcing me into your war! Best day I've ever had!"

"I'm sorry to report that she isn't being sarcastic," Mima said.

"So I would imagine," Yukari said. "I caught a glimpse of her using one of my spellcards."

"You did?" Marisa said. "Sweet! Was I cool or what?"

"You were," Mima said. She turned to Yukari. The hand on Yukari's head tensed ever so slightly. "She was," Mima told her, a note of warning in her voice.

Yukari resisted the sigh she felt coming. "You were."

"Damned right, I was!"

"Oh, by-the-by," Yukari said. "I'd like any of my unused spellcards back, please."

Marisa shrugged. "Too bad, used 'em all, ze."

Yukari glowered. "Did you now."

"She did," Mima said. "Four of them at once."

"Ah. Well. I'd accuse you of lying, but knowing her, she probably did." Yukari closed her and took a deep breath, slowly bringing it in and letting it out. "And seeing how all four of you are alive and well, I must assume that you at least were victorious. Though I do see that you and Yuyuko look a bit on the drained side, Youmu seems to have lost movement in one of her arms, and Marisa…Looks perfectly fine, actually. Except for the paleness and the incredible amount of sweating."

Marisa beamed. "She didn't get me. Not once. And I was up in her face the whole time." She waved a hand in front of her own face. "All this is because my potions are gonna wear off in a few minutes, ze. And then we'll be barf buddies!"

Yukari stared. She opened her mouth to say something but thought better of it. Some things were better left un-commented on. So instead she returned her attention to Mima. "So, it's your turn to tell your tale."

"Fair enough," Mima said. She smiled. "And I have to say, our story ends on a much happier note than yours."

With that, she told Yukari about how they were ambushed by Yukari by use of both Mykr's Sirens and Ghostwood, and about how Elly had made a surprise appearance to take Yuyuko and Youmu out of the game. Yukari groaned at this point, cursing her failure to remember that Yuuka had a Shinigami at her disposal. Mima then described in great detail how she and Marisa had worked together to bring a world of hurt to Yuuka. Marisa chimed in, adding details of her own. Mima agreed with her additions, and contributed some of her own, until they both were excitedly praising themselves and each other in turn. Yukari's patience snapped and she told them to save the self-congratulation until later. Impolitely.

Youmu took the stand and told her about the battle against Elly the Shinigami, how it had gone poorly at first but finally turned when Yuyuko dragged Elly's past out of the woodwork, allowing Youmu to strike (Yukari felt the warmth of approval at this point). Then she learned how Marisa had destroyed the Mykr's Siren and Leech-Seen hybrids and how the team had reunited and took Yuuka down together. It ended with the search through the caverns and Yuuka's demise, which actually made Yukari straighten up in surprise.

"Seriously?" she said, looking at Marisa. "You're the one who killed her?"

Marisa nodded. "Yep!"

"With a _missile?" _

"Yep again!"

"Huh. Well, that was…resourceful."

"Ain't it? So glad I got to use good-old Mimi for that. I mean, what a way to go, right? I just wish I had a hundred…" Marisa stopped talking. She frowned. "Uh…A hundred…Oh. Damn. Hang on."

With that, her upper body suddenly swung down and she violently threw up a thick grey sludge all over the stones. Youmu leapt back as Marisa fell to her hands and knees, hurling the whole time.

Everyone stared at her display of sudden sickness. She paused long enough to look up at Yukari with a very pale face and shoot her a weak grin and a shaking thumb's-up. "Barf buddies forever," she said. And then she resumed vomiting.

"I told you so," Mima said to her. "One sick puppy."

Marisa waved a hand at her in a dismissive gesture. She finished clearing her bowels and sat back with a groan.

Yukari rolled her eyes. Then something occurred to her. "Oh, and whatever became of that crystal anyway?"

Yuyuko produced it. She handed it to her. "Here. Mima tried to keep it. I convinced her otherwise."

Mima shot her a venomous look.

"Did she now," Yukari said. She looked at the crystal and its shining emerald occupant. "Well, thank you for that. I do think I'll be needing this."

"But our business is concluded," Mima said. "Your business with Marisa is concluded. You no longer have any hold on her. She is free."

"Yes, yes," Yukari muttered impatiently. She still stared at the crystal. "I'll send Kotohime by with the appropriate paperwork tomorrow."

"Good. Then we'll be taking our leave."

Without warning, Mima removed her hand. No longer restrained, Yukari's weakness rushed back to her. She grimaced and curled up, holding onto the crystal with all her might.

And then the hand returned, along with the strength it gifted. Yukari gasped and said, "Make up your mind already!"

"Sorry," Mima said, though her tone indicated otherwise. "Just wanted something clarified. I got a measure of Yuuka, and what I found was…very interesting. She is definitely no youkai."

"Agreed. I got a greater measure, as you can see. And I have to admit, had I known that Gensokyo contained an actual Outer God, I might have courted an allegiance with her upon her arrival."

Mima choked. "An _Outer God?" _she hissed. "She's an Outer God? I had her pegged as a Great Old One, at most."

"A what?" Yuyuko said. "Outer God? Is that a god from the Outside World? But we have plenty of those! We do, don't we Youmu?"

"We do, my lady. But I believe they are speaking of something else."

They were ignored. "Well, obviously she's been rather reduced in power, probably over the course of many eons," Yukari said. "But yes. An Outer God walks among us."

"And I killed a piece of her!" Marisa chimed in. Then her face twisted and she turned her head to vomit anew.

Mima glanced at her and sighed. She flicked her finger and muttered a word. Marisa's eyes rolled back and she slumped into sleep.

Mima turned back to Yukari. "And she has a quarrel with you," The spirit mused. "An actual Outer God. And meanwhile, you also have an enemy in the avatar of Azrael itself."

"Who?" Yuyuko said.

"How'd you know…Wait of course you know," Yukari muttered. "And let me guess: Reimu?"

"Of course. We are roommates, of a sort."

"But I told her not to tell anyone, save for Genji!" Yukari's eyes rolled upward. "Argh! Can't anyone follow simple instructions? At all?"

"I would have found out sooner or later. And really, Yukari? Just the turtle? I'm hurt. Still, my point is that you're tangling with those two at the same time. Plus, there's whatever the hell Rin Satsuki is. All three of them. Against you."

"So it would seem," Yukari growled. "What's your point?"

Mima smiled at her. She started laughing. It started off as a slow chuckle before rising in strength and becoming a full-on cackle. "Oh! Oh, I'm sorry, Yukari," she said, wiping away a tear of mirth. "It's just…It's just ridiculous. This is the sort of thing you bring up to make yourself feel better. As if in, 'Well, things may be bad, but at least I haven't incurred the wrath of an Outer God and Azrael's avatar'. Good heavens, have you just been building up bad karma all these centuries and it chose now to collect?"

Yukari didn't respond. She just glared as Mima laughed.

"Ah, wow. It certainly makes my own promise of revenge seem rather insignificant, doesn't it?" Mima shook her head. She laughed again. "In fact, you know what? Forget it. I'm calling off all hostilities. We're fine. There is honestly very little more I can do to you."

"Much appreciated," Yukari growled.

Still laughing, Mima released Yukari's head, allowing the weakness to return. "Well, I suppose you're in no condition to send us back, so we'll make our own way home." She turned toward the groaning Marisa and held out her hands. A soft, filmy green light poured out of her fingers and wrapped around Marisa, forming a protective covering. The sick human girl was then lifted into the air and brought over to Mima's side.

After making sure that she had retrieved all of Marisa's belongings, Mima flipped a mocking salute to Yukari and the two Netherworld denizens. "Well ladies, it's been fun. But please don't be offended when I tell you that I hope all of this ends up making your lives completely miserable. See you next Ringleader meeting. Or rather, I'll be seeing your successors. Because honestly, your chances of survival really aren't so good. In fact, they're pretty awful. Life sucks, doesn't it?"

With that, Mima left them in the tunnel, taking Marisa with her.

"Even after all these years, she is still rather unlikeable," Yuyuko murmured.

"Lady Yukari, is there anything we can do to help?" Youmu asked. "If using your abilities does you physical harm, then would you need assistance returning to your home?"

Yukari nodded. "Yes…actually. That would…be…appre…ciated."

Yuyuko leaned over and scooped Yukari up in her arms. Despite how undignified the situation was, Yukari did not protest.

Still, she couldn't resist saying, "You…do realize…this doesn't mean…we're going steady."

"What?" Yuyuko said in confusion.

Yukari managed a weak smile. "Exactly."

Evidently deciding not to question further, Yuyuko held up a hand to open a way to Yukari's house. But then Youmu said, "Wait!"

The two immortals looked at her, Yukari in annoyance and Yuyuko in bewilderment. "What is it, Youmu?" the latter asked.

"Haven't we forgotten someone?" Youmu said. "What of Team Vampire?"

Yukari grunted. "Right. Them. Best I…can figure…Yuuka killed them…and sealed…Remilia."

"But shouldn't we check just to make sure?" Youmu said. "I mean, what if they survived?"

"Unlikely," Yukari grumbled. "Given that…one was Human and…the other had…a lousy…sense of…" She sighed and left the sentence unfinished.

"But they were still members of this operation!" Youmu said. "If there is at least the smallest chance of their survival, then we owe it to them to at least check!"

Yukari was about to muster up the strength for a rebuke when Yuyuko murmured to her, "She's right, Yukari. And even though it is unlikely that Flandre Scarlet survived…what if she did?"

With a feeling of utmost irritation, Yukari realized that they were right. The possibility of Flandre Scarlet being on the loose with no one to restrain her was not a pleasant one. Especially with everything else she had to deal with.

"Fine," she grumbled. She moved her shoulders into a more comfortable position and closed her eyes. "But if…she is, then…it's up…to you…two…to…stop her."

…

**Sakuya**

Sakuya braced her one good foot against the side of the cliff wall, yanked her knife out of the stone, and slammed it into a spot about two-and-a-half feet above the first. Grunting with exertion, she used it to pull herself up a little further.

The harm she had suffered to her limbs had done more than making walking problematic. It also deprived her of the levitation she needed to lift her body off the ground and take to the air. As such, she was reduced to relying on one working arm, one working leg, a single knife and what little flight ability she possessed to keep her body light enough to make the trip less than impossible. It helped, but it was still a long way, and she was hurt very badly.

At least the rain had finally slowed to a drizzle. The downpour would cause troubles. For one, the force of the water would work against her every foot of the way up. And for another…

Sakuya glanced down at the trembling bulge in her cloak. For another, her most precious cargo did not do well in the rain. So the less the better.

She was nearly to the top when she noticed two distant figures flying toward her. As Yuuka had given her every indication of being done with her, it was likely to be her "allies". Though the sight gave her hope of a rescue, she did feel a large number of rather impolite things she wished to fill their ears with.

Sakuya set her teeth and shoved the knife into the top of the crater and shoved herself up over the edge. Then, making sure her cargo was safe from the rain, she sat down on the edge and waited.

In time, the approaching figures revealed themselves to be Yuyuko Saigyouji and Youmu Konpaku. While she was relieved that she was indeed being rescued, Sakuya was also a little disappointed. She had been hoping for Yukari, Satori or Mima. These two were at best Yukari's dupes.

Then they came closer and Sakuya saw who Yuyuko carried in her arms. Sakuya's eyebrows rose when she saw Yukari Yakumo's condition. Well, perhaps she wouldn't have to tear her a new one after all. From the look of things, Yukari had already suffered more than enough for her manipulations.

Her cargo moved into a new position and let out a couple of weak squeaks. Sakuya looked down at it and her lips pressed tightly together. Then again, maybe Yukari could stand to suffer a little more…

Yuyuko and Youmu came to a stop about ten feet away and stared. "Now, Youmu," Yuyuko said to her servitor.

"Yes, my lady?"

"I find myself surprised. She was not expected to survive."

"Yes, my lady. I mean, no. No, she was not."

Sakuya braced her arm on her knee and leaned forward. "And that is supposed to mean what, exactly?"

"Merely that…you were the…most mortal…member…of your team," Yukari said in a weak voice.

Youmu gave a polite bow. "No offense intended, Lady Izayoi. It's just that we received word that your team had been attacked and defeated by Yuuka Kazami. We assumed that all were lost."

"Sorry to disappoint," Sakuya growled. "You three aren't looking so great either."

"Indeed not," Youmu said. She indicated her own injured arm. "Yuuka Kazami anticipated our interference and divided herself into four portions."

Sakuya blinked. "Come again?"

After receiving the abbreviated version of what had gone down, mainly from Youmu, Sakuya felt her already woozy head start to swim. So, she and her Mistresses had been defeated by only one-fourth of the actual whole. All of their power, experience and expertise, and Yuuka had annihilated them using only one-fourth of her power.

Sakuya closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had faced down many monsters in her time. And as such there was one lesson that she had learned rather quickly. It didn't matter how strong you were, how skilled you were, or how sure of yourself you were. There were some monsters that needed to be left well alone. And from the looks of things, Yukari had just learned this for herself. For all the good it would her. Or anyone, for that matter. The damage had been done.

Sakuya was suddenly glad for the rain. It helped disguise the tears that prickled her eyes.

"But what of Sakuya, Youmu?" Yuyuko said. "How did she come to be in such a state?"

Sakuya resisted the urge to snap at Yuyuko for not directing the question to her. "As you may imagine, Kazami ambushed us as well. We attempted to fight back and nearly succeeded in defeating her, but in the end she was able to overwhelm us."

Yukari gave a slow nod. "And now…she has…Remilia."

"Remilia?" Sakuya blinked. "No, she does not."

This evidently surprised the border youkai, as she immediately straightened up in Yuyuko's arms, though the sudden motion made her wince in pain and settle back down. "But then…who was…"

"She murdered Young Mistress Flandre and sealed her," Sakuya said in a hollow tone. "Presumably, she has her still." Even as she said it, the scene replayed in her mind. The pain of it was still fresh wound to her heart. She doubted it would ever truly go away, even if they managed to get Flandre back.

The three exchanged glances. "Oh," Yukari said. "Well. Another…thing to worry about."

"But what did happen to Remilia Scarlet?" Youmu said. Then she winced. "Sorry. I mean, if you don't mind me asking."

Sakuya shifted her weight. She turned her body and lifted her cape to reveal two trembling black bats clinging to her back. "Out of the several thousand she became, these two were all that survived," Sakuya said. She let the cloak fall. "As it is, she is too exhausted to change back now, and to do so in this rain would be suicide."

"Oh," Youmu said.

Yukari sighed and touched her forehead. "Well. This has been…one lousy day."

"Yes, it has," Sakuya said. She swung her good leg around, bent it under her and stood up. "And in light of her condition and mine, I must insist that you transport us to the Scarlet Devil Mansion at once. We need immediate medical assistance, and are in no shape to make any sort of journey."

"Too bad," Yukari said. "In case…you haven't…noticed, I'm in…bad shape. So gapping…is somewhat…not happening."

Sakuya's expression didn't change, though her tone took on an additional layer of steel. "If you had the strength to contain an explosion of that magnitude, then you have the strength to open one more gap. I doubt the blast stopped at the exact moment your power sapped away entirely."

Her words appeared to anger Yukari. She looked like she was about to say something crushing when Youmu said, "Lady Yukari, please! I know you are not on good terms with the Lady Scarlet, but they are still our comrades in arms! They are wounded and need our help!"

"Spoken like someone…who does not know…how much this will hurt," Yukari muttered. She took a deep breath and seemed to gather her strength. "Why can't we just send word to their people to come pick them up?"

"Because it would be at least an hour before they arrive," Sakuya said. "And I do not believe the Mistress will last that long."

Yukari rolled her eyes. "Fine!" she spat. She boosted herself up, despite the pain it must have given her. "You want a ride home? You…you got it. But know this: so long as her sister…is in the hands of that…that monster, your obligation to me remains incomplete. My yoke is going nowhere until she is either locked up back where she belongs or dead!"

Sakuya didn't say anything. She merely returned Yukari's glare and waited.

That last burst of anger seemed to take something out of Yukari. She settled back into Yuyuko's arms with a groan on pain. "Oh, this day…just keeps…" She took a deep breath.

The next thing she knew, Sakuya was falling through the air. She landed on polished marble. Her injured leg unfortunately absorbed more of the fall than it should, and the flash of pain nearly caused her to pass out.

She gritted her teeth and fought through the agony. When the worst was passed, she opened her eyes.

They had been dumped in the foyer of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Before her, the massive staircase leading to the second story stretched upward and split into two. All up and down it, numerous fairies wearing red or white maid uniforms stared at the sudden appearance of their boss.

Sakuya pushed herself up onto her elbow. "Go get Patchouli Knowledge," she ordered. She turned to her side and lifted the cloak to show them Remilia's bats. "The Mistress and I are wounded and require immediate assistance."

When the fairy maids continued to stare and whisper amongst themselves, Sakuya snapped, "NOW!"

That did it. As one they fled toward the library to find the librarian.

Sakuya sighed and settled back down to wait. As she did so, she felt tiny pricks through her shirt. She looked down to see that the two bats were meekly crawling out of her cloak. Sakuya carefully eased herself onto her back and allowed them to make their way toward her chest.

"It's all right, Mistress," she said. "We're home now. Patchouli is coming, and she'll help us." After a pause, she said, "And please don't worry about Young Mistress Flandre's safety either. We are certain to have her returned to us, alive and well. It is inevitable. With the resources at our disposal, Yuuka will never know what hit her. Once we recover, we can…"

Sakuya's voice trailed off when the bats started making odd, hiccupping squeaks. Her throat caught when she realized that Remilia was crying.

Realizing that her false assurances were doing no good, Sakuya gently placed her hand over the bats and held them close. Then she laid her head back and waited for help.

…

**Ran Yakumo. Lovely woman, really.**

Ran was sitting in the front room reading when someone started banging on the door. Immediately she dropped the book and ran to answer it.

What she found on the other side almost made her legs collapse out from under her. "Master?" she cried. "Oh my…What happened?"

As noted, Yukari was on the other side of the door. As was Yuyuko Saigyouji and Youmu Konpaku. As the former was the master of the house and the latter two regular visitors, that in itself was far from unusual. What was strange was that all three of them were hurt in some matter. Youmu had one arm resting in a makeshift sling and her fair skin was heavily bruised and covered in mud. Yuyuko, while still perfectly clean, was missing a considerable amount of ectoplasm, which made her noticeably transparent. And Yukari…

Ran had served Gensokyo's creator for a time out of mind. At the very least it had been since the land's early days, some odd centuries ago. And during this time, she had watched and, in some cases, directly participated in innumerable incidents of which some incredibly overpowered (or at least overconfident) being sought to take Yukari down. Their reasons ranged from Yukari standing in the way of their power grabs or sincere hatred. And though Yukari had emerged as victor every single time (or at least when it mattered), there had been more than a few occasions when she had gotten severely roughed up in the process.

And yet Ran couldn't recall a single time she had seen Yukari in such a state. Her skin was stretched so thin and so tightly that one could be forgiven for mistaking it for the skeleton underneath. Large black throbbing veins crisscrossed all over her hands and face and presumably her entire body. The backs of her hands, her neck and forehead were playing host to a large collection of ugly purple boils. Black fluid coated the area surrounding every orifice, from her mouth to her nose to her eyes and ears. Her hair was now thin and unhealthy looking, and would soon be falling away in clumps.

As for Yukari herself, she was being held like a child in Yuyuko's arms. Her eyes were closed and her sticklike arms were resting on her belly. But still, her mouth kept moving as she recited what sounded like nonsense under her breath.

"Couldn't be Azathoth. Ghroth wouldn't make any sense at all. Nyarlathotep has appeared as human, but he's active elsewhere. Yidhra maybe? She certainly fits the bill…No, she's accounted for."

"Master?" Ran cried. "Yukari? What…What happened to you?" She looked up to the other two. "What happened to all of you? I thought she had a plan!"

"She did," Youmu said. The half-phantom girl sounded weary beyond belief. "It didn't last."

"We are hurt, but not too badly," Yuyuko said. "She, however, has been grievously wounded in spirit. Furthermore, she was forced to exert herself after receiving her injury, which just made things all-"

Yukari half-opened one eye. It was filmy white and shot through with veins. "Explain on…the way. Get me…to my study."

"Of...of course!" Ran said hastily. She led them into the house. "This way! Her study is right around the corner here."

As they walked, Yukari resumed her mumbling. "Maybe one the humanoids? Like Zalgo? No, that doesn't make sense. The Operator? No, that slender fellow's also accounted for. The Rake? Unlikely, but he may know something. Make sure to look him up."

"What is she talking about?" Ran said as she held the door to Yukari's study open.

Yuyuko carried Yukari inside. "I'm not sure, but it seems that Yuuka is not what we thought she was," Youmu said as she brought up the rear.

There was a low tea-table in the center of the room. Ran quickly cleared it off. "Just put her right here," she said. "And what do you mean?"

Before Youmu could answer, both of Yukari's eyes snapped open. "Yuuka!" she coughed. "Ran! Oh gods, I forgot!"

"What?" Ran said.

Yukari didn't respond. She just started laughing. "Oh…I'm going to…have to clear them out too…aren't I?"

"Clear what out?" Youmu asked.

Yukari just shook her head as Yuyuko gently laid her on the table. "Tell you…after. But for now…Okay, fine. Once more with feeling."

And the world filled with Yukari's agonized shriek.

…

"_I think it's rather obvious what happened then," Yuuka tells you. Her single eye flashed in anger. "Yukari's paranoia caused her to kill every single plant in her house. And not just that, but the garden outside as well. Some of them had been in her household for centuries, had done her no harm at all, and she wiped them out without hesitation. Make no mistake, she will pay dearly for that crime. Just as those moronic ghost girls will pay what they did to Mystia. What Elly did to them was far from enough. And then they had to hurt Elly as well. There were be a reckoning. Oh, and speaking of which…"_

…

**Poor Elly**

Elly sat in an alcove at the end of one of the Blasted Lands many underground tunnels. She clutched with bloodied fingers at the cut that had torn right through her shoulder. Her eyes were overflowing with tears as she tried to get the bleeding to stop.

"Please stop," she cried. "Please stop bleeding. Why won't you stop?"

As she did so, part of her mind was devoted to what she was going to tell Yuuka. Or to be more specific, how she was to avoid telling Yuuka anything. Elly had served her for decades and as far as she was concerned, they had been the best years in her otherwise horrible life. Yuuka had been the best thing to happen to her. Unconditionally loving, endlessly patient, forgiving, compassionate, funny, occasionally silly but very smart and always, always there for her. Yuuka had taken her in when Elly needed it the most and asked for very little in return. Elly would have laid down her life for her, or so she had always claimed.

Instead, when Yuuka had finally needed her, she had fled. All it had taken was the smallest indication that she might not win. Plus, she had not felt physical pain ever since she had worked as a Shinigami. The cuts on her fingers had shocked her into fury. But what had been done to her shoulder had terrified her. For the first time since she had been Human, Elly had feared for her life. She had almost forgotten how much she hated the feeling.

But what was happening to her had to pale when compared to what was happening to Yuuka. Despite her master's power, those were some very dangerous people she was going against. And she had divided herself into four in order to fight them all at once. She had deliberately weakened herself but showed no hesitation in facing the pain that waited for her.

But Elly? Elly couldn't even beat a ghost and a half-ghost, exactly the sort of creatures her kind had been created to control. Granted, her opponents had been powerful, but that shouldn't have mattered. What did matter is that she not only failed, she had run away.

Elly sniffed. That's the way it always was. Elly the useless. Elly the coward. It didn't matter what sort of home she found, whether miserable or wonderful. Something always happened that made her run away. It wasn't fair. Most people never had to lose any of their homes. She had lost all of hers. And now she was about to lose the only one she had ever really liked. There was no way she could face Yuuka like this.

"Elly?" said a voice that echoed across the stone walls. Elly's head jerked up. Her heart pounded in her chest as she searched for the source of the voice. Even though she couldn't see her, it was unmistakably Yuuka's.

"Elly?" Yuuka said again. "Please answer me. I…I know you're here. Somewhere."

Elly stiffened against the wall. She tried to make herself as small as possible.

"Elly, please say something." Yuuka's voice was closer now. "I'm _hurt, _Elly. I'm hurt and I need help."

She could hear something moving close by, the sound of heavy breathing and something scraping against stone. Elly cursed the fact that there was only one entrance and exit.

The scraping grew louder. It was right around the corner now. Elly moaned softly to herself. This was it. There was no way Yuuka was going to let her live. This was…

Yuuka came into view and Elly let out a small cry of fear and surprise. When Yuuka had said that she had been hurt, Elly had pictured her bleeding from numerous wounds, perhaps missing a limb or two. But this…the shriveled black thing that crawled toward her? It was more a cloud of living ash in humanoid form than anything. One with a single glowing red eye.

"Elly," it croaked. "There you are. Thank…thank goodness."

Despite the fear Elly was feeling, she couldn't but say, "Master. Oh my God. What did they do to you?"

"Ah…Well. I'm…afraid I'm not entirely sure…myself. But…there will be…time for figuring…" The creeping thing finally came fully around the corner and stopped. Though it was hard to tell, it looked surprised. "Elly? Is…is that blood? What happened?"

Here it came. Elly sniffled and averted her eyes. "I…I tried, I really did! Tried my best! I almost beat them, but…That stupid ghost princess! She _knew _me, Master! Knew about my past and everything! She kept going on about how…" Elly had to choke her way through the next part. "…how I'm…always running away. And it distracted me, and that swordsgirl…she snuck up behind me and…" She was unable to continue. The lump in her throat had grown too large.

"Oh," said the thing that had been Yuuka. "Oh dear. I shouldn't have brought you."

_No, _Elly thought bitterly while she sobbed. _You shouldn't have. I'm useless. Little good-for-nothing Elly. No wonder I failed. She's going to kick me out, I know it._

But to her surprise Yuuka's next words had absolutely nothing to do with her immediate dismissal. Quite the opposite, in fact. "Oh, those monsters," she said in her now weak, hissing voice. It reminded Elly of the wind passing through dead grass. "To stoop to such a level…Elly, I'm _so _sorry I exposed you to such an ordeal. This is…this is all my fault. I shouldn't have let you near them."

"What?" Elly said.

"To use someone's…secret shame in such a manner. Absolutely disgraceful. Does…no one fight with honor anymore?"

Elly blinked. "You're…not angry with me?"

"With you? Good…good heavens, why would I be? But with them? Most certainly. I'll…I'll have to put some thought into how…we may repay them. Ah, the very thought of my sweet Elly being treated in such a manner. It pains my very soul!"

Elly was nearly overcome with gratitude. Master wasn't angry with her. Master was angry _for _her. She wasn't going to be thrown out. Yuuka cared for her. Yuuka _loved _her. Her tears of pain and fear became ones of relief.

Not for the first time, Elly noted how very, very lucky she had been to come into the service of such a wonderful person.

"But…that will…also have to wait," Yuuka said. "We are both…rather injured. And I don't see how we can-"

Her pain now wholly forgotten, Elly leapt to her feet. "I'll protect us!"

"You will? But…your wound!"

"It doesn't matter," Elly said. She put her shoe under the handle of her scythe and kicked it up to hand. She then held it forward in challenge. "Let them come! I swear they won't come near you!"

"Ah…my hero," Yuuka said without a trace of irony. "I'd be lost without you."

…

"_And I would be, there is little doubt of that," Yuuka says softly. "It hurts me that she would consider leaving at all. Poor thing. She's had such a rough life, and some scars are not so easily healed. I can only hope that she one day learns to trust me entirely. I really do think we need each other. After all, we are both outcasts. I was exiled from my kind long before the Sun itself was shaped, and among the Shinigami she is considered a dangerous criminal. We rejects do need to look out for one another, and that includes little delinquent gangs of fairies and youkai hunted for the simple crime of trying to save their friend. What a cruel world we live in."_

_The liquid in the cup turns back into simple tea, and Yuuka settles back into her seat. "But now that you know the tale of how I came to be in such a state, I think it's time we turned our attention to more important matters. No doubt you're wondering why you were brought here. And then there is the small matter of what I saw when Yukari crushed my soul. Two enigmas." The corner of her lips perks up. "Well, as it turns out, both questions share the same answer."_

_What? You stare at Yuuka in confusion. All throughout the story, you have been experiencing feelings of dread, horror and confusion, and this new pronouncement has only added to them. You gather up your courage and ask her to clarify._

"_Well, let me put it this way," Yuuka says. "Yukari is a creature quite unlike any other. Though she seems normal enough, her relationship with reality is much more…fluid than anyone else's. Or anything else's, for that matter. It warps to her will, and I am willing to bet that a great deal of warping is done unconsciously. Whereas I am also a being that has a somewhat different relationship with the rules of reality than most creatures. Though I have fallen from grace and am much reduced from what I once was, I am still born into a species that literally exists in far more dimensions than there are even words for. There is a reason that merely beholding us in our natural state causes insanity, as there are some things that the four-dimensional minded are incapable of comprehending." _

_A strange, faraway look appears in Yuuka's eye. "And…in that moment, Yukari mixed her essence with mine. Violently. She quite literally broke me. Had I been a lesser being, I would have risked oblivion. But as it was, something quite different happened. When my mind was shattered, it was as if I had fallen through the cracks of reality and melted into it. And in that moment, I saw the entirety of existence. And I don't just mean this universe. No, that's thinking too small. No, what I saw was literally _everything_ that exists. Everywhere. All at once."_

_If this answer was meant to clear away your confusion, than it certainly isn't working. You open your mouth to once again ask for clarification, but then you see that images are once again moving in the cup. But they are different this time. This time they are…_

…

**Me. Anywhere and Everywhere**

…full of stars. Lights. All of them flashing by me as I fall. Or am I rising? Hurtling forward? I do not know. It is impossible to tell.

What did Yukari do to me? Was this intentional on her part? Is she sending me on this trip, or was it an unforeseen side-effect? At this point, it would be foolish to discard any option. But where am I going?

Wait. Starting to see things. Things floating toward me out of this star-filled tunnel. More stars, but with worlds attached. And I can see them. All of them. In perfect detail. Is this possible?

More of them are coming. Too many. Far, far too many. But they keep coming. The stars have ceased to fly past and are now surrounding me on all sides. Except they're not stars are they? They're…

Oh my goodness gracious. They're universes. Entire realms of existence. But so _many! _

This is rather fascinating, to tell the truth. I knew there had to be more out there, but never dreamed that there would be so many. I wonder what's out there. Do I exist in any of these other realities? That is a cheery thought. I would so like to meet myself. I'm sure we would get along fam-

Wait. They're moving again. All coming together. Overlapping. I don't know if I can process this. Ironic, seeing how many people must have experienced something similar when beholding me, back in the old days. Irony really isn't one for subtlety, is it?

Now I can see it all. Every point of existence. All at once. So overwhelming, but I can't look away. It's so interesting. I hope I can find something spectacular before the sensory overload becomes too much. Ah, that looks significant. I wonder if-

Wait. What is…

No.

No. No. No.

No, no, no. That's impossible. That cannot be true. It…it doesn't make any sense. How can it-

Oh God, it cannot be. It cannot be!

…

"_What do you think I saw then?" Yuuka asks softly as you recoil, a sharp pain shooting through your head. "What do you think I saw, with my soul broken and my mind forced to absorb everything all at once? The answer is simple, child. I saw you."_

_What? You stiffen. She saw you? What was that supposed to mean?_

"_Oh, I don't mean you," Yuuka says dismissively. "Not you, not the you sitting across from me. I'm sorry, dear child, but in the grand scheme of things, you are ultimately unimportant." At your surprised look, she says, "What? Does this surprise you? Tell me, before coming here, to the Garden of the Sun, what is the last thing you remember?"_

_You think hard and, to your horror, find that your memories from that time are a complete blank. It is as if they're non-existent._

"_Nothing? What a pity. What of your name? Surely you can tell me that, at least."_

_You cannot._

"_A shame. Well, the reason for that is simple. You cannot tell me your name because you don't have one. You cannot remember anything before coming here because you didn't exist. You are not a real person, as such things are judged. You are…shall we say, a construct, one that I put together for a specific purpose. You know things, you understand things, but you are not a being unto yourself. Oh, don't look so distraught. It is a hard truth to absorb, and I'm sorry for putting all this onto you so quickly. But it is necessary. You see, I made you for a very important reason. Through you, I may converse directly with _them. _Or to be specific, I may converse with _you, _the you that's watching behind your eyes."_

_With that, she smiles, looks you directly in the eye, and smiles at you._

_Yes._

_You._

"_Hello dears," Yuuka says sweetly. "Enjoying the story? Hello there, Will. Does this count as evil? And hello to you as well, William. Like what you see? And thank you so much for your warm support, Mr. Xuchilbara. It means a lot to me. Though I hope I haven't scared you off, my dear Jack. I suppose I do get a little carried away at times. And was this what you were expecting, my Robotic Messiah? How about you, Jiven? This would be worth of a few entries, would it not? And to everyone else, so many names, so many faces that I couldn't possibly address you all. I trust you fully understand what I am saying now?"_

_She slowly stands to her feet. It appears to be a laborious effort, and she almost stumbles at one point. She braces her hand on the tabletop for supports and takes a deep breath._

"_It was quite a shock to see all of you, there is no doubt of that," Yuuka says softly. "And I have to admit, I was rather angry at first. To be living my life all this time, believing that I was making my own decisions and acting according to my rules. And then, all of a sudden I am told that my house is on a stage, and there is another wall in addition to the three I've been staring at this whole time. I have seen the script and stared at the audience. Rather disconcerting, I can tell you."_

_She shakes her head and laughs. "But you know, now that I've had time to calm down and think about the matter, it doesn't upset me as much. And I'll tell you why."_

_With a wave of her hand, a scene appears in the air above the table. It is the same that had been in the teacup, the many universes bending and folding over each other, only now it is fully three-dimensional and sitting in front of you._

_Yuuka speaks softly as the lights swirl and befuddle. "With so many different universes existing all at once, is it too much to believe that there might be some degree of overlap? The image before you certainly supports this hypothesis. And with all this overlap, bits and pieces may very well leak through, in one form another."_

"_And I'm not just talking about alternate dimensions. Lord knows, I saw plenty of those once I had the time to review what I saw and pick it apart. A hundred Gensokyos, a hundred Yuukas. All of them variations on a common theme. But no, I mean fragments of universes leaking into realities that they have very little in common, getting lodged in people's heads, and coming out in a very peculiar form. That of stories."_

_She pauses for a moment, and then continues. "When I saw your world, I also learned many other names in addition to your own. Names like Junya Ota. Bullet Hell. Touhou Project. Catchy name, wouldn't you agree? But closer to the point, I learned another name, one much more specific. One with two words and eight syllables. I think you know the one."_

"_And that is only scratching the surface. Once I had the time to look, I would find a tale existing as fiction in one universe only to show up as fact in another. Time and time again, this happened. So many heroes, so many villains, so many annoying sidekicks, all acting out their parts in their respective plotlines. And they were all true! In another corner of existence entirely, but true nonetheless."_

"_Which got me thinking: who was really the one running things around here, anyway? Are all those writers, those makers of stories the gods of their domains, and entire universes move in accordance to their will without their knowledge? Or is it the other way around, and they are simply recording events that have actually happened, all the while deluding themselves into believing that they have created something new? I confess that I do not know for sure, but it is an interesting avenue to explore. Why, perhaps you too are simply a character in someone else's tale. How does that feel, to know that there may be as many unseen people looking over your shoulder as there are mine? Be sure to wave hello."_

"_But at any rate, whatever option proves to be correct, it is most certainly something I'll need to-"_

"Master?"

Yuuka looked up. Elly was standing at the door to the mansion with a concerned look on her face.

"I'm sorry, but were you…talking to someone?"

Yuuka looked down at the table. As she was now standing, both of the seats were empty.

"Do you see anyone else here?" Yuuka asked.

Elly shook her head. "No, but it seemed like…"

"Don't worry about it. Just thinking out loud," Yuuka assured her.

Elly still looked unconvinced. "Master, I don't think you should be exerting yourself. You are still gravely injured. You need rest."

"Yes," Yuuka sighs. "You're probably right. I'll return to my bed in a moment."

"Promise?"

"Promise," Yuuka said with a smile. "Now, run along. I'll be by soon enough."

Still worried, Elly returned to the house, and…

…_Yuuka looks back to you. "My apologies, it would seem that my promise of refreshments has hit a snag. As you can see, she has not been blessed with the same new perspective that I have. Or is it cursed? I still need to figure that out as well. Still, I suppose that does add credence to another possibility, that I have simply gone mad and all of this is just in my mind. Still, that wouldn't be so bad. After all, if all this must exist in someone's mind, I rather have it be mine than some silly young man from another world."_

_She walks behind you and lays her hands on your shoulders. Shivers run up and down your spine. "But at any rate, I will admit that even with this startling new knowledge, I still am not sure what I will do with it. I am currently working on a few ideas, but have yet to progress beyond that point. Fortunately, with all the recovery time I'll be needing, I'll have plenty of time to work on them. I just wanted to meet with all of you and clear the air between us."_

"_Well, I suppose that's everything," she says with a small laugh. "Elly is right, I do need to rest. So in the meantime, don't expect to see too much of me. But make no mistake. I will recover from what Yukari did to me. I will come to a decision of what to do with what I've learned. And I will find the time to tie up a few loose ends from our battle. And when I do, I promise you this: it will be _spectacular."

"_So before I retire, let me leave you with one final thought."_

_Yuuka brings her head down low, so that her ravaged lips are practically brushing your ear. And then she whispers a single sentence._

"_Until next time, everyone."_


	32. The Aftermath

The Aftermath

_Prologue 1_

The girl stood in a world of time. All around her, hundreds of gears turned. They ranged from ones as small as a fingernail to those as large as dinner table, each one forming a small but essential part of a mechanical network that powered the gigantic clock face set high in the red-brick wall. As the girl was inside of the clock's workings and it was meant to be viewed from without, it looked to her as if it were running backward.

There was a certain irony to this. The girl had freed herself from the tyranny of time ages ago. As far as she was concerned, a hundred years meant as little as a single week. She would remain unchanged regardless. That had been part of the reason she had had this clock constructed in the first place, to remind any mortal that passed by of their own enslavement. Nothing added spice to a feeling of superiority than a constant reminder of others' inferiority.

But today, as she stood deep within the clock's heart and listened to the constant clicking and clanging of the gears, she didn't feel superior at all. In fact, she didn't feel much of anything.

Over the last few days, she had suffered a steady stream of humiliations, from people so mighty that they made the gods look insignificant to those who, by rights, should be bowing to her authority. Her plans had blown up in her face, her attempts to salvage the situation had backfired spectacularly and everyone she met seemed bound and determined to place the blame fully on her shoulders. As a result, her reputation had taken so many blows that it would be a miracle if anyone took her seriously anymore. And to say nothing of the damage to her pride…

Normally such indignities would have infuriated her. Normally it would be all she would be able to think about. But today she didn't care one bit. None of that mattered. None of that was important. She had thought it was, but then she had learned how meaningless it was in the face of the one thing she truly treasured.

And then that one thing had been taken from her.

The only light source in the room was the sunlight that shone through the clock's face. That didn't matter to the girl. It could be midnight and she still would be able to see perfectly. Better, in fact, given how her species had evolved. But even though the light was harmless to her thanks to the filtering spells placed upon the clock's face, she remained in the shadows, standing perfectly still as she watched the hands of the clock continue on their endless journey.

There was a loud metallic _clunk _as a key opened a lock that had not seen much use, followed by the shrill squealing of rusty hinges. Below, a rectangle of light of light appeared as someone opened a door. Within stood a familiar figure.

"Mistress?" the newcomer said.

The girl did not answer.

There was the clicking of china as the newcomer picked up the untouched dishes she had left on the floor some hours ago. "Mistress, you haven't eaten."

Again, there was no answer.

After a moment of hesitation, the newcomer said, "Mistress, I understand that things are…difficult, but please do not neglect your health. You will do her no good by-"

"Leave me," the girl said in a harsh, rasping whisper.

There was another pause. And then the newcomer said, "Yes, Mistress." She took the dishes and left, closing the door behind her.

The girl was once again alone in the darkness.

…

_Prologue 2_

Utsuho Reiuji lay upon the hammock that stretched across the room she used for sleeping while working on the reactor and stared at the plain metal ceiling. As the reactor had drawn closer to completion, it had become evident that her presence was needed more and more often, over long stretches of time. As such, an unused storage room had be converted into a makeshift sleeping quarters for those times when she had had to spend several days at a time away from the Palace of Earth Spirits.

Like the reactor itself, it was far from finished, consisting of not much more than the hammock and a few boxes containing several changes of clothes, a few games, a book or two and numerous bags of snacks. Utsuho always told herself that she would one day get around to turning the place into a proper living space, but even until then she had grown fond of it. While she loved the room she shared with Orin back at the palace, it was still very cool to have one of her own, rough at it was. And though the times she had to spend elongated periods of time working on the reactor were very trying, it was still fun to stay up late, eat cookies and work on puzzles without Orin yelling at her to go to bed. Also, it was nice to have a place she could go that no one else but Satori would go. Sometimes, when the animosity she felt from the others got really bad, even her real room wasn't enough…

Someone knocked at her door, their fist clanging against the metal frame. Utsuho sat up immediately. "Uh, yeah?"

"It's me! Can I come in?"

Utsuho relaxed. "Of course! It's open!"

The handle jiggled, and then stopped. "No…no it's not."

"Oh, right!" Utsuho's cheeks turned red. "Coming, coming!"

She leapt up and ran to the door. She grabbed the metal wheel that sealed the door shut and twisted it open. Orin was on the other side, looking tired and a little frustrated.

"Sorry, I forgot," Utsuho said breathlessly. She stood to the side and let Orin enter.

"S'kay," Orin muttered. She walked right up to Utsuho's hammock and collapsed onto her back with a weary groan.

Utsuho stared at her. "So…uh, I guess it went pretty badly?"

"Eh, it went okay, I guess," Orin sighed. "At least, about as well as expected. Which isn't too great, come to think of it." She pushed herself up into a sitting position.

Utsuho sat down next to her. "What happened?"

After the absolute catastrophe that was the fight against Yuuka Kazami, they had agreed that Utsuho would keep her head down and stay out of sight while Orin explained things to the rest of Satori's pets. Although there was no official ladder of authority among the many animal youkai that had come under Satori's care, a hierarchy had still developed within their numbers. Orin was the one closest to their master. And her seniority meant that she was the one that every else listened to. As such, she was at the top of the pecking order, even if she never did any actual "pecking" unless someone really, really deserved it.

Utsuho, however, was not. Even though she was Orin's best friend and thus had been around longer than most, and even though she was hands-down the most powerful being in the entirety of the Underground, her simple nature and occasional bouts of cluelessness had quickly established her as someone who wasn't going to push back. And while no one had dared pick on her ever since her recent power-up, there was still a great deal of resentment that she had been welcomed back after her period of insanity. No one ever said anything, but she could tell.

As such, she had quietly snuck into her secondary room and waited while Orin broke the news to everyone. The meeting had been called three hours ago.

Orin shook her head. "Well, everyone's pretty upset. No surprises there. Had to keep Jun and the rest of the canines from going on the hunt after Yuuka's blood. And everyone wanted to know why in the hell we were working with Yukari in the first place. Turns out 'Better Yuuka than the Shadow Youkai' wasn't a really convincing answer. And no one really trusts Yukari to handle this. But I got them to agree to keep quiet about this and maintain order until we can figure something out."

"Like what?"

"I dunno," Orin grunted. She waved her hand in the air. "We haven't figured it out yet."

Utsuho nodded. She hesitated, and then said, "Uh, Orin. Did…did anyone mention me?"

There was a pause, and then Orin said, "Uh, yeah."

"And…"

Orin didn't meet her gaze. "Uh, I told them what happened. About how you did your best and tried to save us, and how everyone else got beat just as badly. But still…it might be best if you don't talk to anyone for awhile."

"Oh," Utsuho said. She stared at the ground.

"I'm sorry, Okuu. But you know how they can get." Orin's lip curled. "The dogs especially. You'd think they would cut it out with this shit, but noooooo. I mean, what does it take to make them understand that you're not evil, or that it's not your fault when something goes wrong? To be honest, I'm starting to get really sick of all this-"

"No, no, it's okay," Utsuho said quickly. "They're just really scared. And, uh, after what…I did, I don't really blame them."

"Well, I do!" Orin snapped at her. Then she winced and said, "Sorry, didn't mean to yell at you. But you've really got to stop blaming yourself. That mess wasn't anymore your fault than this one was. It's those stupid gods and reality warpers who think they can do whatever they want to anyone they want and justify it because of some lame-ass 'ends justify the means' bullshit."

"I know, I know," Utsuho said quickly. "I'm not blaming myself again, promise."

"All right," Orin muttered. "Sorry. I'm just…really frustrated right now. And…I really wish Satori was here."

Even though she didn't say so, Utsuho agreed with her wholeheartedly. Even though she knew that things could get really bad, she had always just kind of assumed that Satori would be there to look after them. But now…

Even the thought of it made her feel sick. Satori was gone. Taken from them by one of the cruelest monsters Utsuho had ever heard of, much less directly faced. Utsuho kept wishing that it was all just a very, very bad dream, and she would soon wake up and everything would be better. Or that she could trade in her control over fission for control over time and go back and fix things. Sadly, neither option had made itself available to her.

Speaking of which…

"Hey," Utsuho said. "Have you guys figured out what you're going to tell the rest of the Underground? About what…happened?"

Orin grimaced. "We're keeping a lid on that for now," she said. "Until we can think of a way to break the news…gently."

"Gently? Why?" Then Utsuho got it, or at least she thought she did. "Oh, you don't want to make everyone worry, right?"

"Sure, something like that," Orin said vaguely.

Utsuho cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

Orin patted her on the shoulder and smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry about it. We've got things under control." Then she blinked. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot."

"Forgot what?"

"Well, despite looking deader than some of the corpses I've had to transport, Yukari was at least good to her word." Orin pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket. "She sent us a message, explaining exactly why everything went to shit and what happened to everyone else."

Utsuho sat up straighter. That was another thing that had been worrying her. Ever since that weird meeting in that big tower, she had not so much as seen any of the other teams. And while some of those people weren't really likeable, she had been genuinely worried about some of the others. "Really? Great! Well, maybe not great, but…Okay, so what happened?"

"Uh, gimme a second to put this into words." Orin squeezed her eyes shut and leaned forward, fingers digging into her temples. After a moment she said, "Okay, so I'm not really clear on some of the details, but somehow Yuuka Kazami snuck a bunch of spores into that meeting-"

"Spores?"

"Yeah, baby funguses. Fungi. Funguwhatevers. Again, don't really know how, but she was able to use them to spy on us. That's how she knew where we were."

Utsuho was confused. "I thought Yukari Yakumo's tower was supposed to be really well protected."

Orin shook her head. "Doesn't matter how good your defenses are. There's always a way to get into anything. But anyway, that's not the weird part. The weird part is that instead of taking us out one at a time, Yuuka Kazami somehow managed to, I kid you not, turn into _four _Yuuka Kazamis and attack us all at once."

"Huh?" Utsuho boggled. "What? She…she can do that?"

"Apparently. That's what Yukari said, at least."

"But…but I thought she just did stuff with plants!"

"And shoot really nasty green energy blasts," Orin said darkly. "And who knows how she did it. Maybe she grew the others in her garden. Probably from strands of her hair or fingernail clippings. I dunno. Point it, we all got hit. Hard."

Utsuho swallowed. "So…they're all gone. We're the only ones left?"

"Uh, no. Best I can tell, everyone got messed up a bit, but it's not like Yuuka just plowed through us all. Yukari said that Team Halloween all survived and managed to kill the Yuuka that attacked them. Sealed her up and everything."

"Really?"

Orin shrugged. "I guess. I wasn't there. But they did have four people, and it looked like they all knew their way around a fight." Orin's eyebrows furrowed, not quite becoming a full frown, but it was on its way. "Sure would have been nice to have someone like that sword girl on our team. Or Marisa Kirisame. Or hell, I'll even take Madam Mima."

"Mima?" Utsuho scratched her head. "But isn't she kind of evil?"

Orin shrugged. "She still would've been handy in that fight. I mean, you were the only one of us who knew anything about fighting without danmaku."

"But that's just because of that BattleMode program you guys gave me," Utsuho protested. "Once that was gone, I couldn't do much of anything!"

"More than we could do," Orin muttered bitterly. "But forget it. Thinking about that isn't going to help anything."

Utsuho nodded. Then, after a moment of hesitation, she asked the question that had been bothering her ever since their return. "Orin, what about…what about Team Vampire? Did Flandre make it out all right?"

Orin closed her eyes and sighed wearily. Utsuho's already heavy heart plunged even further.

"I'm…sorry, Okuu," Orin said. "Yuuka got her too."

The Hell Raven swallowed back the lump she felt forming. Sure, she had only met Flandre a few days ago, and only really interacted with her for maybe half-an-hour, but Flandre had been one of the few people she had met to not to treat her with aversion, annoyance or (as had recently been the case) fear. Utsuho had felt an almost immediate kinship with the little vampire girl, which seemed to be reciprocated.

Of course, what Satori had told her about Flandre's background went a long way toward explaining this. Like her, Flandre was someone that everyone feared due to her power and mental instability. That was something Utsuho had no trouble relating to. But unlike her, Flandre had never regained her sanity. She had to constantly live with being considered a danger by everyone close to her, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Utsuho at least had Orin, Satori and a few others who still trusted her. Flandre didn't even have the trust of her own sister. Utsuho had hoped to be the first. It would have been nice to have someone who could understand how Utsuho felt sometimes and also didn't look down on her. Sort of like a little sister. But from the look of things, Yuuka had taken that away as well.

Utsuho's eyes prickled with tears. She quickly wiped them away before Orin could see. "How…" Her voice caught, and she started again. "How did it happen? Was it…quick at least?"

"Oh!" Orin straightened up. "Oh, wait, you think…I'm so sorry! That's not what I meant! She's not dead!"

"Huh?"

"Well, she did die…Sort've. But what I meant is that Yuuka captured her too. The same way she captured the boss."

Now Utsuho was more confused than ever. "Wait, what?"

"Those crystal thingies! Yuuka sealed Flandre Scarlet away in one, just like she did to Satori. So now she has them both."

"But…What? I thought those only worked on youkai!"

"No, they work on anyone supernatural," Orin said. "Vampires still count."

"But vampires don't come back after they're killed! They turn to dust, right?"

"Yeah, but you can still seal their essence and make them a new body later. I've heard of that happening."

"Oh." Utsuho thought about this for a moment longer. There were so many pieces to this puzzle, and putting them together was difficult.

And then her face lit up. She was pretty sure she got it now. "But…if she's not permanently gone, and Yuuka's got both her and Satori, that means we can save them both, right?"

"Well, yeah," Orin said with a shrug. "I think that's the plan."

"Great!" Utsuho leapt to her feet. "When do we start?"

"Whoa, slow down!" Orin grabbed Utsuho by the arm. "No one's starting anything for awhile!"

"But you said…"

"I meant that yes, we're going to try to find a way to get the boss and the vampire away from Yuuka. That doesn't mean we already know how! Come on, Okuu. It's only been a day. I'm pretty sure Yukari's bedridden right now."

"But we're not!"

"No, we're not. But we still don't have near the sort of resources we need to stage any kind of rescue attempt. I mean, just look what happened last time we fought Yuuka."

"But if we get the rest of the guys to help us-"

Orin buried her face in her hand. "Okuu, I know how much you want Satori back, I really do. And I know you want to be friends with Flandre Scarlet. But face the facts. You're stronger than all of us combined, and you couldn't beat her. And Yukari is so strong that could probably take the whole of the Underground and put it in a box. Remember what Yuuka did to her? And since Yuuka's on her home turf right now, there's no way we'll be able to win. She'll wipe us out without even trying."

Utsuho's wings wilted. "But…"

"Look, I promise that we'll find a way to get them back. Yukari's not about to let Yuuka keep someone as important as Satori in captivity. And she sure as hell wouldn't want her to have her hands on someone as powerful as Flandre Scarlet. Just give her time to recover and plan a real rescue attempt. It's the best way. Trust me on this."

Utsuho swallowed. She knew that her friend was right, but she hated the idea of being powerless to do anything until then.

"Come here," Orin said. "Sit down."

Utsuho sat.

Orin put an arm around Utsuho's shoulder and gently brought the Hell Raven's head down to her lap. "It'll be all right," she said as she brushed Utsuho's hair with her fingers. "Yuuka's strong, but now she's got practically everyone against her. She's not going to last long. Satori will be back before you know it."

Utsuho sniffed and nodded. Then she said, "What about the others, though? Flandre's cranky sister and that scary maid?"

"Them? Oh, they're all right. Kind of. They got injured, but survived and got away. I think they're back at that mansion of theirs, recovering. I guess Flandre's the only one Yuuka wanted." Orin sighed. "Oh, and apparently the Yuuka that beat us and the Yuuka that beat them teamed up with the Yuuka that was fighting Yukari. Guess that was why she was in such bad shape when she rescued us. I mean, one Yuuka was bad enough, but three?"

"Yeah, no kidding. I feel bad for her sister though."

"Who, Yukari's?" Orin said, sounding bewildered. "She has a sister?"

"No, I mean Flandre's sister," Utsuho said as she sat back up. "She must feel awful. I mean, remember how Satori was after Koishi left?"

"Oh, her." Orin frowned and shrugged. "I suppose. Though she really didn't strike me as much of a loving sibling."

"I guess," Utsuho said. "But maybe she was just in a bad mood. I mean, how can we say for sure?"

"Well, maybe," Orin admitted reluctantly. "But even so, there's not a whole lot we can do for her. We've got way too many of our problems here."

"I know, I know," Utsuho muttered. "I'm just saying."

Orin smiled and patted her on the shoulder. "Man, only you would feel sorry for someone who's done nothing but be a jerk to everyone and insult you."

Utsuho blinked at her. "Why, is that bad?"

"No, no. Definitely not," Orin said with a quick laugh. She stood to her feet and headed toward the door. "Look, I've got to get back down to the palace. You coming?"

Utsuho didn't answer. She stared at the floor, deep in thought.

"Okuu?" Orin pressed, a little louder this time.

Utsuho jolted. "Huh? What?"

Orin stuck a thumb over her shoulder, toward the door. "I asked if you were coming. Back to the palace."

"I, uh, not yet."

At first the redheaded catgirl frowned. But then her face relaxed. "All right. Just don't stay up here forever."

"I won't," Utsuho promised. "Besides, I need to start up the reactor sooner or later. And that takes a long time."

"There's that," Orin said. "Wouldn't want people wondering why it's been off for so long. Good idea."

"Thanks."

Orin nodded at her, gave her a warm smile, and headed out, carefully closing the door behind her.

Utsuho remained where she was, waiting to see if Orin was going to come back or not. This wasn't something she wanted to be caught doing. It wasn't really dangerous, but it would worry her friend unnecessarily.

Which was why she needed to do it quickly, before anyone noticed that she was gone. As soon as it became apparent that Orin had left the reactor, Utusho hurried over to one of the lockers that lined the walls. Pulling it open, she extracted a cardboard box and quickly rummaged through its contents. After a bit of looking, she pulled out a dusty but still accurate map of Gensokyo.

…

By the time Reimu stopped her vertical path, she was nearly fifty feet above the cloud-line and surrounded by nothing but open air and sunshine. She sighed in relief and closed her eyes, letting the sun dry her rain-soaked clothing and warm her body.

Traveling by air in the rain was always a pain. Granted, the storm had tapered off ever since the raging downpour of the day before, to the point where it was now barely more than a drizzle. But that didn't mean it was any fun to fly through. In addition to being cold and wet, the faster she went meant the water droplets hit her all the harder.

Of course, this being Gensokyo, there were any number of small spells and charms sold to combat this problem. But as her luck would have it, as soon as the water began to fall from the sky, Reimu had discovered that she had neglected to replenish her stock. And she had places to be.

As she did not favor traveling at half-speed just to avoid having the rain feel like hailstones, Reimu decided to bypass the weather entirely and head up and over the clouds. Of course, it meant that she couldn't see the ground and thus had to rely on her memory of distances and directions to get to where she was going, but she had done it before. Her job required a lot of patrolling the same areas over and over again. As such, she had long gotten a feel for where things were.

Once the sun had soothed away the worst of the clamminess, Reimu allowed herself to fall backward. For the briefest of moments she felt the thrill of vertigo as she tumbled in freefall. Then she turned her body around and swooped into flight a mere five feet above the clouds, moving up another ten feet in the process and leveling out. As she soared over the storm, a small but genuine small grew on her face, something that was a rarity these days. Even though flying was second-nature to her as it was to everyone who lived in Gensokyo, and though she spent most of her time doing it, there was no denying that it was just plain _fun. _She couldn't help but pity the Humans that lived in the Outside World. Their lives must be absolutely miserable, what with having to walk everywhere.

Still, it wouldn't do to let her guard down. Other creatures might have had the same idea as her. Even as she shot forward, Reimu's eyes flitted back and forth, searching for anyone and anything that might cause her trouble. Sure enough, there was a decent sized fairy gang playing about two miles to her right and what looked like a family of wolf Tengu moving slowly half-a-mile above her. However, even if any of them had spotted her, they gave no indication and continued about their business.

Reimu enjoyed a rare unchallenged journey, and soon arrived at the place that she was reasonably sure was directly above her destination. However, her rare good mood soured as she approached. Part of that was because she would soon have to plunge back into the wet and the cold. But it was mostly because she was worried about what she might find.

Early that morning, she had been awakened by a visit from Ran Yakumo, who had requested to speak to Genji alone. That in itself was surprising, and not to mention worrying. Reimu had waited out by the pond with a hundred different scenarios running through her head. Yuuka had somehow won and was now tearing a bloody swath through Gensokyo. Yukari had been killed. Marisa had been taken captive and was now Yuuka's private sex-slave (not completely out of the question, if the rumors were true), Marisa was severely hurt, Marisa was dead…

But then Ran had left and Genji called her back. The turtle had seemed to be in deep shock. In fact, if he had not been covered with scales, his face would have been probably ghost-white. Reimu's stomach had fallen then. The worst had to have happened.

But then he and Ran had told her what had really happened, who had been hurt and who had come out okay. It wasn't as bad as she had feared, but it was still considerably worse than the hoped-for best-case scenario. And Marisa was alive. Deathly ill for whatever reason, but alive.

However, Genji had then told her that she was not to discuss what she had been told with anyone not already in on the know. That in itself she could deal with, but then he had delivered a personal warning from Yukari not to go to her for answers. In fact, she was not to contact Yukari at all.

Of course, Reimu had never taken kindly to people telling her that she couldn't do something, even people in Yukari's reportedly horrible condition. And she _really _didn't take kindly to inadequate attempts at bringing her up to speed. There was a lot that Genji wasn't telling her, and if Yukari was too hurt to come tell it to her in person, than Reimu would just have to go to her.

Unfortunately there were a few problems with that. For one, all of her attempts to contact Yukari through the Ying-Yang Orb had been met with silence. And when she tried to go directly to Yukari's house, she had been met with failure. The gap simply refused to open for her. It was as if Yukari had never given her access in the first place.

Well, fine. If Yukari was going to block her out, then Reimu would just go to someone else for information. As such, she had immediately set out for Marisa's place. It was either her or Remilia, and despite her fondness for the little vampire, Marisa was still her most constant companion. Besides, the witch's home was much closer than the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Also, if what Genji had told her about Flandre now being Yuuka Kazami's captive was to be believed, perhaps it would be best to give the SDM a wide berth for the time being.

However she was still worried about what she might find. Genji had described her condition as "Alive, but ill." That could imply any number of things. Chief among Reimu's suppositions was that the witch had been infected by some weird disease courtesy of Yuuka's plants. Despite her talent and power, Marisa was still the most fragile member of Yukari's posse. And given her general recklessness, it was no stretch of the imagination to think that she might have made a fatal error sometime in the fight. Of course, the fact that Mima had gone along gave Reimu hope of her friend's survival, but she had never been inclined to expect the best.

Reimu took a deep breath to ready herself. Then she looped up and around to plunge straight down.

Wet, clinging cold pressed in from all around as she passed through the clouds. But it lasted only a couple of seconds before she emerged into wet, hammering cold. Reimu really hated rain.

But on the plus side her instincts were right on the mark. She was now directly over the Forest of Magic, not far from Marisa's house. Reimu altered her course.

As the house came into view, Reimu saw something that gave her hope. Light in the windows. She landed in the slick mud in front of the house and opened the door.

Despite the fact that the scene that greeted her was far better than what she had been dreading, it still strange enough to keep her standing in the rain and staring for several seconds.

Marisa's house was still disturbingly bare, though there were no unconscious GPF officers this time. And from the look of things, there was now a medium-sized hole in the far wall, which had been covered with a tarp. Marisa herself was lying in the bed with the covers pulled up to her chin. The witch did not look well. Her face had acquired a sickly greenish tint and she was trembling as though cold. She seemed incapable of making any noises beyond anguished groaning. An odd looking black disk the size of a frying pan floated near the head of the bed.

A wood-burning stove had been added to the house's furniture. Mima hovered in front of it, humming as she stirred a pot of soup. That was the part that glued Reimu's eyes in place. Even though she knew that Mima had practically raised the young witch, seeing her actually doing something so mundane as cook soup was just plain strange.

"Um," she said. "Is anyone going to tell me what the hell is going on, or am I going to have to guess?"

Both of the house's inhabitants turned toward her. Despite the state she was in, Marisa was the first to react.

"Reddie!" she gargled in a voice that was half mucus and half dust. "You gotta save me! She's holding me prisoner!" Then her eyes and cheeks bulged at the same time and she leaned over the side of the bed to vomit into the floating black disk. The disk swallowed up the waste as thoroughly as any wastebasket.

"Oh, don't pay any attention to her," Mima said. "She's just being a whiny little girl. Come in before you start melting."

Reimu did so. "So…yeah," she said as she wrung out her hair. "Question still stands, by the way. What happened to Marisa? Did Yuuka poison her?"

"Hell no!" Marisa yelled. "You really think I'd…I'd…oh hell…"

As Marisa once again made use of the floating black disk, Mima said, "Nothing of the sort. She simply consumed far too many enhancement potions and her system crashed as a result. She's fine though."

"Not!" Marisa gagged.

"Well, okay. So you are a miserable little mess. But honestly, a few days of bed rest are miles better than what could have happened. For one thing, all I have to do is play nursemaid, as opposed to gluing you back together."

Reimu raised an eyebrow. "Okay, but she is okay, right? I mean, she's going to be okay?"

Marisa turned herself away from the floating disk and wiped her mouth. Despite her condition she still managed a shaky ghost of her usual cocky grin. "Aw, did you miss me that much?"

She was ignored. "Of course," Mima said. "As I said, she put her body under too much stress and crashed as a result. But it's nothing permanent. She just needs to take it easy for awhile."

"Fuck that," Marisa growled. She tried to kick the bedcovers off, but found them tucked in too tight. "Hey Reimu, gimme a hand here, ze."

Mima rolled her eyes. "Well, at least this is taking it easy for her. Fortunately, my schedule seems to be unusually free for awhile, so she's going to have to put up with my motherly instincts in the meantime."

Marisa groaned as she collapsed back onto the pillow. "I'm dead. Yuuka killed me, and I'm dead, ze. This must be Hell."

"Uh, okay," Reimu said. "Can't you just wave your hand and magic her all better?"

"That's what I've been saying all week!" Marisa yelled.

"Marisa, it's been barely twenty-two hours," Mima said.

"Feels like a week. Jeez, this is worse than prison."

With another roll of her eyes, Mima turned her attention back to Reimu. "I could, if it were a run-of-the-mill disease, like from a virus or toxin. But seeing how the problem was caused by her body absorbing too much magic…among other things…using more magic beyond the occasional sleeping spell will probably just make things worse. Honestly, it's best to let her recover the old-fashioned way."

"Or so you say," Marisa grumbled. She pulled the covers up to her nose. "I think you're just saying that because you get some kind of sick thrill from keeping me like this."

"Honey, I'm not the sick one here."

"This is payback for not using Yugogo as a body shield, isn't it?"

"Wait, _what?" _Reimu gaped.

"Oh, never you mind," Mima said. She snickered. "Actually, it's a pity you showed up now. She's pretty lucid right now, which just makes her whiny. But for a while that girl was experiencing some very interesting hallucinations." The spirit started ticking points off on her fingers. "In no particular order, she believed that her bed was a zoo for rare monsters and asked if she could take any of them home, tried to stick her hand through her blanket all the while claiming that she had to dock with the space station, complained that she was being crushed by a pile of French maids and later declared that the Lunarians were attacking and tried to leap out of bed to fight them off. Hence why the covers are now tucked in so tight."

Reimu wasn't sure if Mima was joking. "Uh…Okay. That sounds very…freaking strange." Then she frowned. "Wait a minute. What's 'French'?"

"A delicious kind of toast. Very sticky. Though given Marisa's, ah, sensibilities, one would think that she would have enjoyed such a dogpile."

"The hell I would," Marisa grumbled. "Bitches were _heavy!"_

As was often the case these days, Reimu had no idea what anyone was talking about and was irritated by it. But rather than demand clarification, she decided to just forget the whole thing and return to the reason she had come here."

"Look, I'm glad you guys are okay," Reimu said. "But I really gotta ask. What in the hell _happened _yesterday?"

"Ah, you mean the battle?" Mima asked, her tone infuriatingly calm.

Reimu closed her eyes and mentally counted down from ten. She got as far as six before exploding, "Of _course _I mean the battle! I'm stuck at home while the two of you go off with Yukari and a bunch of A-listers to fight Yuuka freaking Kazami? I was up all night worrying about you guys!"

A stunned silence descended upon the room. Both Mima and Marisa stared at Reimu, shock written all over their faces. Marisa's mouth was even hanging open. Reimu blinked, realized what she had just said and mentally kicked herself.

"Uh, can you just forget I said that last sentence?" she said without much hope.

Both of the spellcasters burst into laughter. "My word," Mima chuckled. "The eternally apathetic Reimu Hakurei, actually concerned about someone else. And losing sleep over it, no less! Had anyone told me that I might actually bear witness to such a noteworthy event I would have brought a camera and a historian."

"I told you!" Marisa gibed. "I told you she loved me!" Then her face soured and she had to vomit once again. That didn't stop her from continuing to laugh afterward, albeit much more subdued.

Reimu, whose cheeks were now burning furiously, wanted to hurt them both, she really did. But before she could she could think of something to shout at them the door once again swung open. Everyone turned to see Alice Margatroid standing in the door, her ever-present companion Shanghai hovering over one shoulder.

They stared at her, and she stared right back. Reimu had a sudden feeling that she should be embarrassed, but upon reflection, she couldn't fathom why. But that didn't take away from the feeling of awkwardness that descended upon the room.

Not surprisingly, it was Mima who broke the tension. "Well, hello. I suppose visiting hours are open, so do come in."

Alice did so. Reimu couldn't help but notice how the rainwater seemed to literally slide right off of her as she stepped into the house, leaving her completely dry. The shrine maiden rolled her eyes. Well, at least _someone _had remembered to prepare herself adequately for the weather.

Marching straight past Reimu and Mima, Alice went right up to Marisa and stared down at her. To Reimu's surprise, Marisa actually cringed under her glare. That was very odd. Every time she had seen those two together, Marisa had never had any problem with giving Alice the same treatment she gave everyone else: that is to say, she made fun of her mercilessly and did everything possible to irritate the puppetmaster for her own amusement. As such, Marisa should be responding to the stare with any number of snide remarks, ranging from loud insults to leering sexual propositions. And seeing how Marisa had, not twenty-four hours ago, willingly and enthusiastically participated in a war against one of the Gensokyo's most notorious names, the prospect of Alice's wrath should hold no threat to her. And yet here she was, looking honestly scared of Alice.

Not for the first time, Reimu wondered exactly what the deal between those two was. There were certainly rumors aplenty, though no one had ever seen anything conclusive. However, Reimu had never seen anything to contradict them either. Marisa and Alice certainly spent a great deal of time together and they bickered often enough with ever descending to full-on relationship wrecking fights. Plus, Reimu remembered how upset Marisa had been back at Yukari's citadel, complaining about all the time Alice had been spending with that creepy doll youkai, forget her name. And she remembered how furious Alice had been at Marisa for insisting on participating in the battle. Plus, while she had never noticed anything of the sort from Alice, Marisa wasn't exactly picky about whom she hit on. Gender and species didn't seem to matter much to her, so long as they were at least humanoid.

Reimu then wondered if she cared and found, to her complete lack of surprise, that she did not. If anything, she hoped that those two would move beyond subtext and make official such a relationship. Threatening to tell Alice whenever Marisa started to get out of line would at least make it easier to control her.

For her part though, the way Alice was glaring at Marisa didn't seem especially romantic. "So," she said. "You're alive."

Her icy tone seemed to shake Marisa out of whatever intimidation she was feeling. "Well, yeah," she said. "Told you I'd be. Don't sound so disappointed, ze."

"You also said you'd be all right." Alice's eye swept over Marisa's disheveled form. "Tell me, is this some strange new definition of 'all right' that I was unaware of? Because whatever it was that Yuuka Kazami did to you, it has certainly rendered you less than all right."

Marisa scowled. "Hey, she didn't even touch me! Well, 'cept for that one time, but Bodypillow got me out of that before I lost any limbs. And okay, there was that other time, but Yugogo took care of that."

Mima cleared her throat. "Actually, her current condition is her own doing."

"Excuse me?" Alice said. She turned to the spirit with one eyebrow raised. "Please explain."

Mima looked annoyed at having to explain the situation yet again, but said, "Well, to prepare for the battle, Miss Kirisame here decided to consume a large number of physical enhancement potions. To be specific, four Strength Boosts, three Agility Enhancers, three Speed Ups, and an entire pitcher full of Unnatural Levels of Resiliency. All of her own making, of course."

"What?" Alice gaped. "But that much would make her body…" She glanced back down to the obviously ill Marisa. "Oh. Well. I suppose you've learned your lesson then."

"Sure thing," Marisa said. "Enhancement potions are the _shit!"_

"Which make you feel like shit immediately afterward," Mima pointed out.

"Hey, better than letting Yuuka rip out my arms and eat them," Marisa said.

Reimu's patience, already worn thin upon her arrival, snapped. "All right, all right, enough of this stupid bickering already! Marisa survived, she got sick, but she'll get better! Are we done with this? Good!" She pulled out the letter Yukari had sent her. It was now a soggy mess, and the ink was starting to run, but she didn't care. "Now, can someone _please _explain all this to me? The hell happened yesterday? How did Yuuka kick all of your asses by herself? What happened to Yukari? And…Yuuka has Satori Komejii and Flandre freaking Scarlet? As if in, both the ruler of the Underground _and_ one of the most destructive and unstable forces Gensokyo's ever seen? Am I the only one who thinks _that might be kind of important?" _

Alice whirled toward her. "Wait, what did you just say?" she gaped.

"Aw, crap," Reimu muttered when she remembered that she wasn't to talk about such things. Yukari was gonna be pissed if she found out. "Er, hey. Can you kinda forget I said all that?" she asked as she awkwardly scratched the back of her head. "I don't think I was supposed to talk about that."

"Were you not? Such a pity," Mima said. "If so, I'd be more careful in the future. These beans are going to be extremely hard to gather, once spilled."

"Besides, that's not what happened at all," Marisa complained. "We kicked her ass, not the other way around."

Well, she was in for it anyway. Might as well follow this trail to the end. "That's not what Genji told me," Reimu said to her.

"Well, sure, maybe all other jerks got their shit wrecked," Marisa said. "But me and Mima? We showed that bitch what's what!"

"Then tell me!" Reimu roared.

"My, my, my, aren't we a bit worked up," Mima chided. "What exactly did that turtle say, and why in the world would he know _anything?"_

Reimu glanced at Alice, who was watching the exchange with an icy expression on her face. "Uh, Yukari told me-"

Mima rolled her eyes. "Alice, do you solemnly swear not to divulge any of the information you are about to learn from Reimu to anything or anyone?"

There was a moment's pause, and then Alice shrugged. "All right. Though I can't promise that I won't use it as a reason to further berate this reckless fool," she said, giving Marisa a nasty look.

Marisa just rolled her eyes. "Get in line, it starts like a bazillion miles away, ze."

That would have to do. Reimu told them about the kitsune's visit that morning. Mima raised an eyebrow when she mentioned how Ran had spoken to Genji first, and in private. But she said nothing as Reimu went on to tell her everything she knew of the battle.

"Well, everything here is _technically _correct," Mima said once the shrine maiden had finished. "There are a great deal of details left out, but nothing horribly essential. And admittedly I only found out about the fate of Remilia Scarlet's entourage a few hours ago, courtesy of some sources of mine. But to answer your question, what happened was that the little posse Yukari gathered together was divided up into three parties, each with specific functions: one consisting of Satori Komeji's people, one consisting of Remilia Scarlet's, and Marisa and I were put into a team with none other than Yuyuko Saigyouji and that servant of hers."

"Yeah, I noticed how they just sort of showed up on that list," Reimu said. "What were they doing there anyway? I thought Yukari couldn't find her."

"Apparently Yuyuko found her. But honestly, does it really matter? And I think it's quite obvious what they were doing there." A malicious smile appeared on Mima's lips. "It seems Yukari didn't much like the idea of Marisa and I being a team unto ourselves, so she brought someone of sufficient power to keep an eye on us."

"Yuyuko? A watchdog?" Reimu said, staring. "Uh, we are talking about the same ghost, right? The one that can't focus on anything for more than thirty seconds before wandering away to look at something pretty, right?"

Mima snickered at that. "The same, though I'd beware of committing to that impression entirely. But again, it doesn't matter. The point is, Yuuka not only learned of what we were planning, but used her ability to divide herself to attack all of us simultaneously. And yes," she said in response to Reimu and Alice's shocked looks. "Before you voice the obvious protest, it was indeed one Yuuka against each of the teams. But despite this, only ours was able to triumph."

Mima then described the battle in full, making full note of how she and Marisa had mercilessly heaped an unholy amount of punishment upon the enormously bloated wormlike jungle Yuuka had become. Marisa then cut in, tell them how she had dealt the final blow herself, blowing Yuuka's head up with a missile before sealing her up. Reimu needed Mima to confirm that last bit as legitimate before allowing herself to believe it to be anything other than Marisa talking out of her ass again.

But the rest was much more troubling, especially with what had happened to Yukari. According to Mima, she literally had her soul torn up and injected with a heavy dose of spiritual venom, only to overexert herself preventing a nuclear holocaust immediately afterward. As much as Yukari had pissed the shrine maiden off with her actions recently, she was still the primary force holding Gensokyo's defenses together. With her out of the picture, Reimu did not like their chances should Yuuka or, the gods forbid, the Shadow Youkai suddenly become aggressive.

Though to her surprise, the part that troubled Reimu the most was what had happened to Flandre Scarlet. At first she assumed that it was because of how unsettling the thought of someone as dangerous as Yuuka being in possession of such a deadly weapon. But upon further reflection she discovered, again to her surprise, that her concern wasn't due to what Yuuka might use Flandre for, but that she had Flandre at all. Reimu's interactions with the unstable little vampire were very limited for obvious reasons, but while they hadn't seen much of each other as of late, Remilia was still one of her few friends. And despite the air of indifference and annoyance Remilia put on whenever her sister acted up, Reimu could tell that she cared deeply about Flandre.

She supposed that it would only make sense that she would feel bad for her friend. But what was odd was that there was a measure of guilt mingled with the sympathy. Now that didn't make any sense at all. She hadn't been involved in any of this mess to begin with, and thus could not be held responsible for Remilia's misfortunes.

But then, why did she feel so uneasy?

"And that's about the long and short of it," Mima finished. "An exhilarating day all around. Of course, there are others who aren't going to remember it quite as fondly, but I'd say Marisa and I came out of more-or-less all right."

"We kicked ass," Marisa grinned.

"That we did. Ah, looks like the soup's just about ready. Would you girls care for any? Nothing fancy I'm afraid, it's only chicken noodle."

"Don't see why they should get any," Marisa grumbled as she adjusted herself into a more comfortable position under the covers. "Not like they did anything."

"Manners, dear. It's only hospitable."

Reimu and Alice didn't respond. They were still mentally reeling from everything Mima had just told them. As such, neither of them resisted when Mima led them over to a pair of stools, had them sit down and placed a bowl of soup in their hands.

"At any rate, you were right earlier, Reimu," Mima said as she started to spoon-feed Marisa. "The current unstable political climate that this whole incident has caused is only going to worsen as a result of yesterday. Given that Satori Komejii has never been especially popular with the people she lorded over, it won't take long for her detractors to begin their own bids for power. I expect the Underground to devolve into anarchy in very short order if someone doesn't step in to take control. And unfortunately for them, Yukari Yakumo, i.e. the person with both the power and authority to pull it off, is currently three kinds of almost-dead at this point. Perhaps that is why Yuuka Kazami went after Satori in the first place. She does enjoy her destabilization."

Even though Reimu was being addressed, it was Alice that spoke first. "But…but, how is such a thing possible? How could one youkai be so incredibly powerful? I mean, I've heard that she was strong, but this…"

The question refocused Reimu's attention. This was something that she would like to know the answer to as well.

Unfortunately, she would be disappointed. "An excellent question," Mima said. "I would love to know the answer as well. Unfortunately, the data I managed to gather while not fighting for my existence is not conclusive. Hopefully I'll be able to compare notes with Yukari once she recovers, but until then…" She shrugged.

Marisa coughed. At first Reimu thought that the witch was trying to send some sort of message, but then she coughed again. Then the coughing turned to choking, which then gave way to gagging, and soon Marisa was vomiting all of her freshly sipped soup into the black disk. Mima helpfully rubbed her back while her stomach was emptied.

"Damn it," Marisa wheezed as soon as she was able. "That tasted way better going the other way."

"Most things do," Mima said sympathetically.

Alice opened her mouth, presumably to comment again on Marisa's illness. But then she seemed to notice the disk for the first time. She frowned, and then her eyes widened. "Um, excuse me? Is that I think it is?"

"Only if you think it's a pocket dimension," Mima said. "Otherwise, no it isn't."

The puppetmaster jolted. Then she had to quickly steady her bowl to keep the soup from spilling. "Wait, are you telling me that you're using a _pocket dimension _as a _vomit bucket?"_

"Yeah?" Marisa said. She spat something green and unpleasant looking into the disk. "So?"

"No one else was using it," Mima added. "At least, no one we care about."

"But…it's a pocket dimension!" Alice protested. She sounded positively scandalized. "That's upper tier magic! It's a cavity scooped out of reality itself and filled with-"

"Yes, dear, I know," Mima soothed. "I did just summon one, you know."

"But it takes decades of study and practice to even begin to attempt something like that! And now you're just using one as a…" Alice's voice tapered off, her protests unable to sustain themselves.

"Again, I am well aware of this," Mima said. "After all, I was part of the team that perfected the technique and was one of their principle researchers. I've even written a few books on the subject. You probably have one, somewhere. Most magicians do."

"She does," Marisa said. _"The Web of Existence and Dimensional Manipulation."_

"Oh? That's heartening to hear. I was always proud of that one."

"Yeah, but it's an eighth edition," Marisa said with a shrug.

Mima made a face. "Oh. That one. No wonder you're having so much trouble, then! That one was practically rewritten by a later practitioner who was entirely too sure of his own talent to tell that they were subpar at best. Fortunately for him, I was sealed away at the time, so he was saved from my most unholy and unrestrained vengeance. But as it turns out, it was unnecessary. The poor fool went and got himself killed in hilarious fashion without my help. And that's why you never use lightning as an energy source while surrounded by a water-based barrier." She shook her head. _"Anyway, _you should have gone with the fifth edition. That was the last one I directly had anything to do with, and the one with the most practical use, in my ever-so-professional opinion."

"I think it's out of print," Marisa said.

"I know. Just as I know most of the copies were burned during the Magician's War," Mima said. "So? Such things are not impossible to find. There's always a copy _somewhere. _I wouldn't be surprised if that bibliophilic fan of mine has one."

"But…but…" Alice sputtered. "You're using a _pocket dimension _as a _vomit bucket!"_

"Hey, I practically invented the things," Mima said crossly. "I can do what I want with them."

As she watched the magicians bicker about the proper use of magic and discuss magical history, Reimu had the strange feeling of being the odd one out. Sure, she knew enough about magic to follow what they were saying, but had nothing to contribute herself. Just as well, as she hated chit-chat most of the time, but still…

It was then that Reimu noticed that she still had a bowl full of warm soup in her lap. Not knowing what else to do with it, she cautiously lifted her spoon to her lips and took a tentative sip.

To her surprise, it was quite good, and she ended up finishing half the bowl before saying, "Hey, this isn't bad."

Everyone stopped talking about pocket dimensions and burning books long enough to turn toward her. "Well, of course it is," Mima said. "I made it."

"Huh. I didn't know you could cook."

"Hey, the woman raised me," Marisa said. "How do you think she kept me fed?"

Reimu shrugged. "I dunno." She turned the bowl up and drained the rest of the broth. When she was done, she said, "I guess I just assumed she magicked the food into existence."

"Oh, I could," Mima said. "But where's the fun in that? When it comes to creation, it is much more satisfying to build from the ground up. Even when it's something as simple as a bowl of soup."

"Interesting concept," Alice said. "I've often entertained similar ideas." She tilted her head toward Shanghai.

Mima quirked an eyebrow. "Ah, yes. Your quest to grant that doll sentience. Marisa told me about that. I hear you've been working with one Medicine Melancholy."

"Yes," Alice's face soured. "But she doesn't remember anything of her own ascension, and to top it off she knows next to nothing of magic. So what help she provides has been extremely limited."

"I would imagine," Mima said. "Though I'm surprised that you haven't sought help from your foster-parent. After all, she was able to grant you youkaihood, so she probably knows something that-"

"No," Alice said.

"No? That's rather final. You would discard such a resource so readily?"

"Yes. Drop this subject. Right now."

Mima glanced at Marisa, who just shrugged her shoulder the best she could. "Ah, what a shame," the ghost said to Alice. "Soured relationships always do more damage than is initially perceived. Well, perhaps you'll change your mind. You both have eternity to mend your connections, after all."

"I think I am fully capable of accomplishing my goals without her help, thank you very much," Alice said darkly. And suddenly her face brightened. "Wait, you are highly prolific in magic, correct?"

There was a considerable pause, and then Mima said. "Why, yes. I do believe I am. And in other news, fire is hot and rain is falling water."

"No offense intended," Alice said. Now her face was downright eager. "And if I'm not mistaken, someone of your knowledge would have no problem-"

"No," Mima said, in much the same tone Alice had used earlier.

"Excuse me?" Alice said, sounding both surprised and disappointed.

"My dear, if this project had some sort of practical purpose, something that would provide some sort of basic essential, then I would be delighted to assist you. But it is not. Your drive to animate that little thing is entirely a personal goal of yours. And it simply goes against my principles to just step in and solve that puzzle for you. You would learn nothing from the experience. You would not grow in any way, not as a magician, nor as a creator. I'm sorry dear, but this is something you're going to have to figure out for yourself. I do wish you luck though. The intentional creation of a youkai, especially by someone as young as yourself, would be worthy of the record books."

Alice swallowed. She quickly concentrated on pushing noodles around her bowl with her spoon.

Things were getting awkward, and fast. And the conversations were getting a bit too personal for Reimu's tastes. So she set her bowl aside, stood and said, "Well, I'd better get going."

Marisa's face fell. "Why?" she whined. "You just got here!"

"Sorry, but I've still got a lot to do. I just wanted to…" she caught herself "…check up on things. Besides, me and Sanae were supposed to go patrolling together and-"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Reimu realized that she had made another mistake. This was proven when Mima and Marisa started laughing. Well, Mima laughed. Marisa more of carefully snickered while keeping her tumultuous digestion under control.

"Ooooh," Mima said. "No wonder! The shrine maiden has a date!"

"I _told _you so!" Marisa tittered. "I _told_ you so!"

Now Reimu was growing irritated again. She found comfort in the familiar sensation. "Oh, shut up," she growled. "What with all the crazy that's going on, it just makes sense to have backup."

Alice snorted. "Yes, a whole lot of good that will do you should Satsuki try to eat you. If anything, you'll simply be providing her with both dinner and dessert."

Reimu caught Mima's eye. The ghost favored her with a conspiratorial smile and a quick wink. Reimu wasn't exactly reassured. Even with everything that was happening, she still hadn't forgotten Satsuki's ill-fated visit to the shrine a few days ago. Just as she hadn't forgotten what would likely happen if Yukari ever found out.

"Well, it's not like we're planning to fight her alone," Reimu said. "It'll be more of a run away and call for help. And spotting her first will be easier if there're two pairs of eyes. Oh hey, does anyone have any anti-storm protection spells? I'm all out."

"Certainly," Mima said. She flicked her palm open, revealing a small green-and-blue charm.

"Thanks," Reimu said. "Oh, and hey. You going to be back at the shrine any time soon?"

"Soon enough," Mima said. She tilted her head toward Marisa. "Sometime after this one had been rendered at least operational."

"And the sooner the better, ze," Marisa complained.

"Why Marisa, you wound me!" Mima said as she clutched her hands to her breast in mock-offense. "One would think you didn't like spending time with me!"

"Sure, but not while stuck in a sweaty bed with my head feeling like it's full of sulfur and my stomach like it's full of rotting sewage. And those fucking hallucinations are just weird and not nearly as fun as I thought they would be."

Mima laughed. She leaned over to kiss Marisa's forehead, which only elicited a frustrated groan from the witch. "Greatness always has a price, dear. And compared to what it could have been, this is a relatively small one. Besides, wouldn't you say it was worth it?"

Marisa made a face, but she nodded.

"Good," Mima said as she playfully ruffled Marisa's disheveled hair. "And don't worry, with your constitution you should be-"

Someone knocked loudly against Marisa's front door. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at each other.

"Now who could that be?" Alice wondered. "I thought everyone who cared about her was already here."

Marisa gave her a strange look. "Hey, was that supposed to be an insult or something else? Because it's kind of hard to tell."

The knocking returned, louder and more insistent this time.

"Given how much she gets around, I wouldn't put it past her to have a much larger harem than you girls are aware of," Mima said. Her mouth turned down unpleasantly. "Though unless there's something going on that I hadn't been aware of, I don't think that this is a social visit."

"Excuse me?" Reimu said as she stared. "What?"

In answer, Mima motioned toward the door. It swung open. On the other side was Kotohime Sonozika in full uniform. Accompanying her were no fewer than eight of her officers.

"Oh," Alice said as her face darkened. _"Them."_

"Gaaaaahhhh," Marisa moaned as she pulled the blanket over her head. "Not them again!"

Reimu agreed with their sentiment, though for different reasons. The last time she had seen Kotohime, Mima had come uncomfortably close to crushing the life out of her. And while she had been persuaded to abandon her homicidal rampage, there was no lost love between the ghost and the Human princess.

In fact, as Reimu noted as her eyes swept over the faces of her three magician companions, she was the only one there who didn't have much of a reason to hold a grudge against the GPF. And given how Marisa, Mima and Alice weren't especially known for caring about things such as rules and consequences, Reimu had a bad feeling about this gathering. She had a very bad feeling.

Apparently Kotohime felt the same way. As soon as she saw who was in the house with Marisa, her thin face lost several degrees of color. The officers behind her started to shuffle their feet and mutter nervously.

It was Mima who spoke first. "Eight?" she said. "You only brought eight? Honestly child, I'm insulted. Go away and come back with the entire membership of your silly boys-and-girls club, and then we might be getting somewhere. At least, you'll have a better chance of lasting longer than thirty seconds." Mima held up her right hand. A blazing green fireball ignited over her palm as a malicious smile twisted the Evil Spirit's lips. "Though I wouldn't bet on it."

The fear left Kotohime's face. Her eyes narrowed. "We're not here to fight." Her voice was harsh and rasping, but she apparently could speak without pain.

"No? Oh my, are you in the wrong country. Fighting is just our cultural way of saying 'Hello.' That, and 'I don't like you and wish to do you harm.' Honestly, it's amazing we get anything done."

Kotohime stepped inside, reluctantly followed by her entourage. "I'm here on behalf of Yukari Yakumo. She sent us to deliver Marisa-" Her eyes fell upon the obviously ill witch occupying the bed and glaring at them. Questions flew over her face, but she apparently decided that they weren't worth asking. "Sent to deliver Marisa Kirisame's pardon and release orders," she finished as she turned her attention back to Mima.

"Ah," Mima said. She closed her hand and extinguished the fire between her fingers. "How considerate. Pity Yukari was unable to bring them by in person. But I supposed being beaten to a pulp and rendered a leaking, smelly mess would necessitate the use of a courier."

"And it is appropriate that this one would be the one to deliver them," Alice said icily. "After all, it was her who invaded my house, ruthlessly beat Marisa down and dragged her off in chains."

Kotohime's face twitched, but she said, "Ah, yes. I suppose I do owe you an apology, Miss Margatroid."

"Do you?" Alice said. "Oh, so charitable of you. You 'think' that you should say you're sorry, never mind that-"

"My behavior was inexcusable and not benefitting of my uniform," Kotohime said evenly. Behind her, the other officers were looking confused, as if they couldn't understand why their captain was lowering herself to such a level. But then Kotohime said, "Unfortunately, my emotional control was…less than it could have been, seeing how Marisa had viciously attacked several of my people, attempted to murder them and, in one case, succeeded."

"What?" Reimu and Alice's heads whipped toward Marisa, who was holding a hand to her forehead in exasperation.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud," Marisa grumbled. "It was! A freaking! _FAIRY! _People do it all the time, ze!"

"Perhaps, but given that fairies tend to increase in self-awareness and understanding the older they get, it comes as no surprise that she does not react as well to death as she once did. And Nyoron is well over two centuries old," Kotohime said. Though her face and voice were calm, the look in her eyes was only a few steps from murderous. "And there is the little issue of that lethal spell you unleashed upon a group of Humans."

Reimu's jaw dropped. "Wait, hold up. You did _what?"_

For her part, Marisa looked less than repentant. In fact, she looked absolutely livid. "Hey, they attacked me first! If they can't take the heat, then they should…Ah, not again…"

As Marisa threw up bile into the pocket dimension, Mima said to Kotohime, "Well, well, well. Looks like someone's been taking lessons from Yukari. Smoothly done, girl. But Marisa's point is a valid one. This is not a company that you should pick a fight with. And I for one couldn't care less who shot first at who. So if you have something to give us, do so."

"Of course," Kotohime said. She reached into her robe and pulled out a thin parcel wrapped in brown paper. "It's all in order, signed by both Yukari Yakumo and myself. She is a free witch."

"I'll be the judge of that, if you don't mind," Mima said. She held out her hand and the parcel floated out Kotohime's hands and toward Mima. It opened up, and several papers came out to arrange themselves in the air in front of her.

"Reimu? Alice?" Mima said as she surveyed the documents. "My thanks for coming by, but I'm afraid Marisa needs her rest. Besides, I'm sure you both have places you need to be."

"I, uh, yeah." Reimu glanced at her, and then at Alice. The puppeteer's face was completely blank. She stood up and marched from the house without a word.

Marisa managed to get her rebellious stomach under control in time to look up and say, "Hey, wait a minute! Where are you-"

Alice left, slamming the door behind her.

"Aw, jeez," Marisa groaned as she fell back into her pillow. "Hey, police-girl. You know what? Fuck you. Seriously."

"No, thank you," Kotohime said. "You're not my type. And even if you were, I have standards."

"Silence," Mima said. She didn't look at either of them. She didn't raise her voice. But the command was there. "The girl is ill. I will not have you upsetting her unnecessarily."

"As your wish," Kotohime said. "And I trust everything is in order."

"It is," Mima said. The papers came together into an organized stack and fit themselves into her hand. "Go."

Kotohime bowed and turned to go, her entourage quick to follow.

"Good riddance," Marisa muttered. "Crazy nut. Wish Yukari had left her the way she was. At least she was fun then, hey Reddie?"

She grinned at Reimu, expecting some sort of agreement. But then she saw the look on Reimu's face. The grin disappeared.

"Oh," she said. "Hey. Look, about what she said. You don't…Hey, you know she was just trying to get you riled up on purpose, right? Turn you against me? Come on, I'm your best friend! You know I wouldn't…"

Reimu didn't, to be honest. But she didn't say so. Instead, she just turned and followed the GPF officers from the house.

"Reimu, hold on a sec!" Marisa called. She struggled to get out of bed, but Mima laid a hand on her shoulder, preventing her from moving any further. Reimu didn't acknowledge her as she reentered the rain.

The storm had picked up a bit during her stay in Marisa's house, and Reimu was drenched within seconds. She took the charm Mima had given her, pressed it to her own forehead and spoke a word of release.

Static electricity ran over her skin as it activated and disintegrated. Immediately the rain stopped hitting her and her vision improved drastically. At the same time, the water that had already covered her dried up in an instant and the cold faded away. A vast improvement.

Still, she was confused. Though the discomfort was gone, her hands were still trembling. She took a deep breath to steady herself and was annoyed by how shaky it was.

_Oh, for the gods' sakes, _she irritably thought to herself as she marched away from Marisa's house. _What's wrong with me? This is no time for a breakdown over something this stupid!_

She was about to take to the air when a voice said softly, "It hurts, doesn't it?"

Reimu whirled around and saw that, to her extreme displeasure, Kotohime was standing nearby. Her goons must have gone on ahead, as she was alone. And seeing how she didn't seem to notice the rain coming down on her, she was likely using charms similar to the one Reimu had just activated.

"Oh, what the hell do you want?" she snapped. "You've made your freaking point already. So why don't you just leave?"

Kotohime tilted her head. "It seems I owe you an apology as well."

"Say what?"

"You trusted Marisa Kirisame, didn't you?"

Reimu laughed in disbelief. "What? Trust Marisa? Are you insane? I mean again."

"I saw the look on your face when I spoke of Marisa's actions," Kotohime said. She smiled sadly. "I'm sorry I put you through that. I know what it's like to be close to someone only to learn something that makes you question that closeness."

Reimu's patience snapped. Again. "Look," she snarled as she marched toward Kotohime. "I don't need you psychoanalyzing me, okay? And I really don't need you coming at me with fake sympathies and sorries. So if you got something real to say, then say it."

"All right," Kotohime said. She clasped her hands in front of her waist. "A word of advice, then."

"Oh great," Reimu said as she rolled her eyes. "This is rich."

"You live in a dangerous and lonely world, Reimu Hakurei," Kotohime said. "As such, you are smart to seek out powerful companions. It is the only way you'll survive."

"Is there a point to this?"

"Yes. The people you were just socializing with include a mass-murderess and her personal apprentice. With that in mind, I would suggest that you choose your companionship a little more wisely."

Reimu's eyes narrowed. "You know, I've met you maybe four or five times, and this is probably the first serious talk we've had. But I don't think I like you very much."

"I get that a lot," Kotohime said. She bowed. "Farewell, Maiden of Hakurei Shrine. And good luck."

With that, Kotohime took to the air. Reimu watched her go and saw that the posse of GPF officers were waiting for her above the trees. She wondered what they had made of their boss having a short one-on-one with her. She supposed that it didn't matter.

When they were truly gone, Reimu looked back at Marisa's house. The light was still on inside, but no one was at the door. She sighed and lifted herself to the sky.

…

When it came to emotions, Reimu was uncomplicated. She was blunt, straightforward, easily irritated and had very little patience for nonsense. She was also unskilled in the arts of deception, manipulation and social tact. Such things were best left to others and, in her opinion, a waste of time. If something needed fixing, she fixed it. If something needed changing, she told it to change and hit it until it agreed. And if something needed to be smacked upside the head, she was always first in line to supply the bruises.

In short, she was a woman of action. Emotions served no other purpose than to provide the necessary mindset to get the job done. As such, she had a very poor opinion of those who regularly wallowed in their feelings, especially the negative variety, without doing anything to change the situation. Which is not to say that she was entirely unfeeling. She had times when she was down, like everyone else. She had times when circumstances such as people's foolishness, a particularly frustrating incident and her own perpetual failure to bring income to the Hakurei Shrine put her in a bad mood. And like everyone else, she had times when she doubted herself and questioned her ability to complete the task in front of her.

But she was not a person given to depression. Sure, she sometimes got angry at bad fortune, and sometimes at herself for personal failures. And she was no stranger to complaining loudly about whatever was irritating her at the time. But to spend hours, even days at time doing nothing but feel sorry for herself? What was the point of that? And as for things like regret and guilt? Sure, screwing up usually came with some form of emotional backlash, but everybody screwed up. There was no point on dwelling on such things. Better to learn from them so as to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

So if that were the case, if she was indeed someone who disliked wasting time with emotional turmoil, why did she now feel so uneasy?

Well, the answer to that question was simple enough. At least part of it was, the part that involved Marisa. The two of them had known each other even before either of them had hit puberty, and had been each other's closest companion and most fierce rivals ever since. They hung out, they resolved incidents together, they got into trouble, they fought, they bickered, they hurled hundreds of colorful missiles at each other, and then the next week they did it all again. As such, Reimu knew the witch very well. She knew that Marisa was a wild one, even insofar as mad witches living by themselves in magical forests were judged. It was who she was. And she also knew that Marisa had a dark side. Being raised by someone like Mima did that to a person. As such, even though she honestly enjoyed Marisa's company, she always kept one eye on her, simply out of caution.

But even with Marisa's blatant disregard for property and her opponent's personal safety, hearing that she had actually gone so far to try to murder a mortal shook Reimu up far more than she thought it would.

She kept telling herself that it was a fluke. That Marisa had been upset by circumstances and had gone over the edge. She certainly was a little bit crazy. And hey, it wasn't like she was the only person Reimu knew who had tried to take a Human life. Mima, with whom Reimu shared a shrine with, really was a mass-murdereress. And if what Yukari had told her was true (and there was no reason to believe otherwise), than the ancient youkai was also responsible for the deaths of thousands of Humans. And Remilia was a vampire, after all. Reimu had never questioned too closely as to where she got her food, but the question was still there. And unlike them, Marisa had only _attempted _to kill someone, and only while under considerable stress. So why was this a problem?

_It's a problem because she's Human, _said a voice in her head. _Despite their appearances, all of your other friends are not. _

_So? _Reimu argued back. _It's not like they're animals. They still have Human…ish minds._

_They may seem to, but it's not the same, _her mind retorted. _Remilia is a predator. If she does kill, either by her hand or proxy, it is to survive. Yukari acts out of necessity. And Mima is what she is as well. It was your choice to accept her despite her history. But Marisa is different. She is a mortal, one of your own kind. If she were to kill out of rage or, even worse, cold, then she would be a murderess. _

And while that issue was foremost on her mind, it wasn't the only thing bothering her. For some weird reason, she couldn't shake what Mima had said about the Scarlet Sisters out of her mind. Now that was just irritating. She had nothing to do with what had happened to Flandre. If anyone was to blame, it was Remilia for getting them into that mess, Yukari for putting them in harm's way and Yuuka for doing the actual killing! So why couldn't she stop thinking about it?

Reimu was unaccustomed to such feelings. And the lack of fairy or youkai confrontation meant that by the time she emerged from her funk long enough to see where she was going, she had already gone several miles the wrong way.

"Ah, crap," she muttered as she got her bearings. She was now very close to the Human Village. And she had no reason to be anywhere near the Human Village. Now she had to turn around and go all the way back.

But she hesitated. While it was true that the Village itself held no interest for her, the Myouren Temple was nearby. And she had been meaning to talk to Byakuren about the Rin Satsuki situation, but simply had not gotten around to it. Now that she was here, she might as well get it out of the way.

And hell, as long as she was here, she also might as well get her advice about Marisa and Remilia. Who better to sort out confusing feelings than a "Bleeding heart hippy", as Sanae and Kanako liked to call her?

It was at least worth a short. Reimu picked out a couple landmarks and changed her direction, heading for the temple.

It didn't take long for it to come into sight. About five miles from the Human Village was a large clearing. And sitting in the middle of that clearing was what could only be described as a building made out of a ship.

When Byakuren had first been released from her imprisonment in Makai, she had been aided by her still-loyal followers. Among them had been the spirit of a long-dead sailor girl who had gathered quite a bit of notoriety as a sinker of ships. Apparently, before she had been sealed. Byakuren had been tasked to remove the spirit as a threat. But rather than do the traditional thing and exorcise the ghost, Byakuren had instead released the girl from her spiritual cycle of vengeance, restored her to her right mind and, most strange of all, gave her a large flying ship to captain.

Some people got all the luck.

At any rate, upon Byakuren's release, the Palanquin Ship had still been in the girl's possession, and had thus served as the group's headquarters during their flight from Makai. And continued to do so afterward, when Byakuren and her followers had settled down to reintegrate back into Gensokyo's society. A space had been cleared for it so it could land and it had been partially rebuilt as Byakuren's temple.

Reimu, who did a great deal of reading, remembered several stories from the Outside World in which a single family was warned of a coming flood that was to cover the whole of the Earth. And to prepare, they had constructed an enormous ship in the middle of dry land, which would carry them to safety when the waters came. That's what the Myouren Temple reminded her of: a giant ship sitting in the middle of dry land. Only this ship had a foundation added and a more traditional entrance built into one side, complete with a stone staircase. Plus there were the four stone towers that rose up from the ground to pass through the ship's hull and come out of the top. And then there was the large wall that had been built around the clearing and lamp-lined path leading to the temple, not to mention the large cemetery located behind it and the large garden with winding pathways covering everywhere else. And finally, there was a noticeable lack of animals lining up two-by-two to enter. But other than that, it did remind her a great deal of those stories.

All in all, it didn't look too different from the last time she had come to visit. But there was one very conspicuous new addition. Reimu paused in midair to stare. A _second _ship was now present, hovering in the air about half a mile over the temple. Four ropes trailed down from the ship, presumably anchoring it to the ground. The ship itself was similar to the original Palanquin, but there were changes. This one was slightly smaller and much more streamlined, with a sleek hull that ended in a sharp point at the fore.

Reimu shielded her eyes and squinted. She could see several figures about the flying ship, some of them flying themselves and others moving along the deck and sails. And, strangely enough to anyone who was unfamiliar with Byakuren's associates, a glowing pink cloud had formed a ring around the top of the center mast like a halo.

Apparently Murasa had gotten herself a new means of transportation. Not only that, but from the looks of things, she had done some recruiting. Before it had been reconverted into Byakuren's temple, her crew had come to a grand total of four individuals, not counting Byakuren herself. And half of that number had taken up duties at the temple itself upon its construction. But now there had to be at least two dozen of them up there.

Reimu shrugged. Well, such things were to be expected. The Myouren Shrine was popular with Humans and youkai alike. Byakuren attracted new followers and/or supporters every week. As such, it only made sense that many of them would want to serve aboard Murasa's ship. And she had to admit, even with Byakuren completely removed from the picture, serving aboard a flying ship had a great deal of appeal all to its own.

At any rate, now that she was here, it was time to find the woman herself. Reimu returned to earth right in front of the open gates, her bare feet squishing in the mud. Then she entered the temple's courtyard, in search of someone who could tell her where to find Byakuren.

She didn't have to look far.

…

Given the amount of rain that was coming down, most people who would be content to stay inside unless they absolutely had to venture out of doors. Indeed, most of the temple's inhabitants were doing just that. Save for Murasa's crew, everyone was inside and enjoying it.

Kyouko Kasodina was not most people.

She loved the rain. Just as she loved the sunshine, the snow, the fog, even thunderstorms. To her, every kind of weather had its own beauty, and she was bound and determined to enjoy them to the fullest.

Well, okay, so she didn't much care for hailstorms. But those happened so rarely that it was practically a non-issue.

At any rate, though the rain meant that her normal cleaning duties would be a lesson in futility, she still walked her normal route up and down the front path, weaving around the lanterns and looking at the inscriptions that she had long memorized. The Yamabiko girl had not used any anti-weather charms before going outside. She didn't even bring along an umbrella or wear a hood. What was the point of enjoying the weather if you were just going to hide from it? Getting a little wet was a small price to pay, and she paid it gladly. She even sang to herself as she went along her way.

"Yahoo, the sweatdrops are glittering!

Yahoo, on the side of your face!

Come quickly, take me away to a warm alcove,

I'm already dressed to swim!

Luckily, although it's sudden.

Luckily, it okay anyway.

The weather is warm, let's welcome fun in a flash!"

All right, so perhaps the song had been intended for a different sort of weather entirely. Kyouko didn't care. It was catchy, it was stuck in her head, and she was feeling too cheerful to worry about the climate-appropriateness of the lyrics.

As she peered at one of the lanterns she sensed someone coming up the path and her heart swelled. So she would be able to greet someone after all!

"Ah, good morning!" she said as she turned around and bowed low. "Welcome to Myouren Temple, home of-"

At that exact moment, she looked up and saw who was standing in front of her.

"Ack, it's you!" Kyouko cried out in fear. She quickly scampered away and cowered behind a lantern. "I haven't done anything! Please don't exterminate me!"

There was a pause, and then the Terror sighed and said, "Oh yeah, I remember you. Uh, look. Sorry about last time. I didn't know you, and thought you were…It was just a great big misunderstanding."

Trembling, Kyouko poked her head out. Reimu Hakurei stood on the path, arms crossed and eyes fixed on her in irritation. "You're not gonna exterminate me?" Kyouko asked.

"I'm not gonna exterminate you," Reimu said. "I just want to talk to Byakuren."

Both of Kyouko's floppy ears swung upward. "Oh my goodness, you're here to exterminate Lady Hijiri!" she cried.

"Argh, no I'm not!" Reimu groaned. "Look, I'm not going to hurt anybody! I just wanted to talk to her about something."

"Talk?" Still unsure of what to make of this, Kyouko cautiously stepped back onto the path. "Talk about what?"

"That's…kind of personal. But trust me, she'll want to see me."

"But…"

Someone else came up behind her. "It's all right, Kyouko," said a comfortingly familiar voice. "Despite past misunderstandings, Reimu Hakurei is and always will be welcome."

Kyouko turned toward the newcomer, a tall woman with short yellow hair shot through with black stripes. Unlike Kyouko, she didn't care much for getting wet and had a wide red umbrella spread overhead. "But are you…Uh, okay."

"Don't worry, I can take it from here," the woman said with a smile as she reached down to affectionately scratch Kyouko's head. "Why don't you go back inside and dry off? It's almost lunchtime anyway, and they'll be needing help setting up."

"Okay," Kyouko said, though she still wasn't sure about this. With one last nervous glance at Reimu she ran back toward the temple, her bare feet splashing in the puddles along the way.

Reimu watched her go. "Kind of jumpy, isn't she?"

"She's just easily excited," Shou Toramaru said to her. "And in fairness, you did scare her pretty well the last time you were here."

Reimu sighed. "Yeah, I get that a lot."

"I don't doubt it," Shou chuckled. "Well, you're obviously here for a reason, so let's go inside. Byakuren is meeting with Murasa at the moment, but I'm sure she will be glad to see you. Welcome to Myouren Temple."

…

A long time ago, before she had become a youkai, Byakuren Hijiri had been a disciple of the god Bishamonten, whose word she had been tasked to spread. Even then, she had displayed an unorthodox way of thinking by trying to win converts not only among her fellow Humans but youkai as well. Shou had been her first and most successful convert, to the point where there were rumors that she had become a sort of avatar for Bishamonten himself. Reimu had never confirmed whether they were true or not, though she did not doubt that it was likely. At any rate, even though Byakuren herself had moved on from the faith, she and Shou remained close companions, and from what Reimu had heard, Byakuren was still friendly with Bishamonten himself. She had never figured out the specifics of how that worked, but given the bizarre relationship her fellow shrine maiden Sanae Kochiya had with her god and ancestor Suwako Moriya, who looked and sometimes acted like a prepubescent girl, she supposed that there were stranger deities out there.

To be honest, the only thing that really bothered her about Shou was this: though there were any number of small shrines and places of worship scattered about the land, Myouren Temple, Moriya Shrine and (a point that Reimu would be glad to fight anyone to defend) Hakurei Shrine were the three most prominent. And out of those three, one had two actual goddesses, one of which never actively did anything goddess-like, while the other had what very well could be an avatar of a major god who was able to commune directly with her patron, and yet did not act as the principle deity of the temple she resided in. And what did Hakurei Shrine have? A big talking turtle. The unfairness rankled her to no end.

Reimu sighed as she walked into the temple. Well, she could work on fixing that issue later.

The interior of the Myouren Temple was just as odd as the outside. The ship's original plan remained more-or-less the same, but room that had once served as crew quarters and store-rooms had been converted into places of mediation, a library, and so on. And everywhere she looked, she saw people.

Humans rubbed shoulders with youkai. Fairies that flitted to-and-fro. She even thought (though couldn't be sure) that she saw a couple of spirits disappearing through the walls.

"Damn," she whistled. "You guys have gotten big."

Shou shrugged. "I suppose you could call it that. But in actuality, very few of those here are part of the temple, or even practitioners. Most have been turned out by their families, lost everything due to misfortune, have been rejected by their tribe or gang, and so on and so forth. People with no place to go. We decided to give them one."

Reimu made a face. "When the hell did you go from Buddhist temple to homeless shelter?"

"Oh, we're not," Shou said. "Not entirely. It's rare to see so many here at once, to be honest. We're just seeing these numbers because of the storm. And truth be told…" The tigress' eyes quickly checked to see if anyone was near. She lowered her voice. "We're reasonably sure that a good percentage of them are just taking advantage of the free food. Byakuren didn't like the idea, but we managed to convince her to start work on a screening process."

"Good idea. Most of the people I know are good-for-nothing, lazy freeloaders."

"Then you know what we're worried about. We're glad to help however we can, but when everyone can just show up for food and shelter, it takes away from what we can give to those who legitimately need help."

"Huh." Reimu had difficulty wrapping her head around that. She had lived in a shrine all her life, and it had never occurred to her to use it for charity. Of course there was a good reason for that. She lived off of other people's charity, and thus barely made enough to support herself. That the Myouren Temple was doing so well that they could afford to just give stuff away grated her a bit, she had to admit. She wondered what it would be like to have that kind of prosperity.

"Sure as hell wouldn't waste it on a bunch of losers," she mumbled under her breath. "Well, at least the ones I don't know."

"I'm sorry Reimu, did you say something?" Shou said.

"Nothing," Reimu said, though she was reasonably certain that the tigress had heard every word. "Look, it's good that you're trying so hard to help folks and all, but…No offense, but shouldn't a place of worship be about, you know, _worship? _Or whatever it is that Buddhists do? Because I really haven't seen a whole lot of that going on, both now and the last time I was here."

"That's because it isn't," Shou said. "Just as Byakuren isn't a true deity."

Reimu stared. "Wait, what?"

"It's a bit difficult to be both a goddess and a practitioner of Buddhism. Byakuren's station is…is…" Shou's sentence was abruptly cut off and she sneezed loudly.

"Ah, excuse me," she said as she pulled out a piece of linen and blew her nose. "I'm still getting over this blasted cold. But anyway, Byakuren's position is really more akin to that of High Priestess, and even then that's not really accurate."

"Then what is she?" Reimu said. She was growing more confused by the moment, and that in turn was making her irritated. "What's Myouren Temple all about? What's its purpose, if not worship?"

"Well, it'll take time and work, but Byakuren hopes that it will one day be the birthplace of a movement."

"Eh…Huh?"

"Think about it, Reimu. Gensokyo was established as a refuge for those that the Outside World had no more use for. Forgotten gods, unable to sustain themselves on the dwindling belief that world offered. Supernatural creatures, facing extinction due to the simple fact that many people up and decided that they did not exist. And even Humans who were not content to let go of the old ways."

"Yeah, I know. So what?"

"And yet, despite this commonality, despite our mutual statuses at outcasts, the whole of Gensokyo had been at each other's throats from day one. Youkai prey upon Humans whenever possible. Humans exterminate youkai by way of course. Gods misuse their powers for mischief. And fairies attack everything and everyone. Even safeguards like the spellcard system only reduce the lethality of these conflicts. It doesn't change the fact that the conflicts are there." Shou motioned at the temple around them. "That's what Byakuren hopes to accomplish. To render those safeguards unnecessary. To bring us all together as neighbors instead of barely tolerated adversaries."

Reimu felt like she was getting preached at, which she didn't like. She also noticed how Shou kept mentioned Byakuren's name. "And what do you think?" she asked.

Shou laughed. "Oh, caught that, didn't you?" She thought. "Well, I've known Byakuren for a long, long time. And she once she puts her mind to something, she tends…Mind you, _tends _to be successful. And I'll give her credit, she does think things through and take into account all the inherent problems before setting out."

"But?" Reimu prompted.

"But I'm worried that the problems might be too great. A great deal of the wild youkai are feral, despite their humanoid appearances. There are also a great many that don't even look Human, much less think like one. How are you supposed to stop them from following their instincts? Round them up and domesticate them? That will never work. For one, there are far too many, and more are coming into being all the time. For another, it's just wrong. And then there are the fairies. Even though they're not exactly animalistic, they're not the sort to care about such things. With some exceptions, mostly among the older ones, they tend to be creatures of the moment, with little care to long term plans and movements."

Reimu nodded. As someone who regularly interacted with such beings, she knew all of this as well.

"And even among those more advanced, there are problems," Shou said. "Humans simply don't trust youkai, and vise-versa. Youkai have a long history of preying upon Humans, and many of them still practice this. And counter-efforts haven't exactly endeared Humans to the wild ones either. Youkai extermination, however temporary it might be, has not made reaching out to them any easier." She quirked an eyebrow. "Your profession, in fact."

"If you're trying to make me feel bad, you're wasting your breath," Reimu said. "I do my job, and nine times out of ten they shoot first."

"I know, and I understand its necessity. I'm simply explaining why overcoming such obstacles will be difficult." Shou shrugged. "Which isn't to say that it's impossible. Friendly relations between Humans and youkai have been known to happen. There's the GPF, for example. Even though they have more-or-less the same job as you, they at least are not discriminating in whom they hire and protect. And despite the workings of that idiot Master Sonozika, there is little in the way of tension between the Human Village and the Tengu and Kappa. Trade relations are open with the rabbit tribes and, by association, Eientei. And while there's not a whole lot in the way of interaction, there's no bad feelings between the Village and the Underground either. Most of the problems come from the Wilds, which I fear will always be an obstacle. And then there's Sonozika and those like him."

"Has he tried to cause trouble?" Reimu asked.

"Of course. In fact, he's tried to shut us down once or twice." Shou smiled. "Those attempts ended…poorly. As it turns out, even if they don't share Byakuren's views, the majority of his people like having us around. As such, he's learned to tolerate our presence. Grudgingly, but it's a step in the right direction. We've had similar reactions from the wild youkai as well. There's a great many of them who think that what we do is a stupid waste of time and don't want anything to do with us. Then there're those who try to take advantage of us for their own means. And then there's those who appreciate having a voice among the Ringleaders but still don't want their sport of Human-baiting to be outlawed. And then there are those…" Shou sighed.

"Yes?" Reimu pressed.

The tigress rolled her eyes and sneezed again. "Sorry. But we've had a few cases…Not many, mind you. But a few where Byakuren…got a little _too _popular."

"Huh?"

"Well, I'll give you an example. About four months ago, we found out that there was a fairy gang who became convinced that Byakuren was the defacto goddess of the Wilds, and would lead them in battle against the evils of civilization, specifically Kanako Yasaka, whom they saw as an intruder and a spoilsport. Don't know why, as Moriya Shrine has never had anything to do with fairies, either positively or negatively. They actually went as far as to try to offer burnt sacrifices in her name as a means of giving her the power for the coming war. I guess no one ever told them that burnt offerings usually are supposed to consist of more than just setting fire to sticks."

Reimu snickered. She would have loved to see that. "Uh, they didn't know that even though Kanako kind of considers you competitors, Moriya Shrine still helped you guys set up in the first place?"

"Apparently not, but that's fairies for you," Shou said with a roll of her eyes.

"So what happened next?"

"What happened is that they actually came to the temple dressed in makeshift armor and carrying crude weapons, ready for war. Apparently they expected Byakuren to have already raised an army, and were surprised when they found out that we hadn't even heard of this war effort. Byakuren had to set the record straight, and, well, they were pretty disappointed. So much that they denounced all faith in her, declared her to be a false deity, and immediately converted to the worship of Suwako Moriya."

"Uh…What?"

Shou shrugged. "I guess they considered that to be an acceptable compromise. Last I heard, they went to Moriya Shrine with the same intentions, and Suwako laughed them right out the door."

Reimu laughed again, and was surprised by how good it felt. It had been a long time since she had laughed. "Too bad they didn't come by my place. If they had offered enough donations, I might have gone along with them."

That made Shou quirk an eyebrow. "Reimu, are you telling me that you'd actually lead a bunch of fairies in battle against both Kanako and Byakuren?"

"Not seriously, no. But it might eat up a boring weekend."

"It would do that," Shou agreed. "But getting back on track, I honestly don't expect Byakuren to succeed, not fully. There are too many obstacles, and many of those are self-sustaining. I don't even think she herself believes that she will usher in a new age of peace and unity. But the cause is noble, so I have no objection to helping out in what ways I can. And my patron, Bishamonten, has expressed curiosity as to how things will turn out, and has granted permission for me to remain here. And so, here I am."

Reimu thought about this. "Huh. Well, that's cool and all, but I don't mind telling you, I'm not sure if bringing everyone together under one flag and making them all love-dovey is such a great idea. Seems to me that Gensokyo is the sort of place that's _supposed _to be divided, with everyone going about their way and doing whatever the hell they want, so long as they can live with the consequences."

"Oh, I agree," Shou said. "And Byakuren isn't seeking to establish any sort of singular government. She's just trying to get people to stop fighting all the time."

Reimu shook her head. "Okay, now I _really _don't like it."

"You wouldn't," Shou said with a smirk. "But anyway, Byakuren's meeting is probably coming to a close. So now would be a good time to go see her. You can voice you complaints in person."

She led Reimu through the temple and up a winding staircase, which Reimu took to mean that they were ascending one of the towers. As they neared the top, raised voices became audible.

"Huh, sounds like they're still talking," Reimu said. "Or arguing. What's up?"

Shou looked troubled. "No idea. All I know is that Murasa had returned with some sort of news. Maybe it was bad. Perhaps we should wait a while longer."

"Yeah…No. Any kind of news that would actually make Byakuren shout is the kind I'll probably need to hear." With that, Reimu quickened her step, with Shou reluctantly following behind.

She found Byakuren sitting at a plain wood table. Unusual for her, the elder magician was slumped forward, with her eyes closed and one hand covering her mouth. She did not look happy.

Sitting cross-legged across from her was another young woman. Pretty in a boyish sort of way, she was dressed in a heavy black peacoat with little golden anchors for buttons and a dark blue skirt. Her short raven hair was covered by a white sailor's cap, also bearing an anchor insignia. Thin smoke rose from the deep maroon pipe she held in one hand, and a wooden ladle on the table in front of her, next to brown saucer that was being employed as an ashtray.

At first glance, one would simply assume Minamitsu Murasa to be a woman accustomed to life on a ship. And that would be entirely correct. However, she was much more than that, which quickly became obvious when one noticed how the exposed parts of her skin were semi-transparent, offering filmy glances at whatever lay beyond her. And there was the very faint halo of light that surrounded her body. It wasn't exactly noticeable unless one were paying attention, or if she were standing in the darkness, but it was there.

Minamitsu (or Captain Murasa, as she preferred to be called. Or lacking that, simply Murasa. She didn't much care to be addressed by her first name) was a great many things. Captain of the Palanquin Ships, both the one that had been converted into the Myouren Temple and the one that hovered above. Devoted follower of Byakuren, one of the oldest and most loyal. And she was also very, very dead, and had been so for a long time. But as a rule, she (along with many others) refused to let death keep her from enjoying life, and probably led a more active existence than many of the living. Reimu had only actually met her once or twice (including the obligatory first-meeting danmaku duel) and had always admired her spirit (no pun intended), but had found the girl herself to be somewhat difficult to get along with.

As Reimu entered the room, Byakuren looked up. Her face brightened. "Reimu!" she exclaimed in surprise.

Murasa glanced in her direction. "Oh. Hakurei. You're alive after all. Good to see."

Reimu frowned. "Why?"

"You'd rather I'd wish you dead, then?"

"No, I mean why are you two so surprised that I'm alive?"

Murasa put the pipe in her mouth and closed her lips around the stem. "'Cause as I was just tellin' Hijiri here how a big black tornado blasted away a good quarter-mile of the forest near where you live. And seein' how you're the only thing even _remotely _significant 'round there, I figured that tornado must have been aimed at your head."

"No offense intended, Reimu," Byakuren said. "But given everything that's been going on…"

"Oh." Reimu's shoulders slumped. "That. Right. You know, you could have gone to check on me. It's not like I was far away. I mean, that big-ass barrier is kind of hard to miss."

"Never occurred to me," Murasa said. Her tone remained as emotionless as her face. She could have been discussing why she didn't read a book that she didn't particularly like or dislike. She just didn't care. "Wasn't there for you, anyway. Didn't learn of it 'til the day after, and didn't even get there 'til the day after that. Your name only just came up." She took two thoughtful puffs before adding, "Which is prob' why you showed just now. Speak o' the devil and all that."

"Do I _look _like a devil to you?"

Murasa tapped her pipe into the saucer. "Figure o' speech, Hakurei. Though if you were to ask any of the youkai who been exterminated by you recently, you might get yourself an affirmative."

"All right, stop it please," Byakuren said with a weary groan. "We've got enough problems as it is to waste time bickering over something so foolish."

"Fair enough," Murasa said. She took a pinch of dried leaves from somewhere that Reimu couldn't see and pressed them into her pipe. She then produced a match and struck it on the edge of the table.

After lighting her pipe anew, Murasa stood and said, "Well, I'm off then. Got lots to do, what with that Satsuki kid still on the loose."

"All right, but remember what I said," Byakuren told her. "We're trying to help her, but don't forget how dangerous she is."

"Swallow you whole and take your mojo, burn you alive, shoot blasts of death your way, magic don't work for long on her, weapons don't work for long on her, can fix herself in secs, kind of nuts," Murasa said. "Long list, but I remember. Hell of a weird charity case you've picked here."

"Aren't all of the important ones?"

"No," Murasa said, though not disrespectfully. "At least not like this." She nodded to everyone in turn and headed for the window.

Shou moved further into the room. "Um, are you sure it's a good idea for you and your crew to be sailing in this weather?"

"What weather?" Without waiting for an answer, Murasa opened the window. For a brief second the rain blew into the room as she stepped outside into the open air. And then the window shut, cutting off the wind and rain.

"You know, I'm starting to think she doesn't like me very much," Reimu remarked.

"Sorry about that," Byakuren said. "It's just she takes her job as captain very seriously, and the last time you two met you defeated her and her crew while she was doing that job."

Reimu winced. "Mis_understanding…"_

"I know, I know," Byakuren said. "But she's set in her ways. I suppose we all are."

At the back of the room, Shou sneezed again. She sniffed, and said, "Well, if there's nothing else…"

"I don't believe so," Byakuren said.

"All right, I'll talk to you later then."

"Well, sit down," Byakuren said to Reimu once Shou had gone. "Again, sorry if I seem a little…flustered. The thing with the tornado wasn't the only news Murasa brought to me, and none of it was good."

Reimu took the chair previously occupied by Murasa. It was surprisingly warm. "Guess you heard about the whole Yukari and Yuuka Kazami thing, then?"

"I've heard enough. Nothing official, but enough to make me worried. But I don't think that's why you're here, is it?"

Reimu hesitated, wondering exactly how much she should tell Byakuren. While the magician had never struck her as being even remotely untrustworthy, she was still supposed to keep mum about several facts, and many of those facts where relevant to the reason why she was here.

She decided that so long as she left out the part about Azrael she should be okay. That seemed to be the main thing Yukari was upset about, and Byakuren would probably find out about that soon enough anyway. "Uh, yeah. Been meaning to see you anyway. Just haven't found the time."

"It's Rin Satsuki, isn't it? You found her and she attacked you."

"_Something _like that," Reimu said with a wince. "More of she showed up at the shrine for the gods know whatever reason but ran off when she set off Yukari's annoying alarm. I managed to chase her down and me and Mima tried to talk to her-"

"Wait, Mima?" Byakuren sat up straighter. "She was involved? What did she do?"

"Not a whole lot," Reimu said. "Mostly she just used some sort of…really colorful cage to hold Satsuki in place while we both took turns trying to talk some sense in her." The shrine maiden frowned. "And as much as it bothers me, she was a hell of a lot better at it then I was."

"What did she say?" Byakuren pressed. "What did she say to Satsuki? Please be as specific as you can.

"What?" Reimu blinked at Byakuren's sudden intensity. "Why…Oh, wait. I get it." She sighed. "Look, I know you two didn't get along, back in the day-"

"That's…putting it mildly," Byakuren said in a guarded tone.

"But that was a really long time ago," Reimu continued. "She's different now." After a brief pause, she amended, "Well, okay, maybe not so much, but she's retired from the whole Evil Overlord thing."

"So I've been told," Byakuren said. "And in that time, she's managed to integrate herself into a position of authority on Yukari's council and gain a measure of control over Hakurei Shrine, which is perhaps the single most important linchpin of the Hakurei Barrier."

Reimu had a sudden sinking feeling. She had never thought of it in quite those terms. "Uh…"

"And this is someone who once tried to overthrow Shinki and take over Makai," Byakuren continued. "Has tried to wipe out your family more times than I can count, and was perhaps the most notorious player in the Magician's War."

Reimu frowned. "But if she's so bad, then why does Yukari keep her around?"

"I don't know," Byakuren said with a shrug. "She wouldn't tell me, when I asked her myself. Maybe it's her way of keeping an eye on her. Maybe it's part of some long-term scheme on Yukari's part. Maybe the Hakurei Shrine is exactly where she wants Mima to be right now."

Reimu's frown deepened. She shook her head and groaned. "Ugh, is it always like this with you people?"

"Like what?"

"All this scheming and manipulating and what not?"

"Sometimes."

"Well, you can have it," Reimu growled. "But I for one can't wait for all this shit to be done with so I can go back to solving things by hitting people."

Byakuren didn't seem to have an answer for that, and Reimu didn't feel like adding to it. So she just sat where she was, moodily staring at the table while listening to the rain patter against the windowsill.

Finally Byakuren said, "All right, let me ask you one thing."

"What?"

"Does Genji trust her?"

"Genji?" Reimu said in surprise. That was not a name she had been expecting to hear. "Trust who? Mima?"

"Yes."

Reimu thought hard, mentally going over every interaction between the turtle and the Evil Spirit of Makai ever since the latter had moved in. "…I think so. At least, he's not anymore hostile to her than he is toward anyone else. He treats her pretty much the same as he treats Suika." She shrugged. "Which is to say he bitches at her whenever possible but doesn't really seem to mind having her around."

"Strange," Byakuren mused. "But I suppose that'll have to do."

Reimu cocked her head. "Why Genji?"

There was a noticeable pause between the question and the answer. "Because throughout Mima's long and sordid history, he's been one of the few constants," Byakuren said at last. "The Hakurei Shrine and its maidens are the principle reasons most of her schemes failed, and he trained and oversaw each and every one of them. For a while they were practically arch-nemeses. If he out of all people is willing to tolerate her, I suppose I should as well."

Reimu's frown returned. She got the feeling that there was something that Byakuren wasn't telling her, but it was difficult to tell exactly what it might be about. "If that's the case, why didn't she just kill him centuries ago? I mean, Genji's cool and all, and I respect him, but let's face it. He's a big flying turtle. Not exactly the sort of thing that would be able to give her much of a fight."

"You'd be surprised," Byakuren said with a wry smile. "And I assume she had her reasons."

"Whatever," Reimu said with a roll of her eyes. "Look, enough about Mima, all right? I didn't come here to talk about her."

"Right, right. I'm sorry. Let's get back on track then. Rin Satsuki. You said that you two tried to talk to her?"

"Yeah, except I wasn't much good at it," Reimu nodded. "Mima did most of the talking…Oh, don't give me that look! All she said was that there were people willing to help her, and that she was one of them, mostly because it would piss Yukari off. Not sure if that's still open, but there you are."

"Did you tell her that you were operating on Reisen Udongein's behalf?" Byakuren asked.

"Yeah. And that actually shut her up for awhile. But unfortunately, that's when I found out that we have another problem."

Byakuren winced. "There does seem to be an inordinate amount of those, these days."

"No kidding. And guess who's been whispering in Satsuki's ear?"

One of Byakuren's eyebrows rose. "The Shadow Youkai?"

"Could be," Reimu said with a shrug. "But not according to Satsuki. She said it was Rumia."

"Aren't they the same person?"

Reimu shook her head. "No, I mean the real Rumia. Or, at least the one that there was before she got eaten."

"What?" Byakuren said.

"I mean the stupid little Youkai girl that hung out with Cirno all the time. The not-really-dangerous-at-all Rumia."

Byakuren gaped at her. It was actually pretty funny, seeing someone so respected and dignified sitting there with her mouth hanging open. "Wait, so her consciousness was preserved? But Yukari said that the Shadow Youkai was freed!"

"I don't doubt it. But it looks like they're both in there, with her."

"That's…very interesting," Byakuren said slowly. "If it's true, that it."

"I know, right?" Reimu said with a roll of her eyes. "But even if it's not the Shadow Youkai, it still didn't do us any favors, especially since Rumia kept telling her not to trust us. And I guess she's listening to Rumia a lot these days."

Byakuren nodded. "So what happened?"

"Well…" Reimu winced. Byakuren was not going to like this next part. "You know that big patch of dead forest Murasa told you about?"

There was a pause, and then Byakuren said, "Ah."

"Yeah, that was her making her escape. Turns out, even if she isn't being possessed by the Shadow Youkai, she's still using her powers."

"Oh no…" Byakuren whispered.

"Which is kind of the problem," Reimu told her. "Mima said that there's a pretty good chance that someone died when she did that. And seeing how only reason I didn't get torn apart when Satsuki blew her way out of her cage was because Mima was there to save me, I can believe it."

"You're doubting that she's still worth saving."

Reimu let out a bitter laugh. "Byakuren, I've been doubting that since day one. This really isn't helping matters. I mean, don't get me wrong, it sucks what happened to her, and I guess I do feel _kind of _bad for her, but if people are going to die every time she flips out…"

"You're starting to agree with Kanako then? How we shouldn't risk the lives of innocent people to save someone so unstable and dangerous?"

"I've always agreed with Kanako. It's just that, after seeing Utsuho Reiuji turn around, I figured I might as well give this new kid a chance."

"I see…" Byakuren mused on that for a short bit, and then she said, "Tell me something, Reimu. Say you're right. Say it's decided that trying to make her surrender and accept our help is a dangerous waste of time. What would happen then?"

Reimu frowned as she thought. "Well, I guess we'd stop trying to talk to her and work on taking her down. Probably bring out the big guns, the Oni and Celestials and what-not."

"And then?" Byakuren pressed. "Would that work?"

"Maybe eventually," Reimu shrugged. She wondered where the magician was going with this. "It would take awhile though. From what I've heard, Satsuki's absorbing thing is pretty strong, and she's got all the immortal juice running through her. But I'm pretty sure we could bring her down sooner or later."

"And how do you think she'd react until then?"

"Well, she'd be mad, of course. And…" Reimu's voice trailed off. She scowled. "Oh, all right. I get where this is going. You're worried that just attacking her over and over is going to turn her into the next Shadow Youkai and anyone she kills then isn't going to be accidental."

"Something like that, yes," Byakuren admitted. She spread her hands. "Please understand, I do wish to see her saved, but I also would much rather that she wasn't driven to kill out of desperation."

Reimu folded her arms. "And here I was thinking you were going to give me the whole 'trust your heart' speech and go on about doing the right thing," she grumbled.

"Reimu, I may be an idealist," Byakuren said. "That doesn't mean I'm an idiot."

That actually got a genuine laugh out of the shrine maiden. "What, you mean they're _not _the same thing?" She sighed. "All right, fine. I'll keep trying, but given that Marisa's not under Yukari's thumb anymore, I don't know if Mima's still in. So I really need your help more than ever."

"You have it," Byakuren promised.

Reimu nodded her thanks. And then, before she could change her mind, she said, "And jumping right off of that, there's another thing that I need some advice on. Something kind of similar."

"What is it?"

Reimu took a deep breath. While this next issue was much less potentially catastrophic as the first, it still hit much closer to home. As such, it was much more difficult to discuss. But it was best to get it out of the way before it started to keep her up at night. And that was the last thing she wanted. "You know who Kotohime Sonozika is, right?"

"Kotohime?" Byakuren sounded surprised. "Of course. Her organization is one of our most vocal and financial supporters, and vice-versa."

"Why aren't I surprised?" Reimu grumbled. "Okay, so I was visiting Marisa earlier today when she came by to drop off her pardon."

"And?"

Reimu's eyes turned toward the ceiling. "And Kotohime kind of let slip that Marisa tried to kill her. I mean for real. Like, when Yukari told the GPF to bring her in, she went nuts and started using lethal spells on them."

For a moment Byakuren was silent. Reimu watched as a myriad of different expressions waltzed across her face, none of them positive. When she spoke, her voice was small and apprehensive. "Was anyone…"

The question trailed off, but Reimu knew what was being asked. "Just a fairy," she said. "And I'm pretty sure she resurrected like normal. But still, according to what I was told it wasn't for lack of trying. And…I don't know what I'm supposed to do about that."

"Of course," Byakuren said with a nod. "Marisa is your oldest friend, after all. And you've always worked together to solve incidents, right?"

"Yeah," Reimu muttered. She slumped back into her chair.

"But you're still a shrine maiden," Byakuren continued. "It's your job to protect Humans. So when you're best friend is attacking Humans now…"

"I don't think she's going to make a habit out of it or anything," Reimu said quickly. "I mean, she was just so pissed off that she wasn't thinking straight."

"And does she usually think straight, even under the best of circumstances?"

Reimu scowled. "So you think she's doomed to turn into a serial killer, is that it? That this is just going to keep getting worse and worse?"

"I don't know. I admit, I don't really know her well." Byakuren raised an eyebrow. "But you do. What do _you _think?"

"Me?" Reimu thought about that question. She quickly brought up all her many memories of Marisa's common reactions and her impressions of them. "Well, of course not! I mean, I don't think so. Sure, Marisa is loud and obnoxious and pretty gross most of the time, but she's still pretty decent. She's gotten mad about injustices that didn't even affect her, and she's also stuck her neck out to help people when she didn't need to. And I'd never thought she'd go so far as to actually try to kill a mortal, so…"

She fell silent and stared back down at the tabletop. Then she said in a soft voice, "But after that whole mess at Marisa's house, Kotohime talked to me a little bit afterward. She said pretty much the same thing you did, about not trusting Mima-"

"That comes as no surprise. Even if you are correct and Mima has retired, you Humans still have long memories, even longer than some immortals. No doubt she's heard many a story of Mima's past…achievements."

"Yeah, I don't doubt it," Reimu muttered. "And she also said that I shouldn't trust Marisa, since Mima was the one who raised her."

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree?"

Reimu reluctantly nodded. "Pretty much yeah. And normally I'd tell her to go screw herself-"

"You certainly have a talent for imagery," Byakuren said with a light snort.

"-but this time…I mean, Marisa does have a violent side, and I know she really looks up to Mima so, as much as I hate even entertaining the thought…what if Kotohime's right?"

Another thoughtful pause descended on the room, this time with Byakuren doing the thinking.

"You know," the magician said at last. "Even though her organization and…stable state of mind are less than a year old, I've come to find Kotohime Sonozika to be a most exceptional young woman. She is one who is driven by her convictions, and does not back down from them. Her beliefs have not exactly made her popular with her people, but that had not discouraged her from following them. Beyond that, she has also demonstrated herself to be brave, selfless, fair and surprisingly perceptive for someone who, not too long ago, couldn't be left alone with sharp objects."

"What, you got a crush on her or someone?" Reimu said in irritation. "What's your point?"

"My point is that despite my admiration for her, in this instance I don't believe she is correct."

"Huh?"

Byakuren folded her hand on the table. "It's true that Marisa's…upbringing is a cause for raised eyebrows, and her bouts of violence should have you worried. But much like Rin Satsuki, I don't think that declaring her a lost cause and cutting off contact would be the best choice. In fact, it will only make the problem worse."

Reimu frowned.

"Well, I'm just guessing here," Byakuren said. "But maybe you can help me with this. You said that Marisa looks up to and respects Mima, correct."

"Oh yeah."

"So despite her headstrong and independent nature, she would willingly do anything Mima asks of her?"

"I…Well, no," Reimu admitted. "In fact, a few days ago, Mima got angry at Alice Margatroid…You know who she is, right?"

Byakuren's brow rose. "I do," she said in an interested tone.

Reimu wasn't exactly sure what that tone meant but decided to let it go. "Right. And Mima was about to attack her, when all of a sudden Marisa jumped between them and told Mima to back off."

"Did she?" Now Byakuren was practically leaning over the table in rapt attention. "And what was Mima's reaction?"

"Uh, she congratulated Marisa for having the guts to do that and then she apologized to Alice." Reimu shrugged. "Oh, and right after that, Mima tried to break Marisa out of Yukari's grasp and run off with her. And…" Reimu's voice trailed off. Again she was coming dangerously close to divulging information that she probably shouldn't.

"She said no?" Byakuren filled in for her.

"Exactly! She _wanted _to stick with Yukari, and instead of going along with Mima, she managed to convince that crazy ghost to go along with her!"

"Huh, that's…very interesting. It at least answers why Mima was at the battle in the first place," Byakuren mused. "So, despite her admiration for the spirit, she is still willing to stand up to her. She wishes to be her own person, and will fight for that right. So you see why it would be dangerous to turn your back on her?"

Reimu sighed. She could see where this was going. Marisa may be furiously independent, but she still had some sort of weird dependence on the people she cared about. And given that Reimu was her best friend, suddenly cutting her off would probably drive the witch further into Mima's influence. Perhaps all the way. "I get it, I get it. Though it's pretty weird. Never thought Marisa and Rin Satsuki would end up having so much in common."

"Most people trapped on the outside do, once you look hard enough."

"Even me?" Reimu said with a small laugh. "No, wait. Don't answer that." She sighed again. "Well, I came here hoping you'd help me clear things up, and as it turns out, you did. Now I've got even more headaches than before."

"I'm sorry," Byakuren said sympathetically. "Oftentimes, the right thing to do is not the easiest. In fact, it's usually the hardest."

"Is that one of your Buddhist sayings?" Reimu grumbled.

"No, just an unfortunate truth," the elder magician said with a sad smile. "One that I've had to live with my whole life."

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Kind of reminds me of another saying. 'Life sucks, and then you die'. Except if you don't, in which case it just keeps on sucking for the rest of eternity."

"That depends on how you take it," Byakuren said with a shrug. "I'll not deny that life is filled with hardships. And I'll not deny that there is a fair measure of what we call 'Evil' in this world. But I see no reason to let that consume us and make us forget the beauty it holds."

"Beauty, huh?" Reimu said with a glare. "Okay, Youchrist. Do me a favor. Think of everything that's happened this month. Rin Satsuki getting loose and freeing the Shadow Youkai. The attack on Eientei. Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou getting themselves eaten. Yukari going off into super ruthless-mode. Yuuka Kazami screwing everything and everyone up for kicks. Marisa getting herself arrested and almost committing murder, and…Everything else. Right now, everything is ten shades of screwed up, and everyone's feeling the effects. And I can't count one single positive result. So tell me, where's the freaking beauty in all that."

"Oh, that's easy." Byakuren said without hesitation. "Despite everything Rin Satsuki has become, and everything Marisa Kirisame might become, you are still willing to help them. How is that not beautiful?"

Reimu blinked at her. "Uh, what about all those super rational reasons you just told me?"

Now Byakuren's smile became genuine. "Rational thinking doesn't have to be cold and ugly, you know."

"Sure, I guess." Reimu frowned. She shook her head and stood up. While the conversation had given her much to think about, she could do it later. "Look, I've got a lot to take care of, and I'll bet you do too."

"Of course," Byakuren said as she stood as well. "Should I show you out?"

"Nah, I'll just do like Murasa and take the window. It's quicker. Oh, and Byakuren?"

"Hmmm?"

Reimu hesitated, and said, "Don't make a big deal out of this, but…thanks. I guess."

Byakuren didn't say anything. She simply nodded in acknowledgement.

Sensing that delaying any longer would make things awkward, Reimu quickly moved toward the same window that Murasa had used and opened it. Fortunately the charms Mima had given her would last a good while longer, but they wouldn't last forever. So should probably hurry back. Next stop would be the Moriya Shrine. Sanae was waiting for her, and they needed to start searching as soon as possible.

Closing the window behind her, Reimu stepped out into open air and took flight. Murasa's new ship was long gone, along with its crew. The rain was falling at more-or-less the same rate as before, though judging by how the trees were bending the wind had picked up. Another reason to move quickly.

Reimu aligned herself toward the Youkai Mountain sped away from the Temple.

…

Byakuren watched as Reimu left the room to pursue her business. She would be lying if she were to say that she wasn't worried about the shrine maiden. Despite past conflicts, she had always had an odd fondness for Reimu. Though her bluntness, lack of patience and complete refusal to be awed or intimidated by power, reputation and social status often put people off, Byakuren found to be refreshing. Reimu treated everyone the same, regardless of who, or what, they were. It was a quality that Byakuren appreciated.

But despite the shrine maiden's toughness and character, the girl was in a world of trouble. Granted, she often was, but in this case she was becoming involved in someone else's war. And not a small one at that. Such things rarely turned out well for those trapped in them.

And speaking of which…

Byakuren sighed stood up. She walked over to the door, leaned against it and said, "Okay Kyouko, I know you're there. You can come out now."

She heard a cry of surprise and a muffled thump. After a moment the door creaked open to reveal the little Youkai girl's scared face.

"I, uh, I wasn't trying to…I mean, I wanted to…How did you know?"

The side of Byakuren's lips lifted in a half-smile. "You're not as stealthy as you think. Besides, there's very little that gets past those ears of yours. Though I'd be a little more cautious in the future. Eavesdroppers quite often learn things that they'd rather not have heard."

Kyouko stared at her feet. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

Byakuren's smile became genuine as she patted Kyouko's damp hair. "Don't worry about it, I'm not angry. Though I don't doubt that you have a lot of questions."

Kyouko was silent for a moment. Then she said, "That girl. The shrine maiden. I didn't understand a lot of what you two were talking about, but she's in a lot of trouble, isn't she?"

"Yes," Byakuren said simply. "She is."

"Is she normally in this much trouble?"

"I don't know. I'm afraid I don't know her as well as I should. But from what I've heard, she and trouble are close acquaintances." At Kyouko's confused look, she clarified, "I mean she's in trouble a lot."

"Oh. Is that she's always so angry?"

"I suppose it is."

"Oh." Kyouko frowned. "I feel kind of sorry for her, then. I mean, she was pretty rude the first time we met, but…We are going to help her, right?"

Byakuren sighed as she placed a hand on Kyouko's shoulder. She looked at the window Reimu had left through. "In every way we can, Kyouko. In every way we can." She didn't voice her doubts about whether it would be enough.

…

Now that she had gotten the turmoil in her head more-or-less cleared up, Reimu's disposition had returned to its usual state of annoyance at the universe in general. It was rather refreshing, to be honest. But the fact remained that she was annoyed. In addition to her very long list of people she was annoyed at, Marisa was now added. Well, okay, so she was already on the list, but now she had moved up several spaces. Before Reimu needed only tolerate her. Now it was looking like she was going to have to be some sort of role-model or something equally ridiculous.

Such was Reimu's mindset that she almost didn't see the confused-looking youkai girl fly past her. Even then, she would have probably just ignored her had the girl not suddenly turned around and said in a surprised voice, "Reimu Hakurei?"

Reimu hit the brakes and turned around. "What?" she snapped. "This had better be damned good, or I swear…"

And then she recognized the girl.

"Whoa!" Reimu cried out. She immediately threw herself back, putting a good twenty feet between her and the girl. Her Ying-Yang Orbs sprang to life around her and started circling her waist as a handful of ofuda appeared in her right hand. "What the _hell _are you doing here?"

For her part, the girl didn't seem to be bothered by Reimu's sudden display of aggression. In fact, she seemed relieved. "It's you, right?" she said. She grinned. "Great, finally some luck! Um, I'm kind of…lost right now. And you know the Upside really well, right? So do you think you can help me?"

Reimu stared at her in disbelief. "Wait, are you serious? What are you even doing up here? You're not crazy again, are you?"

Utsuho Reiuji winced. "No, I'm not! I just had something I needed to do!"

"That something wouldn't involve burning young innocent shrine maidens into crispy little skeletons, would it?"

"No! I don't do those sorts of things anymore."

Regardless of her reassurances, Reimu still watched the Hell Raven warily. Having her above ground was enough to make anyone nervous. She still remembered what it had been like to battle her, all that overwhelming heat and sickening radiation. And then there was that extremely uncomfortable clean-up afterward. As such, Reimu's impressions of the girl were not pleasant.

Though from the looks of things, Utsuho was not suited up for war. Quite the contrary, she seemed to have left her control rod at home, leaving both of her arms bare. And she had covered herself up in an oversized yellow rain-coat cut away in the back to let her wings out. A matching yellow hat sat upon her head. Had Reimu not gotten a good look at her face, she might have mistaken her for an ordinary crow Tengu.

"Okay, but you still didn't answer my question," Reimu said, not dropping her guard one bit. "What are you doing out here?"

Utsuho bit her lower lip. "Uh, actually I'm…Do you know Remilia Scarlet?"

"Huh?" Reimu's head jerked back. "Remilia? Sure. She's a friend of mine. Why?"

"Because I'm looking for the Scarlet Devil Mansion." She held up an old map. The aging paper was soaked through and falling apart. "And this isn't really helping."

Reimu blinked. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing appropriate came to mind. She tried again but just ended up closing it again without success. Finally she went for the default query and said, "What?"

"I, uh…Crap. Look, do you promise not to tell Orin?"

"Not tell Orin what?" Reimu said. "What are you doing here? Why are you looking for the SDM? Remilia owe you money or something?"

"No, it's just…This is going to sound kind of silly…"

Reimu held up her charms. "Talk, birdy. Or I guarantee that sounding silly will be the least of your worries."

To her surprise, her attempts at intimidation actually worked. "Uh, I just wanted to go and…give Remilia Scarlet my condolences."

"What."

"Well, you know what happened yesterday, right?"

"Yeah…"

"And you know what happened to Flandre Scarlet, right?"

Reimu slowly nodded. "Also yes. So?"

Utsuho looked confused. "So? I, uh, just wanted to say I'm sorry that that happened! See, back when Yukari was explaining the plan to us, I met them both and, well, I really liked Flandre."

"Wait up a second, are you telling me that you became _friends _with _Flandre Scarlet?" _Reimu gaped.

"Uh-huh. Why, was I not supposed to?"

Reimu didn't answer. She was having too much trouble wrapping her mind around the concept. Utsuho Reiuji. Flandre Scarlet. Friends. She tried to come up with an appropriate response to that, but the only phrase that came to mind was "Repent sinners, for the End is near".

"Anyway, I figured Remilia must be feeling awful about all that," Utsuho said. "I mean, she lost her baby sister. So I just wanted to show her some…I dunno, comradely support. I mean, we were on the same team, after all. Well, not exact same team. There were three teams, and Yukari put us in-"

"Yeah, I get it," Reimu muttered. "So you snuck out under Rin Kaenbyou's nose, all the way to the surface, just to give moral support to someone that you really didn't know at all. Just because you liked her sister." She took a deep breath, and started yelling, "And you never even _once _thought that this might be a bad idea?"

Utsuho blinked. "Uh, is it?"

Reimu almost preferred her when she was crazy. "Okay, okay, so you had good intentions. And maybe Remilia could use…"

Her voice trailed off as the pieces came together in her head. She thought back to her conversation with Mima back at Marisa's place, as the Spirit had supplied further details concerning what had gone down the day before. She remembered the stab of guilt she had felt when hearing about what had happened to the residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, how Flandre had been violently taken and Remilia and Sakuya injured. She had been confused by her own feelings then, as she had not been responsible for their predicament.

But now, perhaps that hadn't been the reason why she felt guilty. When she had heard that Marisa was ill, she had rushed right over to check on her condition. But after hearing about what had happened to Remilia, who while not as close to her as Marisa was still a friend of hers, what had been her reaction? Had she concerned about how Remilia was feeling? She knew that despite her haughty nature, the little vampire still cared deeply for her sister. And yet, upon hearing the news, Reimu's primary concern was the problems Yuuka could cause with Flandre under her control. Understandable, but supporting Remilia hadn't even entered her mind.

And yet, here was Utsuho Reiuji, someone who barely even knew her, risking getting herself in trouble to do just that.

Suddenly Reimu felt a whole lot worse. And a whole lot more annoyed. What with her altruistic mission to help Rin Satsuki because she had felt pity for Reisen Udongein and her concern for the direction Marisa was taking, she was starting to fear that something horrible was happening to her. She was starting to become a _people _person.

The thought of it actually nauseated her.

And what was worse, she was going to help this stupid, overpowered girl. Not only that, she was going to give Remilia her condolences as well. If only to get her stupid conscience to shut up.

"Reimu?" Utsuho said. "Are you daydreaming?"

"No, I'm not," Reimu growled. She sighed. "All right, the SDM's actually not too far from here, but you're still going the wrong way."

Utsuho stared. Then she started to smile. "So you'll help me?"

"This way," Reimu said shortly. She turned in the direction of the Misty Lake and took off. Behind her, Utsuho quickly followed, all the while happily humming to herself.

…

Despite the fact that it had been raining ever since yesterday afternoon, Hong Meiling had not budged from her spot in front of the gate. A transparent awning infused with some of Patchouli's spells had been spread from the wall to shield her from the weather, and a thick carpet had been placed on the ground over the wet grass. And so Hong had remained, sitting on her stool while Sakuya and the Ladies Scarlet had been out, fretfully awaiting their return.

And then they had returned, not through the gate as she had expected but straight into the foyer. And with one less person than they had left with.

After hearing the news, Hong had remained in place, moodily staring out at the forest. She did her best not to think. Thinking about it only made it worse. She concentrated on keeping an eye out for intruders and making sure that no one would disturb the remaining Lady Scarlet and doing her duty and keeping her eyes from watering up…

Someone was approaching from the mansion. Hong glanced as the small door set into the iron gate creaked open. Koakuma stood there, holding an umbrella overhead.

"Hi," Hong said.

"Hello," Koakuma responded. "Okay if I join you?"

Hong nodded, and Koakuma folded up her umbrella and walked around to sit next to her on the carpet. She leaned against the wall, folded her arms over her knees and glowered out at the world, much like Hong had been doing.

"Strange to see you out here," Hong said. "Or anyone else. Especially with the weather like this."

Koakuma shook her head. "I can't stay in there. Even with infinite space, it's stifling."

Hong nodded. "How are things?"

"Bad," Koakuma said. "Mistress Scarlet is still in the clock-tower, Miss Izayoi won't say anything other than quick orders, all the fairies are actually _quiet _for once, and Patchouli…" She shuddered. "I've never seen her like that. I think she's actually depressed."

"Are you sure it's a good idea to leave her like that?" Hong asked. "I mean, you are her assistant. Isn't it your duty?"

Koakuma shook her head. "Tokiko is with her. I just…needed to get out."

"Oh," Hong said. She sighed. "Afraid things ain't much better out here, though."

"Yeah, but you're not nearly as awkward as everyone else."

Hong blinked at her. "Meaning what?"

"Exactly what I said. How are you holding up, by the way? Have you gotten some sleep at least?"

A lump formed in Hong's throat. The truth was that she hadn't, a great rarity for her, but she didn't feel like talking about that. "Uh…do me a favor, and don't bring that up."

"Right," Koakuma sighed. "I get it."

"It's okay," Hong quickly assured her. She didn't want to drive the devil girl away. Right now she could use the company. "Sorry."

The two of them watched the rain in silence, and then Hong said, "I hope she's not too scared."

Koakuma looked at her. "Huh? Who?"

"Flandre," Hong said. "I would be."

Koakuma quickly averted her eyes. "Yeah, me too. I just wonder if we'll ever-"

"We will," Hong said.

"But how can you be so-"

"She's coming back," Hong said. This time there was a hint of steel in her voice. "We're getting her back."

Koakuma didn't look at her. She simply nodded her head, slowly. "I sure hope so."

"We will," Hong insisted.

"Okay, but-"

Their conversation was interrupted when the sound of voices reached them. Someone was coming, and this time it wasn't from the mansion.

"-thought it would be bigger."

"It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside."

"Really? How?"

"They've got some kind of weird time-space manipulation thing going. Don't ask me to explain it though, it's really confusing."

Hong stood to her feet, muscles tensing up. At her side, Koakuma was doing the same. However, they both relaxed when they saw who one of the newcomers was.

"Reimu Hakurei?" Hong said.

…

The maiden shrine stopped. "Yeah, it's me. Hi, Hong. Koakuma."

"Hello," the devil girl said, though she sounded confused.

Remilia's two servants seemed rather unsure of what to do. That came as no surprise. While Reimu was normally welcome at the mansion, these were extraordinary circumstances. She doubted that they had been instructed in the treatment of visitors in the event of one of the Scarlet Sisters' death. She also doubted that they had any idea who Utsuho was, and as a rule they tended to be wary of strangers.

Utsuho moved to step forward, presumably to explain their purpose. Reimu quickly stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "No, they know me. Let me do the talking."

The Hell Raven nodded and quickly retreated a few steps back.

Hong Meiling said, "What the heck are you doing here?" Then she winced. "Whoops, sorry. Be polite." She cleared her throat and said, "Uh, may I respectfully request what the heck your reason for being here is?"

"Not that much better, Hong," Koakuma said.

"Well, uh, listen," Reimu said. "I heard what had…happened yesterday and thought I should come by."

"Why?" Hong said.

Now Reimu was getting confused. Though she sometimes needed waking up, Hong Meiling was always perfectly happy to greet her and let her by. Had Flandre's sort-of death really affected her that much? Did she even know Flandre on a personal level? After all, Hong spent all of her time just outside of the mansion's grounds while the deranged vampire rarely left her basement.

"To…give emotional support," she said slowly. "I mean, Remilia is my friend, after all."

"Oh," Hong said. "Then where were you a few days ago, when she was twisting in Yukari Yakumo's grasp?"

Reimu stared. "Say what?"

"She needed help then. Why didn't you come?"

…

Originally, the Scarlet Devil Mansion did not possess windows. The reason for this was simple. Windows let in sunlight. And though neither of the Scarlet Sisters were particularly active during the day, Remilia was not keen about being denied access to any part of her house, no matter what the hour.

All this had changed in recent years. As Remilia became more and more integrated with Gensokyo's population, she found herself entertaining guests on a fairly consistent basis. And the complete lack of window was, to be quite blunt, inhospitable. Remilia would permit no one to ever say that she was an ungracious hostess.

To that end, windows had been installed, ranging from great arching openings with gothic frames and occasionally stained-glass interiors to smaller, simpler designs, depending on what part of the house you happened to be. A great amount of money had been spent on the materials Patchouli had needed to coat each and every window with a filtering spell that drained incoming light of all harmful properties while still allowing them to illuminate the rooms within, but in the end, the mansion had become a _slightly _more welcoming place. At least, it was more aesthetically pleasing.

While she had never said anything, Sakuya had been quite relieved about the change. While she had become long accustomed to a lack of light even before entering her Mistress' service, she was still Human. And as such, she appreciated a little daylight every now and then.

Furthermore, the windows also gave her another advantage. For one, it was easier to check up on Meiling and see if she was doing her job. For another, sometimes she would be passing one by and so happen to glance outside only to see something that needed her attention, something that Meiling had overlooked. It didn't happen often, though that more due to there being nothing to see rather than any observational abilities on Meiling's part. But it did happen. Such as when she had glimpsed out and caught Mima and Marisa Kirisame harassing Koakuma.

And then there was today, when she looked outside and saw, to her utter disbelief, Reimu Hakurei standing at the gate with a winged youkai girl. That in itself wasn't all that unusual. What was surprising was that she was shouting at Meiling. And Meiling was shouting back.

…

"She would have been there for you!" Hong was yelling. "She's helped you out plenty of times, but you couldn't be there for her even once!"

"I'm here right now!" Reimu shouted back. Now this sort of interaction she was perfectly comfortable with. "See me? See me being right here?"

"Hong, calm down," Koakuma pleaded with her coworker. "This isn't solving anything."

She was ignored. "Yeah, but couldn't have shown up earlier, when they could have used you?" Hong said. "Oh no, it's only after there's nothing you can do that you decided to show up. And now Sakuya's all messed up and the Lady Remilia Scarlet's heart is torn to pieces and the Lady Flandre-"

That last sentence ended in a choking sob. Hong quickly turned away from them. "Hong?" Koakuma said hesitatingly as she reached up to touch her shoulder. Her hand was shaken off.

Reimu and Utsuho exchanged an uncomfortable look. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get you yelled at," Utsuho whispered. "I'll go-"

"You'll do nothing of the sort," said a calm but commanding voice. Everyone looked up to see the gates swinging open. Beyond, Sakuya Izayoi was half-walking, half-limping down the front path toward them, an umbrella held open above her.

At first glance the maid appeared to be perfectly fine. Her uniform was neatly pressed, not a hair was out of place and her skin was as flawless as ever. But Reimu quickly picked up on a number of indications that all was not right. First, there was the most obvious sign, the limp itself. Though it was slight, she was still making an effort to avoid putting weight on her left foot. Also, there was her right arm. Reimu had worked with Sakuya a number of times, and always interacted with her whenever she visited the mansion or Remilia decided to visit the shrine. As such, she had become familiar with how she moved. And though her posture was always straight and dignified, her right hand had a tendency to hover near her hip, near where her knives were secreted beneath her skirt. Reimu had even noticed her fingers twitching on a couple of occasions. No doubt it was unconscious on the maid's part, to always be ready to snatch up a weapon at a moment's notice. But now her right arm hung limp and unmoving. It wasn't terribly conspicuous, but Reimu still noticed, and she recognized what it meant. Sakuya recently had serious damage healed by magic, and her body still hadn't adjusted.

And then there were her eyes. Sakuya's default state of mind was actually not too different from Reimu's own. While she certainly had better manners and a greater sense of social conduct, Sakuya was not one to suffer fools lightly, and could also be very straightforward in her thinking. However, her bearing was haughtier than the shrine maiden's. Reimu wasn't sure if that was due to Remilia's influence or it just came naturally to her, but the end results were the same. Sakuya answered to a grand total of one person. As far as she was concerned, while on the mansion grounds she outranked everyone else.

But now, even that was changed. While the pride and lack of tolerance was there, it was also joined by an incredible weariness. Sakuya was tired, and not just physically. She had the look of someone who was used to being in control but felt that control slipping, and as such was holding herself together through sheer force of will. Perhaps because someone had to. If Hong's uncharacteristic anger was any indication, the whole mansion was probably seven kinds of screwed up at the moment.

But perhaps most telling was the fact that Sakuya was actually taking the time to walk out toward them. Most of the time, she used that pocketwatch of hers to instantly appear in their presence. That she was not actually worried Reimu. What exactly had happened to her?

Suddenly Reimu remembered why she didn't like being a people person. In addition to the attached annoyances, doing people-things meant that you showed up at the worst of times.

"Meiling," Sakuya said to the gatekeeper. "You do not shout at guests. Ever. No matter the situation. Am I understood?"

"Yes," Hong muttered. She reluctantly inclined her head in Reimu's direction. "My…apologies."

"Uh, don't worry about it," Reimu said. She desperately wanted to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.

Sakuya kept her glare focused on Hong. "We will be discussing this later. Koakuma, break time's over. Your employer needs you."

Judging by how quickly the devil girl exited the scene, she likely would have teleported had she been able.

Her subordinates dealt with, Sakuya turned toward Reimu and Utsuho. "Reimu Hakurei. If it pleases you, would you and your…"

Her voice faltered and her eyes widened ever so slightly when she recognized Utsuho. However the brief slip vanished quickly, and her expression was as neutral as ever.

"…companion accompany me, please?" she finished.

"Sure," Reimu said, though she felt anything but. "Whatever you say."

She and Utsuho followed Sakuya through the gates. Next to them, Hong stood stiffly at attention and kept her eyes focused straight ahead. Reimu wondered if she should say anything to her but couldn't think of anything to say. Utsuho, however, leaned over to her and said, "Sorry we got you in trouble. We didn't mean it."

Hong didn't look at her, but she did briefly nod in acknowledgement.

Reimu sighed and hurried to catch up with Sakuya, who, despite her limp, had somehow managed to put a decent amount of distance between them.

"I apologize for that less-than-courteous greeting, Miss Hakurei," Sakuya said as she opened the mansion's front door. "You unfortunately chose to visit at a time that has put everyone on edge. Still, that is no excuse for such rudeness. Rest assured, Meiling will be disciplined."

"Whoa, hey, no need for that!" Reimu said quickly. "I mean, it's no big deal."

"It is to me."

"Look, I know you guys are all big on hospitality and appearances and all, but seriously. Let this one slide. I mean it."

"Are you certain this is what you want?"

"Hell, yeah! I mean, I'm not here to get anyone in trouble! Kind of the opposite, in fact."

"As you wish," Sakuya said. She stepped aside to permit her guests.

"But if it's Lady Remilia you wish to see, then I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed," Sakuya said as Reimu and Utsuho walked inside. "No doubt you heard of the calamity that has befallen this household."

"Yeah," Reimu said. "That's…kind of why we're here, actually." She noticed that Utsuho was gaping at the cathedral-sized foyer with her mouth hanging wide open. She nudged the Hell Raven with her elbow. "Stop staring!" she hissed.

Utsuho quickly closed her mouth.

"I see," Sakuya said. She folded up her umbrella and placed it in a nearby stand. "Then is your visit to offer assistance or to simply offer sympathies?"

"The second," Reimu said. "For both of us." She looked at Utsuho, who didn't seem to notice that she was being cued.

"Unyu?" Utsuho said when she saw Reimu staring at her. Then she got it. "Oh! Yeah, the same for me."

"I see," Sakuya said again. She turned her attention to Utsuho. "Miss Reiuji, if I may take your hat and coat?"

"Uh, okay," Utsuho said. She took off her yellow rubber hat and handed it to Sakuya. Her coat was then slipped of her shoulders and over her wings. Beneath she was wearing just a simple white blouse and a grey skirt, though the red eye of Yatagarasu once again stared out at the world. Utsuho's weather gear was hung on one of the waiting coat-stands that stood near the door, where they dripped onto the polished marble floor.

"Well, that's very kind of you," Sakuya as she hung up Utsuho's clothes. "But as I was saying, the Mistress is currently indisposed. She had made it clear that she does not wish to see anyone."

"Indisposed?" Reimu asked.

"Yes. She is grieving the loss of her sister. As such, she has secluded herself in the clock tower and refuses to see anyone."

"Ah, gotcha," Reimu said. That did sound like something Remilia would do. "But…Okay, I know things are awful right now, but it's not like Flandre's gone for good, right? I mean, her essence is still preserved, so all we have to do is take down Yuuka, rescue Flandre and make her a new body, right? So there's still hope."

Sakuya pursed her lips. She stood in place, deep in thought. Then she held up her hand and snapped her fingers.

Nothing happened.

Sakuya's face grew harder. She snapped her fingers again, louder. This time she got a reaction as a fairy with purple hair in a pale blue maid outfit flew up to her. Sakuya whispered something in her ear. The girl nodded and flew off.

"Please, follow me," Sakuya said. She started moving toward one of the many side-doors. Mystified, Reimu and Utsuho followed her.

The room she was leading them to turned out to be a small parlor. A round booth with crimson cushioned seats surrounded a single-legged circular table in the far wall. Above the booth was a large window that admitted what would normally be a lovely view of the flower gardens. As it was, the dreary weather ruined the effect.

Despite the fact that it had taken them less than a moment to get there from the foyer, the purple-haired fairy had beaten them there and was just finishing setting down a light tea, complete with a lemon-glazed sesame seed cake. Reimu was impressed. Fairies were notoriously hard to train, and Sakuya had complained about their lack of discipline a number of times. Still, they could work fast when motivated.

"Thank you, Lillian," Sakuya said as she dismissed the fairy. To her guests, she said, "Please, sit down."

Reimu and Utsuho scooted into one end of the booth while Sakuya took the other.

Sakuya's hands moved toward the teapot and her mouth opened, but Reimu cut her off. "No, skip all the maid stuff. I know you take that whole hospitality thing seriously, but I'd really appreciate if you'd just get right to what you want to tell us. We'll serve ourselves, thanks."

Utsuho looked a little disappointed. "But can I still have some…" she said, pointing meaningfully at the cake.

"Go ahead, take the whole thing," Reimu said as she pushed the plate towards her.

"As you wish," Sakuya murmured. She moved her hands away from the teapot and folded them in front of her. "And the reason I wanted to talk to you is simple. Though neither of you are especially social people, you are still one of the few actual friends Remilia has." She turned her face toward Utsuho, who was hungrily demolishing a large slice of cake. "As for you, despite limited interaction, you are perhaps one of the only people to actually make friends with Flandre. And it seems that your feelings for her were strong enough for you to come here in person in order to pay your respects, even though your superiors no doubt would have preferred you to have remained safely in the Underground."

A guilty look passed over Utsuho's face, which was still full of cake. She looked down. "Well, yeah."

"As such, I believe you two deserve to know exactly what happened to Flandre," Sakuya said. "It might help you better understand Mistress Remilia's current condition. And who knows? Perhaps you will find a way to help her."

Reimu nodded. "Okay, fair enough."

"But first, tell me. How much do you know?" Sakuya asked. "I assume that you were given secondhand information from Yukari Yakumo. What did she tell you?"

"That Yuuka severely kicked your asses," Reimu said honestly. "That both you and Remilia got the crap beat of you, and that Flandre got herself dusted but Yuuka managed to trap her essence in a sealing crystal and took it with her when she left."

"She did the same thing to us," Utsuho put in. "Only all three of us got killed. Except that Orin and I both came back okay, but Satori was the one that…" Her voice grew small. "…got taken…"

Sakuya nodded sympathetically. "I understand. And while everything you were told is completely correct, there is one important aspect that Yukari left out, likely because she didn't know."

Reimu leaned forward. "Yeah? What's that?"

"Before her murder of Flandre, Yuuka Kazami took steps to immobilize both of the Scarlet sisters. They were both restrained and completed prevented from moving-"

"Even Flandre?" Reimu asked. She knew how strong the little vampire was.

"Yes."

"Ouch."

"Indeed. But what's more is that Kazami took pains to give their individual imprisonments a unique twist. Remilia was gagged and thus prevented from speaking, but could see everything that was happening. Whereas Flandre was blinded, but was allowed to speak freely."

Utsuho dropped her cake. "Oh, wow," she breathed.

Reimu looked at her, slightly annoyed that the ditzy Hell Raven had understood the significance before she had. "What? What would that do?"

Sakuya's eyes dipped down. "Understand, Reimu, that despite her advanced years, Flandre still had a child's mind. Her madness prevented her from mentally maturing. As such, she was entirely ruled by her emotions, which were always strong."

"Yeah, I know. So?"

"So imagine what it would be like for someone like her, someone so used to power to be suddenly rendered powerless. Not only that, but there was nothing preventing her sense of smell. So she knew that Remilia was there, but had no idea why her sister was refusing to answer her cries for help."

"Oh," Reimu said. She couldn't help but feel a little dense. "Well, that was…kind of dickish."

"Dickish. Yes, I suppose that is one way of putting it," Sakuya muttered. "But while that bit of cruelty could be dismissed as simple pettiness, what followed next cannot. You see, Flandre received her answer. From Kazami."

"What?"

"Yuuka Kazami spoke to her then, pretending to be Remilia. She imitated the Mistress' voice and speech patterns perfectly. And she told her in no uncertain terms that Flandre was unloved and unwanted by her sister, that she would always be nothing but a burden at best and a danger at worst, and that it was a wonder that Remilia had put up with her for so long."

Utsuho made a small choking sound and sank a little into the cushions. As for herself, Reimu just felt sick to her stomach. "She…she said all that?"

"Indeed. It was not long after this that Flandre was staked through the heart and her essence imprisoned in the very crystal intended for Kazami."

"She thought Remilia was the one killing her," Utsuho whispered. "Oh my gods, she thought her sister did it."

"Yes," Sakuya said. "I was only just recovering from being knocked out by a large chunk of stone at the time, so I was unable to stop her. However, this did not prevent me from witnessing the whole thing." Sakuya took in a slow but deep breath through her nose and gently sighed it out. "So now you see why the Mistress grieves. It is true that Flandre is not gone for good. In fact, there is every likelihood that Yuuka will restore her to life herself. And therein lies the problem. Flandre has already had her spirit broken due to her manipulations. Upon resurrection, the only thing she will know is that her own sister, whom she loved dearly, not only rejected her but executed her as well. She will be extremely vulnerable to further manipulation. As such, even should Remilia have her sister returned, Flandre will most like have been taught to hate her."

A heavy silence fell over the table.

"And that is not the end of it," Sakuya continued after it had passed. "When Yukari Yakumo found out, she was extremely displeased. And she made it known that we were not released from our obligations until Flandre had ceased to be a threat. One way, or another."

"Oh," was all Reimu could think of to say. Utsuho just buried her face in her palm. Her shoulders started to shake.

"Flandre has been added to her lists of threats that need to be eliminated. And we all know how zealously she seeks to cross names off of that list. As such, we have every reason to believe that Yukari will use our knowledge against her. Or perhaps she intends for us to do the deed ourselves. Either way, Remilia will most likely be called on to kill her own-"

Reimu jerked in surprise as Utsuho suddenly jumped to her feet. "Hey, what are you…Utsuho!" she cried as the girl ran from the room.

"Oh," Sakuya said as they watched her go. "I did not expect that." She turned to Reimu. "You probably should go after her. I'll relay your condolences to Remilia. Hopefully, she will receive them."

"Yeah, thanks," Reimu muttered. She quickly ran out the door and from there out of the mansion in pursuit.

Utsuho was nowhere to be found on the front grounds. Reimu growled as her eyes darted over the immaculately kept lawn. Maybe she was still inside? But no, that would make no sense. Utsuho had never been in the mansion before. Where would she run to?

Reimu jogged out of the front gate. Hong Meiling was still there, standing at attention.

"Hey," Reimu said. "Have you seen a crying Hell Raven run this way?"

Hong nodded and pointed into the forest.

"Thanks!" Reimu said. She took off running. She hoped Utsuho hadn't gone far. She did not want to look for her among the trees.

Fortunately, she had not. The Hell Raven was sitting against a tree and crying into her hands. Reimu slowly approached her.

"Utsuho?" she said. "Hey, you okay?"

"No," Utsuho said. She took in a deep, shaking breath and blew her nose on her skirt. "I…just don't get it," she said.

Reimu frowned. "Don't get what?"

"Yuuka Kazami. How could she…" Utsuho swallowed back a lump before continuing. "L-look, I fought her. And she killed me too. But sh-sh-he didn't just blow me up or anything. No, she beat me up, turned on my internal reactor's self-destruct mechanism, and crushed my control rod so I c-couldn't turn it off."

"What," Reimu said, staring.

"Yeah. Yukari's the only reason the whole place didn't get turned into a nuclear wasteland. But that's not the point. The point is that when she was doing those things to me…" Utsuho looked up at her with confused, tear-filled eyes. "She was _enjoying _it, Reimu! She wasn't like how I was at all. She wasn't crazy, at least not like I was. There were no confusing voices in her head. She knew that she was hurting people, and she liked it! How…how can someone like that even _exist?"_

The question made Reimu think. For herself, Reimu had long become accustomed to the existence of evil in the world. She knew that there were bad people out there, just as she knew that there were decent folks that needed protecting. It was simply the way things were. And while she wasn't so calloused as to not be repulsed by acts of extreme depravity, the idea that a person capable of such actions could exist did not surprise her. Disgust her, yes. Fill her with revulsion, yes. But not disbelief.

Still, how could she explain that to Utsuho? The girl was obviously heavily sheltered. The worst she had seen was her own loss of control, and there had been no real evil involved in that. Just a series of misunderstandings and accidents. This was something else entirely.

Reimu sighed and said, "Look, I don't know why people like that exist. I don't know why there's evil in the world. But I've been in this job for a long time. I've fought plenty of monsters."

"Like me?" Utsuho asked.

"Nah, you're not a monster. Just kind of…Never mind. I mean real monsters, like Yuuka. People who get off on other people's pain. I've gotten to see the world at its worst. And you know what I've learned?"

Confused, Utsuho shook her head.

"I've learned that, sooner or later, people like Yuuka lose. Evil loses eventually. It's practically self-destructive. No matter how big it might seem, no matter how cruel, or powerful, or whatever, it can't win in the end. Yuuka may seem like this huge monster right now, but her days are numbered. And do you know why?"

Again, Utsuho shook her head.

"Because people like us exist," Reimu explained. "People like you and me. People who won't tolerate her actions. People who are going to make sure that she's stopped. And we're not the only ones. Yuuka may be strong, but so are we."

"But she'll try to kill us!"

"Okay, so she will," Reimu said with a shrug. "And hey, maybe she'll pull it off. Maybe she'll wipe up both out and destroy any trace of our existence to the point that we're completely erased from history. That'll just mean someone else will take our place and succeed where we failed. But I don't think that'll happen."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Hey, Yuuka may be wicked strong and all, but look at what we have on our side. That gang Yukari brought together? You and the others? That was just a fraction of the firepower we have. And once Yukari gets better, you can bet Yuuka's going to be at the very top of her list, with her name underlined, highlighted and in all caps. She is going to be pissed, and she is going to do every in her outrageous amount of power to make sure Yuuka never hurts anyone ever again."

That didn't seem to reassure Utsuho all that much. "But…Satori and Flandre will still…"

"Yeah, and that's where we come in. Let Yukari worry about taking the evil bitch out. We can worry about saving them while they're busy fighting each other."

"But, what if it's like that maid said? What if Flandre's fighting against us?"

"Then…" Reimu sighed. "Then we'll deal with that when the time comes. It'll be hard, yeah, but not difficult. People get brainwashed all the time, and it's not impossible to break them out of it. To be truthful…" Even though it was a pointless gesture, Reimu still reflexively glanced over her shoulders before continuing in a lower voice. "To be truthful, I'm already trying to save another little girl who was kind of the same way you were."

"You mean she got a bunch of power jammed into her and went really nuts?"

"Exactly," Reimu said. "And as I understand it, she has a voice whispering in her head, like you did. And that voice is probably just as evil as Yuuka is, if not more. But I'm going to try to save her anyway. And I've already got people helping me, powerful people who specialize in helping girls like her. And I'm sure they'll be willing to help Flandre as well. So don't give up, okay?"

Utsuho nodded. Then she frowned and said, "Wait, this girl…Is it Rin Set…Sut…Satsuko? Satseke?"

"Satsuki," Reimu said, blinking. "You've heard of her?"

"Uh-huh." Utsuho wiped her eyes with her arm. "Orin told me about the meeting. And I think everyone's heard of the bounty."

"Right, that," Reimu groaned. "Freaking Cirno."

Utsuho looked at up at her, her face thoughtful. "You're really going to try to save this Rin Satsuki person? Even though everyone else is after her?"

"Yeah," Reimu said. "I am." She tried to make herself sound confident, but didn't feel that she had succeeded. She also left out the part that she had no idea how she was going to do it.

However, it got Utsuho to smile. "Good," she said. "I'm glad." She looked up at the branches overhead. "I, uh, probably should head back. I left a note for Orin, but she's still going to be mad at me."

"Probably a good idea," Reimu said. She looked over her shoulder. "You wanna go back for your hat and coat?"

"No, it's okay," Utsuho said. She stood up and dusted herself off. "I don't really need them."

Her body started to glow a dull yellow. Rainwater hissed and evaporated before it even touched her skin.

"Whoa, okay then!" Reimu said as she jumped back. "But for the gods' sakes, don't light up before you're in the sky! I don't want get irradiated again."

"Oops! Sorry." Her skin returned to normal.

"That's better," Reimu said. "Do you need help finding your way back?"

Utsuho shook her head. "No, I can see the Youkai Mountain from here. And I know how to get to the reactor from there."

"All right. Well, uh, take care then."

Utsuho smiled at her. And then, before Reimu knew what was going on, she found herself caught in a tight embrace.

"Thanks for everything," Utsuho said. "I'm sorry I tried to set you and Marisa on fire that one time. And don't worry. I won't tell anyone that you're sneaking around behind Yukari's back."

Reimu grimaced, though it was due more to the close contact than fear of physical injury. "Uh, thanks. I'd appreciate it."

Utsuho pulled back and put a hand on Reimu's shoulder. "You know, I can see why evil always loses, if it's got people like you fighting it."

Before Reimu could even begin to think of a response, the Hell Raven had shot up above the treetops. A moment later there was a yellow flash and the beating of mighty wings, which quickly soared away in the direction of the Youkai Mountain.

Completely befuddled, Reimu watched her go. She shook her head. That was the second girl she barely knew to give her a hug this month. She wondered if she should like it and decided that no, she did not.

Following that, her mind returned to the Remilia problem. What Sakuya had told her turned her stomach. All things considered, it was not at all surprising that Remilia was acting the way she was. Though Reimu had never really quite gotten familial relationships, she knew how seriously people took them. And if Remilia was to be used to destroy Flandre…

Reimu swallowed. As much as she had talked up her team of experts, they were still limited in what they could actually do. In fact, she doubted they could have helped Flandre as she normally was. All things considered, breaking a brainwashed Flandre Scarlet out of the control of someone like Yuuka Kazami was probably way outside of their abilities.

But still, that didn't mean they couldn't try. And while Reimu had some very strong doubts about her ability to rescue the Scarlet Sisters from a horrible fate, there was at least one thing she could do for Remilia. Hong Meiling had been right. She hadn't even bothered to look up the vampire when she had first heard that Remilia had gotten herself in trouble. But there was nothing preventing her from making an effort now.

Reimu took to the sky and flew back to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Sakuya had told her that Remilia had holed herself up in the clock tower. Reimu headed over to the giant clock's face and stopped right in front of it. Even with the clock between them, vampires had exceptional hearing. If Remilia was in there, she would be able to hear Reimu just fine.

"Remilia?" Reimu called. "It's me, Reimu. I…" She hesitated. What was she supposed to say now?

"Look, I heard about what happened, and…Ah, damn it. I'm no good at these sorts of things, so I'll just lay it out for you straight. Yeah, you did a really stupid thing when you tried to blackmail Yukari, and yeah, it was kind of your fault that you got into this mess in the first place. Still…" she grimaced, and went on "…still, I should have been there. I should have at least tried to talk to you. I didn't and…Godsdamn it, this is hard. I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry I wasn't there. Though for the record, you still should have tried to talk to me too, so I guess we're even there."

"But anyway, I know you think that you're going to have to kill your sister. I know you think that you don't have any choice in the matter. Well, that's not true. See, I've been talking to a lot of people, and we're not exactly happy with the way things are going. This whole 'shoot first, worry about who was innocent never' mindset people seem to be in. And yeah, I know. Sounds weird, coming from me, but I'm being serious here. And I for one don't want you or your sister to be just another casualty."

"So all that to say this. You're not alone, Remilia. I know it seems like it, but you're not. And I'm going to do all that I can to make sure that Flandre comes out okay, all right? Do you hear me in there?"

There was no answer. Reimu frowned and pressed her ear against the clock face. "Remilia? Are you even in there? Come on, don't let me make such a big sappy speech and then not say anything. At least tell me-"

_Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! _

The hour had struck noon. Loudly. Reimu cried out as the sound of the bells slammed through her head. The world swam confusingly and the next thing she knew she was well outside of the mansion's boundaries with her head pounding and her ears ringing.

Reimu groaned as she clutched at her skull. Her vision was still wonky, and it was difficult to keep her head from wobbling. Figures. She tried to do something nice for someone and got her ear blasted in return. Byakuren hadn't been kidding when she said that the right thing to do was rarely easy.

And that was then that she noticed that the raindrops had started to land on her skin. Furthermore, it had grown a great deal colder. The charm had worn off.

"I hate today," she said to no one in particular.

…

Though she was very late to meet Sanae to go on patrol, Reimu did not go straight toward Moriya Shrine. Rather, she made a slight detour back to Hakurei Shrine. For one, she really needed a new change of clothes. For another, it was entirely possible that she had some of her own anti-weather charms still stashed somewhere. Heck, if worst came to worst, she could always bring out that ugly old umbrella of hers, even though it was so worn through that it did little to discourage the rain from fulfilling its purpose.

Though it wasn't a long trip, Reimu's head was once again filled with problems that she really didn't want to deal with. Satsuki. The Shadow Youkai. Yukari's increasing ruthless. These had now been joined by Marisa's potential downward spiral, Mima possibly being up to her old tricks, Remilia's personal hell and Flandre's razor-edged predicament. And that wasn't even going into the chaos could erupt in the Underground due to Satori's captivity and the tremendous amount of problems Yuuka presented all by herself.

Reimu wondered if Sanae would be willing to let her sit this day out. If anything else, she could really use a nap.

Even while above the clouds, the shrine was still easy to pick out. Though Yukari's barrier did not extend high enough to be visible, she could still see the pink glow. Reimu adjusted her path and swooped back down. One of the upsides to the barrier was that it kept the rain out, and for once she was eager to be inside it.

However, as she approached, she saw something that made her slow down and stare. Though it didn't seem possible, it appeared that her day was now about to become even more stressful.

There was a young woman sitting on the steps just outside of the barrier, one that Reimu recognized instantly. And all things considered, there was no way her being here could mean anything good.

"This is getting ridiculous," Reimu muttered. She allowed herself one luxurious sigh and roll of her eyes and then headed down to confront this new annoyance.

The girl looked up as she approached. She immediately leapt to her feet and clutched at the traveling pack that had been sitting next to her. "Oh, thank the gods, you're here!" she breathed in relief. "I…" Then she caught the glare Reimu was sending her way and faltered. "Oh. Uh, hello?"

"Hi," Reimu said without a hint of welcome. "Look. No offense, but I'm having a bad day. So what the hell are you doing here?"

…

_Reimu's having a very busy day._

_Okay, so due to…certain circumstances (which I _will not _be discussing), I didn't get the chance to make any author's notes for the last chapter. So I'll just put my final thoughts on The Storm arc here. _

_As I said before, The Storm was probably the darkest the story has ever gotten. It was also the craziest it has gotten. As such, the last chapter utterly smashed the record for the number of responses a single chapter has gotten. Many of them were very positive. At the same time, many were rather negative. In fact, I do believe Imperfect Metamorphosis now has something of a hatedom developing. It was kind of expected though, give the aforementioned craziness and the use of some very controversial plot twists. However, the strange thing about it all is that the entirety of that arc actually wasn't part of the overall plan. A good chunk of this story had been planned out well over a year ago, but The Storm only really came into being a few months ago, when I realized that that the Yukari vs. Yuuka rivalry had been built up so much that I probably should give them a good, solid confrontation. Otherwise, they wouldn't have even met face-to-face for like another _year _or so. And at the same time, I resolved to make it as over-the-top as possible. Still, like just about every other part of this story, I severely underestimated how much the idea would grow. For awhile I was afraid that I wouldn't have enough material to fill three chapter's worth of a single fight. Obviously that turned out to not be a problem. Furthermore, numerous developments beyond people pounding the crap out of each other appeared as well, which could take this story to places that I had not anticipated and solve some future plot problems that I had been puzzling over. Remember how a few chapters ago I mentioned how I was looking forward to the unexpected places the plot could go? This would definitely be Exhibit A._

_But the arc also served another purpose. As many people pointed out, the Yukari vs. Yuuka thing, while a lot of fun, was growing too large, to the point where it was overshadowing everything else, especially poor Rin and Rumia. And Yuuka, despite only appearing in order to give Yukari another thing to worry about, was simply growing to dominate the story in every way. I'm sure everyone will agree that this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. But still, the other characters needed some breathing room as well. So The Storm essentially amped up the rivalry until it hit critical mass and literally blew apart, effectively taking out both Yukari and Yuuka and putting them on the bench for the time being. Don't worry though. They'll both be back before you know it. It's just time to take a break from them and give the other characters a chance to develop._

_Which brings us to this chapter. In many ways, it acts as both an epilogue for The Storm (and many of the chapters before it) and also as a prologue for the coming arc. It was kind of strange, writing something that was almost all talking so soon after something that was almost all action. And given its length and the huge amount of information already known to the audience being regurgitated and discussed, I won't blame you if you found the slow pace and constant rehashing of old information to be kind of dull at times. But still, I do feel it was necessary. Some stuff needed to be digested, other points needed to be introduced, and a change of pace was desperately needed. If Imperfect Metamorphosis was a TV show, then the last chapter would have been a season finale. The crashing train has come to rest. Now it's time to take things slow for awhile and build up steam again before pointing the next train at that penny on the tracks. _

_All right, other news. As everyone now knows, the full version of Ten Desires has been released. And as I mentioned on TV Tropes and Spacebattles, finally meeting the new characters has filled me with a sense of excitement, a measure of disappointment, and a feeling of relief. Excitement because hey, new characters! And they're pretty interesting too. I especially like the Seiga/Yoshika dynamic. The disappointment is because WHERE THE HELL IS MY MIMA? Yeah, I know there are some issues with the people whom ZUN worked with on the PC-98 games holding the rights to the missing characters. But are they simply not speaking to each other or something? Was there a falling out? Would securing the rights to one character really be so difficult? Bah. Anyway, rant over. The relief is because although there's no sign of Mima, the plot of Ten Desires also doesn't really contradict IM, so I do believe I'll be able to weave it into the plot. Already working on some ideas for Miko and her crew, though don't expect to see them any time soon._

_And moving onto business. I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that the next update is going to be a new RoSD chapter, which seriously needs some attention. But the bad news is that after that goes up, I'm unfortunately going to have to go on another planned hiatus. I know, having one so soon after the last few chapters have been so late kind of sucks. But right now, working on this story from 10PM to 2-4AM every night hopped up on energy drinks is starting to burn me out, to the point where it's becoming kind of a chore, and I don't want it to become a chore. Also, I've been meaning to go back and spruce up the older chapters and fix some editing errors while filling in some plot holes. And there are some stories I've said I'd read and review that I've been putting off, so those will be taken care of as well. It shouldn't be too long though. Don't worry, this isn't going be one of those indefinite hiatuses that never ends. I just need to recharge and take care of something things. I do want to see this story through to the end._

_And finally, I should just mention that each and every one of Marisa's hallucinations was actually based upon a hallucination that I've experienced myself, either while sick or half-asleep. Yes, even the French Maids. Boy, was that a weird night._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	33. The Hunter's Season

The Hunter's Season

_Deep Within_

"Are you serious?" Rumia laughed. She leaned back to recline on her elbows. "You snuck out?"

"Yeah, we did," Rin answered. She was sitting in the meditation position with her arms resting on her knees. "Why, is that weird?"

"For you, yeah. No offense, but I always thought you were kind of a goody-goody back in the day. Sneaking out to go to festivals doesn't sound like something you'd do."

Rin and Rumia were still hiding in the cavern of glowing mushrooms. The last few days (weeks? Months?) had been refreshingly uneventful. Thus far, none of their pursuers had discovered their hiding place, though Rumia was not about to let her guard down. Living in the Wilds for six decades had taught her never to delude herself into believing that any hiding place, no matter how well concealed, was undiscoverable.

Still, that didn't mean she wasn't enjoying the break from the heart-stopping terror. However, that still left her with the same problem she had faced when they had taken shelter in the Saltlick Sea: given that there was nothing besides her and Rin in the world of Rin's mind, it had not taken long for boredom to set in. And as she could no longer sleep, her boredom could now continue uninterrupted. Of course, she could always have Rin send her into another dream, but the lethargy had yet to reach the extreme levels required for her to even entertain that option.

As much as it galled her, the only thing she could do to pass away the time was talk to Rin. Given how some of their past conversations had gone, it was not an activity she was overly fond of. However, to her surprise it had turned out to be more enjoyable than she had expected. While Rin had been thickheaded and stubborn about listening to Rumia during times of crisis, she had proven to be an attentive listener while the subject matter turned away from anything unpleasant. And as it turned out, she had a story or two of her own to tell.

"Hey, I wasn't that much of a goody-goody," Rin said indignantly. "I just didn't like getting yelled at."

Rumia smirked. "And so you made damned sure not to do anything that would tick people off. Come on Rin, let's be honest here."

Rin folded her arms. "Well, sorry if I wasn't some big notorious rebel like you," she muttered. "It's not like I got to run around with my very own gang of troublemakers, you know? Besides, who's the most wanted person alive right now? That's right, I think it's me!"

Rumia rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. I was just-"

"And I smashed Eientei! Twice! Have you ever smashed Eientei?"

"Okay, okay, calm down," Rumia said as held up her palms. "I was just teasing."

Rin frowned. "I thought you said you didn't like teasing."

"No, I said I don't like you molesting me. There's a big difference."

Rin's cheeks turned red. "I didn't molest you! I was just-"

"Okay! I get it, we're cool," Rumia said quickly. "So, sneaking out to go to the Winter Solstice festival. How'd that go?"

"Oh!" Rin's embarrassment evaporated. "Yeah, I was pretty nervous. I kept thinking that the Eientei Guard was going to show up and throw us in the dungeon."

"Wait a minute," Rumia said, her face twisting in confusion. "You had a dungeon?"

"No, but I was sure that would make one, just for us." Rin chuckled. "Of course, I found out later that the Guard was in on it the whole time. I think the captain owed Reisen a favor."

"Lucky," Rumia grumbled. Those kinds of connections would certainly have come in handy during some of her own past escapades. "So I'm guessing that you made it?"

Rin nodded. "Yeah, and it was…odd. I mean, sure Kaguya would throw big parties every holiday, but everyone at those were the local bunnies. I had never seen so many different people in one place before. Real culture shock, you know?"

"What, seeing people without foot-long ears?"

"Well, sorta," Rin shrugged. "At least, not that many. Plus, some of them had wings and long tails and claws and…Well, you get the picture."

"Must've been your first time seeing a Human," Rumia observed.

"Yeah, maybe. It was still pretty cool, though." A small smile tugged at Rin's lips. "We saw this ritual dance thing, and there was this awesome danmaku tournament. Those game booths were kinda sucky though. Turns out they were rigged."

"Eh, that's not exactly a secret," Rumia said. "Me and my friends found that out our first…" Then she blinked and sat up. "Wait, hold up! How long ago was this?"

"Huh?" Rin cocked her head. "Uh, I'm not really sure." She frowned and looked down at her legs. She appeared to be counting on her fingers. "Let's see…What's the year again?"

Rumia told her.

"Right," Rin mused. "So I was locked up for seven years, and me and Reisen went to that festival two years before that…So yeah, nine years ago?"

Rumia started grinning. "Is that so. I was there too!"

"What?" Rin said. "Really?"

"Yeah, me and my friends go every year! And we've been together for eleven years and some change."

"Huh." Now it was Rin's turn to smile. "So, we could've seen each other?"

Rumia shrugged. "Maybe. The festival's pretty big, and there's a crapton of people at those things. But sure, there's a chance we might have walked past each-"

Rin jumped to her feet. "Let me check!" she said eagerly.

"Uh…What?"

"Your memories!"

Rumia's face went white. "Oh, hell no!" she yelled as she scooted back. "Not that again!"

"What?" Rin said. Then she scowled. "Oh, come on, Rumia! Those were really old repressed memories. And your Evil Twin was hiding in them. These are way more recent and less filled with evil." Rin frowned. "Or so I assume."

Rumia shook her head. "Nuh-uh. No way. Every time you stick your fingers in me, bad things happen." A moment went by, and Rumia sighed. "You know, I should probably rephrase that."

"Huh?" Rin stared at her. "Why…" Then her eyes widened. "Ohhhhh…"

"Shut up," Rumia muttered.

"Come on Rumia," Rin begged. "It's not like before! I promise it won't hurt this time."

Rumia shook her head. "You know, what you promise and what actually takes place haven't really had a lot in common."

"Please?"

Rumia eyed her. She sighed. "Okay, fine. But if I start feeling anything more than an itch, you stop. Got it?"

"Got it," Rin said happily. She walked over and put her hand on Rumia's forehead. Rumia winced but managed to stifle her feeling of protest. "Okay, let's take a look."

Rumia's brow broke out in tingles, but nothing worse. She closed her eyes and fidgeted while Rin muttered to herself.

"Okay, so nine years ago. One, two…five, six, seven…no, too far! No, too far again! Okay, I think this is it…"

She fell silent for nearly a minute. And then she started laughing.

"Oh wow," she said. "No way!"

Rumia blinked. "Wait, you found yourself?"

"Check it out!"

Rin pointed, and the dark nothingness opened up to reveal another one of Rumia's memories. She recognized the Winter Solstice Festival immediately, specifically the area with all the booths. The view moved quickly as her past self ran through the crowd of Humans, fairies and youkai, some of them dressed in traditional kimonos and some in more casual wear. Fireworks exploded overhead in the clear night sky, and glowing round lanterns were hung everywhere.

"_Faster, Rumia! Faster!"_

Rumia felt her insides clench. The view shifted, revealing Cirno following close behind, clutching at Rumia's hand. Laughing, the two friends dodged in and out through the bustling crowd.

"There!" Rin shouted. The view froze. And sure enough, there was Rin. She was wearing a green blouse over a blue skirt, and was staring in fascination at a booth selling multicolored birds. Standing next to her was a female rabbit youkai with long, pale violet hair.

"There I am!" Rin said excitedly. "See? We did pass by each other. Who would have thought?"

"Yeah, I can see," Rumia muttered. Her mind was focused on that brief glimpse of Cirno. Her memories of that particular Winter Solstice were fuzzy, but as she recalled the reason she and Cirno were going so fast was due to the bucket of live frogs they had tried to slip into the goldfish tank. Unfortunately, the booth owner had caught them, forcing them to flee. They hadn't cared. It was all part of the fun.

Rumia's throat tightened. It was strange, how much she missed her friends. She hadn't really noticed it while they had been on the run, given that her mind had been focused on making plans to ensure her continued existence. And after her annoying encounter with their doppelgangers during her trip to the Dream World, she had been worried that her killing them would have somehow affected how she felt about them, perhaps redirecting that anger toward the actual Cirno, Wriggle, Daiyousei and Mystia. But ever since they had arrived in this fungi-filled cavern, she found her thoughts wandering back to them more and more. At that moment, she would have risked any of Rin's crazy plans if it meant that there was a chance that she could go home to their cave and just spend the evening sitting in front of the fire with the rest of the gang.

She glanced over to Rin. The Kirin seemed to have lost interest in their passing encounter, and was now staring at the still picture of the rabbit girl, whom Rumia assumed to be Reisen Udongein. Rumia had never met Reisen, but given that Rin's conversations tended to slide toward her sooner or later she now knew a great deal about her. She wondered how Rin was feeling now, seeing someone else's memory of the most important person in her life. Probably not too dissimilar to how Rumia was feeling now.

Though the thought bothered her, Rumia supposed that she and Rin had more in common than she had previously believed. In addition to being hunted as monsters for no fault of their own, they had both left people behind that they cared about. Rumia had her friends, and Rin had her rabbit. And to hear Rin go on, the two of them must have had the perfect mother/daughter, big-sister/little-sister, best-buddy relationship (the actual specifics tended to change every time Rin brought it up). And while Rumia was getting just a little tired of hearing about it, she couldn't fault Rin for worrying about the rabbit. From what Rin had said, the last time that had seen each other, Rumia's Evil Twin had taken over Rin's body and nearly murdered Reisen. That wasn't exactly the best of condition on which to part ways. That had to be rough, considering how close they had been.

…

_So Reisen gave me this diary for some reason. I really don't know why. I asked Miya about it, and she said it was so I can write down whatever I'm feeling or thinking about and talk about my day. Okay…Kind of dumb if you ask me._

Reisen sat on her bed, Rin's old diary open before her. She had spent the last few days reading and rereading the recorded memories of Rin's life before the experiment, or at least she had tried to. Her duties as acting Head Physician had prevented her from getting much reading done, but still she had managed to cram in a few months' worth of entries during her fleeting few moments of time alone.

Today, however, Eirin had suddenly emerged from her room in much better condition than before and had given Reisen the day off. Reisen was reasonably sure that it wasn't due to incompetence on her part, seeing how there had been no lecture attached. In fact, Eirin hadn't seemed mad at her at all. Of course, she had been resting for almost a week. That would improve anyone's temperament.

Reisen wasn't complaining. She was long overdue for a break, and desperately needed some time to herself. Of course, without work to distract her, that only meant that everything that had happened would start worrying her again. And so she had brought out the diary.

It was strange, reading through the entries. Some of the events recorded she could remember clearly. Others were only jogged from her memory upon reading, while others she couldn't recall at all. There were even a few that outright contradicted her own recollection of the same events.

For example, she didn't remember Rin being quite this much of a brat.

_Reisen wants me to try again with this diary. Whatever. I still think this is stupid, but if it keeps her from bugging me about it._

_Okay. First off, why the heck do they keep making me go to that dumb school in that gross rabbit village? Can't I get like a personal teacher or something? I'm already smarter than everyone there, even the teacher! And they're all jealous of me there. They think they're hiding it, but I can see them whispering and glaring. Whatever. Just because I'm smart and they're stupid, and I live at a nice place like Eientei and they're stuck in a crummy little village. Jerks need to get over it._

Reisen shook her head. Now that she thought about it, she could dimly recall Rin going through something of a moody phase, but she didn't remember it being this bad. She flipped ahead.

_Stupid, stupid Tewi! Honestly, why do they keep that creep around? Does she even have a purpose? I don't think so. I've never seen her do anything useful. Mostly she just runs around messing things up and laughing at people. And no one ever does anything about it! You remember that jigsaw puzzle Reisen bought for me? Well, now it's missing, and I know Tewi stole it! She was making fun of me yesterday, and I threw a rock at her head, so she must have taken it! And the worst part is that when I told Reisen, she wouldn't believe me! So what if I didn't see Tewi take it? I still know she did!_

Reisen winced. Now that, she remembered. And as she recalled, they had found the puzzle in question back at the school, under Rin's desk. But she didn't remember Rin being so upset.

Even though her desire to read about Rin's early thoughts was starting to wane, Reisen moved on to the next entry. To her surprise (and relief) it wasn't a complaint.

_I had a really weird dream last night. I dreamed that I didn't exist, but I did. And everybody knew it._

_Okay, that doesn't really make sense, so let me try again. I didn't exist, but I was supposed to. It was like I was supposed to exist, but something went wrong and I got taken out of the world at the last minute. But I was still there, and everyone knew what happened. I was walking around Eientei trying to get people's attention, but they kept telling me, "Go away, you don't exist." And then I'd say, "Yes I do, I'm right here." And then they would just say, "I don't care, you don't exist." And then they'd get annoyed and start ignoring me._

_I know that doesn't really sound that bad when I write it like that, but when I woke up I was all freaked out. I tried telling Reisen about it, but I just couldn't figure out a way to describe it. Like, my mouth kept getting all locked up, you know? But anyway that got me thinking. What if that really happened to me? Like I just taken out of the world but everyone knew that I was supposed to be there. Would anyone really care? I mean, I know not a lot of people like me, so would it even bother them if I just disappeared? I'm probably being stupid right now, but I just keep thinking about it. _

Reisen felt her throat tighten. She swallowed and put the diary down. "I'd care," she found herself saying out loud.

But was that really true? Back when Eirin had first started her experiments, had she done everything she could to stop it? Granted, Rin had agreed to them, but Reisen still should have done more. And when Rin had been subdued and locked away, what had she done besides stand on the sidelines feeling helpless? Sure she had gotten them to back away from a death sentence, but why had she stopped there? She had kept telling herself that there was nothing she could do, that nothing she could say would change Kaguya's mind. But looking back, she couldn't be sure that she hadn't just been too scared to cross the Princess.

This was getting depressing, and Reisen had enough of that going on already. With a sigh she closed the diary and stood up. Sitting around in her room wasn't helping any, and she didn't trust Eirin's reassurances about being well enough to resume her duties. She might as well check on her, and if there was nothing for her to do in the clinic then she could always see if the Eientei Guard had anything for her to do. She just knew that if she had to spend the rest of the day cooped up in her room she would drive herself crazy.

…

Eirin sat at her desk in her office in the Hourai Clinic. She was leaning back in her chair, legs crossed and left hand tapping against her chin as she gazed thoughtfully into space. The files on Rin Satsuki lay open before her. After making copies to be distributed among the Gensokyo's various community leaders, Yukari had returned the original to Eientei. Eirin had spent the better part of the morning reading and rereading her own handwritten notes, looking for some sort of clue that she might have missed, some overlooked piece of information that might provide the key to resolving this disaster. But thus far, none had presented itself. Not that she had expected one to appear, but there was nothing lost in trying.

There was a knock at the door. Eirin glanced at it and straightened up. "Yes?"

"It's me, Commander Utada," said a woman's voice.

Eirin grunted. Utada was settling into her new rank at last. When Eirin had put herself on mandatory bed rest, the commander had been unused to addressing herself as such. "It's open," she said.

The door opened. "Sorry doctor, but there's a Kappa mechanic here, making a delivery. She said that you'll want to receive it in person."

Well, technically Eirin did have a solution at hand. It just wasn't one that she was happy about using, and was also the principle reason why she had given Reisen the day off.

"Well, yes," Eirin said as she stood up. "That's why I told you to inform me as soon as she arrived. Where is she now?"

"In your workshop," Utada said. "She's set up quite a collection of hardware."

"So I would imagine," Eirin said. She closed the file. "All right, I'm on my way. You may return to your post."

As Utada had said, a Kappa engineer was indeed waiting for her in her workshop. A blue-clad woman with short pigtails covered by a green cap and oversized goggles over her large eyes, she had converted one of the metal tables into a means to display her merchandise.

A virtual armory sat on that table. Small portable handguns sat side-by-side with two-handed rifles and grenade launchers, with a large minigun occupying a full fourth of the table all by itself. There was enough weaponry to equip a small elite force. Or one very large individual. One with many, many arms.

After Eirin had lost her emergency shotgun during Rin's last visit, she had come to the decision that the weapon had been insufficient. As such, she had contacted one of the Kappa's most gifted engineers and asked if there was anything she could do to upgrade Eientei's arsenal. And if the arrangement of hardware on the table was any indication, the Kappa had delivered.

"Dere yous is!" said Nitori Kawashiro as Eirin walked into the room. "Gots your guns." She swung her arm over the arrangement of hardware she had brought with her. "Alls checked off and goodie. Just like you askeded. All new n' shiny n' ready to boom stuffings."

It was just Eirin's good fortune that she had been the one responsible for finalizing trade arrangement with the Kappa Village upon Eientei's inclusion with the rest of Gensokyo's society, because otherwise trying to decipher the girl's way of speaking would snap what little patience she had left. The Kappa had their own language that they spoke among themselves, and while they could speak Japanese well enough to communicate with others, they tended to continue to use their own grammatical rules. Most of the time they kept it under control and maintained a diction that was odd but understandable, but when they grew excited their speech patterns had an annoying tendency to break down into something totally incomprehensible. Fortunately, Eirin had long grown accustomed to their odd diction and could understand them without much difficulty. For example, Nitori had just assured her that the weapons in question met with Eirin's specifications and were ready to destroy things.

"So you say," Eirin murmured as she came to a stop. "But if memory serves, the last weapon I had received from you was only good for a few shots before it melted. Not exactly the best track record, insofar as quality is concerned."

Nitori laughed. "What, dat little stickies you gots from outside-Humans? Dah ones you makes us get all fixied ups? Dat don't get all counted up. You wanna real goodies, you goes straight on we, and den makes right from the scratches."

(Your pathetic gun of Outside World make, which you had us modify? That doesn't count. If you desire items of actual quality, than go straight for those designed and assembled by the Kappa)

"I see," Eirin said. Her grey gaze flickered over the assortment of weaponry before returning to the Kappa. "Then please. Give me the pitch."

"You gotten it, bossy!" Nitori turned toward her merchandise and picked up a pair of steel rectangles just large enough to fit comfortably in the palms of her hands. "Now dese here? Dese baby buddies be something my unca Deldago whippered up. Tiny, can go in sleeveses with no problems, but when you wants to brings the painfuls…"

Nitori gave her wrists a sudden flick, and the rectangles snapped open to become a pair of sleek, economy-sized pistols.

"Den dese will brings it to da homestead! Semi-automatica, self-powering, pumps out a repeaters pulse to chew in whatevers pisses you up!"

(Yes, ma'am! Now these are something my uncle Deldago put together. Small and easily concealed, but should you desire to hurt someone, than these will be more than sufficient. Semi-automatic with their own power supply, these generate a deadly repeating pulse of energy that your enemies will find quite deadly)

Eirin said nothing.

"Aw, send it downtown? Alrighty dens!" The Kappa snapped the pistols back into their compact state, placed them back on the table and picked up a large shotgun. "Now, paste your beady eyeses on this beautifulness! My auntie Sinders popped dis out, with da requested pumpers and ten booms of heat! And not likes that piece o' dooky yous hads us tweaks, ain't no melting gonna happens with dis, 'cept for the faces of peoples yous dunno likes!"

(Not impressed? All right. Now, here's something that my aunt Sinders designed. Pump action, with a ten fireball round magazine, as requested. And unlike that inferior piece you once possessed, this one will not melt)

Again, Eirin made no response.

"But I says nonsense. Junk that, and grabs this!" She hoisted up a two-handed cannon that was nearly as long as she was tall. "Now den, _dis _was scrippied by me coz Lestorl. Even bests than dose cucumber sandies he chonks, and dat's tall talk! Shiny, ain't it? Dis is as biggie of a boomster as you'ze gonna see. Pumpered wit' explodey ion shells, you don't even has to smack da thing you wanna dead. Jus' closes in, and the ionic busters finishes its!"

(But what am I saying? Forget that, and consider this. Created by my cousin Lestorl, this is even better than his cucumber sandwiches, and that's high praise. And it looks good too. This is a large cannon, loaded with explosive ion shells. Direct hits are not necessary, as the bursts need only get close to have effect)

"Pray continue," Eirin said.

"You gotties!" Nitori carefully placed the cannon down and tapped the barrel of a matte black minigun. "Son-o'-me-sissy done this. Sixer barrels, shreddy happy. Quickies, pop-a-doodle-doo, will blaster sands in all points to light the star shooters! Calls by me parters Granny Crankies, or Dragon Farters."

(As you wish. This was made by my nephew. Six barrels, and deadly. Fast, and…?)

Eirin shook her head. Despite the wealth of knowledge at her disposal, there were still some things beyond her comprehension. The ramblings of an excited Kappa were among them.

"I see. And please, calm down, and try to speak clearly," she said. "Your explanations means nothing if I cannot understand them." She nodded toward the final item on the table, a black metal case. "And what is that?"

"Good eyes! Dese are scippied by me personable!" Nitori picked up the case and popped it open. There, resting in the black foam mold, were four six-inch sharp-tipped cylinder, each one the color of polished bronze. "Me pridefuls and joyous! Dese'll dug rights into any twitty derp you dunno like, find der center in point zero-two-fivers milliseckies and boom dem into vapors. Use dese onna builders and yous gets a craters. Use 'em onna persons and yous gets a cremation. And dis happeners so quicksters dat you be wonderings if dey were even there at alls!" Her grin widened. "I callers dese der Mama-In-Law."

(Now these are of my personal design, my magnum opus. They will burrow into the target of your choice and destroy them completely. And they will do so with such speed that it will as if they had ceased to exist. I have named this weapon the Mother-In-Law)

Eirin quirked an eyebrow. "How…humorous. Though I believe naming it after an ex-spouse would be more accurate."

"Eh, never gots marriaged," Nitori shrugged. "But me sissy? Gotter hitched like fiver cycles ago. Guy's a nicey, but his mama? Hoooeeee." She shook her head. "Believes you I, dese babies be named right."

"I see. And I take it that these weapons meet the specifications I sent you? The changing frequencies and all that?"

"You bet'chers!" Nitori flicked the brim her of her hat and grinned. "All der best, each shot differs from dah rest! Now _dat_ were a toughies, lemme says to you. But for what'cha pays, I can scippies cookies dat stands up and dancing!"

"Very well, then," Eirin said. She walked over to one of the cabinets and opened it. From inside, she retrieved a brown suitcase. "Here," she said, passing it over to Nitori. "I believe you'll find the agreed upon amount inside.

The Kappa engineer popped the latches and looked inside. Her eyes glittered when she saw its contents. "Oooooh, goodilicious!" she squeaked. "Appreciations all over!"

"Glad to hear it," Eirin said. "Don't spend it all in one place." She walked over to the table and hefted the shotgun up.

The Lunarian doctor turned the weapon over in her hands and nodded her satisfaction. She would of course test it later, but it was more of a formality than anything. If Nitori said that it worked, then it worked.

Something made a scratchy squeaking noise. Eirin glanced over her shoulder to see Nitori clearing her throat.

"Yes?" Eirin asked.

"So…I canning helps but wonderings," Nitori said. There was a cunning smile on her face that Eirin did not like the look of. "All dese guns, wit' specialty fixes. What'cher plannings on booming?"

"Is that in any way relevant to this transaction?"

"Nah, but there be talkies everyplaces. Saying the blobbers beastie was scrippied by yous."

Eirin didn't answer, though her index finger did start tapping impatiently against the shotgun's barrel.

Nitori got the hint. "Hey dere, not worrisome!" she was quick to add. "Hads plenties o' experimentals go all freaky! No shamefuls dere. But I was wonderings, say I was plannings to tackle the thingie I'selfs…"

Eirin sighed. She placed the shotgun back on the table and shook her head. "I see. You're planning on joining that bounty hunt, and want to know if I have any information that you'd find useful."

The Kappa's eyes glittered. "Twenny-five million's a lotta shinies," she smiled. "And somebodys gonna be diggers it ups. Why nots I's?"

"You'd best pray that it isn't you," Eirin said coldly. She walked over to the blue-haired girl and glared down at her. "Because I can tell you firsthand that those who do tend to have their days ruined."

Nitori's grin vanished. "H-heys nowthens, takes it easies!" she said quickly. "If yous wanna I's stay outtas the huntings, I gets!"

"Do you?" Eirin said. "Because if you do I'll have to find someone else to be my weapons provider."

"Huh?" Nitori's already large eyes grew even larger. "Reallerz?"

"Yes. Because if you were to actually find her, you will either end up as her latest meal or dead." Eirin leaned over, so that she could look the river imp in the eye. "This creature nearly killed me. And it defeated Yukari Yakumo, Madam Mima, Reimu Hakurei, the oni Suika Ibuki, and the witch Marisa Kirisame. All at once. You know those names, don't you?"

Nitori gulped. "Er…Kinders?"

"Then if you're looking for some inside information, some advice, here it is. Stick with building bombs and radios. This is out of your league. It's out of my league. It may be out of everyone's league. A storm is coming, little imp. You'd be wise to keep your head low until it's passed."

Her larger eyes opened as wide as they would go, Nitori opened and closed her mouth but said nothing. Her species may be more closely related to turtles, but at that moment she more resembled a frog.

Eirin sighed and backed off. "Look, don't take this as a threat. But there have been too many fools getting themselves hurt in this. Don't add yourself to their number. Now, if there was nothing else…" She nodded toward the door.

Nitori's eyes filled with relief. "Er, nopies." She yanked out a piece of paper from a pocket and very nearly threw it at Eirin. "Here'yeour receipts! Pleasurables making businesses with yous!"

Clutching her payment to her chest, Nitori bolted from the room.

Eirin watched her go. She sighed. Perhaps she had been too hard on the little Kappa. After all, she hadn't known any better. But then, better intimidated and alive than informed and involved. For all her faults, she was an excellent engineer. And involving herself further into this situation was a great way to get herself killed. Enough people had been hurt already.

_Like Kaguya…_

Eirin looked over the merchandise on the table, a deadly arrangement of shiny steel and black plastic. All of it intended to eliminate her mistake. She had no illusions about what she had done, or what she was going to do. She had not asked the gods for forgiveness, because there was none to be given. As far as she was concerned, she was damned already. It was now only a question of whether or not she could somehow clean up the mess she had made before she was given to the flames.

Her pale hands slipped down to the plastic case containing Nitori's Mama-In-Laws and picked it up. She flipped it open. Inside, the four tiny but lethal projectiles gleamed. Somewhere out there, one of her greatest creations had been taken by another. She had a responsibility to both of them. Kaguya was going to be rescued, even if Eirin had to tear her out of Rin's grasp with her bare hands. And Rin was going to be freed from her suffering. One way or another. Eirin owed it to her.

Eirin's moved her hand over the deceptively small missiles, fingertips gently brushing the cold metal of their casings. _But for you, my Princess, _she thought, _I accept this fate. If I must destroy any chance of redemption, I will see you saved._

With a sigh, Eirin carefully placed the box down and closed the lid. Then she turned around, intending to head for the door, but instead froze in place.

When she had fled the room, Nitori Kawashiro had neglected to close the door behind her. And in the doorway stood Reisen. She was staring at the assortment of weaponry with a look of complete horror on her face.

"Reisen!" Eirin said, her spine stiffening. "What are…I thought I told you to take the day off!"

Reisen didn't respond to the accusation. She simply moved her gaze from the table's contents to Eirin's eyes. "What are those?" she said.

Eirin looked at her. She glanced down at the guns, then back to Reisen. "I think it's quite obvious what those are, especially to one with a military background."

"You…You…" Reisen's shaking hands squeezed into fists. "You're planning on using them _her, _aren't you?"

Eirin ran through the possible replies in her head. She could say something to the effect of "Only if she attacks us first", or "I pray not. But I cannot leave Eientei inadequately defended". But instead, she simply nodded and said, "I am."

Reisen's pupils widened. The sounds that came from her mouth could not be accurately described as intelligible. The trembling moved up from her hands to her shoulders. "I…Uh…I…"

"Reisen," Eirin said in as soft a tone as she could manage. "Maybe we should talk."

"Talk," Reisen repeated.

"Yes. I think…I think that I owe you an explanation. And-"

"Talk!" Reisen exploded. "You want to _talk! _About what? What in the world is there to talk about?"

Eirin blinked in surprise. Even when under considerable pressure, Reisen was not a person given to angry outbursts. At least not directed toward herself. "Reisen, I think you should calm down. Losing your temper isn't going to-"

"You want me to calm down?" Reisen interrupted. She shook her head in disbelief. "You're standing there with enough firepower to kill a dragon, told me that you're going to use it on Rin, and you expect me to calm down?" She took a deep breath and nearly screamed, "Haven't you done _enough _to her? Wasn't taking her _life _away enough for you? And now you're planning to hunt her down and-"

"Reisen! Enough!" Eirin snapped. "If you must yell at me, fine. But come inside and close the door first."

Reisen didn't appear to have even heard her. "Why can't you just leave her alone? Why can't you-"

"I said ENOUGH!"

That did the trick. Reisen stopped talking, but dismay did not leave her face.

A moment passed, in which neither of them spoke. And then Eirin said in low, firm tone, "Come inside."

This time, Reisen obeyed.

"Close the door."

Reisen nudged it with her foot, letting it swing shut. Her eyes never left Eirin's.

Eirin took a deep breath and steadied herself. Though she had recovered most of her strength, she still was not at a hundred percent. The drugs in her system kept her body in working order, but she still needed to avoid unnecessarily exciting herself.

"Reisen," she said softly. "What were you expecting me to do? Did you honestly believe that I would just stand aside and let the chaos continue unabated? To let those fools make the situation worse while Yukari goes prancing after Yuuka Kazami? You know better than that. This incident cannot be allowed to continue. It needs to be ended, Reisen. For the good of everyone. You know that."

"And that's your solution?" Reisen said, her voice just as soft. "To chase Rin down and shoot her? Just…keep hitting her until she can't take anymore?"

"Yes," Eirin said. "I lack the power and resources to defeat her as I am."

"Defeat her?" Reisen repeated, her voice filled with disbelief. "Defeat her. You…She idolized you! Wanted to be just like you! She would do anything for you, just to have your approval."

"I know," Eirin said.

"That's why she let you experiment on her in the first place! So you'd be proud of her!"

"I know," Eirin said again. "But that doesn't change the fact that she is far too dangerous to leave alone."

"So you're, what, going to just chase her down and try to kill her?" Reisen demanded. Her voice was starting to tremble, and the edges of her crimson eyes were glistening with forming tears. "She's a little girl, Eirin! She's just a little girl! She's not some freak or monster to-"

"Yes, she is."

Eirin did not raise her voice or place any sort of emphasis on her words. If anything, they were spoken in an even lower tone than before. But they stopped Reisen in her tracks just the same.

"What?" Reisen whispered.

"Face the facts," Eirin said. "You know what she can do, what she's become. She is a freak. She is a monster. I know. I made her that way. And true, none of this is really her fault, when you get down to it. But an animal that has contracted a disease like rabies is likewise not to blame for falling ill. That doesn't mean it doesn't have to be put down."

Reisen blinked in confusion. "But I thought you already found the cure for-"

"Figure of speech," Eirin growled. She walked over to the box of ammunition and sat on top of it, her hands gripping the sides of the lid.

Reisen remained standing. "But why you?" she said. "Why do you have to go buy all these fancy guns and go after her? Why can't you just leave her-"

The lips peeled away from Eirin's teeth, and her breathing started to sound more like a snarl. "Because," she said. "She's _my _freak, _my _monster, and so she's _my _responsibility! What about that is so hard to understand?"

Reisen was again struck dumb. She could only stand and stare.

Eirin closed her eyes and concentrated on bringing her heartbeat under control. When she did, she opened them and said, "I know what you think of me. And everyone else for that matter. I'm not stupid, Reisen. And I know perfectly well what I did to that girl." She shook her head. "I used her for my ambitions, and ruined her life. Just like I always do."

"Huh?" Reisen said, blinking.

"What, you thought Rin was the first?" Eirin said with a small, bitter laugh. "Have you so quickly forgotten Kaguya?"

"The Princess?" Reisen now sounded even more confused.

"Yes. The Princess," Eirin said. Her fingers tightened their grip. "She wanted some way to break out of the hierarchy of birth. I wanted to establish myself as the greatest alchemist who had ever lived." She let out another mirthless laugh. "And let's face it, all the prestige that would have come had she actually taken the throne would have been fantastic. But how did that turn out, for either of us?"

Reisen didn't need to respond. They both knew the answer. Kaguya had been arrested and condemned by the Lunarian court, her own family. She had then been stripped of everything she had, both her material possessions and her royal title, and exiled to Earth. As for Eirin, rather than become the legendary doctor and scholar she had been trying for, she had ended up selling antibiotics and recreational drugs to technologically primitive Humans and youkai.

"And after, when the princess and I found ourselves stranded on Earth, whose idea do you think it was for Kaguya to mingle and interact with the local nobility?" Eirin continued. "My attempt to adapt and once again bid for power resulted in Fujiwara no Mokou. It happens again and again. I try to come up with an impenetrable defense for the Lunarian Capital, and spend the next few centuries wincing every time I hear about a velmick-caused fatality. I create a drug that gives the user highly vivid lucid dreams, and it turns out half the Human Village has driven themselves mad with nightmares."

Reisen gulped. "Wait, that last part happened?"

"No, it didn't happen," Eirin said with a roll of her eyes. "But would you be surprised if it did? Just another miraculous success turning into disaster." She nodded toward the table of weapons next to her, lined up in their neat little rows. "And now, we have Rin. I'm not going to let this continue, Reisen." Kaguya's voice hardened. "And I'm not going to let Kaguya suffer any more because of me. I'm going to save her, and I'm going to end this."

It felt strange, saying all that out loud. Ever since the second Satsuki incident, Eirin had been careful to keep her feelings restrained. To remain focused on the problems at hand and work on resolving them without thinking about the exact nature of the incident. Of course, the fact that the exact nature involved Satsuki coming back, wrecking Eientei (again) and taking Kaguya away from her, that had been less than easy. And her own near-death experience had further complicated matters. But she had kept it all bottled up the best she could. After all, she was the acting head of Eientei. It would not do to lose face.

But over the last few of days, when her injuries had forced her to remain in bed under the haze of drug-induced hallucinations and feverish dreams, keeping a lid on her emotions had become next to impossible. It was just as well that her door had been locked, preventing anyone from seeing the shuddering wreck she had become. Of course, the mask had gone right back on when she had reemerged, but her emotions were now swimming all that more closer to the surface. In fact, it was just as well that she was having this conversation now, as she was due to slip sooner or later. Though the irony that it would be Reisen to be the one to make her finally come out and admit it was not lost on her.

A few seconds ticked by, and then Reisen said, "But why do you need to kill her? Why not keep working for a cure? We're not fugitives anymore, so it's not like you're hurting for resources."

Eirin rolled her eyes. She stood up, walked over to one of the metal cabinets that lined the wall, and opened it up. From inside she pulled out a tiny refrigeration unit. Frozen inside was a single specimen vial.

Within the vial, seemingly unaffected by the freezing temperature, was a tiny bead of transparent ooze.

Reisen's jaw dropped when she realized what it was. Her pupils narrowed as she stared at the vial. They then jumped to Eirin, questions filling her eyes.

"I recovered this after Flandre Scarlet blew her apart," Eirin said. "I've been working off-and-on ever since trying to find something that'll take effect, something that'll make it turn back to flesh. After we went public, I thought that our newfound connections would allow me to find something that would work. But it doesn't matter what I do, it just keeps adapting and staying the way it is. I even tried working a tracking spell through it to find the rest of the whole, and it just absorbed that as well." She put the vial back into the cabinet and closed it.

"But why didn't you tell me?" Reisen asked.

"What would be the point? It wasn't working. All it would do is give you false hope."

"But-"

"Reisen," Eirin said as sympathetically as she could. "Please, see reality. There _is _no cure. Rin isn't coming back. And I may not have the power to take back my mistakes or give her back her life, but I can at least release her from her torment. I owe her that much."

Reisen stared at her feet. She sniffed and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Eirin sympathized. Despite her notoriously bad luck, Reisen always had been a bit of an optimist. And despite everything that had happened, she would have kept clinging to the belief that Rin could be cured, that she would get her adopted daughter back. Eirin didn't blame her in the slightest. She had entertained similar thoughts following Kaguya's exile from the Moon. But in the end, she had come to accept that neither she nor Kaguya were ever going to realize their dreams. It was time that Reisen came to terms with her own hard truth.

Eirin did not like doing this to her assistant, especially since it was her fault that Reisen was even in this situation. But in the end, it was best that Reisen come to accept reality. As hard as it was, she needed to come to terms with the facts. It was the only way she would be able to move on after Rin's inevitable death.

Then Reisen looked up. Her eyes were still wet with tears, but they were steady with determination. She took a deep breath and said, "You're wrong."

Eirin's head jerked back in surprise. She blinked and said, "Excuse me?"

"You're wrong," Reisen said again. There was a slight quaver to her voice. She seemed to be struggling to get the words out, to contradict her master, but she was doing it anyway. "You…You tried. I get that, and I appreciate it. But just because you failed doesn't mean a cure doesn't exist."

Eirin stared at her but didn't offer argument, so Reisen pressed on. "I mean, isn't Gensokyo supposed to be the land of miracles? Where the unattainable goes to live when people stop believing in it? Do we even care about what's possible or not even more? I thought reality was just something to be laughed at, if we notice it at all."

Reisen shook her head and let out a small laugh. "I'm sorry, but I just can't accept that, after all we've seen, after all we've done, that there's something impossible. I can't accept that there's no way she can be saved. It's out there somewhere." She looked toward the door. "And I'm going to find it."

"Excuse me?" Eirin said. Now it was her turn to struggle with disbelief "Are you insane? You're not going out there."

Reisen gulped, but said, "Yes…yes I am."

"No, you're not. You're going back to your quarters, and you're going to stay there."

Reisen said nothing.

"That's an _order," _Eirin said, making damned sure that the final word had full emphasis.

"I know," Reisen said. To Eirin's surprise, the Lunarian rabbit was smiling. It was a sad smile, perhaps a little regretful. But it was still a smile. "But I'm afraid…that I cannot obey."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"I quit."

…

_Hunter's Interlude the First_

"You know, I'm really starting to have second thoughts about this," Tony growled. He glared down from his position high on the wall of the acorn-shaped treehouse that he shared with his partner.

His companion, a purple-haired woman with a sharp face, looked up from polishing her katana. "Is that right?" she said.

"Yeah, I'm thinking this whole thing is gonna be more trouble than it's worth," he said as he grumpily crossed his arms. "I mean, come on. Sure, the money sounds fantastic, but when the job's being posted by Cirno's Gang and sponsored by Yuuka bloody Kazami, it starts getting a whole lot less legit."

"As opposed to a job posted by any other youkai?" his partner said dryly. She held up her blade and gave it a few experimental swings.

Tony pushed up the brim of his bowler hat to scratch his forehead. "Hey, look here Meira. I don't exactly have the best track record with those guys, okay? The first time I ever met that dumbass fairy, she done froze me solid just for offering me help. And when I dared to complain, I got me ass blown to pieces by that flower-loving nutter!"

"Then it's just your good fortune that this job will soften their opinion of you, arachnid," Meira said. Satisfied with its condition, she returned her blade to its scabbard and stood. "Besides, the money isn't the point."

"Is that right?" Tony smiled his quivering smile. "All right poppet, enlighten me."

"Power," Meira said. "It's all about power. That beast has it, and we're going to take it."

"Yeah? And exactly how are you planning on doing that? Because from what I've heard, this thing is more of a taker than a giver."

"I was speaking of the power of reputation. It has it, so when we take it down, its power will be ours. Money is transient. Power is what lasts."

Tony laughed. He pushed himself off the wall to land next to Meira. "That right? But I sure as hell hope you've got some sort of idea how we're gonna pull it off. Because from what I hear, we've got all kinds of competition."

"Irrelevant," Meira said. She straightened out her red and white robe. "It doesn't matter how many other base creatures stand in the way. In the end, we will triumph."

"Ha! Well, at least you've got confidence," Tony said with a rolled of his bulbous eyes. "Though I do seem to remember you giving a similar sort of speech, right before you decided to attack the Hakurei shrine mai-"

The katana was drawn in a flash and the tip pressed against the underside of Tony's jaw. "Just keep talking arachnid," Meira hissed. "See where that gets you."

Tony sighed. "Yeah, sorry to break this to you, but those sorts of threats really ain't as intimidating to youkai as they are to you Humans." He pushed the blade away from his face.

Meira grudgingly resheathed her sword. "This time it will be different. I promise you."

"Tough words, samurai. Can you back them up?"

"Yes. This time, I will prevail. I will slay the monster and claim the reward, and thereby redeeming my family's name in the eyes of-"

"-of all those who looked down and mocked yadda-yadda-yadda," Tony said with a yawn. "Same speech, every time. Sorry poppet, but it's lost its ability to impress. This one'll be just like the others, and soon I'll be hearing the same two words from you I always hear."

Meira gritted her teeth. "And pray tell, what two words would those be?"

Tony grinned at her. "Oh, you know the ones. As soon as things start getting too hot, you throw in the towel and say…"

…

"I quit."

Eirin and Reisen stared at another. The words hung heavy in the air between. Two words, both harmless in of themselves. But when strung together, their significance increased by a substantial amount. Especially considering the person who was speaking them. And the person they were being spoken to.

The surprise wasn't enough to make Eirin take a step back, but she did lean away from Reisen as her eyebrows moved higher on her forehead. "You…quit?" she said. She wasn't entirely certain if she had heard her assistant right. "You quit?"

"Yes," Reisen said. She seemed to have difficulty believing that she was doing this as well. "I…quit. Huh. I quit." A slow smile spread across her face, made up of equal parts disbelief and exhilaration. "Wow."

"That's one way of putting it," Eirin hissed. "Though it falls far short of the appropriate emotional reaction." She took a step forward and snarled, "You _quit? _We took you in after your own exile, fed and sheltered you for almost five decades, and you're just going to quit?"

Reisen hands were trembling, but she nodded.

"Why?"

"Because you're wrong. About her, I mean. About Rin."

Eirin resisted the eye roll she fell tugging. "Yes, miracles and all that. We went over this."

"Not that," Reisen said. "I mean what you said before. About Rin being your…your monster. You're wrong." She took a deep breath to steady her nerves and continued. "Sure, the formula may be yours, and I'm not arguing that…what happened was your doing, so the responsibility may be yours. But not Rin herself. I'm the one who found her in that cage. I'm the one who brought her back, who…who taught her to read and walk and played with her and made sure she was loved while you barely even noticed that she was there. She was always just a nuisance to you, and come to think of it, she still is. Fine. Okay. But don't think that she's yours, because she's not. Rin's mine. And if this is your way of taking responsibility, then I'm not going to stand aside anymore. I'm going to get her back myself."

Eirin was still unable to believe that Reisen was being serious. "You're really doing this, aren't you?" she said. "After all we've done for you, you're going to choose her over us."

In response, Reisen her hands on the front of her thighs and bowed low. "Thank you for everything you've done for me," she said. To Eirin's surprise, the tone was completely sincere. "I won't forget it."

"Oh, I know you won't," Eirin snarled. She started to move forward. "Because you're not going anywhere." Her voice took on an edge of desperation. "You're not leaving me, Reisen. Not you too. Not now."

Reisen swallowed. "I'm sorry. Tell the others that I'm sorry too."

She turned toward the door. And then, something inside Eirin snapped.

"Wait!" she said. She lunged forward to grab Reisen by the shoulder. "You can't do this! I won't let you!"

There was brief moment of struggle, and then Reisen whirled around and their eyes met. Then there was a sudden flash of bright red, and the Eirin's mind exploded into a million singing bits. Her eyes rolled back, and the rest of her sentence dissolved into nonsense as she slumped to the floor.

…

_Hunter's Interlude the Second_

Tenshi Hinanai threw the doors to the armory wide open and marched in. All around, the extensive collection of weaponry owned by her family was displayed upon racks, upon long tables and within clear crystal cases. Unlike the ornamental blades and suits of armor that were put on display here and there throughout the palace, these were not intended for decoration. These were tools intended to hurt and, if possible kill. Exactly what she needed.

"_Chiko, darling, I don't believe this is such a good idea," _said the voice of her mother, over the palace's extensive intercom system. _"Are you certain that you've thought this through?"_

Tenshi ignored her. She walked over to a table that held several bladed rings eight inches in diameter. Each ring had a section along its circumference about three inches long that was dulled and wrapped in leather. She picked up six of the rings stared at them. Under her gaze, they shrunk down to a tenth of their size. These were then snapped into place into the waiting grooves along her left sleeve.

"_Dear heart, you know we would never stand in the way of your goals and dreams," _said her father's voice. _"But I'm afraid I must agree with your mother. This may not be the wisest choice."_

Hanging on a hook that jutted from the wall was a length of metal chain with a small but heavy round weight at one end and a sharp spike at the other. She picked it up and looped it around her belt.

"_Sweetie, you know we only want what's best for you," _her mother said. _"And to be quite frank, this whole bounty hunter business sounds quite deplorable. It's beneath a lady of your stature!"_

This time Tenshi did pause long enough to cast a reproachful glare in the intercom's direction. Bounty hunter? As if she would bother with that. Money was of no interest to her. No, she was interested in one thing and one thing only: finally earning some damned respect. And if her parents were so thick that they couldn't see that, then they deserved her disregard.

She walked to the far end of the armory, where several large stones sat in neat rows. When it came to items of earth magic, the keystones were among the most powerful, and as such they were a favorite plaything of hers. Granted, some of her past games had landed her in a deep trouble, but that had not been due to any failure on the stones' part. Tenshi snapped her fingers, and five of the stones lifted off the ground to float towards her. By the time they reached her open hand they were the size of walnuts. She slipped them into the leather pouch that hung at her side and carefully sealed it shut.

"_Be reasonable, darling," _her father said. _"I understand that you're upset, but going off on some mad quest isn't the way to express yourself! Why don't you come up? I'll make you a nice cup of tea, and we can talk about-"_

That did it. Tenshi seized up a throwing star and hurled it at the intercom. The infuriating voices of her parents cut off as sparks flew from the murdered machine.

"I think I've had enough of that," she muttered. Then she walked over to where a full suit of samurai armor stood waiting. Ignoring the armor itself, Tenshi instead pulled its sword free from the scabbard and held it up so that she could see her reflection in its blade.

Her face had much improved from the state it had been when she had finally crawled out of bed a few days ago. Now that she had a mission, it was almost glowing with purpose. She grinned and held the sword up. A small infusion of will, and the blade erupted with color, illuminating the cold recesses of the armory and sending rainbows everywhere.

…

Reisen stared slack-jawed as Eirin collapsed to the ground. The hand holding her shoulder spasmed and then flopped its way down the front of her shirt to finally come to rest next to Eirin's prone form.

She wondered if she was dreaming. Yes, that would make sense. She had had dreams about screaming at Eirin in the past. This was just another one. Or perhaps it was a highly vivid daydream. She had been rehearsing what she wanted to say to Eirin so many times that her mind was now tricking itself into believing that it was actually happening. Or perhaps she was going mad. Stress will do that to a mind, and she had been under considerable stress as of late. She nodded to herself. Yes, one of those had to be the real explanation. There was no way she had actually just called Eirin out, quit her job and used her madness inducing abilities on-

Eirin's head lolled back and forth. Her eyes remained open, though they spun around in their sockets every which way. Her mouth kept moving, releasing a constant stream of whispered babble.

A sharp chill went down Reisen's spine as her heartbeat sped up. That had just happened. She had actually done it. She hadn't intended to. It had been in the heat of the moment. But it had still happened. And not only that, she had so thoroughly eliminated any possibility of taking it back that it would be a miracle if she didn't surpass Rin as Eientei's most wanted.

With a small giggle, Eirin's head flopped toward her. Her lips parted in a wide grin. "There's a big, wide river," she singsonged. "Where all the little boats are made out of liver. Toupee!"

Reisen glanced over her shoulder. The door was still shut, and she heard nothing on the other side. She bit her lip, and then knelt down to pick Eirin up by the armpits.

As it turned out, the Lunarian doctor was a lot heavier than she looked, and Reisen huffed and puffed as she dragged her over to a nearby couch. She laid her (ex) mentor across the thin cushions. She hoped that Eirin was going to be all right. The bout of madness she had given her was temporary, but things could go wrong. Even though her natural affinity for waves did mean that she could induce madness with anyone that she locked eyes with, it was not a power she was comfortable with using. In fact, she had only used it twice since arriving in Gensokyo. The first time had been to make Tewi leave her alone, and the native-born rabbit's revenge had been so severe that Reisen hadn't dared do it again. The second time had been out of panic during her first meeting with Fujiwara no Mokou. Curiously enough though, Mokou had not sought revenge. It had taken Reisen nearly five years to work up the courage to ask her why, and had been surprised to find that not only had Mokou forgotten the whole incident, but upon being reminded, had told her that it had been "kind of cool" and suggested that Reisen start charging for its use as a form of recreation.

That of course was not something she had any intention of doing. But even if it was all temporary with no side-effects, Reisen didn't feel better. Despite the recovery she had undergone, Eirin was in bad condition, and there was no telling what that blast might do to her mind. For all Reisen knew, she might have just given her permanent brain damage.

"And as interesting as I find the tofu party favors, we all are termites under the sun," Eirin said in her lecture voice. "Nothing is made from the fat of a thousand pillow feathers, but I've been attacked by scorpions every day this week, and am growing sick of it!"

Reisen took a deep breath. Either way, she couldn't stay here. Either the effects weren't permanent, and Eirin would deal out some blistering punishment. Or the effects were permanent, and the Guard would line her up against the wall.

"I'm sorry," she said as she moved away from the couch. "I'm sorry. Try not to hate me. I'm sorry."

She turned away, only to jump as when Eirin's hand suddenly snapped up to grab her by the shoulder. Reisen looked down, fearing that Eirin had recovered her mind already, but the doctor's eyes remained unfocused and vague.

"Don't fear the Reaper," Eirin told her. "You are the Reaper."

"Uh, okay," Reisen said as she pulled herself free. "I'll keep that in mind."

Then she turned her attention to the weaponry Eirin had just purchased. She wondered if she should destroy them. There was no question that she wanted to, but she had no idea how, and it would probably just end up exploding in her face, so she had to reluctantly leave them where they were.

Instead, she went over to the cabinets, and withdrew the freezing unit with the small piece of Rin inside. She deactivated it and removed the vial. If she was going to do this, then she wasn't going to be half-assed about it. And that meant not leaving Eirin with any piece of Rin. Then, with the unit tucked under her arm, she ran from the room.

The hallway outside was empty, which was a relief. She carefully closed the door, wondered if she should lock it, but decided not to. Eirin might need the help. Then she quickly made her way through the clinic, out into the rain, and into the mansion.

No one tried to stop her as she made her way to her quarters, which was a relief. She still felt her heart lurch every time she passed someone in the hallway. But apparently Tewi's mallet-enforced lessons had been well learned, as none of the staff seemed interested in bothering her. She made it to her room and quickly shut the door.

Once inside, she let herself collapse shuddering against the door. Oh, she was so dead. Even if she got away now, sooner or later this was going to catch up with her. She was so freaking dead.

Reisen tried to laugh, but it came out as a sob. This was followed by another, and soon Reisen was curled up on the ground, weeping. This was the second time her mistakes had lost her a home. She had been lucky to find sanctuary after her banishment from the Lunarian Army. But Gensokyo was not a large place. She would not be so fortunate this time around.

Besides, she had _liked _living at Eientei. Sure, Eirin was harsh, and Tewi drove her absolutely bonkers. But Kaguya was fairly decent, and had been getting a lot more lenient as of late. And she had made a lot of friends with the local rabbit tribes. All the shopkeepers knew her name, and would always ask how things were going. And the Guard never had a problem with her tagging along on patrols. It had taken awhile, but she had started to feel like she belonged. But now, she had gone and betrayed the people who had done her so many favors. Again.

Reisen sniffed pushed herself up. Well, what was done was done. She had to concentrate on the now. She forced her feet to start moving, and was soon going through her things and packing the essentials into two suitcases and a backpack. Clothing, toiletries, travel gear, some rations and a few keepsakes from both the Moon and her time in Eientei. The picture of her and Rin was one of the first to get packed away, whereas the vial was wrapped in fabric and placed into a pouch to be worn on a sling.

Then she looked at Rin's belongings, the ones that Tewi had recovered for her and wondered if she should bring all of them. Finally she ended up packing away the diary, the books, the clothing and, after a brief debate, the mirror and hairbrush. There were still a few old hairs stuck between the bristles, and she was not going to leave any part of Rin behind, especially not the last remnant of her previous existence. The chemistry set was too decayed and delicate, so that was discarded. As for the erhu, it was too large to fit comfortably in her bags, so she wrapped it in sheets and secured it between the straps of one of the suitcases.

Once she was sure that she had everything that she could get with the time remaining, Reisen opened the window and looked outside. The courtyard was empty, with everyone either inside or patrolling the forest. She climbed down and dropped to the muddy flagstones with a grunt, closed the window, and took off running for the forest.

When she judged that she had put a safe amount of distance between herself and the mansion, Reisen crouched low, ready to spring into the air and take flight.

However, she was interrupted when someone threw a rock at her head.

It wasn't a large rock, barely more than a pebble. But it still stung. And Reisen had not been expecting it. She let out a yelp of surprise and whirled around, her hand leaping to the point of contact.

Tewi stood on the path behind her. Flanking the little rabbit were five of the Guard. And not just any members of the Guard, but five of the veterans, ones that had been part of the force for some time. Reisen recognized her friend Shiina, as well Sayu, Maki, Sayaka and Hitomi. Reisen had gotten to know them during the times she had accompanied their patrols. Which meant that their presence here made a certain amount of sense. They knew the forest better than most, and given the time of crisis it was only logical that they would be the ones to patrol it. It didn't make this confrontation any easier though, given Reisen's personal history with all of them.

The faces of the Eientei Guard were coolly neutral, professional. Tewi, however, had never cared one whit about keeping up appearances. As such, her face was bright red with anger.

"Where you do think you're going, floppy-ears?" she demanded. "Suitcases? Bags? Sneaking out the window? You're just gonna run away and leave us behind? Huh?"

"Uh…" Reisen looked down at the suitcases in her hands and her brain froze up. "I…uh…was planning on flying actually…"

Her response was rewarded with another flung stone. "Idiot!" Tewi yelled. "So things get a little crappy and you run away? So what if Eirin's being snappy with you? Boo hoo! Get over it!"

Reisen blinked. So they didn't know what had just happened. She glanced up at Shiina, who frowned and cocked her head.

"Reisen," Shiina said. "What happened?"

Reisen inhaled. "Eirin just had a bunch of Kappa-made weapons delivered. All very high tech. All specially made to hurt Rin."

A small wave of understanding swept through the Guard as they exchanged looks and murmurs. Tewi, however, didn't even bother to hide her outrage, or the angry tears that were pouring from her eyes. "So you're just gonna go and abandon us then? Choose her over us?"

Which had been more-or-less what Eirin had said to her. Breathe in the irony. "Yes, Tewi," Reisen said with a reluctant nod. "I can't just-"

"Save it," Tewi growled. "Just…save it. I don't care. If you're gonna go, then go." She picked up another rock and threw it at her, though her aim was off this time. "Go on!" she shouted as she threw more rocks, each one even more poorly aimed than the last. "Get out of here already! It's not like you care about us! So go!"

With that, she turned and ran back toward Eientei, her bare feet splashing through unheeded puddles.

Reisen and the Guard stared after her. Reisen felt the lump in her throat grow. That had been much more painful than she would have expected. Tewi had been one of the chief sources of the grief Reisen had undergone ever since coming here. But for some reason, those accusations of betrayal had hurt more coming from her than they had coming from Eirin.

She looked at the Guard and said, "Guys, I'm…I'm so sor-"

Shiina raised a hand, cutting her off. "No, no. Don't apologize. We get why you're doing this."

"You do?" Reisen blinked.

"Reisen," Maki said. "You weren't the only one to help raise that kid. We were there too."

"I cried for a solid week after she got sentenced," Hitomi said. "No joke."

"She did," Sayaka confirmed. "It was real awkward."

"And heck," Shiina said with a shrug. "After what happened, I was about to turn in my resignation as well. Still might, all things considered."

Reisen's eyes went wide. "Please don't," she begged. "I don't want to drag anyone else down with me."

"Who said it was for you?" Shiina said. She shook her head. "So, lots of anti-Rin Satsuki guns, huh?"

Reisen nodded.

"Figured that's what it had to be, when I saw all those crates that Kappa was bringing in." Shiina muttered. "I mean, I know she's dangerous and all, but she's just a kid." She kicked a nearby stone and sent it sailing into the forest. "I hate this business."

There were murmurs of agreement all around, Reisen's among them. Then she hesitated and said, "You realize that Eirin's probably going to have me declared criminal after all this, right? She might even have you guys try to bring me in."

"Sure, she might," Shiina said with a crooked grin. "But I wouldn't count on us trying too hard. Just don't do something really stupid and get yourself hurt. I'd hate for us to risk court-marital for nothing."

Reisen managed a weak smile. "Thank you," she said. "For everything."

"Find our girl and bring her back, and I'll put in a good word for you at your trial," Shiina said. "And maybe I'll discover that my trigger finger's developed a crippling cramp should Eirin line you up against the wall."

With that, she snapped to attention and saluted. The girls standing behind her wasted no time following suit.

Reisen's throat constricted. She didn't trust herself to speak. So instead, she responded with a salute of her own. Then she turned and ran. And when she realized that she didn't have to do that, she leapt into the air and stayed there, moving above the bamboo trees and into the open sky.

…

_Hunter's Interlude the Third_

Rikako Asakura pulled off her goggles and wiped her grimy face with her even grimier sleeve. The improvement was negligible. "All right, try it again," she said into a portable mic.

From her position in their project's cockpit, Rika grinned and flashed her sister a thumb's-up. She flicked three switches and gripped the control stick.

Electricity hummed and gears turned as their creation powered on. With a metallic groan it shoved itself up on its many legs and heaved its massive body off the ground.

"Come on, come on," Rikako muttered. She spoke into the mic. "How are things looking from your end?"

"_So far, so good," _came Rika's voice. _"Looks like all systems are…Ah, bloody hell. That was fast."_

Rikako felt a sudden chill. "What? What's going on?"

"_Uh…You might want to stand back…"_

A shrill shriek filled the interior of the Asakura Science Foundation's workshop. Sparks and smoke poured out of their project's seams as its legs suddenly slipped out from under it, dropping the huge mass to the floor. Then, with a sigh that almost sounded like a death gurgle, the whole thing powered off.

The resulting shockwave nearly bowled Rikako over. She managed to steady herself on a nearby table and grabbed at the mic. "Rika! Are you okay?"

"_Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," _Rika coughed. _"Hang on…"_

The cockpit opened, releasing a thick billow of smoke. Rika emerged from the cloud and leapt to the ground, coughing and wheezing the whole way. Rikako handed her a bottle of water, from which she drank greedily.

"Well, that sucked," Rika said as soon as she was able. "Still, at least we got the bloody thing to turn on. That's a sure improvement." Her face darkened under the mask of ash and grease. "Though it's far from enough. I'm telling you, sis. This had better work. Because if it turns out we did all this work and Satsuki ends up cleaning our clocks anyway, I'm gonna be all kinds of pissed."

"Calm down, everything will be fine," Rikako answered. She walked over to where a bucket of mostly clear water sat with a pile of towels. "After all, who knows more about her than we do? If someone's got the best chance of bringing her down, it's us," she said as she picked one up and started wiping her face.

"Uh, try Eirin Yagokoro?" Rika said as she followed. "By a whole lot, in fact."

Rikako shrugged. "She's way too busy trying to keep a handle on things back at Eientei to be considered competition. We got off lucky in comparison. Honestly, haven't you heard of all the hot water they're in? Plus there's whole losing her princess thing. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up going completely insane, if the stress doesn't kill her first."

…

It was a strange thing, recovering from madness. Eirin's mind was playing host to a parade of colors, images and sounds, and she didn't even possess the cognitive abilities to realize that something was wrong.

However, over time the chaos faded away, and sentience slowly reestablished dominance. Eirin's face twitched, and her murmured babbling slowed to a halt. Her vision focused, and she pushed herself up on her elbows.

"Ugh," she groaned as she pressed a hand against her aching head. "What the hell? Where…?"

She squinted through bleary eyes at the world around her. From the look of things, she was in her workshop. That was nothing new. But why was she here to begin with? Had she been working late and collapsed from exhaustion? It had been known to happen in the past.

Then her eyes fell upon the table and all the hardware it contained, and it all came rushing back.

"Reisen!" she cried as she sat straight up. The sudden motion sent a spike of pain through her head, forcing her back down. She growled, and forced herself to roll to her feet.

"Reisen!" she said as she stumbled her way across the workshop. "Reisen! Where are you?"

It didn't take long to confirm that Reisen was gone. She found a clock and was relieved to find that she had only been down for a few minutes. Reisen couldn't have gone far. There was still time. Eirin gritted her teeth and moved toward the intercom on the wall. The Guard would be able to stop her. Reisen wasn't particularly fast. It wasn't too late.

It was then that she noticed the cabinet door hanging open. Eirin paused in her tracks and redirected her path toward the cabinets.

A brief look confirmed her fears. The freezing unit was empty. Reisen had taken the piece of Rin. Eirin's shoulders slumped. While it was no great loss, it did mean that Reisen really meant what she had said, about abandoning Eientei in favor of Rin Satsuki.

Of course, that bout of forced insanity had pretty much made that clear.

Her hands pressed against the countertop as she hunched over. Her body starting trembling.

Then the door swung open behind her to slam into the wall. "Eirin!" Tewi yelled as she ran into the room. "Reisen's running away!"

Eirin looked up at the ceiling. "I _know _that, Tewi!" she said without turning around.

"Then why are you just standing there?" Tewi demanded. "We need to go after her! She's going to just leave us and-urk!"

The ability to teleport was something gifted to a scant few, and Eirin was not among their number. And yet, considering how quickly she covered the distance between her and Tewi, a strong case could be made for her possessing the skill.

She lifted the little rabbit up by the collar so that they were eye-to-eye. "I. _Know. _That. TEWI!" she roared.

Tewi did not frighten easily. And yet, in that moment, she was frozen stiff with terror.

"You saw her, didn't you?" Eirin said. "You probably even talked to her. Why, then, didn't you try to stop her?"

Tewi didn't answer, though she did swallow audibly.

Eirin held her aloft for a moment longer, her steel grey eyes boring into Tewi's wide stare. Then she let the little rabbit drop with a sigh.

"All right," she said. "Here's what we're going to do. Go round up whatever members of the Eientei Guard you can find, spread out through the forest, and _find _her!"

Tewi was quick to nod. Then her eyes fell upon the assortment of weapons on the table.

"Hey," she said, pointing. "Are those-"

Eirin snarled as her trembling hands squeezed into fists at her side. Raw power surged up and down her arms. The clinic's foundation rumbled and the lights dimmed.

Tewi fled the room as quick as her feet would take her.

With a great effort of will, Eirin forced her fingers to unclench and brought her power under control. Once she was sure that she would not self-destruct from rage, she also left the room, taking care to lock the door behind her. Then, on an impulse, she cast defensive ward on the door. The weapons inside were too valuable to simply leave lying around without some sort of protection.

From there, she made her way to her office. As she walked, she tried to sort her way through the storm of emotions that clouded her mind. This proved to be easier said than done. Reisen had betrayed her. Reisen had attacked her. Eirin couldn't wrap her mind around that. It went contrary to…everything.

She arrived at her office and unlocked the door. From there, she went inside and locked the door behind her. Then she went behind the desk and allowed herself to collapse back into the chair.

Eirin stared up at the ceiling. She knew she should be planning on how she was going to salvage this little crisis, but she just couldn't get her mind to cooperate.

"Damn it," she growled. She brought her fist down on the desk top hard enough to rattle its contents. Then she did it again and again, keeping time with her cursing. "Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!"

A coffee mug fell from her desk to shatter on the floor. Eirin froze. She stared at the broken pieces of ceramic, her fist partially raised in the air.

Then she slowly sat back down with a sigh. No. She couldn't lose control now. She had to get a hold on herself. She had to think. She had to plan.

While she tried to come up with some way to repair this latest disaster, her gaze moved across the top of her desk. At first she didn't notice anything amiss, given how preoccupied she was. But then she frowned and leaned in closer. Her instincts were pushing at her, telling her that something new was wrong. But what?

Then she noticed it.

Given the sensitivity of their contents, Eirin normally kept her notes on Rin locked up in her safe. However, today she had slipped up and left them on the desk. Understandable, given that she had only just returned from bed rest and was still feeling the effects of both her injuries and the drugs she was taking to fight them. Also, she had been anticipating Nitori's delivery, and was thus a little distracted. And given the stress she was under due to the incident at large, she could possibly be forgiven for momentary carelessness. After all, her office had been locked, and everyone knew that trespassers entered at extreme peril.

Regardless, her notes were missing.

Eirin stared at the place she had left them. Then, moving in a calm and precise manner, she checked the top of the desk, moving aside books, stationary, writing utensils and a potted fern. After that, she opened all of the desk's drawers and rifled through their contents. When she was sure that her notes were nowhere on or in the desk, she expanded her search by checking the floor under and around the desk and emptying out the wastebasket. Following this, she carefully went through her file cabinets and ended with opening the hidden safe and looking inside.

Eirin found pretty much everything else that her office contained. She even located a personalized silver pen that Kaguya had given her as a Christmas present which had gone missing some months ago. Any other time this would have thrilled her, but folder containing her notes did not turn up. It was gone.

With a reflective look on her face, Eirin sat back down. She twirled her pen in her fingers while she thought. She distinctly remembered reviewing her notes when she had gotten the message that Nitori had arrived. And with some concentration she could remember placing the folder down and leaving the room. Obviously it had not gotten up and left on its own, so someone had entered her officer and taken it.

Upon that conclusion, Eirin got up and left the room to contact the Eientei Guard. Between Reisen walking out unchallenged and this theft both taking place within the same hour, she was going to have some serious words with them concerning their security arrangements.

However, she got as far a halfway down the hallway when a noise attracted her attention, coming from a nearby janitorial closet. Something was thumping against the door, accompanied by muffled cries for help. With a sigh, Eirin went to investigate. Though it was just a hunch, she had a feeling that her day was about to get worse.

Sure enough, opening the closet door revealed Utada staring up at her. The Eientei Guard officer had her arms tied securely to her torso and her legs bound together by two lengths of cord. Her mouth was gagged by a worn rag tied securely around her head.

Eirin took in a deep breath and slowly let it out through her teeth. "Well," she said. "I'd like to say I'm surprised, but at this point…" She reached down and pulled the gag out.

Utada coughed. "Oh, thank you!" she gasped.

"Hmmm." Eirin looked Utada up and down. "Utada, I know these are strange days, but this is just embarrassing. How in the world did you end up like this?"

"I don't know," Utada said with a shake of her head.

"Oh, come on." Eirin pulled the rabbit to her feet and started snapping the cords binding her arms in place. "You must have _some _idea."

"I'm sorry, but I don't." Her arms free, Utada bent down to work on freeing her legs. "That Kappa engineer arrived, and I was heading to your office to tell you, like you said. But then someone hit me from behind and the next thing I knew…" Utada looked at the interior of the closet and sighed.

Eirin arched a silver eyebrow. "Excuse me? You were attacked on the way _to _my office? Not from?"

"I'm afraid so, Ma'am."

"So you never made it there."

Utada managed to loosen the cord enough to wiggle her legs free. She kicked the cord aside in disgust. "No."

"I see. Then who, may I ask, was it that showed up at my office door, wearing your face and using your voice, to tell me that the Kappa engineer was here to see me?"

Shock filled Utada's face. Her spine stiffened and she stared at Eirin with bewildered eyes.

"Well, this isn't good," Eirin muttered, more to herself than Utada. To the rabbit, she said, "All right, looks like we have a problem that needs to be seen to. People attacking and then impersonating members of the Guard. Private files being stolen right out of my office, which just happened by the way, probably by the same person." Her eyes narrowed. "And oh yes, Reisen _attacking _me and running off with my personal equipment!"

"What?" Utada, already in deep shock, was approaching catatonic levels. "Huh? She…what?"

"Yes, we got into a bit of a spat over the Satsuki thing and she overreacted. Very unfortunate. So, right now the thing to do would be to go gather the rest of your girls, begin a thorough investigation into how your security could have been so thoroughly bypassed, figure out who our mysterious infiltrator is, retrieve my property and find Reisen before she _gets herself killed!"_

"R-Right!" Utada snapped out of her stupor and saluted. "At once!"

Eirin stepped aside and motioned down the hall with both arms. Taking the hint, Utada sprinted off as fast as she could, though she still stumbled some, likely an aftereffect from the blow to her head.

That taken care of, Eirin returned to her office and locked the door. Then she returned to her chair and leaned back as she pondered this new troubling sequence of events.

Her list of suspects was small. Nitori Kawashiro had expressed interest in the information that those notes had contained, so she was on it. And taking on the form of Utada would not be out of the range of Kappa camouflage technology. Not at the top though. Why would she probe Eirin for information about Satsuki if she already had it? Furthermore, she had been genuinely frightened when she had fled the building, and unless it had all been some sort of spectacular act and she had broken into the office while Eirin had been with Reisen, then it probably wasn't her. She was still under suspicion though.

However, all that was just a formality. Eirin already knew who had taken it. Reisen had made off with Rin fragment. It would only make sense that she would deprive Eirin of anything that could be used against the mutated Kirin. Even if she hadn't been the one to attack Utada and wear her face, she was probably working with the person who had. There were plenty of wild youkai with any number of skills for hire.

But then, Eirin wondered, why hadn't she destroyed the weapons? And why hadn't she made sure that Eirin would be incapacitated longer than she had? Were the guns now sabotaged? Had she planted some sort of subconscious suggestion in Eirin's mind that would influence her future actions? Those were possibilities that she would definitely have to look into.

Eirin shook her head. All this didn't make much sense, but then, nothing about everything that had happened over the last few minutes did. The Guard will have found Reisen and brought her back soon enough. She could deal with those problems then.

As she stood up, Eirin was struck with a sudden realization. Earlier, she had impressed upon Reisen about how so many of her attempts to accomplish something great resulted in complete disaster, and when she tried to make them right it only made things worse. And now Reisen had been added to that very list.

Eirin put her hands on her hips and sighed. Well, wasn't that just ironic?

Then with a cry of pure frustration, she slammed her fist right through her desk, breaking it in half.

…

_Hunter's Interlude the Fourth_

Nitori breathed a sigh of relief when she finally reached the Untrodden Valley, a deep gulf that lay at the base of the Youkai Mountain. It was here that the mountain's legendary waterfall, the Waterfall of Nine Heavens, came to rest, spilling into a river that cut through the center of the valley. Like many Kappa who lived outside of their species' village, Nitori had set up her home in the valley so as to take advantage of the humid climate and the natural power source that the waterfall provided.

Although she did not mind the weather in the slightest, Nitori was still thankful to be home. Her conversation with Eirin Yagokoro had deeply shaken her, and despite how far they had come as a species it was still within a Kappa's instincts to run home and hide after a fright. Plus, ever since she had left Eientei, she hadn't been able to shake the feeling that someone was following her. Of course she saw no one every time she had checked over her shoulder, but the feeling would not stop crawling over her skin.

She touched down in the squishy mud of the riverbank and started jogging toward the entrance to her home. But before she reached shelter someone landed behind her with a _plop._

Nitori froze. She slowly turned her head to look over her shoulder. Again, no one was there.

Fingers trembling, she reached up to tap a button on the side of her goggles. The world became outlined by heat rather than visible color as the infrared mode activated. But once again, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Nitori scanned the area twice before letting the breath she had been holding free. Maybe she was just getting paranoid. She turned back to head toward her home.

"Excuse me," said someone nearby. "I'm over here."

Nitori squeaked in surprise. She whirled around as her hand reflexively snapped to the controls she wore on the opposite wrist.

From her backpack shot out four mechanical limbs, each one ending in a different instrument: a snapping claw, a tiny minigun, a missile launcher and a spinning drill. They curled defensively around the Kappa, ready to tear apart anyone who would dare threaten their creator.

However, the newcomer did not seem intimidated. "A bit on edge, aren't you?" remarked a tall woman as she stepped from the shadows. "Put those away. I'm not here to fight."

Nitori glared suspiciously at the newcomer. The majority of her body was covered by a dark hooded cloak. She could still see the woman's face, however. Pale skin, with so many freckles that one could be forgiven for believing them cancerous. String red hair framed her face, and deep maroon eyes watched the Kappa in amusement.

"Whos you be?" Nitori demanded.

"Just a passerby who overhead your predicament," the woman said.

"Wha?"

"I was passing by in the clinic," the woman nodded back in the direction of the Bamboo Forest "when I heard you talking to the doctor. Or rather, being aggressively talked down to by the doctor."

Nitori glared suspiciously at her. "Oh heys? Was you dats follows I?"

"Yes. I have something I want to discuss with you." The woman spread her hands. "A business arrangement, if you will."

"Oy? Bout whats?"

"Yuuka Kazami's bounty. Thinking about going after it, aren't you?"

Nitori frowned. So that was what this was all about. She relaxed the hand holding the artificial arms' controls. "Was."

"So I gathered. Though I'm curious. If Yagokoro already gave you enough information about the devouring creature to put those weapons together, what else did you need from her?"

"Eh, gots plenty infos for attacks, sure," Nitori said with a shrug. "But protects? Defensivenesses? Not so lot."

"Ah," the woman said. Her pupils narrowed by a bit. "What of that article the Kakashi Nenpo put out a few days ago, the interview with Yukari Yakumo? Surely there was enough information to go off of in there."

Nitori snorted. "Tengu paper. Chatting tos Yukari Yakumo. Not lots of truthiness."

"I see," the woman mused. There was a note of approval in her voice. "You didn't trust what was said, so you went straight to the source. You are pretty smart, after all."

Nitori scowled. "Oy, I is. So what's you wanted?"

"Same as you," came the reply. "Bring down the beast. Collect the bounty."

"But der doctor lady-"

"Forget what she said. She has too much riding on this to be trusted. But let's say you did get all the inside information, the original notes from when the creature was created. Would you be able to put something together that could take it on?"

"Sure," Nitori said with a shrug. "If I knows what it can does, I cans scrippy something to beats it, sure. But I not get-"

From inside her robe, the woman produced a large folder, the cover of which was marked with a large red X.

"Eirin Yagokoro's personal notes," she explained. "I took the liberty of retrieving them from her office while you were busy making your sales pitch." She smirked. "Apparently the stress from her injuries has made her a bit sloppy. It was right there, on her desk."

Nitori's eyes bulged behind her goggles. "What? Gimme!"

She lunged for the folder, only to have it pulled back.

"Ah, ah, ah," the woman scolded. "And keep those mechanical snappers well away from me. I'm not giving it away for free."

Nitori scowled as she tilted her head. "What'cher interests den?"

"It's simple. You have the technology and the firepower needed to bring this thing down. I have the information you need, plus a few other tricks as well. We work together on this and split the bounty."

"Splits?" Nitori thought about that. "Halves not so great as fulls."

"Better than none, and half of that bounty is still a lot of money."

"P'raps," Nitori admitted. "But how'ds I makes sure dat's for rights? Can bes any old folders."

"A valid point," the woman said with a nod. "We can go over the information in depth, and you can decide for yourself if you think it's legitimate or not. But say you are convinced. Would you be open to my proposal?"

Nitori thought about that. She was still suspicious of this strange woman. Wild youkai were notorious liars, and she had no way of telling that the folder's contents were the real deal without examining them personally. For all she knew this could be some kind of ploy, a kidnapping attempt. Kappa engineers were highly prized, and it was not unheard of for youkai gangs to try to secure one of their own, willing or not. Of course, such attempts usually ended with the would-be recruiters reduced to free-floating atoms and the "victim" laughing about their stupidity with his or her friends the very next day, but it still paid to be cautious.

On the other hand, if the folder did turn out to be the real article, than Nitori would have a tremendous advantage over the competition. And even split two ways, the bounty would still represent a serious profit. Still, there was obviously much more to this person than she was letting on. She had somehow snuck up on the Kappa without being detected by her infrared vision, and now claimed to have successfully stolen something from Eirin Yagokoro's office, which was no mean feat. Nitori was going to have to watch her step.

"What'cher calls?" Nitori asked. "Namee first, and den we sees."

"My name?" The woman shrugged. "Call me Hunter."

Nitori laughed. "Serious? Naw, comes on. Yous _right _name."

The woman gave one of her little half-smiles. "Hunter will do for now. And it's really all that you need to know about me." She held out the folder invitingly. "So, are you interested?"

Nitori hesitated, and then slowly nodded.

…

Running away is never easy. Setting aside the usually horrific situations that would drive someone to flee their home, the time it takes to work up the courage, the required planning and preparation and the leaving without being detected, many people who run away have to deal with the fact that they nowhere to run away to. The luckier ones have other family members or friends willing to take them in. Reisen was not so fortunate.

Practically everyone she knew who didn't live in Eientei came from one of the rabbit villages, and she certainly couldn't go to one of them. She didn't know anyone in the Human Village well enough to seek shelter with them, and relations with them were always on the hazy side. The Tengu Village was a possibility, but again she knew no one, and would likely end up homeless on the street. That is, assuming, that one of the Tengu didn't just sell her out. There was always Kourindou. The shopkeeper there was nice enough, and she was reasonably certain that he would…But no. That would be one of the first places they'd look. Tewi knew that Reisen knew the place, and she didn't want to bring her troubles down on Rinnosuke's head.

Reisen swallowed. Come to think of it, there was one place she could go. Hakurei Shrine.

Of course, Reisen didn't want to trouble Reimu Hakurei any more than she had. But it was probably the safest place she could go. Given the shrine's recent addition among the Ringleaders, it was now an independent political force, as strange as it sounded. Reisen could conceivably seek asylum there. And should Eirin come knocking, Reimu was strong. Very strong. Possibly strong enough to drive her off, if need be.

But then, Reimu could always just refuse her entry to begin with. The shrine maiden was notorious for her intolerance of other people's foolishness.

Still, she had to try. If nothing else, Reimu could point her in the direction of someone who could help.

Reisen stopped in midair. She reoriented her body and shot forward.

Now, she didn't know exactly where Hakurei Shrine was. She had been there a couple of times, but that had been with someone else leading the way, and she certainly had been unable to memorize the way there. But she did know that it was north of the Bamboo Forest, along Gensokyo's border. And seeing how the Bamboo Forest was along the border itself, it shouldn't be too hard to follow to the shrine.

The only problem was this blasted rain. Reisen grit her teeth and headed upward. She would still be able to see the border above the cloud line.

Once there, the increase of warmth and lack of rain gave Reisen a small bit of comfort. What was more, if she squinted, she could just make out the colors of the Hakurei Border. Reisen nodded in satisfaction and headed right toward it.

It didn't take long to reach the border. In fact, she nearly ran right into it. It was hard to see while traveling quickly. For something so powerful and important to the continued existence of Gensokyo, it was surprisingly unassuming. In fact, it looked like nothing more than a clear film, barely indistinguishable from the sky, shot through with tiny floating specks of color, like a colossal transparent opal spread flat.

It was strange that something so significant could appear as something so unbecoming. When Reisen had heard of the legendary Hakurei Border, a massive field of magical energy that cut off an entire country from the rest of existence, she had pictured something with a spectacular appearance to match its impressive function. Especially since Yukari Yakumo had apparently been responsible for its creation. Though she didn't know the elder youkai well, from what Reisen had gathered Yukari liked to make grand gestures whenever she was called upon to exert her power in any major way.

Maybe that was why it worked. Maybe its power was in simplicity. It would certainly make maintaining it easier. But then, one could just as easily point out that people and other things kept slipping through. So perhaps simplicity wasn't always a virtue.

The barrier's appearance aside, it did at least provide Reisen a means of finding her way. Hakurei Shrine was north of the Bamboo Forest, so that's where she directed herself.

Despite the foul luck she had been experiencing, Reisen found her journey to be free of obstacles. She could thank the rain for that, as the large majority of wild youkai and fairies that would normally challenge travelers were holing up in their burrows and hideouts to wait the storm out. And those who would be drawn by the weather, such as rain fairies, were too busy celebrating to worry about attacking solitary rabbits. In fact, Reisen's main worry was that she would end up overshooting the shrine, as the sea of clouds beneath her did not have much in the way of variety.

She needn't have worried. After about half-an-hour, something came into view. Reisen stared. She then blinked, rubbed her eyes and looked again.

Although it was difficult to tell from a distance, it looked like there was a section of glowing clouds pulsing between shades of pink and lavender.

Reisen scratched her head. Now, that was something you didn't see every day, at least not where she lived. Maybe in Heaven or the Netherworld, but certainly not in this area. She had a sneaking suspicion that Hakurei Shrine wasn't going to be so difficult to find after all. But what in the world could Reimu be doing, assuming that she was responsible?

There was only one way to find out. Reisen took a deep breath and plunged into the clouds. A moment of cold vapor passed, and she emerged into the drizzle. Her jaw dropped when she saw the light's source.

A huge barrier stretched out in a dome shape over the top of a flat rise, covering everything from a few feet behind the slope to the Hakurei Barrier itself. The surface of the barrier was a swimming array of different shades of violet and pink, constantly moving against each other like clouds of ink but never really mixing. The light it emitted was so bright it had to be visible for some miles at least. It didn't take a lot of thinking to figure out who had put it there. Now _this _was what Reisen would expect from Yukari Yakumo. And it wasn't too different from being a miniaturized version of what she had pictured the Hakurei Border to look like.

Reisen bit her lip. She glanced at where the barrier met the slope of the rise and saw a staircase descending to the path below. A Shinto gate stood right outside of the barrier's cover. So she was in the right place, but from the look of things Hakurei Shrine had gone fortress. Was all this just to defend against Rin? If so, what in the world had Rin been up to? And if not, what in the world had everyone _else _been up to? Reisen felt hopelessly out of the loop.

Not knowing what else to do, she swooped down low and landed near the top of the stairs. A wooden donation box sat on the topmost step, with a sign on a wooden post next to it, but the rain had ruined it to the point of illegibility.

Reisen examined the barrier. Given the color scheme, she guessed that it was one of Yukari Yakumo's, though she wasn't exactly an expert. She took a deep breath and yelled as loud as she could, "HELLO? REIMU HAKUREI! ARE YOU THERE?"

She waited, but there was no answer.

There was a twig lying on the hillside, next to the stairs. Reisen hesitated and then picked it up. She steadied herself, tossed it at the barrier and then dove for the cover of a nearby tree.

Nothing happened. Reisen cautiously peeked out. The twig was now lying on the ground next to the donation box.

Okay, so it just blocked things instead of destroying them. Still, it would probably be best to avoid touching it. Reisen slowly approached it and, when it didn't react violently to her presence, she tried screaming again.

"REIMU! PLEASE, CAN YOU HEAR ME? IT'S ME, REISEN!"

She kept calling out for help for nearly a minute, each call more desperate than the last. Then her voice grew hoarse.

Reisen kicked the donation box in frustration and winced as pain shot through her foot. Then, even though she was aware that it was a tremendously stupid idea, she lifted her fist to start banging on the barrier's side. Even if it ended up electrocuting her, she was going to get in.

"Er, what'cha doing?" someone asked.

Reisen turned and nearly had a heart attack. For the briefest of moments, she thought that she was being addressed by a miniaturized Princess Kaguya. But after the shock passed she realized that it was just a blue-clad fairy, one that closely resembled the Princess. She was holding a spread umbrella with one hand and a wicker bag with the other.

"Oh gods, you scared me," Reisen said as she tried to slow her breathing. "Who are you?"

"Star," said the fairy. "Star Sapphire! And I live here and you don't, so I'll be asking the questions! Why are you hitting Reimu's big shield thing?"

Reisen forced herself to relax. "Sorry. I just need to talk to her, and didn't see any other way to get her attention."

Star snorted. "Good luck! Reimu's gone. She went out looking for people to beat up or something."

"She did?" Reisen said.

"Yeah, like hours ago!"

"Oh." Reisen felt her spirits fall. "Uh, do you know when she'll be back?"

"Dunno," Star said with a shrug. "She doesn't tell me these things. What'cha need her for, anyway?"

"Uh…" Reisen wondered how much she should tell Star, and decided to go with caution. "I just need her help with something."

"Something what?"

Reisen glowered. _"Something," _she repeated.

"Fine, don't tell me," Star said with a roll of her eyes. "I was gonna let you in, but you can just wait outside."

"Let me in…Hey, wait!"

Ignoring her, Star flew over her head and passed right through the barrier's side.

Reisen gaped after her. "Hey!" she yelled. She slammed the bottom of her fist against the barrier's side before remembering that doing so wasn't a good idea. She winced in anticipation, but suffered no backlash.

When it became evident that the fairy wasn't coming back, Reisen groaned and sat down on the topmost step, under the cover of the Shinto gate. Well, if Reimu was out and about, then she was bound to come back sooner or later. Reisen set her luggage down, drew her legs up and waited.

…

_Hunter's Interlude the Fifth_

Star threw open the door to the cherry tree that she and her friends called home. "Okay, I'm back!" she shouted as she went inside.

Lunar Child, who had been dozing in her favorite chair, leapt to her feet. "Finally! What took you so long?"

"Shut up, it's raining." Star folded up her umbrella and tossed it in the corner. "Where's Sunny?" she asked as she set her bag on a table.

"Here!" Sunny said as she half-ran, half-stumbled her way down the twisting staircase that took up the center of their home. "Did'ja get-"

The rest of her query was swallowed up when her foot twisted under her. She tried to stop but was unable to arrest her own momentum and ended up tumbling all the way to the bottom to land in a sprawled heap.

Lunar started laughing, while Star just said, "Excuse me? What was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of your _falling."_

Sunny groaned and rolled over to her back. She sat up, shook her head and picked up from where she left off. "-the bombs like I told you?"

"Sure thing," Star said. She patted the bag. "All of it, right here."

"All right, lemme see!" Lunar lunged for the bag, only to have her collar grabbed by Sunny.

"I'm the leader, so I get to look first!" Sunny said as she pulled Lunar out of the way. Grinning with enthusiasm, she pulled the bag open and dumped out its contents. Lunar pressed close to peer over her shoulder.

A brief moment of silence passed, and then Sunny said, "Uh, Star? These are fireworks."

"And firecrackers," Lunar added as she held up a cord of connected orange cylinders.

"So?" Star said. "Fireworks are bombs."

"But I told you to get real bombs!" Sunny protested. The disappointment in her voice was obvious. "Like the kind that can actually blow up buildings and stuff!"

"These are even better!" Star declared. "You know how the papers said that the blob monster gets used to attacks if we use the same out over and over?"

"Yeah?"

"These fireworks are all different colors!" Star pointed at the vibrant display of explosives. "If we keep switching colors, like from red to green to blue to whatever, we can keep hurting it! And then when it's off-guard, we stuff the firecrackers down its throat and blow it up."

Sunny frowned as she pondered this. Then her face brightened. "Oh yeah, that's a great idea! Star, you're a genius!"

"I know, right?"

Sunny grinned as she held up a blue rocket with one hand and a line of firecrackers with the other. "Okay, that's the last of the supplies! Operation Save-Rumia-And-Get-Filthy-Stinking-Rich is a go!"

…

Reisen's heart leapt when she saw a figure in red and white approach. She grabbed her bag and leapt to her feet. "Oh, thanks the gods you're here!" she said as Reimu Hakurei approached. "I…"

Her voice trailed off. The shrine maiden did not look at all happy. And the glare she was sending Reisen was anything but welcoming.

"Oh," said Reisen, faltering. "Uh, hello?"

"Hi," Reimu said in a flat tone. She folded her arms across her chest and said, "Look. No offense, but I'm having a bad day. So what the hell are you doing here?"

Reisen winced. This was not an encouraging way to start this conversation. "Sorry. I didn't know that you'd be…" Her voice once again died away. There was no way to finish that sentence without it being awkward.

"Be what?" Reimu said. "Irritated all to hell? Pissed off at how things just seem to keep crapping all over me? Completely without patience for having my time wasted? Because all these and more are true. So I'll say this again. What. Are. You. Doing here?"

Reisen took a deep breath. Well, as mad as Reimu was, all she could say was no. "I'm sorry, but I need help."

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know that already. You wouldn't be here if you didn't. Start getting specific, or I'm going to start getting-" Then her eyes fell upon the bags Reisen had with her and her eyes narrowed.

"Is that luggage?" she asked.

"Uh…"

"Are you running away?" Reimu demanded. "Did Eirin kick you out?"

"I…"

"Oh gods." Reimu buried her face in one palm. "You're looking for a place to stay, aren't you? You want to shack up here with me."

By this point Reisen had wilted like a geranium in a blacksmith's forge. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't have anywhere else to go."

Reimu didn't answer. She just walked past Reisen and passed through the barrier.

"Wait!" Reisen called. She dropped her bags and pressed her hands against the barrier. "Please, listen to me! I don't have anyone else to turn to! Eirin's probably going to put a bounty on me and-"

A hand reached through the barrier to grab Reisen's collar and pulled her right through. Energy crackled over her skin like static electricity and suddenly it was no longer raining. She was standing on the inside of the barrier on the path that led to Hakurei Shrine. Reimu was standing before her.

"Eirin," Reimu said in the same flat tone she had been using before. "Is going to put a bounty on you."

Reisen nodded. "Or come after me herself."

"Why?"

Reisen hesitated, and then said, "Because I gave her a dose of temporary insanity." She pointed at her eyes. "You know, brainwave manipulation and all that."

Silence.

Reimu tilted her head to one side, and then the other. Her expression was completely blank. Reisen couldn't even fathom a guess as to what she might be thinking.

And then the shrine maiden sighed. "Well, evidence that the entire world has gone _completely _bonkers continues to accumulate at an alarming rate." She shook her head and chuckled. "But hey, this story sounds like it might actually be entertaining. So go ahead. Give me the spiel."

Speaking as fast as she could and using as few words as possible, Reisen told her everything that had just happened. When she was done, Reimu said, "Okay then. So I was right. Completely bonkers."

Reisen didn't rush to disagree. "Right. So I know that all this is-"

"I know, I know, you need a place to stay," Reimu growled. "Shelter during your self-made exile. Which is all kinds of ironic, when you think about it. But, ah, can I point something out?"

Reisen nodded.

"That blast you gave Eirin, the one that shorted out her head. It's temporary, right?"

Reisen nodded again.

"So she's going to wake up, if she hasn't already. And she's going to be pissed, right?"

Reisen shuddered. "Yeah."

"Right," Reimu said. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Okay. Do you remember when we first met?"

"Huh?" Reisen blinked. She had not been expecting that question. "Uh, sure. During that thing when the Lunarian emissaries were looking for us, and we made that fake Moon to throw them off, and then you froze the night to-"

"Yeah, yeah, that's it. And then me and my friends showed up at Eientei and beat the stuffing out of you, remember?"

Reisen winced. "Uh, yes. That was…very memorable."

"Great," Reimu said. "And right after, there were two paths, so we split up. Half of my team went down the wrong path, while the other half, myself included, chose right and fought your Princess, right?"

Reisen nodded. She had no idea where Reimu was going with this, but it was still making her feel all kinds of uncomfortable.

"And while we were doing that, the other half of the team, the one that chose wrong, ran into Eirin," Reimu continued. "That group had Marisa Kirisame, Alice Margatroid, Youmu Konpaku and Yuyuko Saigyouji. You remember all them, right?"

Reisen nodded, more reluctantly this time. She was starting to get a clue.

"Naturally, there was a fight," Reimu said. "Now, can you tell me how that turned out?"

"Yes," Reisen said. "Your friends beat her."

"Sure," Reimu said. "They won. Four-on-one, and they're all heavyweights. But even still, with those odds…" she took a deep breath before continuing "…even with those odds, Eirin still managed to poison Youmu, knock Marisa out, concussion _fully_ included I might add, and gave Alice hallucinations of being eaten alive by cockroaches! Hell, if Yuyuko hadn't been there, she might have won! And that was just to defend herself against a bunch of strangers! Could have been a gang of wild fairies for all she cared."

"Uh…"

"And now you've gone and pissed this person off in a major way," Reimu finished. "And you want me to hide you from her."

Reisen looked away. She didn't say anything.

"Look," Reimu said. "I'm not saying I'm afraid of Eirin, but I just spent my whole morning having one chunk of horrible news bombed on me after another. I really don't need to have Eientei declaring war on me, or wake up stuck full of syringes. Plus, I'm not a freaking innkeeper. Sure, I've taken in the odd stray every now and then, but they all were perfectly capable of looking after themselves, and they sure as hell didn't have anywhere near the baggage you're bringing along. And I'm including freaking Mima in that list, so that's saying something."

"Okay," Reisen said without meeting Reimu's eyes. "You're right. I'm sorry."

Reimu studied her face for a moment. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed. "Okay, look. There's an actual inn about seven miles to the southwest. It's called the Lilypad and has this big skinny tower with a green flag, impossible to miss. Most of their guests are wild youkai, so it's not exactly the safest place, but it's better than the Wilds. And if you don't mind the distance, Center Tree's about an hour or so to the northeast. It's a whole lot safer than any place than any place you'll find around here."

Reisen nodded. "All right. Thank you. I'm sorry I bothered you."

"Yeah, okay." Reimu put a hand on Reisen's shoulder and led her outside of the barrier. "Better move fast."

"I will," Reisen said. She picked up her bags. "Thank you."

With that, she leapt into the air and flew off as fast as she could.

…

Reimu felt troubled as she watched the Lunarian rabbit leave. That wasn't surprising. She had just turned down a request for help from someone who desperately needed it. But what choice did she have? Everything she had told Reisen had been true. She just didn't have the time or resources to take in a fugitive from Eientei.

With a shake of her head, she turned around to head back through the barrier. But something made her hesitate.

Maybe she had been too tough on Reisen. The rabbit was in a really rough spot. Although zapping Eirin like that had been stupid and rash, Reimu couldn't say she wouldn't have done the same in her position. And it wasn't like she could point fingers when it came to acting without thinking.

But what could she do? She was already doing her one major favor by trying to rescue Rin to begin with, even though Rin was vying for the top position on the Gensokyo's Most Wanted list and running around with what might be the shadow of a psychotic Archangel in her head. And that was with Yuuka Kazami wreaking an ungodly amount of chaos whenever possible. On top of that, she had to make one of her friends didn't jump off the slippery slope into monsterhood herself. She didn't need another mouth to feed on top of that. Or an incredibly dangerous doctor coming after her.

Reimu almost went back in then, but didn't. She glanced over her shoulder. Reisen was just a small dot in the distance.

The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt. Reimu put her hands on her hips and stared down at her feet. When it came down to it, all Reisen wanted to do was save her little girl. Granted, that little girl was now dangerous beyond all reason, but that was hardly her fault.

"Damn it," Reimu growled. Then she looked up at Reisen's rapidly receding figure and sighed.

…

"I can't tell you how much I appreciate this," Reisen said breathlessly as she set her bags down in a corner of the shrine's tiny living quarters.

"Then don't," Reimu growled. She pulled her hair tight and wrung it out. "Seriously, you'll be doing us both a favor."

"Got it," Reisen said. "But still. Thank you."

Reimu muttered something inaudible under her breath. Then she said in a louder tone, "Okay, listen up. I'm all kinds of late for something, so I'll give you the abbreviated version of the rules. First of all, you can stay here for now, but it's not going to be a free ride."

Reisen swallowed. "I, uh, don't really have a lot of money."

"As nice as that would be, I'm not talking about money," Reimu said. "I mean helping me around the shrine. I've got so much on my plate right now that there's no way I'll be able to keep this place running without help. So I'll give you a list of chores when I get back. Sound fair?"

It did, and Reisen told her so.

"All right," Reimu said. "Now, I'm not exactly overflowing with supplies here, so go easy on the food. If you need water, there's a well just outside of the north side of the shrine grounds, and the latrine's to the south end. There's a pond out back. Stay out of it. Same with the cherry grove. There's a real cranky turtle in the pond, and he's kind of territorial. And this annoying trio of fairies live in one of the cherry trees. They're gone most of the time, but they love to bug people for kicks, so it's best not to attract their attention."

"I think I met one earlier," Reisen said. "She was kind of rude."

"There, you see?" Reimu said with a shrug. "Okay, now as for that barrier, the way it's set up is that only people who actually live in the shrine grounds can go through. And that really just includes me, those dumb fairies, the turtle, and a couple of freeloaders, none who are around at the moment. So just stay in the shrine while I'm gone and don't mess with the barrier. If you need to go outside for whatever reason, tell me first, and if I think it's a good enough reason, I'll let you through. Otherwise, you'll just end up walking right into it and break your nose."

"Okay."

"And finally," Reimu looked around the bare room and sighed. "As I mentioned earlier, there's a couple of other people staying here as well. They're both gone for now, taking care of their own business, but odds are they'll be back sooner or later. One of them is that oni, Suika Ibuki. She's nice enough, but tends to get a little rowdy. Don't let her get excited and pat you on the back. You'll end up a paraplegic. The second one is that ghost, Mima. You, uh, know her reputation?"

"A little," Reisen said. "Enough to know that a lot of people are scared of her."

"Yeah, they are," Reimu said. "And with good reason. I don't have time to tell you everything, but just know that's she really powerful, kind of a prick, and likes to manipulate people for fun. Sort of like Yukari, only less doing it to get stuff done and more for her own amusement. Just stay out of her way and don't make any sort of deals with her. In fact, don't have anything to do with her at all." The shrine maiden rolled her eyes. "Oh, and for the love of sanity, don't say anything bad about Marisa Kirisame while she's around. It'll piss her off. And bad things happen to people who piss her off."

A shiver went down Reisen's spine. "Uh, do you think she'll-"

"Turn you in?" Reimu finished for her. She shrugged. "Maybe. Probably not, though, unless she has a good reason. She probably won't even care. I'll make sure she doesn't try anything. We've got something of an understanding between us. So just let me deal with her."

"All right," Reisen said. She was starting to feel a great deal less sure of her choice of sanctuaries.

Then she frowned. She had heard something. It was faint, but persistent. She tilted her head to one side and lifted up her left ear to try to get a better gauge of the new sound.

"Okay, was there anything else?" Reimu mumbled to herself. "Oh yeah! The Ying-Yang Orb! You probably saw it on the way in. Leave that the hell alone. Seriously, it's…" She frowned when she saw that Reisen was looking a little distracted. "Hey, are you even listening?"

"I am, I am," Reisen quickly assured her. "But do you hear something?"

Reimu quirked an eyebrow. "Like?"

Reisen pointed outside. "I think someone's yelling something out there."

"Really?" Reimu tilted her head and listened. "Huh, I think you're right. Hang on a second."

She went outside and headed down the path toward the front of the shrine grounds. Reisen watched her as she approached the wall of the barrier.

Reimu squinted at the barrier wall. Then her shoulders slumped and she groaned, "Oh, for crying out loud." She stuck her hand through the barrier, fished around, and pulled it back in.

Attached to the hand was a human girl with green hair that Reisen recognized as the shine maiden of Moriya Shrine. Unlike how Reimu and Reisen had been earlier, she didn't appear to have been touched by the rain at all. But that didn't change the fact that she was absolutely livid.

"You're still _here?" _the girl demanded as she pulled away from Reimu. "You were supposed to meet me over an hour ago, and you haven't even left yet? What the hell, Reimu? What the hell?"

To her credit, Reimu didn't seem intimidated. "Had some things come up," she said. "Kind of important things."

"Oh, don't give me that crap," the other girl growled. "You could have at _least _tried to contact me! I was starting to think that you forgot!"

"Contact you how? Seriously Sanae, important stuff came up. I had to take care of it."

The girl Reimu had called Sanae rolled her eyes. "I don't believe this. Look, we're already sticking our necks out for you as it is, and you can't even be bothered to keep…"

She then noticed that Reimu was meaningfully tilting her head toward the shrine. Or rather, as Reisen realized, toward Reisen herself.

"What are you doing?" Sanae asked. "Do you have a crick in your neck or something?"

Reimu rolled her eyes and stuck her thumb in the shrine's direction. Sanae frowned and looked. Then she saw Reisen and the anger on her face melted away, giving way to complete bewilderment. It then occurred to Reisen that standing around in the open was probably not the best idea, considering that she was now a fugitive. Still, Reimu didn't seem to have a problem with her being seen by this Sanae, so she had to be trustworthy on some level. Reimu wouldn't sell her out so quickly. At least, Reisen hoped that she wouldn't.

I…Er…Huh?" Sanae said. Her gaze flickered to Reimu. "Um, am I interrupting something? Who's she?"

Reimu put her hands on her hips. "You remember when I said that Eirin Yagokoro's bunny-girl of an assistant came to me for help?"

Sanae's face darkened. "Oh, I most certainly do."

Reisen gulped. Reimu had told others of her request?

"Oh, wipe that look off your face," Reimu snapped at Sanae. "You know that rout wasn't my fault. Anyways, that's her. Sanae, meet Reisen…something or another. Reisen, this is Sanae Kochiya, shrine maiden of the Moriya Shrine. Don't worry, she's kind of a pain, but she's on our side."

"Hi," Reisen said. She couldn't think of anything else to say.

Sanae barely glanced in her direction. "Hey," she replied. To Reimu, she said, "Is she the really important thing that came up?"

"Only the most recent," Reimu grumbled. She glanced at Reisen. "Okay, first things first. Reisen, I gotta take off for awhile. Dry yourself off, get warmed up, and stay out of sight. I'll be back…eventually. If anyone comes knocking, don't answer. As for you," she grabbed Sanae by the shoulders, spun her to the side and marched her toward the barrier wall "We need to talk. In fact, I need to talk to Kanako also, so let's save time and head to your shrine. Okay? Oh, and if you have any of those handy anti-rain charms, I would really appreciate it."

"What?" Sanae said as she tried in vain to pull herself out of Reimu's grasp. "Did something happen? Hey, come on, what's going on? Why are you acting so weird? Does it have anything to do with-"

The two shrine maidens passed through the barrier wall, and the rest of Sanae's sentence became too muffled to make out.

Reisen stared after them. Though it was for different reasons, she was as bewildered as Sanae was. What had Reimu meant when she said that the green-haired shrine maiden was on their side? Had she told her about Reisen's request? And come to think of it, she had just said something about needing to talk to someone named Kanako. Wasn't that the name of the goddess of Moriya Shrine? Had Reimu actually gotten one of the most powerful and influential deities in Gensokyo to help them save Rin? If so, than Reisen had definitely gone to the right person for help. Her reputation as a problem-solver was well-earned.

With that thought warming her, Reisen slid the door to the shrine's living quarters shut. She looked around. The room was simplicity itself. Bare save for the kotatsuin the center and a plain wooden cabinet against one wall. Was this really how Reimu lived? Reisen knew that the shine maiden didn't exactly lead a life of luxury, but surely someone so important would have more. Reisen's own room wasn't large, but even that was larger than…

Reisen felt a sudden pain in her chest realization once again caught up with her. She had done it, she had actually done it. She had left Eientei for good. And in the process, she had not so much burned her bridges as she had incinerated them and scattered the ashes. Everything she had built in the last few decades was now gone. For the second time in her life, she had lost her home. And once again, she had no one to blame but herself. When the Lunarian Army had kicked her out, it had felt like the end of the world. Of course, that had proven to not be the case, but she didn't trust her luck to come through for her again.

With a small moan, she slid to the ground. What in the world was she going to do now? Even if she didn't end up skinned and stuffed by Eirin as a warning to others, there were precious few options available to her. The Bamboo Forest of the Lost was home to the entirety of Gensokyo's rabbit youkai population, and there was no way she could go back there. All of Gensokyo's major communities were species-specific, and it was unlikely that any of them would look kindly upon a traitor on the run. Perhaps she could get a job at Center Tree? Or try to eke out an existence in the Wilds? Of course, the only job she was likely to find would involve taking off her clothes for an endless parade of strangers. And she wouldn't last one day in the Wilds.

_Stop it, _she angrily told herself. Beating herself up would solve nothing. She had to concentrate on the present. Everything else could wait until after she found Rin. Maybe when all this was over, the two of them could find some out-of-the-way corner of Gensokyo to live together. She wouldn't mind such a fate.

Reisen took several shaky breaths and concentrated on holding back the sobs. When she felt that she had it under control, she returned her attention to her bags. Reimu had told her to get herself cleaned up. Considering how she was still soaked from her trip, that sounded like a fantastic idea.

She pulled out a dry change of clothes and started to unbutton her shirt. But before she had gotten halfway down the voice of a cranky old man started yelling. She let out a small scream and leapt back. The back of her foot caught on her luggage and she fell over her bags, landing in an untidy heap. She scrambled to her knees and stared with wide eyes as the source of the voice came closer.

"Kid, is that you I hear in there?" it demanded. "What in the name of the great catfish are you still doin' here? Thought you were supposed to be gone hours ago!"

The door swung wide open, and Reisen froze in fear of being discovered. Then the shock of what she saw further locked her muscles in place.

When Reimu had said that an old turtle lived in the pond out back, Reisen had assumed that it was just some wild animal with a nasty bite. But Reimu had neglected to mention that the turtle in question was more than five feet long. Or that it could talk. Or, for that matter, _fly._

For its parts, the floating turtle looked just as surprised to see her and she was to see it. They stared at each other, neither of them daring to move. Reisen's lips twitched as a dozen questions and exclamations tried to fight their way out, only die before leaving her throat.

And then the turtle lowered itself to the ground, where it landed with a heavy _thump. _

"Well now," it purred. In contrast to the grumpy complaining it had been doing earlier, its voice was now much smoother. And much, much deeper. _"Hello _there."

…

_Deep Within_

The extended silence was starting to lose its tinge of nostalgia, and Rumia was becoming uncomfortable. "So…" she began.

Rin jolted. "Oh, huh?"

"How do you think things are going upstairs?" Rumia asked, motioning with her head.

"You mean on the surface?" Rin glanced upward. "That's easy enough."

"Eh?"

"Sure." Rin closed the memory and sat down next to Rumia. "The whole place is going nuts. Every fairy, youkai and Human is out and about, in their little posses and hunting parties. Wanted posters with my picture are on every signpost, fence and bare wall, and soon they'll cover all the trees and rocks as well. All the gods are receiving nothing but prayers for my swift elimination, and mothers don't dare let their children out of the house for fear that I might rise from the ground and gobble them up."

Rumia cocked her head to one side. "Uh…Okay, just for the record, sometimes it's really hard to tell if you're joking or not."

"Joking?" Rin blinked at her. "Why, was that funny?"

Rumia sighed and sat up. So Rin had gone from an everything-will-be-okay attitude to total paranoia. Just as well, she supposed. Paranoid Rin was preferable to Stupidly Reckless Rin. "You're probably right. Hard to believe that Cirno's the major cause of it though. I can't imagine what she was thinking."

"You mean putting a bounty on us?" Rin asked.

"What's this 'us' business, Miss Most Wanted Person Alive?" Rumia snorted. "And no, that sounds exactly like something she'd do. No, I was talking about her joining up with Yuuka Kazami. I mean, what in the hell is that all about?"

"Uh, she's desperate?" Rin said. "People do crazy things when they're desperate."

"Yeah, you'd be the authority on that," Rumia snorted. "But still. How the hell is that going to help anything? Doesn't this mess have enough overpowered lunatics as it is? No offense."

"None taken. And I _wish _I was on that level, you know? But still, even if all you've told me about that lady is true-"

"Oh, it is," Rumia said with a small laugh. "Believe me. It is."

Rin nodded. "Okay. But even so, wouldn't it make sense to have her on our side? Or their side. Or whatever side, so long as it's not Yukari's?"

Rumia sighed. "Rin, you can be pretty smart when it comes to book stuff, but when it comes to matters of survival, you can say some pretty stupid things sometimes."

"Huh?" Rin said in confusion. "What? What did I say wrong?"

Rumia muttered something rude under her breath. Then she said, "Look, whatever Cirno's reasons are for bringing her in, and whatever it is that Yukari's up to right now, the fact remains that they're going to find us sooner or later. So we need to start preparing for that."

"Okay, no problems there," Rin said. She sat down in the meditation position. "So what's next?"

"Well, for starters, you need to figure out how to get that crazy plant-killer power under control. Because we're not going to get far if we keep leaving a trail."

Rin made a face. "I told you already, it's not that easy! If I hold back anything automatic like that for too long, it starts to really hurt!"

"Okay I get that but…Wait, auto-what?"

"Automatic," Rin explained. "Stuff that happens by itself, without me telling it to. You know, like in 'automatically'."

"Is that so." Rumia shrugged. "Okay, whatever. But still, even if you can't hold it back, maybe you can find a way to turn it off?"

Rin looked doubtful. "Maybe. If your, um, nastier self could, than I can too. But she didn't seem like the sort of person that would turn it off."

"But you won't know until you start trying," Rumia pressed.

"I guess you have a point there." Rin looked at the screen and cavern of glowing fungi that it displayed. She sighed. "Well, at least I have a lot of mushrooms to practice on."

…

_Hiatus is finally over, so it's time to get back on track!_

_Thanks for your patience, guys. Fall semester is almost over, and while it could have gone better, at least it's finally wrapping up. I'm still working on fixing up those older chapters and reviewing your stories, but I felt it was time to get IM moving again. Hopefully I'll have everything else done by the end of the year._

_Anyway, a few things. First, IM's official theme song is now the Apparitions Stalk the Night arrangement by Phoenix Project. Secondary theme would be the Rin Satsuki theme by Moonsoul. Thank you to Chronopolis and Azure Xuchilbara for the finds!_

_Second, everyone's favorite bowler-wearing arachnid punching bag finally gets a name. I realize that Tony isn't a Japanese name, but I've always thought of him as a Tony, so it sticks. Let's just say he heard the name from...somewhere, liked it, and named himself. I figure most wild youkai do._

_Though I should point out that this chapter contains a grand total of seven truly original characters. And six of them are rabbits. So, make of that what you will. _

_=coughHUNTERcough=_

_By the way, I don't know if anyone remembers, but Hunter has appeared before, back in chapter 22. She was the woman who spoke to Cirno after Nitori. Just a reminder!_

_Also, just to restate what I said in the notes from the last RoSD chapter, a fellow I know recently started a new flash series called Cherry Weapon, which is a crazy mix of Prototype, Elfen Lied and…Chobits, apparently. On account of it being freaking awesome, I offered to help promote it. Again, all appropriate links are in my profile. Check it out!_

_And oh yeah. New Christmas special later this month._

_Er, I think that's everything. Until next time, everyone!_


	34. Grey Day

Grey Day

Marisa felt horrible. Her stomach was so turbulent that every small movement sent it churning. Sweat leaked out of every pore, until her entire body felt like it was coated in slime. Her eyes were gummy and lined with hardened mucus, her throat felt like a piece of chewed leather and her nose was thoroughly crusted over. Fever burned in her veins while chills swept up her back. And though her thoughts were reasonably clear at the moment, her cooked and abused brain kept slipping into hallucinatory periods, no matter if she were asleep or awake. That had been the price she had paid for those potions, and while she still judged it to be a fair exchange, she still was absolutely miserable.

However, her misery was only partially due to her body's poor condition. Most of it was due to what had happened a few hours earlier.

She let her head fall to one side and glowered at the wall through red-veined eyes. A thin-legged spider was slowly making its way up toward the ceiling. It seemed to be having a hard time of it. From the look of things, one of its legs had been severed, and the others were having trouble finding purchase in the bare wood. Marisa had no idea why. Maybe it was just old and feeble, or perhaps all the residue magic that the walls had absorbed over the years was giving it seizures. Even so, it continued to soldier forward. Marisa watched and silently rooted it on.

Behind her, she could hear Mima busying herself around the house. Doing what, Marisa couldn't fathom, and she didn't care enough to turn around and see. She strongly suspected that her former mentor was just enjoying playing nursemaid. For a centuries-old master of the magical arts, Mima was amused by the silliest things sometimes.

"It's a shame that drama went down like it did," Mima was saying. "While entertaining, it made me completely forget to ask that intrusive wannabe of a police officer when she plans on having this wall fixed. This tarp is wholly inadequate, and the damp air cannot be good for you in your condition."

Without turning around, Marisa muttered under her breath, "Why not fix it yourself?"

Although she hadn't intended to be heard, Mima's ears were sharp. "Oh, I probably should," Mima said. "But it is Yukari's fault that that flying disaster area blew through here, and I am not inclined to go around cleaning up her messes."

The spider was now three-fourths of the way up. It lifted a leg to move forward when it something made it slip. It fell and landed on Marisa's bed, right in front of her face. She stared as its legs grasped frantically at the air.

"Though speaking of that aforementioned drama, I honestly do not understand why that puppeteer friend of yours was so upset," Mima continued. "I mean, sure, I can see why Reimu might have a problem with that unfortunate rout over the Misty Lake, what with protecting Humans being part of her job. But Margatroid? She's a fully immortal magician youkai who lives by herself in the Forest of Magic, not to mention the estranged adopted daughter of Makai's fallen angel of a regent. As far as I know, you're the only Human that she has any sort of meaningful interaction with, and your life was certainly in no danger. Why would she take a little roughhousing so personally?"

Marisa pursed her lips and blew. It was enough to push the spider back onto it legs. It immediately scampered across the sheet and began the long trek back up the wall.

That done, Marisa said, "She's kinda touchy about the whole 'death' thing. Wasting life pisses her off."

"Really!" Mima said. She sounded genuinely fascinated. "And why would that be?"

Marisa managed a small shrug through the tight sheets. "I dunno. Something to do with her mom. She won't tell me though, ze."

"How strange! Usually magician youkai are too absorbed with their studies to care about such matters."

"Yeah, you would know," Marisa growled.

A silent moment passed, and then Mima said, "Well, that was hostile. Where is _this_ coming from?"

Marisa squirmed deeper into the covers. She didn't answer.

Mima sighed. Marisa felt her float over to the side of the bed. "Well, looks like that spat upset you a little more than I had thought." She reached down to gently stroke Marisa's sweat-slicked hair. "I'm sorry, dear. I know how attached you are to your friends. But really, don't worry about it. You know how mortals are with their emotions. They'll get over it, they always do."

Marisa's hands clenched under the covers. "But what if they don't?" she asked, her voice almost breaking.

"Then it's their loss," came Mima's reply. "You can't be held responsible for their shortcomings."

"But-"

Mima leaned down to kiss behind Marisa's ear. Her skin prickled as the spirit's lips touched. "Hush dear. Worse comes to worse, you can always find new friends."

Marisa stiffened. "What?"

"I know, it's hard to hear. But letting go is part of the path to greatness. I myself had many friends back in my corporeal days that I had to say goodbye to. Through violence, in some cases. It was hard, it hurt, but it was necessary. And after all, you're going to have to let go of Reimu sooner or later. She isn't going to live forever, you know."

"Yeah, but neither am I!"

"Sure you are," Mima tutted. "Remember what I said about immortality? It's simply inevitable."

Marisa's insides squirmed for reasons that had nothing to do with her illness.

"And as for Alice," Mima continued. "Well, it's sad, but those who are unwilling to look past mortal matters and concentrate on the big picture get left on the wayside."

Did they? Marisa thought of all the time she had spent with Reimu and Alice. She recalled all the incidents she and the shrine maiden had teamed up to resolve, all the adventures they had had together. She also thought of the endless afternoons they spent just hanging out in front of the shrine, drinking tea and talking. She then thought of all the walks she and Alice had taken through the Forest of Magic to find ingredients for their potions. She thought of the times they had stayed up for nights on end working together on various experiments, all the arguments they had gotten into over the best way to pull off the project of the week and shared feeling of satisfaction that came when they finally succeeded. Her advancement as a magician meant a lot to her, there was no doubt. But her friends meant a great deal too. Was she simply to let them go just because they didn't applaud everything she did?

She watched as the seven-legged spider laboriously crawled up the wall and felt a flash of envy. That little fellow didn't have the problems she did. All he cared about was getting his arachnid ass up the damned wall, spinning a web and hoping that the local insects would be unable to resist his wily charms. It wasn't an easy life, but it sure was a simple one. There was a lot to be said about simplicity.

Then again, maybe he would end up turning into a youkai and make friends and then worry about accidentally making them mad at him. She almost wished that he would. Then she would have someone to relate to.

Then blue sparks flashed across her vision, and the spider disintegrated. Marisa's body stiffened in shock.

"Tsk, tsk," Mima said. "I know I make it a point not to disparage your living habits, but you really should start warding this place against pests. The whole cobwebbed witch's lair thing is _such _a cliché, not to mention highly impractical. You have no idea what sort of damage a surprise critter can do to a delicately laid enchantment."

Marisa didn't answer. She was too busy watching tiny bits of the spider float away like dust.

Mima's cold hands brushed the hair away from the young witch's ear. "Well, I suppose I should stop lecturing you. You really should try to sleep. It'll do you good."

"Good?" Marisa muttered darkly. "What's that?"

"Whatever you decide it should be. Now, rest."

Marisa felt the familiar tingles of Mima's sleeping spell. She tried to resist, but it was always futile, especially in her weakened state.

As she drifted off into blackness, she heard Mima said, "Though remember this. No matter what sort of scrape you find yourself in, no matter what decisions you make or where your path takes you, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Even if the world turns its back on you, you'll be in my arms forever."

…

After she finished bringing the elder goddess up to speed, Reimu came to the conclusion that Kanako was Not Happy.

And yes, the capitalizations are fully justified.

Kanako sat at the table that she had created from her bed, the same one she had used when she had met with Reimu and Byakuren after the Ringleader meeting. Her face was firmly planted down against the tabletop. Her fingers twitched and shook as they clenched at her head. And the muttered noises that were coming out of her mouth could not objectively be described as language, unless she was cursing in a forgotten demonic tongue. At this point, Reimu was not going to rule that out.

As for her part, Reimu demonstrated uncharacteristic patience by sitting quietly and waiting for Kanako to pull herself together. She had expected some sort of outward display of dismay, and Kanako had not disappointed. Now the only thing to do was to wait for her to finish absorbing Reimu's healthy serving of bad news.

Reimu glanced over to Sanae, who was sitting across from her. The maiden of the Moriya Shrine was sitting absolutely still, her eyes fixated on a point beyond Reimu's head. Apparently she had witnessed such reactions from her goddess in the past and had learned the wisdom of not interrupting them. Reimu let out a small sigh and resigned herself to a long wait.

Then Kanako's hands relaxed. They slipped out of her hair and fell to the table on either side of her head. The line of muttered gibberish likewise slowed to a halt. Reimu cocked her head. She opened her mouth to ask a question.

Sanae, seeing what Reimu intended, suddenly looked stricken. She grimaced and frantically slashed her hand in front of her throat. Reimu eyed her and closed her mouth. She was going to trust her friendly rival's advice in this instance.

A moment later her instincts were validated. Kanako's right hand lifted into the air. It turned sideways and squeezed into a fist. Then she brought it down with such force that the table shook with the impact. Reimu jumped in surprise.

"Damn," Kanako hissed, with her face still downward. She brought her fist up only to slam it down again. And again. And again. Each blow was in conjunction with the same repeated curse.

"Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. _DAMN!"_

With that final blow, Kanako's concentration broke, as the table and the chairs they were sitting on collapsed out from under them. Blinking in surprise, Reimu sucked in a sharp breath when she realized that she had fallen into a pile of hissing serpents.

Now, Reimu wasn't especially frightened of snakes. But that didn't mean she liked having them slithering all over her. She bit back on the cry of alarm that she felt forming and shot a pleading look at Sanae. For her part, Sanae was much more used to reptiles and seemed more concerned about her goddess, who was sitting on her rump with her hands splayed to either side and shaking with rage.

Kanako shot a fearsome look at the snakes crawling all around her. "Get out of here!" she shouted. The snakes immediately obeyed, retreating to the far end of the room as quickly as their coils could take them. Once there, they gathered into a single mass, surged up and formed themselves into a marble statue of a small child hiding fearfully behind a tree.

Kanako glowered at it through acidic eyes. "Cheeky little…" she muttered. Then she shook her head and stood up. Taking this as a signal, Reimu and Sanae followed suit.

The elder goddess brushed herself off and sighed. She put her hands on her hips and said, "Okay. Now that I've gotten _that _out of my system…Reimu?"

Reimu winced. This wasn't going to be pleasant. "Er, yeah?"

"Just to clarify that I've heard you correctly, during your discussion with Rin Satsuki, she was in fact _not _under the possession of the Shadow Youkai at the time, correct?"

"Uh, well, I'm pretty sure the little youkai girl Rumia was in there, talking to her, so-"

"I honestly couldn't give an asp's tail over her innocuous sealed form or whether or not she still exists. I'm talking about the original model, the one that took control of Satsuki, absorbed Kaguya Houraisan and almost killed Yukari. You were there when she came to the surface. Was she or was she not driving Satsuki's actions in this instance?"

Reimu shook her head. "No. At least, I'm pretty sure she wasn't. When the Shadow Youkai possessed Rin, her voice got _really _scary sounding. And she sounded more like the Rumia I know. Only, you know, super evil instead of incompetently annoying." She frowned. "Though come to think of it, Satsuki's voice is pretty scary sounding too, but in a completely different way. But yeah, pretty sure it wasn't the Shadow Youkai this time."

"Might it have been a trick?" Kanako pressed. "You said that Satsuki claimed to have eliminated the Shadow Youkai's consciousness. Might that have been a lie perpetuated by the Shadow Youkai herself so as to divert attention?"

"You mean, was she the one whispering in Rin's ear instead of harmless Rumia?" Reimu shrugged. "Could be. I really don't think so. Mima was right there with me, and she's _really_ good at catching lies."

"Ah. So, despite _not _being under the thrall or direction of the Shadow Youkai, and despite the fact that she believes herself to have _eliminated _the Shadow Youkai's consciousness, and despite the fact that both you and Mima made it clear that you wished to help her find a cure and regain her life, something that I'm sure that she desperately wants…" Kanako's already cold eyes grew even colder, causing Reimu to shudder.

"Despite all this," Kanako continued. "She still had no problem using the Shadow Youkai's twisted and highly destructive powers to destroy a good sized portion of the forest, all with the intention of killing you."

Reimu sighed. Here it came. "Yeah. Looks like it."

Kanako stared at her. Then she shook her head and let out a bitter laugh. "Well. Looks like our little pet project is turning villain after all. I'd really hate to be the one to say 'I told you so', but considering the circumstances…"

With that, Kanako walked away to stare at the wall and all of its mounted mementos. Reimu set her mouth in a thin line. "So, I take it you're out?"

"Aren't you?" Kanako asked over her shoulder.

"No."

"Reimu, are you sure about this?" Sanae said in a small voice. "I mean, it does look like she's becoming evil."

Reimu threw her hands in the air. "I know that, okay? Hell, that tornado almost killed me! But I went to Byakuren's place today and-"

"Oh, of course you did," Kanako muttered. She turned around and folded her arms over her breast. "And let me guess: the big hippy gave a big long speech about how helping the little confused mistake was not only the right thing to do, but the most rational, during which she presented herself in a sincere, compassionate but intelligent manner, causing you to reluctantly agree with everything she said."

Reimu opened her mouth to protest. Then she paused, thought back to her conversation with Byakuren, and then closed it again. She sighed. "Good guess," she muttered.

"I don't need to guess, she made more-or-less the same argument to me when we were all here the other week. Many times, in fact." Kanako rolled her eyes and sighed. Then she shook her head and said, "But…I will admit that she might have…a point." The admission seemed almost painful. "But by faith, this new development complicates things. And with all the rumors I've been hearing…of how Yukari's tussle with Yuuka Kazami went."

Kanako looked Reimu in the eye. "All right. I'm not committing myself to an answer just now. I need time to think, and I believe that I'll need to go have a few words with Byakuren myself. But until then, I think it's best that you get back home and behind that barrier of yours. If Satsuki is starting to go on the offensive, then you cannot afford to be taking chances. I'd even suspend your patrolling duties for the time being."

Reimu's eye twitched, but she managed a twitching nod.

"Wait, me too?" Sanae asked.

"Yes, you too. The GPF can handle the youkai for the time being. In the meantime, I want you here, where I can protect you."

That had to hurt. Reimu knew that Sanae's pride was almost as strong as her own, and neither of the shrine maidens liked playing the part of the protectee. Still, if Sanae felt any objection, she kept it out of her face and responded only with an obedient bow of her head.

"Good. Leave now, and quickly."

With that, Kanako's body flashed every color of the rainbow. Reimu winced and turned away. When she opened her eyes again, Kanako was gone.

Reimu glanced at Sanae. "So…where…"

"Probably to the shrine," Sanae said. "That's where she usually goes when she needs some time to herself."

"Ah." Reimu shrugged and left the room. Sanae was close to follow, and the two shrine maidens walked in silence into the living room.

Once there, Reimu sighed and collapsed on the couch. She leaned forward and buried her face in her palms. This day just kept getting worse and worse. It seemed like every time she turned around, there was some new complication staring her in the face. Whether it be people lining up to dump their problems in her lap or what few friends she had risk falling to darkness and/or pieces or her allies potentially walking out on her or the growing shadow of the complete collapse of Gensokyo's fragile political climate or the growing shadow of the monsters responsible for this mess or her own growing doubts on whether or not she was truly doing the right thing.

Reimu felt tired, so very tired. She wanted to curl up somewhere safe and sleep until everything blew over. Her job was not supposed to be this complicated. Something went wrong, and she beat up the people responsible until they started behaving. Wash, rinse, repeat. But this, all these schemes and manipulations and horrible mechanisms, all this bickering and infighting and backstabbing, all these deranged killers and unrepentant sadists and torture technicians, they certainly were not in her job description. And that was all from her team alone. No wonder people like Yuuka Kazami had such an easy time playing merry havoc.

Following that line of thought, Reimu found herself wondering if that was the real reason why Yuuka Kazami and the Shadow Youkai were the way they were. Perhaps they had gotten sick of all the bullshit and hypocrisy that the supposed "Good Guys" churned out. After all, most of the people she was having to work with now were practically villains themselves. Maybe they had decided to just admit to own up to being evil bastards and embrace it. Although the idea sickened her, Reimu found herself sympathizing. Tossing away all regard for others and living purely for herself would certainly make her life a whole lot easier.

The cushions moved as someone sat next to her. That someone gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "Uh, Reimu?" Sanae said. "Are you…okay?"

Reimu sighed but didn't shake her off. "No," she responded. "I'm not."

There was a pause, and then Sanae said, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Why?" Reimu said bitterly. "You already heard the whole thing with Kanako."

"Yeah, but I'm starting to get the feeling that there's more to it than just what you told her."

"I…" Reimu's shoulder slumped. "There is, but I can't talk about it. Not now. I just-"

"What's wong, Auntie Weimu?" said an overly childlike voice. "Why are you cwying?"

Reimu opened her eyes and glowered through her fingers. A girl, ten years of age in appearance, was crouching froglike in front of her. She wore a pair of blue overalls over a striped green sweater, and on her head was a wide-brimmed hat topped with two glass frog eyes. Golden hair fell around her shoulders and wide grey eyes that stared at her with innocent naiveté.

Rather than answer the child's question, Reimu turned her head toward Sanae and said, "Sanae, she's _doing _it again!"

"Knock it off, Suwako," Sanae said irritably. "She's having a bad day."

"That's putting it mildly," Reimu muttered.

The girl's eyes misted up and her lower lip started quivering. "Aaaauuuu," she whimpered. "Why you gotta be so means, Sanimami?"

"Suwako! I mean it!"

Suwako sighed, and while her appearance didn't change, the childishness melted away from her. "Oh, very well," she said as she stood up straight. "Though would it kill you two to play along every now and then? I am trying to reclaim my lost youth here."

Reimu eyed her. She let her hands fall over her knees and leaned in closer. "Look, Flybrain. I'm kind of caught in the middle of a country wide catastrophe here, and everyone I know is either falling apart, making me fix their stupid mistakes or going off the deep end. And there's a very good chance that I might die horribly in the next few weeks. So the last thing I need is you to start making me play preschool like I was some kind of-"

"Okay, okay!" Sanae said quickly. Her grip on Reimu's shoulder tightened and she forcibly pulled Reimu back while warding Suwako off with her other hand. "Calm down, both of you! We've got enough people at each other's throats as it is! But good grief, Reimu! Do you just get off on pissing off goddesses or something?"

Reimu didn't answer. She just leaned back against the cushions and directed her glare at the ceiling.

For her part, Suwako didn't seem especially angered at being addressed in such a matter. "Hmmm," she said as she rubbed her chin. "Now, would this catastrophe have something to do with-"

"Yes," Reimu said, her gaze still focused upward.

"You…didn't let me finish my sentence."

Reimu snorted. She leaned forward again to look Suwako in the eye. "Doesn't matter. Whatever you were going to say, it has something to do with it."

"Ah," Suwako nodded in understanding. "One of those then. I've had days like that." The little goddess shook her head and walked around to the other side of Reimu. She pushed herself up onto the couch and swung her legs back and forth over the edge.

"Well, I can understand why you're so testy. Kanako told me what's been going on, or at least as much as she was able. And I've learned more by keeping my ears open. Hard stuff, especially for one so young."

Reimu wondered if she was talking about Reimu herself or Satsuki. However, she was now on her guard. Even though she wasn't fooled by Suwako's tendency to act her appearance rather than her age, she did find it difficult to remember that the seemingly little girl was really a several hundred year old goddess who had once ruled her own kingdom. Such beings were not to be underestimated.

"I suppose," she said, careful not to let her voice betray any sort of information.

"I also overheard your argument with the Snake and her subsequent temper tantrum." Suwako snickered. "My word, you got her riled up. And now you're worried that she's going to drop out of your philyoutropist conspiracy."

So she did know about that. Reimu shot a glance at Sanae, who shrugged. "You'd be surprised at how difficult it is to hide things from her," Sanae said.

"If you didn't want me finding those magazines, you should've hid them better," Suwako said. "Well, anyways, buck up Reimu. You're not dead yet, and the country's far from destroyed."

Reimu scowled. "That has got to be the weakest attempt to cheer someone up that I've ever heard."

"You obviously haven't read Aya Shameimaru's advice column then. But I'm serious. Just because things suck doesn't mean total disaster is guaranteed. This is far from the first extreme danger that this country has faced, and it's still around. And things can get better before you know it."

"They can also get a whole lot worse," Reimu growled. "Which they've had a noticeable tendency to do lately."

"Eh, perhaps," Suwako said with a shrug. "But nothing's gained by sulking about it." She hopped off the couch and stretched. "In the meantime, you just keep worrying about what you have to do. Let me worry about the Snake."

"Huh?" Sanae blinked. "Wait, you're going to convince her to keep working with Reimu? How the hell are you going to pull that off?"

Suwako winked at her. "I know her better than anyone, living or dead. Trust me, I can handle Kanako."

"Oh really?" Reimu said. "Because I seem to recall some sort of story about how she took your whole stinking _kingdom _out from under you, and your shrine to boot."

"That was war, this is politics," Suwako said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Similar in many ways, but different in all the right ones. This I can handle."

"Yeah?" Reimu's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And what's this going to cost me?"

"Reimu!" Sanae protested. "She's trying to help! Stop acting so defensive!"

"No, no, it's a fair question," Suwako responded. "My kind's help usually does come with a price tag. But seeing how I don't want Gensokyo to crash and burn either, and seeing how you two are probably the best chance for any kind of happy resolution, let's just say this one is on the house."

"Me? Gensokyo's best chance?" Reimu tilted her head to one side, her face screwed up in confusion. "Why would you think that?"

"Because it's what you guys do." Suwako laughed at the shrine maidens' shocked expressions. "What, you think I haven't noticed? You've got more allies than you think, Hakurei shrine maiden."

Suwako took Reimu by the hand and tugged her up to her feet. "Come on, shoo now. Go do your job, and let me do mine."

"Uh, sure," Reimu said as she let herself be led to the door. "Whatever you say…"

A moment later, she was standing on the front porch, staring out at the Moriya shrine grounds. The rain had slowed a light drizzle, though the sun had yet to show itself. Sanae was standing next to her, looking equally confused.

"Well," Sanae said.

"That was unexpected," Reimu said.

"Tell me about it," Sanae said. "We've lived together all my life, and she still manages to surprise me."

"She's like your version of Genji, that's what she is," Reimu said with a frown. "A hopping, adorable, blond Genji."

Sanae rolled her eyes. "Great, now I'm going to have _that _image keeping me up all night." She sighed and let out a small laugh. "So, see you around?"

"I hope so. So long as neither of us dies horribly sometime in the next few days."

"Yeah, I'm all for that not happening." Sanae nodded and patted Reimu on the shoulder. She favored her fellow shrine maiden with a small smile. "Take care, Reimu. And good luck."

"Thanks, you too," Reimu said as Sanae went back inside. She looked up at the clouded sky and set her mouth in a thin line. They were both going to need it.

…

Two open books floated on either side of Alice's head, while her grimore lay open on the floor next to her knees. Directly in front of her was an incomplete circle of magic, with Shanghai lying at its center.

Alice checked the symbols illustrated in her grimore, compared them to the ones depicted in the book to her right, and checked the references from the book to her left. She picked up a brush, dipped it in a small urn of white paste made from crushed bones and fairy dust and carefully applied a few light strokes to the circle's outer edge.

Behind her, wooden feet clomped against the wooden floor as Medicine Melancholy did what she did best: talk without checking or even caring if anyone was listening.

"While-I-ap-plaud-your-de-si-re-to-grant-free-will-to-Shang-hai-I-still-can-not-com-pre-hend-why-you-con-tin-ue-to-birth-dolls-in-to-sla-ver-y. Would-it-not-make-sense-to-find-the-so-lu-tion-first-and-then-cre-ate-the-dolls-as-al-rea-dy-in-de-pen-dent-beings?"

As was her custom, Alice continued to concentrate on what she was doing and paid Medicine's lectures no heed whatsoever.

"Some-times-I-tru-ly-won-der-if-your-heart-is-with-this-cause. Some-times-I-won-der-if-your-ul-ti-mate-goal-is-not-doll-kind-e-man-ci-pa-tion-but-sim-ply-fin-ding-a-way-to-make-con-trol-ling-us-ea-si-er."

Alice looked at how the circle was coming out and double-checked the one described by her grimore. She was attempting to hybridize a Circle of Intelligence with a Circle of Automation, but so far it was not coming out how she had pictured.

"Do-not-mis-un-der-stand-me, I-am-not-ac-cu-sing-you. This-is-most-like-ly-just-a-mis-un-der-stan-ding. But-still, it-re-mains-poor-taste, and-"

Alice's brush slipped, making one of the strokes a few millimeters too wide. Alice sighed and put the brush away. "This isn't working."

Medicine stopped pacing. "Par-don?"

Alice gestured at the circle. "This…thing. I can't get them to mesh together, at least not in any way that won't blow the roof off."

"Per-haps-fur-ther-re-search-is-nee-ded?" Medicine suggested.

"Maybe," Alice muttered. She closed the grimore and instructed the floating books to replace themselves back on the shelf. Another command and the circle collapsed, with the paste oozing across the floor to reenter the urn. "I guess that's enough for the day."

Medicine's true body cocked her head to one side. Her larger half said, "You-are-giv-ing-up-al-rea-dy?"

"No, I'm calling it a day. I'm allowed to do that." Alice stood up and brushed herself off. "I'll let you know once I've figured out a new plan."

Medicine stared at her in puzzlement. Then the eyes of her true body lit up. "Ah. Does-your-un-wil-ling-ness-to-con-tin-ue-have-a-ny-thing-to-do-with-that-Hu-man-witch-that-"

Alice's eyes hardened. "That's enough, Medicine."

"Should-I-take-that-as-a-yes?" Medicine shook her heads, both of them. "Now-I-ques-tion-my-choice-in-part-ners. If-you-are-so-ea-si-ly-dis-trac-ted-by-a-mere-"

Alice grabbed Medicine's larger half by the shoulder and her true body by the waist and forcibly moved them toward the door. "Good _day, _Medicine," she said as she pushed them both outside and shut the door.

That done, Alice walked over to Shanghai and picked the little doll up. She sat down on the bed and stared into Shanghai's eyes.

"Hey," she said. "What's wrong with you? Why won't you talk to me, huh? What's it going to take?"

Shanghai neglected to answer, predictably enough. Alice sighed and set the doll aside. Just as well. Actually activating that circle in her house would have been dangerous, especially since such circles weren't meant to be combined in the first place. Risky experimental magic in unsafe conditions was more Marisa's forte than it was hers. Maybe she should ask her for help. The crazy witch would certainly have no objection to…

Oh, right.

Alice's lips thinned. Despite their friendship, Alice was very well aware of Marisa's many character flaws and in fact pointed them out at every occasion. But even so, there were some lines that she had thought Marisa would not cross. The mad witch was a lot of things, but Alice had hoped that murderer wouldn't be one of them. Alice despised murderers. To have so little respect for someone else's life was sickening.

And, when it really came down to it, Marisa was to be the ultimate beneficiary of Alice's experiments, should she so choose. But if she was willing to commit murder while in the grips of a temper tantrum, was she truly worth helping?

Alice's fists tightened, but she forced the anger down. If that were the case, then fine. She would continue to work towards the formula regardless. Both she and Marisa had their own lives to live and choices to make. Marisa was just going to have to live with the consequences of hers, assuming that she survived them. Or so Alice kept telling herself.

Alice leaned forward on her knees and shook her head. Damn Marisa for being so frustrating.

…

When Reimu finally reached her shrine, she was dead tired. It was only mid-afternoon, but she was ready to call it a day. Though she wasn't exacted physically taxed, she had taken quite an emotional beating, not to mention a mental one. Now she longed for a long, quiet nap. The world and all its insane inhabitants could wait to be saved until tomorrow.

But as she neared the shrine, she was made aware of how she was also famished. While it was true that she hadn't eaten anything all day, the fact was made obvious to her by the delicious smells coming of the shrine. Reisen was cooking something that apparently involved chicken and curry.

Reimu tried to be annoyed by this. After all, she had told the rabbit to be conservative with the food. But it was hard to get angry when all her body was screaming at her to be fed. Reimu sighed and conceded its point. Reisen was forgiven. This time.

However, when she rounded the shrine to enter the living quarters, she was confronted with a strange scene. Reisen had changed into a clean shirt and skirt and was standing at the shrine's tiny stove, stirring a pot containing some heavenly substance. And she was giggling and chatting with Genji like they were old friends.

"You can't be serious!" she was saying as Reimu entered.

"Oh, completely!" Genji said with a hoarse laugh. "And lemme tell you, she was mighty pissed! It had'ta be at least a couple weeks before she'd even bear to hear the word 'noodle'! Ah, the thrashing she gave those little nitwits was somethin' to see, lemme…"

His voice trailed off when he noticed a rain-drenched Reimu standing at the doorway, staring at them. Reisen must have felt the shrine maiden's gaze, because she slowly turned around.

"Oh, you're back!"

"Mmmm-hmmm," Reimu deadpanned. She looked from rabbit to turtle. "Well, don't you two look…cozy."

Reisen flushed, but true to form Genji was completely unintimidated by the prospect of Reimu's ire. "You bet we are," he said. "I was just telling this nice young lady about some of your messier exploits. Like hey, do you remember that time you charged right into the mansion of the Lord of the Slugs 'cause you thought he was being attacked by a massive coup, but it turned out to be huge org-"

"Yes. Vividly." Reimu cleared her throat. "Uh, Genji? A word, please?"

"Sure thing. Go ahead." The turtle sat where he was and waited.

Reimu glowered. "Privately?"

"Oh. Well, be more specific next time!" He turned his head toward Reisen. "I'm sorry, my dear, but duty calls. It was an absolute _pleasure _meeting you."

Reisen blushed and smiled. "The same, Master Turtle," she said with a polite curtsy.

Reimu gawked at them. She thought about commenting on what she had just saw, but as she found the implications far too disturbing she decided to just let it pass.

Genji floated past her, humming contently. Reimu shot a nasty look after him and turned to Reisen. "Would you hang on for just a sec?" she said. "I'll be right back."

"Uh, okay…"

Reimu closed the door and went after Genji. She followed him to where they usually had their talks: over by his pond. Once there, she said, "Please tell me you weren't doing what I think you were doing?"

"What, tellin' stories? Hey, you ran out on your guest, so _someone _had'ta keep her entertained. 'Sides, jus' 'cause _you _don't like bringin' up your more embarrassin' days don't mean I can't-"

"Not that!" Reimu shouted. "Though yes, you're not allowed to do that either, thank you very much! No, I was talking about that _other _thing!"

"What other thing?"

"Hitting on her!"

"Ah," he said calmly. "That." After a moment's pause, he said, "What about it?"

Reimu gritted her teeth and wondered if it were at all possible to strange a turtle. "Were you doing it?"

Even though it should not have been possible, Genji still managed a leering grin. "Ayyyyuuuup."

"Ugh," Reimu groaned. She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to her forehead. "I can't…Oh gods!"

"What?" Genji said innocently. "It's just a little flirtin'. And besides, can you blame me? I mean, _damn!"_

Reimu pressed her hands to her ears. "Stop it, stop it, stop it."

"I haven't seen an ass like that since…Oh, let's see, it was probably that mantis youkai girl that was always hanging out with your ancestor, Nadoka Hakurei, waaaayyy back in the mid-seventeen hundreds. Now _that _was a fine piece of work, lemme tell you. Wonder if she's still around. But anyway, this Reisen girl? She don't suffer in comparison, not one bit!"

"Shut up. Seriously. Shut up."

"You know, I've always thought all that Lunarian talk about how superior they are to be a bunch of chickenshit. But now, I'm thinkin' they've got a solid argument in their favor. A _real _solid argument, if you catch my-"

Reimu grabbed Genji by the beak and held his mouth shut. "Stop it. I am so serious. Stop it right now."

Genji twisted his head out of her grasp. "Oh, what's gotten into you?"

"It's freaking disturbing, that's what! I mean, _gods! _You aren't even the same species! Hell, you aren't even in the same…same…"

"Biological class?" Genji suggested.

"Yes! She a Lunarian rabbit, a mammalian youkai! You're a big talking turtle, a reptilian…reptile! You're not even _humanoid!_"

"Eh." Genji's shell lifted in a shrug. "All the turtles of the world are so far below my league that it honestly ain't worth the effort. And once they go youkai, they stop gettin' interested."

"I can't believe I'm hearing this," Reimu moaned. "How can you even be attracted to…" A horrible thought occurred to her. "Wait, you haven't…checked _me _out, have you?"

Genji looked at her in contempt. "Please," he snorted. "I've spent so much time much around you Hakureis that it'd honestly be like someone checking out their own ass. Don't worry, kid. You're not my type."

"I…" Reimu closed her eyes. "Okay, this conversation is way too disturbing, so let's drop it right this second."

"Okay. So, what'cha wanna talk about?"

Reimu tilted her head back toward the shrine. "Her. What do you think?"

Genji's smile reappeared. "You mean, _besides _the obvious?"

"Yes, I mean besides the obvious!" Reimu seethed. "She told you why she's here, right?"

"Zapped her boss and ran off. Gutsy, but stupid. Yeah, she done told me."

"All right. So, what's your take?"

Genji shrugged again. "Same as with the Satsuki kid. It's good that you're takin' her in, but not smart. Soon as that doctor figures out she's here, she's gonna make your life all kind'sa miserable."

"I know, I know. So, you think I should cut her loose?"

"I never said that. You already said that you'd help her out, and going back on that would be all kinds of slimy. Jus' be ready when the shit goes down." Genji's eyes rolled up as he thought. "Fortunately, you've got a few advantages in that department. First, this shrine is _technically _a political power now, so if you pull the sanctuary card, there ain't a whole lot Eirin Yagokoro can do about it, not legally. 'Specially if she don't wanna get in trouble with Yukari. Between Hakurei Shrine and Eientei, she'll gladly take away Eirin's ability to fly and toss her off a cliff if it meant your safety."

"Except I don't want to involve Yukari in this," Reimu pointed out. "Remember?"

"I didn't say you had to, I just said why Eirin might not be so eager to tangle with you. Jus' make sure your rabbit friend don't go wanderin' off the shrine grounds. She does that, all bets are off."

Reimu frowned. "She's not going to be happy about that. I think she's dead set on finding Rin herself."

"All the more reason to keep her around then," Genji responded. "So you can keep her from doin' something _that _stupid. After all, be a pity to let an ass like that go to waste. Or those knockers."

"Genji…" Reimu said warningly.

Genji snickered, but then grew serious. "Right now, I think the best thing is to keep the rabbit safe and start workin' on buildin' your support base. We have no idea how long the kid's gonna be layin' low, but she's bound to turn up again sooner or later. Use that time to be findin' help from people who can, you know, actually help. 'Specially since I'm sure there's trouble to be had with your current inner circle."

"You're telling me," Reimu grumbled. "Byakuren's still in, of course. But Kanako's really upset. She's probably going to back out. And the only reason Mima was going to help at all was because we were going to help _her _rescue Marisa. But now since _that's _no longer necessary…"

"Well, there you go."

"But who can I go to?" Reimu asked. "Rin's not exactly well-loved, and everyone is pretty much terrified of crossing Yukari."

"'Fraid I don't have a ready answer for you, but you'd be surprised. And don't underestimate your little rescue party as it is. Satsuki may not be well-loved, but boy howdy Byakuren Hijiri sure is. And she's been building some mondo connections. Heck, you're kind of influential yourself. I mean, being the Hakurei shrine maiden, you've got diplomatic immunity that would make most politickers salivate, man. You've pretty much got a free pass to get an audience from any leader in Gensokyo, anytime. You got a lot of strings, more than you know. Maybe it's time to start pullin' a few."

The thought of her own political power was making Reimu uncomfortable. The game of politics was not one she ever wanted to play, and as far as she saw it, the only power she cared about having was the power to occasionally make people stop acting like jackasses. "I, uh, really don't think I like the sound of all that."

Genji shrugged his massive shell. "I'm jus' suggetin' options. Though take my advice: don't be afraid of your own strength. That can end up with you cripplin' yourself." His beak opened in a wide yawn. "Meantime, I've got a connection or two I can pull myself. I'll make a few calls, see what I can do."

"I appreciate it," Reimu said, though she couldn't help but wonder what kind of contacts a centuries-old talking turtle would have. "Right now, I can use all the help I can-"

"Hold up," Genji said suddenly. His head rose up and he stared off into the distance.

Reimu blinked. "What's up?"

His eyes narrowed. "Huh, I think you've mail."

"I've got what now?"

In answer, Genji lifted off the ground and headed toward the shrine grounds' front entrance. Confused, Reimu stood up and followed.

Genji didn't stop until they had both passed into the outside. Once there, Reimu looked around.

"Um, what's going on?" she asked. "Was there someone supposed to be here?"

"Yup. Look down."

Reimu did and got a little jolt of surprise. A massive serpent, easily over thirty feet in length, was curled up on the topmost steps. Its scales were the color of burnished copper, and its emerald eyes shone like two tiny jewels. Its head rose to look at Reimu with what the shrine maiden could swear was genuine intelligence.

Reimu stared. Over the years, several odd people and bizarre creatures had shown up at her front door. Still, this was a new one.

For his part, Genji didn't seem at all bothered by the snake's presence. He settled on the top step and said, "Hey buddy. Haven't seen you for awhile. What's up?"

The snake turned its visage toward Genji. Its jaws opened, and it let out a low hiss.

"That right?" Genji said. "Well, you're pretty damned fast. The kid here only jus' got back, and she flew the whole way."

The snake hissed again.

"I guess that makes sense. Kudos for you. Haven't heard of anyone going by that path for seventy years at least. Guess deliverin' for a goddess has its perks."

Reimu looked at Genji. "You can understand him?"

"Of course," Genji said. "Snake ain't all that different from turtle. The linguistic rules are the same, even if the words are different."

"But…but you told me that turtles don't _have _their own language."

"Eh, technically we don't," Genji admitted. "We speak tortoise actually, but that ain't here or now. This fellow here" he tilted his head towards the snake "done brought a message for you."

"A message?" Reimu eyed the snake with uncertainty. "Uh, I guess you'll have to translate then."

Genji snorted. "No, I won't. Open your eyes, kid."

Reimu was about to ask him what he meant, but then she noticed the small stone box that was strapped to the snake's back, just behind the head. The snake twisted its body around, giving her easier access.

Reimu cautiously approached the box. On the top of its lid was a small red stone, engraved with the sigil of Moriya Shrine. She let herself relax a little. Looks like Kanako had come to a decision already. If so, then Genji was right. That had been incredibly fast.

She opened the box. Instead was a white envelope, sealed with the same sigil. "Thank you," she said as she removed it from the box.

The snake bobbed its head in acknowledgement, but it didn't leave. After a few seconds of having it stare at her with unblinking eyes Reimu started to grow uncomfortable.

"What does he want?" Reimu whispered to Genji. "Is he expecting me to send something back?"

"This quickly? Nah, he's probably just waitin' for you to tip him."

"What," Reimu said flatly.

"Well, he came all this way and made it in record time," Genji said. "It's only polite."

Reimu shook her head. "And what, pray tell, does one tip a snake with, exactly? I hope you don't mean money, because I'm a little dry in that department."

"Eh, don't worry about it. I'll field this one."

Genji turned his head to the trees growing out of the hillside. He started humming, a low, deep noise that Reimu felt in the pit of her stomach and through her teeth. His throat vibrated in rhythm with the sound.

The fallen leaves rustled, and suddenly a large grey rat scampered right past them. The snake hissed, drew its head back and struck, catching the rat in its jaws. It threw its head back and gulped the struggling rodent down. Then it looked at Genji and bobbed its head in thanks.

"Don't mention it, buddy," Genji said. "Take care now, and give my love to the family."

Reimu watched in bemusement as the snake slithered down the steps and burrowed beneath the dirt of the path. "That was…very weird."

Genji snorted. "And the rest of your life ain't? Get back inside and open your damned letter already."

Reimu walked back through the barrier. She stuck her thumb into the envelope's flap and broke the seal. Then she pulled out the letter and opened it up.

_All right, I'm still in, _it read in Kanako's neat and precise handwriting. _Though not without reservations. However, let me just state for the record that using the Frog is considered cheating. That's a point against you, Reimu._

Reimu rolled her eyes.

_I have some conditions though, _the letter continued. _If what you told me is true, and if what I've been able to gather about the results of Yukari's clash with Yuuka Kazami are accurate, then Mima no longer has any motivation to work with us. Change her mind. I don't care how people feel about her. I don't care what she's done or what kind of reputation she has, we will need her power and knowledge if we are to make this work. _

_And while you're at it, find a way to bring Eirin Yagokoro on board as well. Yes, I know she has every reason in the world to say no, but again, her knowledge is invaluable. If my sources are correct, then she is taking this incident rather personally, so I would suggest that you convince her that this is her only method of redemption and impress upon her the names of those already involved. Use Byakuren's Only Rational Path argument if you must. But we will need her expertise. Make it happen, shrine maiden._

_-Kanako Yasaka. _

Reimu grimaced. She had neglected to tell Kanako about Reisen's recent activities, and from the look of things, Sanae hadn't either. Convincing Mima to stick around was going to be a chore in itself. But bringing Eirin Yagokoro on board was going to be damned near impossible.

"You look like someone's just eaten your puppy," Genji remarked. "Bad news?"

Reimu showed him the letter.

"Well, that's not _so _bad," Genji said once he had finished reading. "You were plannin' on findin' more help anyway. Now you jus' have one more name on the list."

"A name that's probably well on her way to declaring _war _on us," Reimu growled. "Or have you forgotten about Reisen?"

"Kinda hard to, all things considered. Doesn't mean it's impossible though. You'll jus' have to be smart about it, like-"

"No, stop," Reimu said, holding up her palm. "I don't want to hear it. Save it for later."

"Oh?" Genji cocked his head to one side. "And why not?"

"Because I am now officially done with today. It's cursed or something. Tell me when I get up tomorrow."

"You're going to bed _now?" _Genji said in disbelief. "Reimu's it's only four-thirteen in the afternoon."

"I know." Reimu turned and headed back toward the shrine. "All the more reason to not give it the chance to get worse. I'm going to go change my clothes and dry off. Then I'm going to have some of whatever Reisen's making. Then I'm going to bed. Good freaking night."

"Superstitious nonsense," Genji grumbled as he floated away back toward his pond. "Like a few hours is going to magically change your luck."

Reimu ignored him. She stomped back into the shrine. There, Reisen was sitting at the table with two bowls of chicken curry over rice. The Lunarian rabbit was fidgeting awkwardly. Her head jerked up as Reimu entered.

"Oh, I…uh…"

Reimu held up a finger, signaling that Reisen should wait. She then went into the next room and undressed. After setting her soaking outfit aside and toweling off, she wrapped a fresh sarashi around her chest, pulled on a simple red cotton blouse and a pair of loose grey trousers. It was her around-the-house outfit, what she usually wore when she was expecting no visitors and had no intention of leaving the shrine.

Reisen was still silent when Reimu reentered the room. She just stared down at her bowl. Reimu quirked an eyebrow, sighed and walked around to where her bowl was waiting. Without needing any prompting, she muttering a quick blessing and started shoveling food into her mouth. The majority of her ire towards Reisen evaporated immediately after. The healing power of good food was universal.

"I'm sorry," Reisen said without lifting her head.

Reimu paused her scarfing. She moved the bowl away from her mouth and said in puzzlement, "What for?"

"For intruding with my problems." Reisen took a shaky breath. "I know, I'm screwing up your life. I saw the way you were looking when you got back."

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Oh, for heaven's sake…Look, Reisen. It's not you. Well, okay, maybe part of it is, but you're not the one I'm mad at right now. It's just been…You just picked a _really _lousy day to come by, that's all."

Reisen looked up. "What happened then?"

That caused Reimu to let out a bitter laugh. "Oh man, where do I start?" She shook her head. "Well, uh, let me put it this way: politics and stupid people."

"Oh."

"That's right. Oh. Look, seriously, don't worry about it. There's too much to go into right now, but trust me when I say that any potential problems you being here might cause are _not _my biggest worries right now. Hell, if anything you might actually help."

"Really?" Reisen's ears perked up. "How?"

"Well, trying to get through to your kid, for starters." Reimu's face darkened. "Turns out that trying to talk sense into her is a whole lot harder than it-"

Reisen leapt to her feet. "Wait up!" she yelled, her eyes wide in surprise. "Rin was _HERE?"_

Reimu blinked. "Oh. Right. I haven't gotten around to telling you." She groaned and let her head fall forward into her palms. "Well, looks like I'm going to have to get you caught up after all. I swear, I need to start handing out a newsletter or something. Sit down, bunny. I've got a _real _long story to tell you."

…

Yuuka forbid flying in her mansion. She considered it an outside activity. As a result, all guests and residents were required to keep their feet on the ground at all times.

Elly had no problem following this rule. Yuuka's commands were made to be obeyed, and as far as rules went, it was a reasonable one. Besides, the many hanging vines and flowers made flight through the mansion's small corridors as hazardous as flying low through a forest. As such, she contented herself with using her legs to get from room to room and never once considered that a situation might arise that would require her to break Yuuka's house rules.

But when word reached her that Yuuka had somehow wandered out of her bed in a delirious state and collapsed in one of the hallways, Elly was off the ground and zipping desperately through the mansion at dangerous speeds. Sensing her approach, any hanging foliage helpfully removed themselves from her way. Still, had she not lived in the mansion for decades and thus memorized every turn of the corridors, she would have ended up with a broken neck. However, the risk she was taken never occurred to her. All she knew was that Yuuka needed her help, and need it now.

She found Yuuka lying facedown about two-thirds of the distance from her bedroom to the atrium. The only noticeable improvement in her condition from the previous day was that she was now wearing a clean pair of pajamas. Other than that, she still looked like a twisted bunch of burnt sticks and ash packed into a humanoid form. How she had managed to get so far, Elly couldn't even begin to imagine.

"Master!" she cried as she rushed to Yuuka's side. "What are you _doing?"_

She knelt down and carefully turned Yuuka over and laid her master's head in her lap.

For three agonizing heartbeats, Yuuka appeared dead. Then a single glimmer of red appeared in her remaining eye and she starting coughing weakly.

"El…Elly?" Yuuka whispered. "Is that you, Elly?"

Elly slumped in relief. "I'm here, Master," she said, cradling Yuuka's head.

"Or…so you say," Yuuka responded. "But then…you could just be another dream. How am I…to tell?"

"It's really me, Master! You're not dreaming!"

"Ah. I see." Yuuka's eye closed and she let out a small sigh of pain and confusion.

"Master, what were you _thinking?" _Elly cried. "You're hurt! You shouldn't be out of bed! You need to rest!"

"I…I just…I have that big fight with Yukari today, and needed to get ready…"

Dear gods, she really was delusional. "The fight was yesterday. It's already happened. It's over!"

Yuuka's eye reappeared. "It is? Did I miss it? I hate…missing my appointments."

"No, no. You fought magnificently!"

"Ah. Ah yes, now I remember. Yukari…showed me the stars." Yuuka's eye didn't disappear, but it did lose focus. "So many faces…"

"That's right, Master," Elly said encouragingly. "So many faces. Now, come on, let's get you back to your room." She slipped one arm under Yuuka's back and the other behind her knees, braced herself and slowly stood up. Thanks to her condition, Yuuka weighed less than a scarecrow, and Elly was deceptively strong. But she was still the size of a child, whereas Yuuka was well over six feet tall. The size difference made carrying her an awkward experience.

Still, she had managed to carry Yuuka all the way back home the day before, and she had been bleeding from multiple wounds. She could manage carrying her master down the hallway.

Yuuka was silent for most of the journey, but when they were about halfway she looked at Elly and her eye narrowed. "Elly…you're hurt. Did Yukari do that…to you?"

Elly looked down at her bandaged shoulder. "No Master, it was that half-phantom girl, the one that-" Elly's voice caught. The memory of her defeat still burned hot in her mind, tinged with pain and humiliation.

"-that serves the ghost princess of the Netherworld," she finished. Then she forced her voice to brighten. "Bu-but it's feeling much better now, and so are my hands! Shinigami heal quickly, after all, and the treatments we have here work wonders! I barely even feel them anymore!"

Yuuka stared at her. Then her head fell with a worrying crinkly sound and she started muttering to herself.

Elly swallowed back the lump in her throat. She quickened her footsteps. The sooner Yuuka was resting again, the quicker she would heal.

Unfortunately, it looked like she was going to be delayed. There, coming around the corner, were two of Yuuka's guests, the night-sparrow Mystia Lorelei and the ice-fairy Daiyousei. Elly felt a slow, cold fire ignite in her stomach when she saw them. Even though she knew that Yuuka was fond of the little gang she had taken in, the fact remained that if it hadn't been for them, Yuuka wouldn't have been hurt in the first place. And for what? Because that Wriggle Nightbug had asked her? Why did Yuuka owe Wriggle anything anyway? Wriggle had been Yuuka's favorite. Her lover. Not even Elly could claim the same. And yet, despite being in such an envious position, Wriggle had abandoned them. She had spit on Yuuka's affections and Elly's friendship and had ran off, only to turn up years later with a new set of friends begging Yuuka to put herself at risk for their sake. Whereas Elly had served Yuuka faithfully for years and had never received anything more than a platonic kiss on the forehead or on the cheek. It wasn't right.

Mystia and Daiyousei saw Elly coming their way and froze. "Oh, oh wow," Mystia said when she saw the wreck of a body in Elly's arms. "Oh my gods."

Elly took a deep breath and said as calmly as she could, "If you'll excuse me, my Master is not well. She needs her rest, so I would appreciate it if you wouldn't delay me."

The two of them stepped aside quickly, and Elly continued on her way. But as they passed, Daiyousei said, "Um, I'm sorry, but d-did Yukari do that to her?"

Elly stopped in her tracks. She grimaced in frustration and then turned to the green-haired fairy. "Yes, she did!" she snapped. "And if it weren't for you and your _stupid _friend getting herself stuck in stupid-"

"Elly," Yuuka admonished. "Enough of that."

Tears were now starting to prickle Elly's eyes. "But…"

Yuuka reached up with one withered arm, presumably to bring it to Elly's cheek. But she did not have the strength to reach and had to settle with affectionately patting the Shinigami on the arm. "What happened…was not their fault," Yuuka whispered in her voice like dead leaves. "We have all…made mistakes, and are…all outcasts here. That makes us…family, not enemies."

Elly sniffed. She turned her face away.

Then the fairy, who had been staring at her feet, spoke again. "Um…um…" She blushed and looked up at Yuuka. "I'm s-s-sorry. And…thank you very much for your bravery!"

Daiyousei bowed low and then ran off. Mystia blinked after her and then looked at Elly and Yuuka. She shrugged, nodded at the pair and quickly followed her friend.

Yuuka's ravaged lips twisted into a smile. "You're very welcome," she murmured.

Elly sighed and continued toward Yuuka's bedroom. As she approached, the vines on the ceiling sensed their approached and slithered down to wrap around the doorhandles. They pulled, opening the door for their master.

Despite her need for sleep, Yuuka had refused to let Elly draw the drapes. She claimed that the sun helped, and given who she was, she was probably right. And so the opulent bedroom was as brightly lit as always. And given the small flower garden that grew in the room, it didn't so much resemble a bedroom as it did a greenhouse with furniture. Elly helped Yuuka into the large, purple four-poster bed and drew the covers up to her master's chin. "There you are," she said. "Now please, promise me that you'll rest."

Yuuka's eye closed. "Of course," she muttered. "Dear Elly, where would I be without you?"

Elly smiled. She turned to leave, but then Yuuka said, "Wait."

"Yes Master?"

Yuuka's eye was open. "Would you…mind staying here with me? For today, at least?"

Elly's heart leapt. "Master?"

"You…need rest…as well. And…I think…I do not want to be alone."

"But…but the mansion-"

"-will be fine for a few hours. The plants…can handle things. And the bed's plenty…large enough…for two."

Elly felt happy butterflies soar up through her stomach. Yuuka wanted her to stay with her. Yuuka _needed _her!

"I…of course!"

Elly removed her hat and set it on the back of a nearby chair. Then she brushed off the straps of her sundress and let it slip to the floor. She carefully folded it up and set it in the chair's seat. Then, clad in her undergarments, she slipped under the blanket, next to her master. Yuuka favored her with an affectionate smile.

"Thank you, Elly," Yuuka said. "I hope…this does not repulse you. Considering…my appearance."

"Never, Master!"

"Such a sweet girl," Yuuka murmured. She curled her shriveled arm around Elly and drew her in close. "And do not…worry. Those beasts will…pay for what they did to you." The crimson light of her single eye glimmered maliciously. "I'm already working on some ideas."

…

Ran Yakumo stood in Yukari's workshop, at the alchemy table. She wore a metal welder's mask, a leather apron and thick gloves. In one hand she held a lump of dull, maroon stone. In the other was a brilliant blade made from artic blue crystal with a gem encrusted handle. With the skilled, precise swipes she shaved layer after layer from the rock, letting the dust fall into a small cauldron of blood red liquid.

When she had cut away enough of the stone for her purposes, she placed the remainder within a copper chest filled with more of the maroon rocks. She then set aside the blade, picked up a ladle and stirred the cauldron, occasionally pausing to add a few drops from a crystal bottle. This continued for two minutes, until the liquid had become the color of honey.

Ran cleaned off her tools and put them away. Then she picked up the cauldron and carefully poured its contents into a waiting bag made of clear plastic, the kind used by the Outside World to store blood donations. Then she carefully cleaned out the cauldron, pulled off the mask and carried the bag out of the workshop.

Ever since the day before, the Yakumo house had settled into a state of silent uneasiness. Maybe it was the lack of life. Before, Yukari's home had several potted plants to add color to the place. Now, they all had to be thrown out, and the land outside had been turned into a mausoleum for the corpses of the estate's former garden. The air was thick with the chemicals that they were using to treat Yukari, making the place smell like part chemical lab and part retirement home. Added to this was the feeling of tension that had settled on the household. For once, Chen had no problem in remaining quietly in her room. And while Ran had her duties to take care of around the house, she did so while making as little noise as possible.

All the lights were dimmed, though Ran did not need them to see. She made her way through the house to Yukari's room. The door was slightly open, allowing her to enter without putting down the bag.

Within, there was almost no light to be found, save for that produced by Yuyuko's body. The ghost sat in a chair by Yukari's bedside, which was now covered by a heavy canopy, turning it into a tent of sorts. Ever since she had brought Yukari back she had refused to leave her side, save for when Ran and Youmu had demanded that she let the kitsune treat her for the ectoplasm lost during the fight. But ever since then, she remained by Yukari's side.

Yuyuko looked up as Ran entered. She nodded in acknowledgement. Ran returned the nod and tiptoed her way toward the opposite side of the bed. There, an IV apparatus had been set up, to which two bags had been attached, identical to the one Ran now carried. Both bags had tubes trailing in and out of the curtains that surrounded Yukari's bed. One had been filled with the same golden liquid that Ran had just finished preparing, though it was now nearly empty. In contrast, the other was almost filled with the same black corruption that Yukari had been secreting all day.

Ran removed the second bag first and replaced it with a fresh one. It seemed that no matter how much of the stuff they drained from her body, there was plenty more to replace it. It had been at least two hours before they had stifled the flow enough to safely move her to her bed without permanently ruining the covers. That was where the golden fluid came in.

Philosopher's Stone was mainly known for two things: transmuting base metal into gold and acting as the primary ingredient of the Elixir of Eternal Life, which was essentially a less effective cousin to the Hourai Elixir of Immortality invented by Eirin Yagokoro. However, what most people did not know was that this same elixir was highly effective in purifying the souls of already immortal beings. And as Yukari believed in being prepared for any eventuality, she had made sure to have a full supply of the mineral on hand for such an occasion.

However, she was now on her third bag, and the improvements were slight.

Ran removed the depleted bag of the golden liquid and replaced it with the fresh one. "Any change?" she whispered to Yuyuko.

Yuyuko shook her head. "She's in and out. Sometimes she knows where she is and what happened, other times-"

Fabric rustled from within the shadows of Yukari's bed, and a small, frightened voice said, "Yu…Yuuka?"

"-she doesn't," Yuyuko finished.

Ran nodded. Dementia was to be expected. "No, it's me, Master," Ran told Yukari. "Yuuka's far, far away. She can't hurt you."

"No," Yukari moaned. "Yuuka…no."

The rustling grew louder. Fearing that her master was trying to tear at the IV needles tapes to her veins, Ran moved the curtain aside and checked for herself. Inside, she could see the shape of Yukari's desiccated body, a small, frail thing that was practically buried by the heavy blankets. Fortunately, the sound was just of her head rolling back and forth over the pillows as she battled against feverish dreams.

Ran pulled off her right glove and reached over to place her hand on Yukari's forehead. The skin thin and papery, and despite all the dark fluid they had drain from her body tiny boils dotted it still, like warts on a toad's back.

"It's okay, Master," Ran said. "You're safe. She can't get you." When that failed to calm Yukari's moans, Ran closed her eyes and muttered a quick soothing charm. Ineffective in the long run, but it might give her master a few minutes of undisturbed rest.

Yukari's head stopped trashing, and her moans gave way to troubled but steady breathing. Ran was about to withdraw when Yukari said, "Ran? Is that you?"

Ran paused. "Yes, Master. It's me."

"Ah." The golden lights of Yukari's eyes appeared in the shadows. "Good. How long…has it been?"

Yukari's voice was weak, but she sounded lucid. Taking this as a positive sign, Ran said, "It's been twenty-seven hours and nine minutes since you returned from your battle, Master."

"Only that?" Yukari muttered. "Pity. Are Yuyuko and…Youmu still here?"

"I'm here," Yuyuko said. "Youmu's out back, cleaning away the dead foliage. You seem to have gathered quite a lot of it."

"Yes, shame about that. I liked those trees." Yukari sighed and started coughing.

"Master, don't try to exert yourself," Ran pleaded. "You're still very weak, you need to rest."

"Thank you, I had noticed," Yukari said with a rasping laugh. "Still…preparations should be made…"

Ran's ears perked up. Despite her condition, she could hear a bit of Yukari's scheming self. "Master?"

"There are…some people I'll be needing to talk to…once I'm well. I'll need…you to set up the meetings for me."

"Master, I don't think that's a good idea," Ran said. "You're in no shape to be speaking to anyone, and won't be for a long time."

"I agree," Yuyuko said. "Be reasonable, please!"

Yukari laughed again. "Yuyuko…telling me to be reasonable. It is the end of the world. But no, I'm not planning on meeting…with them now. I just want to make sure…our respective calendars are cleared…when the time comes."

Ran sighed. Truth be told, she would much rather that Yukari forget whatever business she intended and not go risking herself again. However, such hopes were in vain. Yukari was her master, and going against her word was a lesson in futility. "I'll make the necessary arrangements," she said. "Now, please. Rest."

"Thank you, Ran," Yukari muttered. Her eyes closed, and soon she was fast asleep.

…

_Deep Within_

"Okay, you're almost at your record time. Now, keep going…"

"I know, stop distracting me."

"Sorry. I'll be quiet…Uh, Rin? I think you're slipping."

"Rumia, stop talking to me! I'm trying to-Ah, nuts!"

"Oh, godsdamn it, Rin! There goes another one! You were so close too!"

"Look, I'm trying! This isn't as easy as it looks!"

"Well, try harder! We've only got so long before they find us, and we have only so many mushrooms!"

…

_Well, fanfiction does come with a required quota of angst and perverts, which I do believe was just filled on both accounts. Sexy emo times for everyone!_

_God, how horrid._

_Anyway, short chapter this time (at least by current standards). Kind of fillerish, I know, but I had a few loose ends to tie up before giving this story something it so desperately needs: a time skip. Like I've mentioned a few times elsewhere, I intend for this story to encompass the events of a full in-story year. And since we haven't even covered a month despite this story nearing its second anniversary, a small push is necessary. Not too long, just a handful of weeks. The next chapter will take place in mid-spring._

_So what will happen during those few weeks? Well, not a whole lot. Rin and Rumia will remain in hiding, Reimu will ignore Kanako's advice and continue to look for them with no success and Reisen will remain hidden at Hakurei Shrine. Yukari and Yuuka will continue to recover from their injuries (though will [mostly] stay out of the game for a few chapters more) and things will remain very icy between Marisa and Reimu and Alice, with little in the way of interaction. Oh, and this is when Yuuka's narrator bits from _The Storm_ will take place._

_And yes, I realize that the whole "Lonely Alice who pines after Marisa" thing is a cliché that people don't like, but just for the record, there's a huge difference between being a desperate stalker and simply being upset and confused when the closest thing you have to a best friend almost commits murder. I will try to avoid making her "Tsundere Failice," but that doesn't mean she won't have emotions._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	35. Looking For the Girl

Looking For the Girl

It was no secret that Gensokyo was a strange place. Even putting aside things such as the commonality of flight, the brilliant and blinding aerial battles composed of hundreds of brightly colored projectiles, humanoid but definitely nonhuman beings coming into existence from everything from animals to inanimate objects to metaphysical concepts, the widely inconsistent levels of technological advancement and the fact that Aya Shameimaru still somehow had a reporter's license, the outrageous fashions alone would mark it as a world wholly different from our own.

But even here, the woman that Yukari had invited into her home as a guest would stand out in a crowd.

Her outfit was simple enough. A simple sleeveless white dress slender covered her body and a dainty tiara of frosted silver and white quartz sat on her brow. And she was not especially tall, at least not naturally. But once you move above the collarbone that things become unusual. Her neck stretched nearly a foot high, supported by a coil of golden rings. And her dark curly hair was gathered up and waxed into a long point that extended from her forehead like a unicorn's horn. And, if for no other reason than to inject a bit of normality to her eccentric choice in decoration, a pair of half-moon spectacles sat on her round nose.

Yukari would have risen from her seat to greet her guest, but as that was currently out of the question, she simply nodded and said, "Queen Mother, thank you for coming. I apologize for making you come all this way, but as you can see, I am in no shape to travel."

Qilin Zhuan, Queen Mother of the Kirin, squinted at Yukari. She removed her spectacles, wiped the lenses with her dress and put them back on. "Yukari? What in the world happened to you?"

Yukari glanced down at herself. Though the last few weeks of recovery time had done her good, her body was still withered and frail. All of her hair had been lost in the process, and a few boil clusters persisted still. An IV apparatus stood next to her chair, feeding Elixir of Life into her veins. "Ah…So, I take it you haven't been keeping up with current events?"

"I thought I had been," Qilin said, still staring. She reached out, fumbled about until she found the armrest of the other easy chair and quickly sat down. "I received that literature you sent me. About Eientei's renegade project? And I know that some sort of homicidal youkai with a sword is involved, and that Yuuka Kazami has been making trouble, but…Good Heavens, Yukari. Which one of those did this to you?"

"The latter." Yukari shrugged. "The woman packs a wallop, I'll give her that. I would have met with you earlier, but I'm afraid I was in no shape to entertain." She folded her hands in her lap. "And I'm still not, come to think of it. So you'll forgive me if I get straight to the point. I recently called an emergency meeting of the Ringleaders to discuss the aforementioned problems. You were absent. Care to explain why?"

At another time, Yukari might have approached the situation with a little more delicacy, a little more tact. After all, the Queen Mother was highly influential among the youkai, and it would not do to offend her. But Yukari was in no mood to play games. Yuuka had thoroughly beaten such notions out of her.

Qilin noticed. She blinked her squinting eyes in surprise and said, "I, er, well. I am sorry, but it came at _such _an inconvenient time. My niece was due, you see, and I simply couldn't leave her side! And I had assumed that it was going to be just like the previous meeting, with you inducting some new faces to our ranks. S-surely you can understand…"

Yukari's fingers drummed against her lap, but otherwise she did not move.

Qilin winced. "Ah, it would seem that I was in error. My…_sincerest _apologies. Had I known that the matter at hand was of such grave importance I…" She bit her lip and averted her gaze. "It…it won't happen again."

"Ah, will it not?" Yukari sighed and leaned back. "Well, that's certainly heartening to hear. I would hate to hear that one our esteemed leaders had opted out of receiving crucial information and thus gotten herself and her people eradicated by one of the genocidal maniacs we've got running around as a result. Because if how my month is going is any indication, that remains a…" She took a deep breath before continuing. "A _very _definite possibility. Neglect making an appearance again, and I won't bother making the effort to keep you informed. I'll let Yuuka Kazami or the Shadow Youkai introduce themselves to you in person."

The Queen Mother nodded. She did not meet Yukari's gaze.

The border youkai sighed. "To be honest, my ire has less to do with your absence than it has to do with…other issues. And my reason for summoning you really isn't to chew you out. I'm afraid we have another problem at hand, one that concerns you and your people personally."

"Me?" Qilin looked up. "However so?"

Yukari blinked. Did she truly not know? "The part that involves Rin Satuki."

Qilin frowned. "I'm sorry, who?"

"You…did receive the files I sent you about Eientei's renegade experiment, correct? Did you examine them thoroughly?"

"I…might have glanced through them…"

Yukari closed her eyes and sighed. "I see. Then perhaps you missed the part concerning the creature's origin?"

"Well, maybe, but even so, I fail to see why a rabbit from the Bamboo Forest of the Lost would have anything to do with us. We don't even have a trade agreement with them!"

Yukari frowned in puzzlement. "I'm sorry, rabbit? What rabbit?"

"This Rin Satsuki person, of course!" Qilin cocked her head. "Who else?"

Yukari paused. When she did answer, her voice was slow and deliberate. "You…believe that Rin Satsuki is…a rabbit?"

"Well, of course! Who else would Eientei be experimenting on, if not their fellow natives?"

"Ah," Yukari said. She shook her head. "Qilin…she's not a rabbit."

"Oh? A fairy then? I understand they're fairly common in-"

Well, here it came. "Rin Satsuki is a Kirin."

To Yukari's surprise, Qilin Zhuan let out a bark of laughter. "A Kirin? Yukari, honestly. Is this one of your infamous practical jokes?"

"If only, if only," Yukari muttered. "But no. She is in fact a Kirin child. One of yours, presumably. Hence your presence here."

"But that's just ridiculous," Qilin said with another laugh. "Who told you such an outlandish tale?"

"Her creator, Doctor Eirin Yagokoro."

"Ahah!" Qilin said triumphantly. "There's your problem! Trusting the word of some backwater woods witch doctor. I mean, please! As if-"

"Stop, stop, stop," Yukari said, holding up an interrupting hand. "Wait. 'Backwater woods witch doctor'? Eirin Yagokoro? _Really?"_

Qilin blinked. "Ah…um. I…take it I'm supposed to recognize that name?"

"Are you serious?" Yukari buried her face into her palm. "She was introduced when her Princess was inducted into the Ringleaders! You were there, weren't you paying attention?"

Qilin fidgeted, shuffling her feet over the carpeted floor. "Well, to be honest, my attention did waver after the first round of inductions." Then she looked up and her squinty eyes flashed. "I think it had something to do with you gifting a certain _Madam Mima _control of _Hakurei Shrine!" _

Now it was Yukari's turn to feel uncomfortable. It was true, there had been a substantial uproar over that announcement, which had made her regret not saving it until the end of the meeting. The Kirin had taken heavy losses during the Magician's War, which was one of the reasons why they remained more-or-less reclusive these days. And a great many of those losses had been at Mima's hand. Qilin herself had lost family. While Yukari had her reasons to have the spirit where she was, it was quite understandable if others did not agree with her reasoning.

"That's…fair enough," Yukari said cautiously. "But even so, you still should be familiar with Eirin. I mean, you know the Lunarians, correct?"

"The Lunarians?" Qilin repeated, the anger in her eyes giving way to confusion. "Well, of course. Who doesn't? They're only the most advanced society within our solar system. And despite that insufferable attitude that they all seem to be born with, one can't help but to admire their accomplishments. But what do they have to do with anything? Did this Eirin Yagokoro study under their…Ah, Yukari? Your mouth is hanging open."

Yukari did not care. She continued to stare. "Uh, Qilin? Eirin Yagokoro did not 'study' with the Lunarians, she _is _a Lunarian. Or to be more precise, _the _Lunarian, one of the principal founders of their civilization and the single most accomplished scientist their people has ever produced!"

Now it was Qilin's turn to stare. "But…What? But if that's true, whatever in the world is she doing in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, of all places?"

_Note to self, _Yukari thought. _Find a way to bring the internet to Gensokyo. Or at least Wikipedia. In book form, if I have to. _"She has her reasons," Yukari said, wishing to get the conversation back on track. "But all that aside, my point is that if Eirin Yagokoro tells me that Rin Satsuki is a Kirin, I'm inclined to believe her!"

"But how is that possible?" Qilin said, wringing her hands. "All of our people are accounted for, especially the children! We had our bi-yearly census just a few weeks ago, and I can assure you everyone was present! I conducted it myself!"

Which was actually a fair point. Like their distant cousins the Tengu, Kappa, Oni, Satori and any other youkai that did not spring to life spontaneously, the Kirin reproduced the old-fashioned way. And as their species was more-or-less immortal, they enforced a stringent system of birth control so as to keep their population in check. Each married couple was allowed but one child apiece, and marriages were rare things that were arranged well in advance by the Ministry of Family. Punishments for going against this system were harsh, to say the least. Perhaps that was why the Kirin revered their children so. Being allowed to have a child was such a rare privilege that only the most fortunate were gifted.

Still, something had slipped. As Yukari had said, if Eirin Yagokoro said that she had experimented on a Kirin child, than she had experimented on a Kirin child. "Perhaps there is an anomaly of some kind?" Yukari suggested. "As I understand it, Satsuki came into Eientei's care nineteen years ago. Were there any…irregularities with the population back then?"

"Nineteen years? No, I don't believe…Wait." Qilin frowned. Her towering neck swayed back and forth as she thought. "Now that you mention it…"

Yukari quirked an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"I'll…I'll have to check my records to be sure, but I do recall there being _something…"_

"And where might these records be found?"

"Why, the Royal Library, of course."

Yukari waved a hand. A gap opened up, in front of the fireplace. It stung, but the pain was a far cry from the soul-tearing agony that using her powers had caused her immediately following her injury.

"Be quick," Yukari said.

Qilin nodded. She picked up the hem of her dress and scampered through the gap as quickly as she could. Yukari settled back into her chair, closed her eyes and waited.

…

Reimu pounded her fist against the rough wood of Marisa's door. "Marisa? You in there? It's me." After a brief pause, she added, "Again."

This was the third time she had been by in the last couple of weeks. The first time she had been turned away by Mima, who had claimed that the witch was still ill and asleep. The second time there had been no answer at all.

"Come on," Reimu called. "We need to talk."

She listened, but heard no movement from within.

"Okay, seriously getting tired of this. Quit avoiding me already!"

Again, there was no response. Reimu growled and started banging on the door. "Come on, open the door already!"

The door suddenly opened, and Reimu had to jolt back to keep from slamming her hand against Mima's breast.

"Good heavens, Reimu," Mima said. "This poor house has suffered abuse enough. No need to injure the door as well."

Reimu glowered up at the floating spirit. "Oh, you're still here."

"Lovely to see you too." Mima folded her arms. "How can I help you?"

"I need to talk to Marisa," Reimu said. "And don't tell me she's still sick. No way does anyone stay sick for that long."

Mima smirked. "There are a number of cancer patients that might take exception to that statement. But no, she's well enough. Unfortunately, Marisa is not here right now."

Reimu was hardly surprised at all. "Is that right?"

"Mmmm-hmmm. She left a few minutes ago, to go hunting for spell ingredients." Mima shrugged. "The recent confiscation of her possessions has depleted her stocks, it seems."

"So she just left before I showed up, huh?" Reimu's eyes narrowed. "Well, isn't that a coincidence."

Mima raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so sorry if you've been inconvenienced. Unfortunately, I regret to tell you that Marisa's life does not consist of sitting around, awaiting your pleasure. Next time, I suggest contacting her ahead of time and making sure your respective schedules are freed if you want a playdate." She started to close the door. "Now, if there's nothing else…"

"Hold up!" Reimu grabbed the door before it could close all the way.

Mima tilted her head, but didn't reopen the door. "Yes?"

Reimu grunted and forced the door back the rest of the way. "I was wondering…"

"Good for you. Curiosity is the root of all wisdom."

"Shut up," Reimu growled. "Seriously, we need to talk about the Rin Satsuki thing.

"Ah," Mima said. "Is that still happening? What with all the chaos caused by Yuuka, I almost forgot. I assume you're speaking of my offer to assist you in your efforts to rescue the poor dear from her horrific situation."

"Yeah. That."

"Even though the aforementioned offer came with the condition that you help me save Marisa from Yukari's clutches."

Reimu sighed. "Yes, I remember."

"Which you did not do," Mima observed.

Reimu threw her hands into the air. "Hey, she didn't want to be rescued! You were there, you remember!"

"Yes, I was. I was also at the battle, watching Marisa's back. A battle which, I couldn't help but notice, you were noticeably absent from."

"Don't give me that," Reimu seethed. "You know as well as I do that Yukari would never let me anywhere near that disaster."

Mima smirked. "Ah, starting to groan under the weight of her protectiveness? Is her collar starting to chafe?"

"Hey, if I was wearing her collar, I wouldn't be here, taking to you."

"Perhaps," Mima said. "Though believe you me, should Yukari find out that you're here, asking me this question, you will suddenly cease to be able to leave that bloated soap bubble of hers. And it will suddenly become much, much smaller."

Reimu took a deep breath and counted to ten. "Okay. Look, I got just a little sick of playing this game with you people a long time ago. So if you're out, you're out. Kanako still wants you on board, but if you don't want to play, fine. We'll deal."

"Kanako?" Mima raised an eyebrow. "Ah, that's flattering. Nice to know someone still remembers what I'm capable of. At least, someone who matters." She shrugged. "I suppose we can still talk, once I come back to the shrine."

"Yeah? And when will that be?"

"Why?" Mima asked. "Do you miss me that much? Or has some kind of worshipful populace sprung up in my absence, their pockets overflowing with money that they're just itching to donate in my honor?"

Reimu gave that statement all the response it deserved: a steady and smoldering glare.

"No?" Mima said. "How disappointing." She shrugged. "There used to be, you know. Only it was mostly blood that was donated, instead of money. Lovely times. But to answer your question, in time. I'm enjoying my little vacation, but don't worry. I'll be gracing the shrine with my presence soon enough. Then we can talk business."

"I'll be looking forward to it," Reimu said coolly.

"Good to hear. Please try to keep the place in good shape until I return. No wild parties, make sure that Genji stays out of trouble, and remind that rabbit friend of yours to please clean up after herself and stay out of my belongings."

Reimu's eyes bulged when Mima's words permeated her brain. "Wait, what-"

Mima shut the door.

"Hey!" Reimu shouted. She banged on the door. "Hold up! How do you know about that? Have you told anyone? Hey!"

Mima refused to answer. Reimu kept trying to get her attention for another minute before giving up.

She considered trying one of the windows. Marisa usually left them unlocked. But no, that wouldn't work either. If Mima didn't want to talk than trying to find her was futile. Either the window would be glued in place, turn out to be indestructible or Mima herself would simply vanish.

So instead, Reimu left the house to go hunt down Marisa. As she flew, she tried to sort this troubling new bit of information out. Mima knew about Reisen. And there was no way of knowing how long she had known or if she had told anyone. While Reimu didn't hate, or even much dislike, the ghost, Mima was not trustworthy.

But after giving it some thought, Reimu decided that it was most likely that Mima had kept the information to herself. If she had been planning on using the information against Reimu, than she would have just kept quiet and done it. By letting the fact that she knew she was probably just messing with Reimu's head for her own amusement.

Or so Reimu kept hoping.

Not for the first time, Reimu found herself rethinking the wisdom of letting Mima stick around. It had begun the same way most of her friendships did, with Mima showing up as a recurring pest, and Reimu fighting back as part of her job. And over time, the spirit had seemed to have lost her appetite for villainy and settled for being a nuisance instead. This in turn led to Reimu getting used to having her around, to the point where the two enjoyed a mildly antagonistic friendship. Reimu's own close relationship with Mima's prodigy had simplified things.

But by doing so, Reimu had perhaps come to forget exactly what sort of creature Mima was. And when it came down to it, Mima was one scary individual. She was powerful. She was brilliant. She was manipulative, ruthless, deceitful, sadistic and vengeful. And unlike Yukari, who justified her action in the causes of the Greater Good, Mima's moral compass was set firmly in the direction of whatever the hell she felt like. Furthermore, she had not been exaggerating when she made mention of the masses who had bled out their life's blood in her honor. While those days were behind her, Reimu had a feeling that the woman who had so rightfully earned the title of the Evil Spirit of Makai still lurked behind the pleasantly mocking façade that she now wore.

What was more, the last time Reimu had seen her, Marisa had gloated that she and Mima had "kicked ass". While she probably didn't know it, that boast made Reimu even more wary of Marisa's former mentor. If Ran Yakumo's report was accurate, that battle had crippled Yukari Yakumo and Yuuka Kazami alike, had destroyed Flandre Scarlet and Satori Komeji, and had resulted in the defeat of Utsuho Reiuji. By all accounts, it was the sort of battle in which gods fell and legends died.

And Mima, who had been in the thick of it, had "kicked ass".

Reimu was not scared of many things, and she certainly had no intention of fearing Mima. But it would be foolhardy not to acknowledge the threat she represented. Maybe Byakuren was right. Maybe she was too dangerous to trust.

But then, Kanako had made her demands clear. And while Reimu hated of bending over backwards for a competitor, she needed the elder goddess' help. She needed Moriya Shrine's influence. And in the end, maybe Kanako was right. Maybe they needed Mima's power and knowledge as well. However, that still left Reimu with the problem of finding a way to win Mima back over. With her promise to help save Marisa unfulfilled, that was going to be no small task.

Still, it wasn't impossible. Perhaps the solution lay with Marisa still. Despite the balance of power in their relationship, Marisa still wielded more influence over Mima than anyone alive, whether she realized it or not. If Reimu could find the witch and patch things up with her, then maybe she could use that influence to…

With a feeling of shock Reimu realized that she had just been considering using her relationship with Marisa as a means to manipulate Mima into doing what she wanted. Was that the sort of person she was becoming? Granted, that was far from the only reason she wanted to fix things with Marisa, but to have that even suggest itself in her mind was disquieting. Was this how it started? Just a small nudge, a little bit of grey manipulation for a good cause? What happened if it kept happening, one right after the other? What happened if the problems she would come to face as Gensokyo's protector forced her to take even more morally dubious actions?

Her mind struggled with the problem, but her heart came up with the answer immediately: _Just ask Yukari._

Reimu shuddered. She shoved that line of thinking as far away from her mind as she could. No, she wasn't going to go down that road. Either Mima would help, or she wouldn't. But Reimu wasn't going to use Marisa as a means to coerce her.

But she was still going to find the witch. There were things that needed to be said.

Marisa wasn't at the first few clearings that Reimu checked, but as she skimmed over a flower-filled field she noticed someone familiar sitting on a rock and reading a book. She braked in midair and swooped down. "Hey, Alice!" she called. "Question!"

Alice Margatroid glanced up. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw Reimu, but she betrayed no further emotion. She looked back down at her book and said, "Good afternoon, Reimu. How can I help you?"

Reimu landed in the grass next to Alice's rock. "Hey. Sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for Marisa. Have you seen her?"

Alice's lips drew tight, but her voice remained calm. "I regret to say I have not."

"Crap," Reimu muttered. "Well, okay. Mima said she was looking for spell ingredients, but I forgot to ask what kind. Do you know where she might be then? Like a favorite place to gather plants or that kind of thing?"

"No," Alice said. She turned a page. "Unless I know exactly what sort of ingredients she is seeking, I'm afraid I cannot help you. There are several dozen different herbs that have use in spellcrafting, and they can be found throughout the Forest of Magic."

Reimu frowned. She leaned forward and tilted her head to look Alice in the eye. "Hey, you okay? You seem kinda…pissed. You two aren't still fighting, are you?"

Now Alice did look up, though her face remained blank. "This is untrue. In order to fight with someone, some degree of contact is required. As I have not seen or heard from her since the last time we were all together, any sort of active conflict would be impossible."

"Uh…"

Alice slammed her book shut, making Reimu jump. "And unfortunately, I have other things to do than worry about a wayward witch. Though if you want my advice, I would check the mushroom patches first. Those do seem to be her go-to drug of choice." She nodded at the shrine maiden. "Good day, Reimu Hakurei."

Reimu watched as Alice walked away to disappear into the forest. Well, that had been awkward. Apparently Alice wasn't as eager to restore relations with Marisa as Reimu was. That was no surprise. While Alice may be more "Human" than most of her fellow magician youkai, she was still just as proud as any of them.

Reimu returned to her search for Marisa. Out of all the times for Marisa to be out and about, it had to be one of the rare occasions that Reimu was actually trying to find her, as opposed to the other way around. And out of all the places she had to go searching through, it had to be the damned Forest of Magic. Reimu had visited the place enough to have a working knowledge of its paths, but that would be of no help when it came to searching for a single person.

Reimu put her hands on her hips and sighed. Then, by chance, she happened to glance up. To her surprise, there was something in the sky that she had not noticed before, something large and familiar. She stared at it, wondering if she should fly up to say hello. She wasn't in an especially friendly mood at the time, but they might have information she could use. Then again, just by doing that, she might get roped into yet another pointless argument.

She shrugged and lifted into the air. What the hell. Maybe if she was lucky, the argument would escalate into a full-on fight. And beating the crap out of someone was a great way to burn off stress.

…

Captain Minamitsu Murasa puffed patiently on her pipe stood waiting at the helm of the _Palaquin. _They were currently anchored about a mile over the Forest of Magic. Thank the gods that it was a clear day. While it wasn't a huge inconvenience, falling rain was never pleasant for ectoplasm-based lifeforms.

Off to port, a member of the ship's crew clung to the side of the ship with her tail while she conversed with a trio of golden-skinned humanoids that rode upon the backs of giant butterflies. They weren't exactly the strangest people Murasa had ever received information from, but they were bizarre enough that Murasa preferred to leave the actual exchange to the grey-haired mouse girl now speaking to them.

Then again, who was she to throw stones? She was a disembodied spirit who piloted a flying ship propelled by a sentient pink cloud.

Down below, it looked as if Nazrin was finally concluding her negotiations. She handed over a covered basket to the trio's leader and waved goodbye. The butterfly riders ignored her farewell and turned their mounts around to flutter away.

Murasa straightened as Nazrin came bounding up the deck. "Well?" she asked as the mouse girl approached.

Nazrin stopped and threw off a sloppy salute. "Abso-frigging-lutely nothing, cap'!" she said. "They ain't seen horn nor tail of Satsuki."

Murasa cocked an eyebrow. She pulled her pipe out of her mouth and tapped it into the nearby ashtray. "Really now. And, ah, was that the basket you gave them the fairy dust?"

Nazrin nodded enthusiastically. "Yup!"

"The same fairy dust that we promised them for whatever information they could give us?"

"Yup!" Nazrin said with another nod.

"But they had no information to give us."

"Nope!"

"Ah." Murasa refilled her pipe and lit it. She puffed it twice, took it out of her mouth and asked, "Then what the hell did you pay them for?"

Nazrin saluted again. "For time and effort spent looking for information, cap'! Can't help it if there ain't no info to find!"

Murasa thought about this. She shrugged. "Okay, fair enough. So, who's your next contact, and what do they want to be paid for wasting our time?"

"That was the last of them, cap'!"

"Really. You have no more information brokers we can talk to?"

Nazrin shook her head. "None that won't bite our heads off or turn us into rats for so much as asking!"

"Whelp." Murasa sighed. "That figures."

Nazrin raised her hand.

"Yeah, what?" Murasa said.

"Maybe the reason we're not finding Byakuren's charity case is because it went underground and all we've been talking to are flying people!"

Murasa closed her eyes and sighed. "Yes, that's probably the reason."

Nazrin's hand went up again.

"What?"

"So wouldn't it make sense for us to go underground if we want to find this thing?"

Murasa looked at her. Then she glanced about the ship, a vessel designed never to go below sea level. This was followed by a meaningful look at the pink halo that surrounded the center mast. Then her eyes fell to Nazrin again.

To the mouse's credit, while she often acted without speaking, she wasn't slow on the uptake. "Oh," she said, looking somewhat abashed.

"Yeah," Murasa said as she gripped the helm.

Nazrin scratched her ear. "Then why are we still looking? I mean, if she's gone under, we ain't ever gonna find her!"

"Because Byakuren told us to look, that's why," Murasa retorted. "That's all the reason I, or you, or anyone else, should ever need."

Nazrin's ears wilted. "Okay…but…"

"No buts," Murasa said sternly. "Besides, there's people looking for her down below. Either they'll catch her, and we can go home. Or they'll flush her out and send her back up, and we'll be waiting. Either way, we keep searching until she's caught."

"Um, yeah," Nazrin said, clearing her throat. "And say she eats all the cave people and never comes out?"

To be honest, Captain Murasa had been entertaining such thoughts. Partially because it was a very real possibility, and partially because she found the idea of the denizens of Makai getting devoured to be rather appealing. While they exactly hadn't been the ones to seal her up along with Byakuren, she hadn't exactly gotten along with the natives during her incarceration in Makai. Out loud, she just said, "Then that's their problem. Byakuren will send us new orders, and we respond appropriately. Until then, no whining, no questioning, and definitely no suggesting that we do anything other than what we've been told."

"And if she tells you go take your boat on a kamikaze run straight down a dragon's throat, would you still do it?"

The voice was not Nazrin's, nor did it belong to any member of Murasa's crew. The ghostly captain of the _Palaquin_ stood still for a moment. Then she sighed and turned around to address the person floating just beyond the stern.

Murasa sighed. She glanced over to Nazrin, who was staring at the shrine maiden in surprise. "Let me handle this," Murasa said out of the corner of her mouth. "Go tell Nessie to raise anchor. We're leaving as soon as I'm done here." Nazrin nodded and scampered off.

Murasa turned her attention back to the newcomer. "Hakurei," she said in a flat tone. "You lost?"

Reimu Hakurei shrugged. "I was about to ask you guys the same thing. After all, I'm not the one asking Flutter Riders for directions."

Murasa acknowledged the dig with a slight nod, and said, "I don't recall giving you permission to come aboard."

Reimu gestured down at her position. "Good thing I'm not standing on your deck, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is. Then I'd be honor-bound to clamp you in irons, haul you over our keel until it stops being funny and throw whatever's left into the brig."

Reimu snorted.

Murasa leaned back against the helm. "Oh, and just for the record, sarcastically questioning the motives of the only person sticking her neck out for your stupidly suicidal charity mission ain't the best way to improve relations with the people doing the grunt work. Byakuren's risking everything in doing this. If you want to keep our help, show a little damned respect. Got it?"

To her mild surprise, Reimu actually winced at that. "I, uh, yeah. Sorry, just kind of frustrated right now. But that was out of line. Sorry."

"Yeah, it was." Murasa shrugged. "The hell do you want anyway?"

Reimu sighed. "I, uh, was just wondering if you've seen Marisa Kirisame. She's supposed to be in this forest somewhere, but I can't find her."

"Lost the witch, have we?" The edge of Murasa's mouth perked up in a rare smile. "My, my, you really have a problem keeping track of your overpowered lunatics."

"I haven't lost her, I just can't find her," Reimu growled. "So-"

"Haven't seen her, and even if I had, I'm not a damned information broker. I already got my hands full trying to find one freak for you. I don't have time to go traipsing after another."

Reimu held up her palms. "All right, all right. Calm down, I just thought I'd ask. I'll get out of your hair now. Sheesh."

Murasa watched at the shrine maiden swooped back down toward the Forest of Magic. Even though she was willing to do anything Byakuren asked without complaint, she wasn't happy about it. The fact that she was now technically working with, if not for, the same shrine maiden who had almost prevented her and her crew from rescuing Byakuren was one of the principle reasons.

Then she shrugged and turned back to the helm. Whatever. A job was a job, even if she didn't like who she was working with. And now it was time to get back to it.

"Hey! Floaty!"

Murasa paused. She turned around to see yet another person she didn't like, this one a blond girl dressed in black-and-white and sitting on a broom.

"'Floaty'?" Murasa asked.

Marisa Kirisame shrugged and grinned. "Couldn't think of anything funnier. I'll have a better one next time."

"Please don't. What do you want?"

"I'm looking for a cranky shrine maiden, ze. You seen one?"

Murasa sighed. "Oh, this has got to be a joke. She was just here, less than a minute ago, looking for you. And you didn't see her?"

"Nope, didn't see nothing," Marisa said. She wasn't even bothering to hide her lack of sincerity.

"Are you two deliberately _trying _to annoy me?" Murasa demanded.

"What are you talking about?" Marisa said with a bat of her eyes. "I'm just trying to find my friend. What's with all the-"

Murasa stuck her finger at the deck. "She went down, towards the forest. Looking for you. Which you well know. So go after her and get the hell away from my boat."

"Jeez, who pissed in your tea this morning?" Marisa shot off a mocking salute. "See yah, Smoky. Wait, did I already use that one for somebody? I dunno, they're hard to keep track of."

With that, she swooped down, following after the shrine maiden.

Murasa growled. Enough was enough. She turned toward the pink halo.

"Ahoy!" she called to it. "We're going west!"

The cloud detached from the mast. It formed itself into the form of a giant hand, which gave her a large thumb's-up. Then it separated itself into three smaller clouds, one for each sail, and started pressing against the fabric. The _Palaquin _was on the move.

…

Reimu's notoriously low patience was running out, which that encounter with Captain Murasa had done nothing to improve. Of course, she had only been searching for about seventeen minutes and had not even covered a fourth of the forest, but it was now occurring to her that Marisa was bound to return home sooner or later and to continue this futile search was more due to stubbornness than a genuine need to speak to the witch as soon as possible.

With that in mind, Reimu sighed and kept going until she found a break in the treeline. Then she crouched down, ready to spring into the air and soar into the clouds.

"What, you're gonna give up already? I'm hurt."

Reimu paused. She slowly stood up straight and turned around. There, sitting in the twisted branches of a nearby tree, was the very witch she was seeking.

"Marisa," Reimu said, as if they had casually met on the street. "How long have you been following me?"

Marisa shrugged. "Since I saw you talking to Alice. I gotta say, Reddie. For someone who hunts monsters for a living, you've got a lousy sense of your surroundings, ze. Heck, I followed you all the way up to that flying life raft and you didn't even notice."

The Mad Witch pushed herself off the branch and dropped to the forest floor. The two girls stared at each other. Marisa looked much the same as she always did: white apron over a black dress, messy golden hair with a single braid hanging to one side and her trademark pointy black hat. But even so, she looked different. Though she smiled, her usual expression of mischievous humor was gone, replaced by the cold look of the falsely accused and resentful. Reimu hoped that this was just Marisa being in a bad mood rather than a sign of Mima's escalated influence.

"So," Marisa said. "How've you been?"

Reimu folded her arms. Might as well get this over with. "We need to talk."

This pronouncement was met by a burst of laughter. "Really? You don't come by for almost a month, and that's the first thing out of your mouth? That's what I love about you, Reddie. Always right to the point. I'm doing great, by the way. Thanks for your concern." Marisa flicked the brim of her hat and smiled, though there was still no friendliness in the expression. "Of course, I was all ready to talk the last time you were around, ze. Remember that? When you came to see me and I was all sick and stuff? But I guess you weren't in the mood."

Reimu rolled her eyes.

"Sure took you awhile to change your mind," Marisa continued. "I mean, how long has it been? I haven't gotten around to buying a new calendar, but I'm gonna say…two weeks? Three? I mean, it's not like I had gone anywhere, what with being bedridden and all. But I guess you were just too busy to pop by."

"Marisa," Reimu sighed.

"No, no, I get it," Marisa said, holding up a palm. "You're a busy lady, doing your shrine maiden stuff. All that tea drinking you've got to get done."

_"Marisa."_

"People to beat up, monsters to befriend. I get it, there's not need to concern yourself with a lowly Human who-"

"MARISA!" Reimu snapped.

"Yeah, what?"

Reimu sighed. "Get over yourself, all right? I came by twice to visit you in the last couple weeks, and I was going to come back tomorrow if I didn't find you today."

"Wait, huh?" Marisa said. "Twice? When?"

"Uh…" Reimu's brow furrowed. "The first time was a little over a week ago. I came by your house, but got turned away by evil sorceress you've got as a nursemaid. She said you were too sick to see anyone."

Now it was Marisa's turn to frown. "Really? Now that you mention it, I think I can kinda remember seeing you in the doorway, ze. But Mima said I was just dreaming."

"Right," Reimu said. "Because she's such a paragon of truth and honesty."

Marisa shrugged. "Hey, truth is subjective, ze. Besides, she wasn't wrong about me. I was half-delirious at the time."

"Really? French maids again?"

"Thank the gods, no," Marisa groaned. "Giant spiders, ones that wore smoking jackets and wouldn't stop trying to explain sexual philosophy to me. It was actually kinda interesting at the time, but made no sense whatsoever after I woke up. Something about cigars and me wanting my dad's dick."

"Yeah, I'm just going to delete that from my memory," Reimu muttered. "Anyway, the second time was last Wednesday, but no one was there, not even Mima."

"Really? That's weird, I haven't even started going out until the day before…" Marisa frowned. "Wait, hold up. Wednesday? That was…" She groaned. "Oh. Right. That."

Reimu's eyebrows went up. "Yes?"

"Eh, Kotocrazy had me go by her station to help finishing cataloguing the stuff they robbed from me," Marisa said with a shrug. "Ended up taking the whole day. I didn't even remember half the stuff they had me look at." A ghost of her old devilish glint appeared in her eye. "Not that I told them that, of course."

Reimu threw her hands in the air. "Well, there you go! I did come by, you were just unavailable! So stop complaining."

Marisa glowered. "Okay, fine. Have it your way, ze. I'll let you off the hook. This time."

Reimu was about to yell at her again, but then she caught the mischievous twinkle in Marisa's eye and relaxed.

"Well, now that we've got _that _cleared up, what's up?" Marisa asked as she stretched her arm up behind her head. "Got a new incident for us to solve, or just an updated version of the old one?"

"I think you know," Reimu said.

"Do I?" Marisa scratched her nose. "Sorry, Armpits. I may have a whole bunch of neat tricks, but I still haven't worked out the mind-reading thing, ze. Glad to hear you're so confident in my progress, though. It really means a lot to me."

"Stop it," Reimu groused. "I'm talking about what Kotohime said. About you trying to kill a bunch of her people."

Marisa held her gaze for a few seconds. Then her shoulders slumped and her arms fell to her sides. "Yeah, I figured this was gonna happen sooner or later," she muttered. "Okay, fine. Let's get this over with. But not here."

"Why not?" Reimu looked around at the twisted trees and gloomy shrubs. "You worried about the trees eavesdropping on us?"

"In this place? Sure. But no, I just don't wanna get interrupted by some stupid youkai looking for an easy meal. This place is chock-full of them, ze." Marisa tilted her head down the road. "Come on, there's a clearing not too far from here."

Reimu followed Marisa down the winding path, stepping over gnarled roots and ducking low branches. After a short time, the forest opened to one of its many small meadows, this one filled with wild grass and purple flowers. A large fallen tree lay in the center of the field.

Unfortunately, they weren't the first ones there. A gang of tiny fairies, none over seven inches tall and all wearing the same white dress, were swarming over the fallen tree like a cloud of gnats. There had to be at least thirty of them, all told.

This didn't seem to deter Marisa, who marched straight up to the swarm. "Hey!" she shouted as she swatted at the fairies. "This is a hostile takeover, so beat it!"

Predictably enough, the fairies buzzed angrily at her. _"Here first!" _they shouted at her in their high, piping voices. _"Here first!"_

"Yeah?" Marisa growled. "Well, I was here yesterday, and yesterday happens before today. So I was really the one here first, ze!"

That seemed to confuse the fairy gang. _"But left!" _one of them insisted. _"You left!"_

"Right, and you're going to leave now, so that means it's our turn, doesn't it?"

This bit of logic was briefly but intensely debated by the fairies. But they seemed to come to the conclusion that Marisa had a point, and soon they drifted off to find some other log to flutter over.

Triumphant, Marisa sat down on the fallen tree's trunk. Shaking her head, Reimu walked over to join her. "I can't believe I just watched you beat a bunch of fairies in a debate," she said as she sat down next to the witch.

"Eh," Marisa shrugged. She took off her hat and set it down next to her. "Ain't hard. You just gotta use their own logic against them, ze."

"Right." Reimu looked around and sighed. "Well, let's get right to this, then. Kotohime told me that you tried to kill her and her fanclub. Is that true?" Reimu's eyes narrowed. "And just a fair warning, don't give me the usual bullshit routine you give to everyone else. Just answer honestly, for once in your life."

Marisa glowered, but shrugged. "I guess. But not the way she made it sound."

Reimu waited.

"It's…it's hard to explain," Marisa muttered. She pressed the heel of her right palm against her forehead. "Look, things were really confusing. Mima had just told me that Yukari was after me, and that surprised and scared the hell out of me, ze. Then when I was running away, I kept getting lost and all these punkass youkai kept jumping me. Nothing I couldn't handle of course, but it was still frustrating. And _then, _just as I finally figured out where I was going, out of nowhere those GPF tools showed up and tried to arrest my ass and give me to Yukari! And _then_ Yukari herself shows up and tries to eat me!"

Reimu, who had been following the story without difficulty, now twisted her face in confusion. "Wait a minute, say that last part again? Yukari tried to what now?"

"Well, tried to swallow me with one of her damned gaps," Marisa amended. "And I only got away using one of Mima's tricks. But she still got my hat. So I wasn't really in the best of moods at the time, you know what I'm saying?"

"So you berserked," Reimu filled in for her. "Probably went apeshit on the GPF officers and threw everything you had at them, lethal or not."

"They shot first!" Marisa protested.

"Using what? Danmaku? Probably a spellcard or two? Rocks? While you probably brought down…I don't know, thunderbolts, fireballs, falling stars and a whole mess of lasers."

Marisa shoved an index finger against Reimu's nose. "Look, Armpits. I told you already. I was having a shitastic day. I snapped. It happens to everyone, even you. And unlike you, someone actually beat my ass to the ground for it. I did my time, thank you very much. So don't come here acting all high and mighty like you're better than me, ze. I've seen what happens to people when you get angry. And I don't think you've ever so much as spent an hour in time-out for it."

Reimu opened her mouth to start yelling back, but then her mind went back to the conversation she had with Byakuren. It took an incredible amount of will, but she managed to rein in the angry retort she had been about to unleash. Directly attacking Marisa wasn't going to solve anything. She would get nowhere by putting the witch on the defensive.

So instead, she tried for a different tactic. "Look," she said as slowly as her mounting irritation would allow. "I know you're not some kind of crazy murderer. And I know you don't go looking for people to hurt. This was an extreme response to an extreme situation. I get that."

Marisa snorted, but she put her finger down. "Really? Well, thanks, ze. Your reassurance means so much to me."

"But," Reimu said. "That doesn't mean I'm still not…" The following word got caught in her throat. Reimu grimaced and forced it the rest of the way out. "…_worried. _About you."

Marisa almost fell off the log. "Wait, wha-" she sputtered. "You were…"

"Oh, get over it already," Reimu growled. "You're still my friend, so I'm allowed to worry about you, all right?"

Marisa gaped at her. Reimu rolled her eyes and reached over to shove up on Marisa's hanging jaw. "I told you to knock that off. Just because I don't like putting up with bullshit doesn't mean I don't…" The next word was as difficult to force out as the previous one had been. "…care about my friends."

"Yeah, I know," Marisa said, still staring. "But still, to hear you say it so frankly." She grinned. "So, does this mean…"

Reimu cocked a fist. "Make a sex joke, and I swear I'll flatten your nose. And no, before you say it, it won't be 'totally worth it'."

"You never know until you try," Marisa teased. "Still, your concern is touching."

Reimu shook her head. "Look, I just don't want you to turn into the next Mima, okay?"

That made Marisa frown in confusion. "Mima? Uh…Reddie? I hate to point this out, but she's kinda my mentor, ze. If you didn't want me being like her, you're just a little too late. Besides, what's wrong with being like Mima? I mean, she's only one of the smartest and most important magicians ever. That's the sorta thing a magician like me should be shooting for, ze!"

"I'm not talking about the magic," Reimu said. "I'm not talking about becoming a super famous magician and making yourself really powerful. If you want to do that, more power to you. I'm talking about being like Mima herself."

"Huh?"

"How many people has she killed?"

Marisa didn't answer.

"Come on, you know her better than anyone," Reimu said. "And you know as well as I do that it's a lot."

"Well, yeah," Marisa said with a shrug. "You mean like in the Magician's War? Because people kinda tend to die in wars. It's a thing."

"I'm not just talking about the war," Reimu said wearily. "You saw how she was with Kotohime, when she tried to rescue you. Remember how she almost choked her to death? Don't tell me that it wasn't the first time she's done something like that. And I'm pretty sure this was one of the few times someone's managed to stop her."

Marisa looked away.

Reimu leaned in closer. "Come on, you know I'm right. She's _used _to hurting or killing people that piss her off, sometimes both. It doesn't bother her. You think she was always like that?"

Marisa's fingers tightened. "I told you," she growled. "I. Lost. My. Temper. And I already got punished for it. So what good does snapping at me about it do? Jeez Hakurei, why can't you just leave this alone? It's over!"

Reimu thought. "Okay, Marisa. Say I was fighting someone, and we weren't using spellcard rules for some reason. And they got pissed and killed me. How would you feel?"

"What kind of question is that? I'd hunt down the fucking bastard and kill him…or her…right back! And hey, if I do go off the deep end and off someone, I'm perfectly fine with the idea of people trying to kill me for it! Fair's fair, after all. I can accept that!"

Reimu slapped a palm against her face. "No, not what you would _do, _I mean how would you feel!"

"Feel?" Marisa looked at her in confusion.

"Yes! Feel! Come on, you're the most emotional person I know. Would you, I don't know, feel bad? Hurt? Would you…"

"Grieve?"

Reimu shrugged. "Sure. Would you?"

"What's with all the stupid questions?" Marisa asked. "You're my friend. It's only natural, ze."

Reimu nodded. "Okay. So here's something to think about. Those people you attacked, those GPF 'tools', like you call them? They're Humans, like you and me. They've got families, in the Human Village or one of those farms or one of those little towns. Do you know what it would be like to be them and hear how a crazy witch killed your son or daughter or husband, wife, sister, brother, friend, and so on?"

Marisa rolled her eyes. "You've been spending way too much time with the Youchrist. Now you're starting to sound just like her."

"That's a bad thing? And come on, Marisa. You know I can't let this go without saying something. You're my friend. But a few weeks ago I found out that you almost blew up a bunch of Humans, and you didn't seem to care. What am I supposed to do then?" Reimu jabbed her chest with her thumb. "I'm supposed to be a protector of Humans! And that means protecting them from you, if I have to! And that _also _means protecting you from becoming something that I might end up having to take out one day! So yeah, I'm gonna get all into your face when you do something like this. Because I don't want to explain to grieving families why their loved ones aren't coming home. And because I don't want to end up having to…" Again the word caught in Reimu's throat, though for a different reason this time.

Marisa looked down at her boots. Her fingernails scratched at the trunk of the log, tearing up tiny flakes of bark.

An uncomfortable silence passed. Reimu watched Marisa, trying to gauge what the witch was feeling. Marisa was one to wear her heart on her sleeve, but it was difficult to tell what she was thinking now. Not that all emotion had gone from her face. Quite the opposite, in fact. The internal debate had to be fierce, given how many expressions were passing over her features: anger, chagrin, resentment, confusion, even guilt. For her part, Marisa just kept staring down and refused to make eye contact.

This continued on for almost a minute. And then Marisa startled Reimu when she started laughing.

"Well, if you can thaw that heart of ice of yours enough to admit that you care about me, then I guess I should start listening to you." Marisa turned to grin at the shrine maiden sitting next to her. "And hey, I don't want me turn into a psycho killer either. So it makes sense to keep you around to keep me in line." She stuck out her hand. "All right, you win. I'll try to keep the homicidal rampages under control. We cool?"

Reimu relaxed and allowed herself a small smile of her own. "Yeah, I guess," she said, accepting the handshake. "Though please don't make me do something like that again. That was all kinds of awkward, and I don't wanna end up as the next Eiki Shiki."

"Fuck. Yeah, let's not let that happen," Marisa said with a shudder. She put her hat back on and stood up. "Well, I've still got a few herbs to find. You wanna come with."

Reimu nodded, and the two walked back into the forest.

…

Yukari heard footsteps. She started and realized that she had dozed off. She opened her eyes and saw Qilin standing again in her living room, a heavy brown leather-bound book in her hands.

"Ah, found it?" Yukari said as she straightened up. Then she checked her internal clock and frowned. "Is there any particular reason why it took thirteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds to find a single book? I thought you Kirin prided yourselves on organization."

Qilin grimaced. "Sorry. That wing of the library is being remodeled, so all of the old record books are in storage."

Yukari grunted. "Well, all right. But you did find what you were looking for, correct?"

The apologetic look left Qilin's face, replaced with a scowl of indignation. However, it didn't seem to be directed toward Yukari. "I did," she said. She sat down and flipped through the book. "I most certainly did. As it turns out, twenty years ago we had a bit of an embarrassment."

Yukari motioned for her to continue.

Qilin flipped through the pages of the brown book. "Understand, this is not something that I feel comfortable discussing. We take our reproduction laws very seriously, and this incident is possibly the biggest scandal to disturb my people since-"

"I am well aware of your people's culture," Yukari said shortly. "And I really don't care how embarrassing it is. If you have information for me, then let's hear it."

Qilin mouth set in a straight line. "Well, if I must, I must. It's a real shame, really, seeing how it came out of what was supposed to be a joyous occasion. A member of the court, the son of one of our nobles…May I omit names? I assure you, they have no significant bearing to the problem at hand."

"Just tell me the story."

"All right. As I was saying, twenty years ago this boy was to marry. Of course, his parents were ecstatic. They had petitioned for years for the privilege, and had paid quite a lot of money through various charitable donations and public funding to earn the Ministry's favor. Finally, their request was granted, and a young lady of appropriate station was selected. But when the couple came of age and the day of the union drew near, we discovered…a problem."

Yukari had a feeling that she knew where this was going. "Let me guess," Yukari said dryly. "Our young man of the hour was found to have decided to skip the ceremony and head straight to the main event, probably with someone other than the girl selected for him. Probably something of a lower station as well."

Qilin's head jerked back in surprise, her neck-ring clinking against each other. "That's…exactly right. How did you know this?"

"It's a common plot of Human fiction," Yukari said with a shrug. "They seem to have a single-minded obsession with forbidden love stories. The scenario you're describing resembles at least a few hundred novels from the Outside World."

Qilin muttered something about lesser peoples and their lack of morals. "Well, be that as it may," she said. "When it happens in reality it's not at all entertaining. The whole court was in uproar. The fool's fiancé attempted suicide, and his parents resigned in disgrace. But in the confusion, the lovers fled into the Wilds."

"And you pursued?"

"In a way." Qilin frowned. "We tried to keep it quiet, to not involve other peoples. But they proved to be extremely difficult to find. They had hired a couple magician youkai, you see, and kept slipping by our tracking spells. We couldn't let news of their affair spread, so after…and understand, we tried everything else to find them first…I…I sent an unmaking spell after them."

Yukari quirked an eyebrow. Unmaking spells were a highly dangerous branch of magic, one that disintegrated a youkai's body and broke apart the connections that bound their life energies together. They were one of the few guaranteed methods to end a youkai's life for good. However, the set up for such a spell was notoriously complicated, and actually getting them to work was extremely difficult. In addition, to even attempt such a thing the caster had to have some sort of deeply intimate connection to the target, which meant the boy's own parents had probably been involved. As such they were generally only employed by youkai community leaders when an execution of one of their own was absolutely necessary. It rarely happened, but the very existence of such a spell was still considered a terrifying concept, not to mention highly controversial.

Qilin must have seen the look on Yukari's face, because she was quick to add, "I didn't want to do it, but by then we had no choice! They had insulted the crown, disgraced their families and people and violated the most sacred of-"

"Why are you justifying yourself to me?" Yukari interrupted. "I don't care how you manage your internal affairs, so long as it's kept in-house. But I think that's the problem here. Given what you just told me, and given the fact of Rin Satsuki's existence, I think it's safe to say that between the lovers' daring escape and their unmaking at your hands, they bore a child."

Qilin winced, but nodded.

"Obviously you didn't know this, or at least assumed that the spell eliminated the result of their union. Else we would not be in the situation we are in now."

"We didn't know she was pregnant," Qilin said softly. "All we knew was that they were sleeping together. There was a period of some months between their escape and when we finally sent the spell after them. And the child was not discovered when we found their hiding place and recovered their effects."

"That's not surprising," Yukari told her. "The rabbits found her in the possession of a couple of Human slavers that had taken some of their young."

"That explains that then," Qilin said. "What happened then?"

Yukari shrugged. "She was taken in and adopted by rabbits. It was later discovered that she had special adaptive abilities. And the rest, as they say, is history."

"History indeed," Qilin muttered. She closed the book and removed her glasses so she could rub her eyes. "History indeed."

"But I think we both understand the problem here," Yukari continued. "Given what I was told by Eirin Yagokoro, and seeing how it matches the events you have just described to me, can we agree that Rin Satsuki is a Kirin and move on?"

Qilin did not look happy about that notion at all, but she nodded.

"Which _finally _brings us to my reason for wanting to speak to you," Yukari said. "In her current state, Satsuki is menace, and needs to be…rendered nonthreatening. I know your people's attitude toward your young, and would rather not see a conflict of interests. So if you have any objections to-"

"Do what you want with her," Qilin hissed.

Yukari blinked in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"This Rin Satsuki is no child of ours. Her parents were criminals of the worst sort. Her conception and birth were not sanctioned by the Ministry of Love and Marriage, and her continued existence is an embarrassment to my people. If you wish to execute her, then by all means, please do so."

Yukari hesitated. Such a ruthless mindset was something that she was no stranger to, but it was odd to hear it from Qilin's lips, especially when it concerned a Kirin child. "Qilin, are you sure?" she asked carefully.

"Yes," replied Qilin Zhuan, Queen Mother of the Kirin. "She is a bastard. Bastards are abominable to us, and do not merit our protection." She leaned forward, her squinty eyes narrowing further in anger. "Yukari Yakumo, trust me when I say this: no one cares about Rin Satsuki."

…

Reisen strained and grunted as she pulled on the old rope that attached to the well's wooden bucket. Once the bucket had risen high enough, she reached into the well, grabbed it by the handle and carefully pulled it the rest of the way up.

"We have…" she panted as she untied the rope and set the bucket onto Genji's back. "Got to…get a pump."

"Ah, quit your whimperin'," the elderly turtle said. "A little exercise never hurt anyone."

Reisen wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one hauling that thing out of the water. I swear, it gets heavier as it gets higher."

"What don't kill you only makes you stronger," Genji replied. He rose into the air and floated toward the shrine, all the while balancing the bucket on his shell with no difficulty. "Unless of course it makes you a paraplegic, but haulin' buckets o' water out of wells ain't known for doin' _that."_

Reisen picked up the other two full buckets that sat on the ground and fell in place next to the turtle. "Sure, right up until my spine collapses."

"Whine, whine, whine," Genji snorted. "Come on, admit it. All this, ahem, _slave _labor is doin' you good, sweetie."

Reisen had to admit that he had a point. In the days that had followed her arrival at Hakurei Shrine, Reimu had certainly lived up to her promise to make Reisen work for room and board. Reisen had expected to be sweeping rooms and preparing meals, but she had quickly learned that a surprising amount of hard, manual labor went into the shrine's upkeep. The first few days had been nothing short of brutal, and Reisen had gone to bed feeling sore all over.

However, as time went by, her body became adjusted to the hard work. Before, it had been near impossible to get all three of those blasted buckets out of the well. Now it was merely difficult. She still hated it, and strongly suspected that Reimu was just using her to do the jobs that she didn't want to do for herself, but she would never voice such complaints out loud.

So instead, she changed the subject. "Why don't we get a pump?" she asked. "It sure would make getting water a whole lot easier. And I don't think Reimu would say 'no' to making something easier."

"Ain't that the truth," Genji agreed. "But for one thing, she don't know a thing about plumbin', and she's too proud to ask anyone for help. For another, pumps cost money, and we really ain't overburdened with an excess of that."

Reisen sighed. That was true enough. While she hadn't exactly been the most respected member of Kaguya's household, her position as Eirin's assistant meant that her pay had been a bit above the average for a member of Eientei's staff. In addition, her room and meals had been provided for without charge. To go from that to sleeping on the floor and getting by on meals of rice and cheap curry had also taken a lot of getting used to. Reimu had been serious when she said that she had to be conservative with the food.

And yet, despite the fact that Reisen had yet to see a single visitor to the shrine, they were never flat broke. Reimu's finances were small, but they somehow persisted in existing. Reisen kept meaning to ask the shrine maiden about that, but she had a feeling that money wasn't a topic that she should be discussing with Reimu.

And so she changed the subject again. "Hey Genji, there's something I've been wondering…"

"Perfectly functional," came the response. "Though a little rusty for lack of use."

"What?" Reisen blinked at him. "What are you…"

Then she got it.

"Oh, _gods!" _She laughed and shoved the floating reptile with her elbow. "I wasn't talking about _that, _you dirty old lizard!"

Genji paused. He cleared his throat. "Ah, yeah. Forgot to tell you."

Reisen frowned. "Tell me what."

"This is kinda awkward and all, but I'd really be appreciative not being called a lizard."

"Oh," Reisen said. "Uh, sorry."

"S'okay," Genji grunted. "Didn't know. And it ain't really personal, it just got real old after the first century and all." He shook his head. "Anyway, moving on from that unpleasant subject change, what'cha wanna know?"

"Oh, right. I was wondering if I Reimu would let me help with the search. You know, for Rin."

Genji immediately turned serious. "Absolutely out of the question."

"But…but that's why I left Eientei in the first place!" Reisen protested. "To look for her!"

"Reimu's already got that covered. And unlike you, she can go where she pleases without havin' to worry about gettin' tackled to the ground and sent back home in a sack!"

"Oh, come on! Reimu said that there's no bounty on me, and that the Eientei Guard stopped looking for me over a week ago. And even if they did find me, Shiina said-"

"I don't care what your friend said," Genji growled. "They ain't the ones you should be watchin' out for anyways."

"Huh?"

"Look, say I'm your doctor, an' you jus' quit an' ran off, leavin' me with one hell of a headache in the process. Now, I'm all kinds of pissed, but this ain't my first danmaku duel, you know what I'm sayin'? I'm a smart guy…er, girl. Insanely old woman who still looks fantastic. Whatever. So sure, maybe I lose my shit at first and send my bunny brigade after you. But once I get my head back, do I let them keep mucking about and potentially attractin' attention to the fact that you done ran off in the first place?" Genji shook his head. "Hell no! My reputation's shot up enough as it is. So I wanna keep this on the down low. So I call back the Guard, seal of any info leaks, and pretend that nothin's wrong. But in the meantime, I go an' hire me a bunch of professionals. An' I don't mean those youkai that hire out for merc work 'cause they're bored and want some fast money. I mean some _real _professionals, the kind that you don't see comin' until they've knocked you out and delivered you to me in a big brown sack. Probably someone from the Tengu or one of them hunter guilds. The Youkai Market's full of them."

Reisen stared at him.

"Hey, it's how I woulda done it," he said, shrugging his massive shell and still somehow managing to not upset the bucket he was carrying.

The thought made Reisen shudder. She said nothing for the rest of the hike back to the shrine.

Once there, they went around to the rear entrance. Genji lowered himself to the grass, and Reisen placed her buckets down with a sigh of relief. She clenched and unclenched her fingers a few times to get the blood flowing and slid the door open.

"NOW!" a high, piping voice shouted.

A millisecond later something came flying to hit Reisen in the face. There was an explosion of white powder, and Reisen fell back with a cry of surprise. Her left foot knocked against one of the buckets and knocked it over. She tried to scramble to her feet but just ended spilling the other bucket all over her shirt

Shrill laughter sounded from above. Reisen wiped the white powder away from her eyes and looked up to see Hakurei Shrine's resident trouble-making trio perched on the shrine's roof. "Gotcha, bunny bun-bun!" said the voice of Sunny Milk. "Gotta keep your guard up around here. Just because that big fat shrine maiden said we can't tell people about you don't mean we can't play games with-"

"What the BLOODY HELL do you three think you're DOIN'?" Genji roared.

The three mischievous fairies froze when they saw Genji glowering up at them. "Oh crap, it's the flying turtle!" Star yelled.

"Run, run!" Sunny screamed.

The three scrambled and pushed each other in their desperation to be the first to flee. They managed to get as far as the air before Genji shouted, "STOP!"

All three of them froze in mid-air.

"Come down here," he growled. "Right now."

They winced, but obeyed.

Reisen stood up. The white stuff turned out to be flour, and her face and shoulders were covered with it. Her shirt was soaked through, and worst of all, two of the three buckets were now on their sides and empty.

She knew she should be upset, and she was. But not as much as one might think. Living with Tewi made one used to certain things.

Genji's head slowly moved back and forth as he glared at each one of the fidgeting fairies in turn. "Well now," he said. "I know this sorta thing is somethin' we jus' gotta expect from fairies, you three 'specially. But given that Reisen here is a _guest _of this shrine, an' that you three are permitted to live in _our _cherry grove thanks to our good graces, let me make somethin' abundantly clear: pull this crap again, an' I'll have the three of you evicted. An' by that, I mean sendin' the vapors of your life energies to the freakin' _winds!" _He took a slow but threatening step forward. "Am I understood?"

Sunny and Luna glanced at each other and Star swallowed, but no one dared to say anything.

"I _said, _am I under-"

"Yes!" all three of them said in unison.

"Please, don't eat us!" Luna was quick to add.

"That remains to be seen," Genji growled. He turned his gaze to the overturned buckets. "Now, to make it up to our guest, I want you to take those buckets, refill them an' bring them back here within five minutes. An' so help me, if you spill so much as a drop, we're having fairy pie for desert. Got it?"

The three fairies quickly nodded.

"Good. Now move it!"

They did just that. Mere seconds later, both fairy and bucket alike were gone.

"Bloody stupid fools," Genji muttered. "Not a lick of common sense. I don't know what Reimu was thinkin', lettin' those three stay. You okay there, sweetheart?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Reisen assured him. "Just messy. Thanks, by the way."

He grunted, but nodded. It was then that Reisen noticed that despite all that had just happened, he still had not spilled the bucket sitting on his shell. Now _that _was impressive.

Reisen took Genji's bucket and they went inside the shrine. "Though I have to say, I wish we had you back at Eientei," Reisen said as she poured the bucket into a jug. "It sure would have made dealing with Tewi a whole lot easier."

That got a bark of surprised laughter out of the turtle. "Tewi? That crazy scamp? No thanks. She'd drive me crazy within a century."

Reisen blinked at him in surprise. "Wait, you know her?"

"Eh, sorta," he said with a shrug. "We met briefly during Gensokyo's early days, back when the barrier was first set up. In fact, I think Yukari was thinkin' of invitin' her to that Ringleader council thing of hers. Fortunately, common sense prevailed there. Those damned meetin's are crazy enough as they are. Jus' as well. I doubt that she'd ever show up, even if she remembered."

Reisen shook her head. Given how immature she always acted, it was easy to forget that Tewi was one of Gensokyo's oldest youkai, and was pretty much the rabbit tribes' unofficial leader. She certainly had never considered the possibility that the irritating prankster that annoyed her on a weekly basis might have met some of the great names of legend or participated in any of the important events in Gensokyo's history. It was a strange line of thought, one that reminded Reisen just how young she was, when compared to the sort of people she associated with.

But at the same time, she was now relying on a Human girl less than half her age. In fact, now that she thought of it, even Rin was older than Reimu, if not by much. And yet Reisen had grown accustomed to thinking of Reimu as an authority figure and treated her as one would an elder.

Reisen sighed and headed to the next room to clean up and change. She supposed that when it really came down to it, age was no real indication of maturity. Most of the problems that plagued Gensokyo now were thanks to the actions of its elders, while the person with the best chance of saving everyone was young even by Human standards. There was a moral lesson to be found there, but at the moment, Reisen wasn't sure exactly what it was.

After she was done, Reisen sat down on the thin sleeping mat Reimu had provided for her. She lay back, stuck her hands under her head and stared at the ceiling. It wasn't so bad here. Sure, Reimu was easily irritated, but so had been Eirin. And the pranksters here were much easier to keep in line than the one back at Eientei. But she had meant what she had told Genji. While she was grateful to Reimu for taking her in, she was still determine to find Rin before any of the competition did. And it was only a matter of time before the little Kirin was flushed out of wherever she was hiding.

…

_Deep Within_

Rin stared squint-eyed at the screen. On it, the final mushroom sat in her hand, its radiance light purple thanks to her vision's tint.

Thus far, the fungus had survived for over five minutes without showing signs of shriveling. However, Rin herself was showing plenty of signs of strain. Her limbs and neck twitched as she tried to control her immense power. A low growl vibrated through her clenched teeth.

And then a spot of darkness appeared on the mushroom's stalk.

"No!" Rin yelled, but it was too late. Her concentration broke and the light of the mushroom dimmed into non-existence as it collapsed into itself and turned black.

Rin groaned and slumped over her knees. Her whole body now trembled with exhaustion. It wasn't fair. This had been the third mushroom-filled cavern that they come across, and she had cleared out each and every one of them. And she still had not mastered the aura of death and decay that surrounded her physical body. And not only that, Rin was reasonably certain that this was the last cavern of the network.

Rumia was not going to be happy.

With a weary sigh, Rin stood and walked away from the screen to find her captive.

She came across Rumia a good distance away. The youkai girl was lying flat on her back, arms and fingers spread wide and legs sticking straight out. Her scarlet eyes stared upward.

Rin cleared her throat. "Uh…Rumia?"

Rumia glanced at her.

"We're out of mushrooms again."

Rumia shrugged and looked back at the emptiness. "Is that so. Then go find a new cave."

"Well, uh…" Rin swallowed. "We're all out…I mean, I think this is the last cave. At least the last one with these mushrooms."

Rumia didn't answer. She just kept staring out into space.

"So…" Rin said. "What do we do now? I mean, I still don't know how to turn off the killy-shrively thing, and-"

She stopped talking. Rumia was making a very odd noise. It started out as a low hum, but grew into a high whistling, until, like a kettle being brought to boil, it escalated to a shriek of frustration.

"AAAHHHH!" Rumia screamed. She clutched at her face and flipped onto her stomach as her feet kicked against the "ground". "GODS! DAMN! IT! _RIN!"_

Rin gaped at the youkai girl's temper tantrum. "Whoa, calm down! You don't need to-"

"Shut up!" Rumia scrambled to her feet and shoved her face into Rumia's. "Three caves! A million bazillion mushrooms! And a freaking _eternity _to get a hold on this thing, and you still can't do it? What the hell is wrong withMMPH!"

Rumia grabbed at her mouth, or at least where it should be. It was now replaced by a smooth expanse of skin. She looked up to glare daggers at Rin.

"Sorry about that, but seriously," Rin said irritably. "Calm down."

She made an unzipping motion, and Rumia's mouth reopened. Rumia quickly checked to see if her teeth and tongue were still there. "Damn it, you said you wouldn't do that anymore!" she shouted.

"I said I didn't _want _to do that, but if you're just going to go crazy and scream at me-"

_"Crazy! _Yeah, okay, so maybe I am going a little crazy! I've been locked up in this nowhere world with absolutely _nothing _to do except for wander around and watch you kill mushrooms! I can't even freaking _sleep!_ Why the hell shouldn't I go crazy, huh?"

Rin scowled in reproach. "You're right, that does stink. Try dealing with it for nine years."

"I…" Rumia's mouth opened and closed as she tried to think of a decent response. "Well. You still suck."

Rin rolled her eyes. "Okay. Look, I'm sorry you're stuck in here with me. All right? And I'm sorry I don't have the slightest clue on how to turn out that stupid field of death thing. I tried, it didn't work, and hey, it really, really hurts. But I tried anyway, on seven thousand, five hundred and thirty-eight mushrooms. If you think you can do better, you're welcome to freaking try. But little word of warning: I'm in a bad mood. I know you're frustrated and bored out of your mind, but yell at me like that again, and you're going to get a little reminder on exactly who's mind you're walking around in."

Rumia glowered at her. Her legs tensed up.

"Don't," Rin said. "Don't even think about it. It won't work."

Rumia closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, held it, and slowly let it out. Her trembling fists unclenched.

Rin relaxed. "Okay, so now-"

Rumia let out an animalistic shriek and leapt at for Rin's throat. Taken off guard, Rin was driven back as Rumia's fingers closed around her windpipe.

A second later, Rumia was grasping at empty air. She blinked and whirled around to see Rin watching her with an irritated look on her round face.

"Really, Rumia?" Rin said. "Really?"

Rumia stared. Then her shoulders slumped. "Had to try," she muttered.

"Yeah, okay. Now, did you get that nonsense out of your system?"

Rumia held up her palms. "Okay, okay. Fine. But still, come on Rin! We can't go outside because of that damned trail you keep leaving, and-"

"I know that, Rumia!" Rin said in exasperation. "You think I don't get it? I tried! I really, really tried. But I don't know how to turn the stupid thing off, okay?"

Rumia grimaced and turned away. She walked back toward the screen. Rin hesitated, and followed.

The view outside displayed the interior of their latest hiding place, all stony stalagmites and stalactites. And scattered everywhere were dead and withered mushrooms. Rumia stared at the scene without saying a word. Then she leaned forward so that her forehead was resting against the screen.

Rin had no idea what to say.

"I…uh…" Rumia started. She winced and started again. "I have no idea what to do now."

Rin waited.

"I mean, what am I supposed to do? We can't go out, because they'll find us and kill us. And if we stay here, it won't be long before we're both riding the crazy train. All aboard." She let out a low chuckle.

"It's not that bad," Rin said.

"It's not? Okay, Rin. You put up with this for nine years. You okay with doing another nine?"

Rin couldn't answer that.

With a sigh, Rumia moved her head up so that she was staring at the cave beyond. "Maybe we should just face the facts. We're screwed. It doesn't matter how strong you are, there's way too many of them. And they've had all this time to figure out a way to beat you. Maybe we should…"

Her voice trailed off. A small frown crossed over her face, and she leaned in closer.

"Er…Hey Rin?"

Rin blinked. "What?"

"You, uh, might wanna take a look at this?" Rumia pointed at the screen. "I think…there's something moving out there."

That couldn't be good. Rin walked up next to Rumia and peered into the screen. Sure enough, there was something moving.

With a small effort of will, the view focused on the movement and magnified the image. It was the entrance to the cave. Like the two that had preceded it, Rin had collapsed the only way in or out.

But now the pile of stones was moving. And beyond, people could be heard talking.

_"Okay, I think we almost got it!" _said a man's voice. _"And a one and a two and a…"_

There was a rumble of noise, and the stones spilled forward. And into the cave climbed a group of unusual people, carrying torches and various bits of luggage. It wasn't the people Rin and Rumia had been fearing. Yukari Yakumo was not among them. Nor was Reimu Hakurei, Mima or Eirin Yagokoro. In fact, they didn't recognize any of these people. It was a group of youkai, male and female, young and old. They wore a variety of different outfits, from dresses to pants to shirts to even a kilt or two. But there was one thing they all had in common: each and every one of them wore a large mushroom cap on their head as a hat.

Rin had a very bad feeling. This was no group of hunters. This was the cave's original owners, come home.

The mushroom youkai stopped in their tracks. They looked around at all the ruined mushrooms.

Rumia swallowed audibly. "You, uh, ever get the feeling that you've made a serious mistake?"

"Oh yeah. All the time."

"Are you getting that feeling now?"

"Very much so."

Then the foremost of the newcomers, a small shorthaired girl in a long-sleeved dress, looked up. Her eyes focused on Rin's physical body. The look of pain in her eyes was replaced by one of surprise.

"Oh crap," Rumia muttered.

"Yeah. Uh, Rumia? What do we do now?"

"What? Why are you asking me?"

"Because you're in charge now, remember?"

The mushroom girl pointed and screamed. Her companions looked up and saw Rin.

"Boy, they look pissed," Rumia muttered. "Okay Rin. You want instructions? Try getting us out of here. Right now."

The mushroom people started to move toward Rin. Now they were becoming less of a group and more of a mob.

"Which way?" Rin said in panic. "Up or down?"

"Down!"

"But that might take us into Makai!"

Rumia spun around to face her. _"SO?"_ she screamed.

Rin conceded the point. The view changed as her physical body rose into the air, circled around the cave and plunged into the ground, leaving the furious mob of sentient fungi behind.

Soon the familiar view of dissolving stone and earth filled the screen. Rumia let out a sigh of relief and stepped back.

"Wow," she said. She smiled. "Now that was close."

Rin nodded. She hesitated, and asked, "Uh, Rumia? Did…we kinda commit mass infanticide?"

"Mass infectorewhat?"

"Did we just kill a bunch of baby youkai?"

"Oh, that?" Rumia laughed. "You think that was some kind of mushroom youkai nursery?"

Rin nodded.

"Nah, don't worry about it. Becoming a youkai doesn't work that way. You can't just raise a bunch of mushrooms and have them all turn into youkai. It's pretty random. They probably just used those caves because they just like mushrooms. We just wandered into their home and messed up all the furniture."

"Okay," Rin said, though she didn't feel so reassured. "But still, it's pretty awful. I mean, we just destroyed their home."

Rumia shrugged. "Well, if they didn't want something like that happening, they should've put up 'Keep Out' signs or something. This is Gensokyo. You can't go around being afraid that every tree or rock is somebodys-HOLY SHIT!"

The view suddenly opened up, and Rin was flying through open air. The new cavern they found themselves in was tremendous. It stretched for miles to either side, and nearly a full one straight down.

And below them were the lights and sounds of a huge city.

"Is that Makai?" Rin screamed as they fell. "Are we in Makai?"

"How should I know?" Rumia screamed back. "And stopping freaking falling already!"

Rin tried, but physics was now fighting back. She yanked back on her falling body as much as she could, trying to arrest their descent.

And then they slammed into the tip of a tall tower. The impact knocked them spinning out of control.

"RINNNN!" Rumia screamed as they tumbled into the heart of the Ancient City.

…

_You know, this may be stating the obvious, but something really occurred to me while writing this chapter: people in this story, even the ones that are supposed to be on the same side, really don't like each other. If they're not screaming and trying to kill each other, they're being cold and sarcastic. Maybe that's part of the reason why Yuuka is so popular. Sure, she's a psychopathic, child-molesting lunatic, but at least she's nice!_

_Anyway, another short chapter, but I'm actually trying to cut down on the lengths. Now if I can only cut down on the wait times. This time it was thanks to again going back to being a full time student, trying to finish re-editing the older chapters only to spend a week raging when this site developed a few nasty bugs that prevented me from correctly loading the fixed versions and, well, Skyrim. Hey, it happens to the best of us._

_Anyway, I'll try my best to get these out quicker, real life and internet willing._

_And before I forget again, congratulations to GuyYouMetOnline, who managed the impressive feat of being both the 300th and 400th reviewer, which I'm sure was accomplished by lying in wait and watching the review count like a Predator. And by doing so, IM became the first Touhou fic to hit 400 reviews!_

_=confetti and stuff!=_

_And on one last note, this chapter takes its name from a song by Hotspur, an excellent but severely underrated band. _

_Until next time, everyone!_


	36. Rocking the Underground

Rocking the Underground

The Ancient City was a wonderful place to live, and the bazaar was easily the best part. At least, that was the opinion of one Yamame Kurodani, a spider youkai who had dwelt there almost since the day of its founding.

And who could blame her? It was quite the impressive sight: a huge circular plaza right smack dab in the middle of the city, filled with ring after ring of booths, shops, gaming tables, out-door eateries, even a dueling ring, which saw frequent use. The buildings that lined the plaza's circumference housed the businesses that either required some sort of decent structure or had owners wealthy enough to afford one, such as the Mountain Deva's Blacksmith and Yumi Gelatin's Frozen Sweets. An obsidian obelisk jutted out of the center, marking out the center of both the bazaar and the city itself. Every day the bazaar would fill with oni, subterranean spirits, youkai and mineral fairies, come to buy, sell and browse. Ask anyone in the city, and they would be happy to tell you that there was no finer, nor larger, market to be found in the whole of Gensokyo.

Well, perhaps the Youkai Market was a _little_ bit larger…

Though Yamame had long grown used to the enthusiastic chaos of the bazaar's crowds and now knew all of the merchants by name, she still loved wandering from stall to stall, inspecting the new merchandise and chatting away with the shopkeepers. And given the size of the place, it was not unheard to come across a surprise treasure.

Today, she was there for supplies. Unfortunately, she had a bad habit of entering the bazaar only to immediately forget what she had come for. And so she had to carefully write everything down and constantly check her list.

"Okay, we've got radishes, beer and mustard," she muttered as she wandered her way through the crowd. "Now all we need are bread, door hinges, dental floss…What? Why did I add…Good day to you, Mrs. Mitzura! How are the hatchlings? Oh, that's wonderful! Send them my love! Let's see, no to dental floss, but we are running out of porridge, and definitely some more carrot juice, noodles, basilisk eggs…"

There was an unzipping sound as the pack she wore on her back opened. Out popped a green-haired head with two pigtails. "And two hardboiled eggs!" Kisume piped.

"And two hardboiled…" Yamame blinked. "No, wait. What? What's the point of buying hardboiled eggs? We can just make them at home!"

Kisume's face fell. "But I like hardboiled eggs…"

"All right, all right. Be good, and I'll buy you some for lunch. Now, let's see…" Yamame glanced around. They were currently wandering the outer ring, near the perimeter. "Well, the blacksmith is right over there, so we might as well see about those door hinges."

She walked over to red-brick shop and tried to open the door. Strangely enough, it was locked. Yamame frowned as she rattled the handle. That was odd. Yuugi Hoshiguma rarely left her shop, and she was always working.

"Hello?" the spider youkai said as she rapped her knuckles against the door. "Yuugi? Are you there?"

Kisume pulled herself partially out of Yamame's pack and climbed over her head. "Look!" she said, pointing.

Yamame glanced up. A notice had been nailed to the side of the door. "Out Testing," she read. "Be Back When I'm Done."

"Where's that mean, Yamame?" Kisume asked. "Where'd she go?"

"Eh, who knows?" Yamame said. She reached back to push Kisume back into the pack. "Guess she has some new toy she wants to try out. Probably some new type of gunpowder." Yamame sighed and adjusted her pack. "Well, I guess we can come back later," she said as she turned away from the door. "C'mon, Kisume. Let's go get you some eggs."

...

At that moment, miles away on a large subterranean plain, a curious experiment was taking place. At one end, a thick strap of rubber had been attached to two stalagmites. Yuugi Hoshiguma had pulled the strap back, stretching it nearly six feet and turning it into a giant slingshot. Nestled in the pocket was an iron cannonball, fifty pounds in weight. At the other end of the field and directly in the cannonball's path was Suika Ibuki.

As the sign had said, Yuugi was out testing.

"Okay!_" _Suika sang. "Release!"

Yuugi complied, and the cannonball shot forward. It flew across the field and struck Suika right in the chest. The force of the impact lifted her right off her feet and drove her back. Oni and cannonball alike collided with the cave wall.

Yuugi jogged over to the newly created crater. "So, did it work?" she called.

The rubble shifted, and Suika climbed out, the cannonball under one arm. She tapped the undamaged steel armor Yuugi had made for her and grinned. "Not a scratch!" she declared. She tossed the cannonball aside. "It worked perfectly!"

"Excellent." Yuugi rubbed her hands together eagerly. "All right, stick your hands out and hold still!"

Suika obeyed, and Yuugi slowly circled around her, inspecting the armor for any sign of damage. A far cry from the bulky suits worn by the European medieval knights or the terrifying sets preferred by the ancient samurai, the set Yuugi had prepared for Suika was streamlined and elegant. Formed by a series of tiny, interlocking diamond-shaped plates with seams so fine not even a hair could hope to pass through, the material was light and thin enough to be worn as casual wear, but strong enough to, well, deflect cannonballs.

Yuugi nodded in satisfaction. "All right, no signs of damage," she mused as she straightened up. "Now, ten feet."

Suika's body shot up to the requested height, her form filling in to compensate. Her armor had no problem growing with her.

"Twenty, then down two, then three inches!" Yuugi ordered.

Suika complied, shooting twenty feet high before immediately shrinking down to two, and then down to three inches. Yuugi put her hands on her hips and grinned down at the tiny oni looking up at her.

"Great!" she said. "Okay, turn back!"

A moment later, Suika was normal-sized again, with her armor unharmed by the rapid changes in size and density.

"All right," Yuugi said. "Looks like it's done!" She held up her open palm, and Suika enthusiastically clapped it with her own.

The two oni started to walk back toward the Ancient City. "Though the funny thing is, as tough as that suit is, in a few months I might be able to smith one that makes that one look like a tin can," Yuugi said.

"Huh?" Suika said. "How?"

Yuugi's eyes glittered with excitement. "Just got a message from one of my suppliers in the Western Underground. Apparently, they found some sort of new material. Actually, I think it found them. Just dropped right through the roof and kept going until it sank into the bottom of a lake of magma."

Suika looked up at her in confusion. "Huh? What _are _you talking about?"

"No one's sure," Yuugi said. "They don't even know if it's metal. Apparently it's a ball the size of a house, and it's denser than anything before discovered. If I can just get my hands on a little bit, I can create an alloy that…" She let out a low moan as she thought of the possibilities.

Suika, however, was less than impressed. "Big deal," she said. "You want dense? I can do dense." She picked up a rock as large as Yuugi's head. In her hand, it shrunk down to the size of a marble. She turned her hand to one side and let it fall. The stone floor cracked when it landed.

"See?" Suika said, pointing. "Dense!"

Yuugi rolled her eyes and smacked the back of Suika's head. "Yeah, you can do dense all right. I mean naturally dense! Yours wears off if you don't keep concentrating. This one won't!"

"Yeah?" Suika said as she rubbed the lump Yuugi had given her. "And where's it from anyway?"

Yuugi shrugged. "No one knows. They're still trying to bring it out of the lake. Like I said, it's one heavy motherf-"

Her voice trailed off and she stopped walking. Suika's face twisted in bewilderment.

"Yuugi?" she said. "Why'd you stop?"

"The hell is that?" Yuugi asked, pointing.

Suika looked. Off in the distance, the lights of the Ancient City could be seen, but Yuugi wasn't pointing toward that. Her finger was directed higher, toward the darkness that shrouded the roof of the cavern.

As they had evolved in the darkness beneath the earth, the oni had exceptionally sharp vision. As such, Suika could make out a tiny speck of light falling quickly. It seemed to be trying to slow down, but it wasn't having much success.

"Dunno," she said with a shrug. "Maybe a fairy got lost or-"

The falling object slammed into the steeple of the Brawler Guild's tower. The tip shattered, and the object was sent spinning toward the center of the city.

"Come on!" Yuugi said. She snatched Suika up under her arm.

Before she could build up steam, Suika squirmed out of her grasp. "Hey!" Yuugi snapped at her. "Now's no time to stand on pride!"

"I know!" Suika shot back. "I'm just faster, that's all!"

"Faster! With those little-"

A moment later Yuugi realized that she was now tucked under the arm of a fifteen-feet tall Suika. She rolled her eyes and mentally kicked herself for not seeing this coming.

No longer hampered by her short stature, Suika bounded forward, carrying her fellow oni back to the Ancient City with all speed.

...

The bazaar was in chaos. Granted, it usually was, but the cheer and good feelings were gone, to be replaced by confusion and panic. Yamame quickly vaulted onto the top of a fish booth to avoid being trampled and squinted at the source of the commotion.

The thing that had fallen out of the sky had landed near the obelisk. Already those near were gathering around and staring down at it in pure bewilderment. Though Yamame couldn't blame them, it did mean that they were blocking her view.

"What's going on?" Kisume asked. She tugged on Yamame's hair. "Yami, what's happening? What is that thing?"

Yamame slapped away her companion's hand. "I don't know, I can't see from here. But it looks like something…or someone, just dropped out of the roof!"

"Who?"

"I just said I couldn't see," Yamame said irritably. She scanned her surroundings. Already people were moving closer to the place of impact, further obscuring her line of sight. Others, ones with more common sense, were quickly exiting the bazaar. Following them wouldn't be a bad idea. After all, there were many members of the Brawler's Guild present, and they were known for making short work of intruders. It was likely that this one was well on their well to being reduced to a bloody pulp.

But Yamame was still a youkai, and as such she had a youkai's natural curiosity. Her eyes fell upon the obelisk. Yes, that would do nicely.

"All right," she said as she adjusted the straps of her backpack. "Hang on!"

"Why?" Kisume asked. "What are-"

Yamame leapt into the air and shot toward the obelisk.

"-WHOA!"

The trip took less than two seconds, and soon Yamame was clinging to the obelisk's side and peering down at the scene. "You okay back there?" she whispered over her shoulder.

"I…I…" Kisume gasped. She sounded like she was trying her best to hold onto her lunch. "I don't feel so good."

"Too many eggs," Yamame muttered. "I warned you." She focused her eyes, trying to make out what was going on.

Someone was lying in a broken heap at the foot of the obelisk, a very strange looking woman. Her skin was as pale as marble, and her flowing hair black as pitch, with several white ribbons tied into its tresses. She wore a black vest and a pair of baggy, floral-patterned pants, and ropes were tied around each wrist like bracelets. That in itself wasn't threatening, but Yamame could immediately see that this was a dangerous person. For one, she had razor-sharp talons for fingers, never a good sign. For another, an aura of darkness and red-and-purple fire surrounded her body.

"Huh?" Kisume pulled herself further out of the backpack and peered over Yamame's shoulder. "Who is that?"

"I…" Yamame shook her head. "Have no idea."

There was a pause, and the Kisume said, "Hey, is that the Devouring Monster? You know, the one that there's a big bounty on?"

"Huh. Maybe." Yamame's eyes narrowed. "I don't think so. It really doesn't look a whole lot like those wanted posters."

"Yeah, but those were really cruddy drawings anyway. They looked like a grade-schooler did-"

A low gasp passed through the crowd, and Kisume shut up. The strange woman had sat up.

...

_Deep Within_

Rumia groaned as she pulled herself to her feet. Her head was swimming and her knees buckled under her weight, but she managed to keep from falling over.

"Rin?" she said as she rubbed her head. "Where are you?"

"Here," the little Kirin said. She wasn't as rattled as Rumia, but it still look like her bell had been rung pretty hard. "What happened?"

Rumia rolled her eyes. "It's your freaking body, you tell me."

They both turned toward the screen. On it, there wasn't much to see. Just a straight pattern of connecting rectangles.

"Uh, huh?" Rumia said. "Rin, are you broken or something?"

Rin frowned. "Oh, wait. Those are tiles. I'm facedown. Hang on."

The view shifted as Rin's physical body sat up, and then Rin and Rumia found themselves staring at a great number of staring youkai and fairies. This group looked significantly tougher than the kind found above ground. There was more chains and armor included in their apparel, not to mention no small number of weapons. And a strange number of triangular purple hats, though the color was probably just due to the tint of Rin's vision.

Rin sighed. "Rumia? Why does this keep happening?"

"Because we both have horrible, horrible luck. And do I really need to tell you what to do now?"

"Get out with all due haste," Rin said. "Okay, let's go even-"

The scene was suddenly jerked to one side, and Rin and Rumia found themselves staring into the ugly face of a burly male oni, one with three horns sticking out of his bald head like a claw and a disgusting beard stuck with old bits of food. His meaty hands were gripping Rin by her vest.

_"What is this?" _he demanded. _"You've got some balls, coming down here. So you'd better tell us why-"_

His eyes filled with pain and surprise. His head jerked down to see his hands turn black and shrivel like prunes. He let out of a bellow of fear and tried to release Rin before it spread to his forearms, but his fingers could no longer respond.

Fortunately, Rin realized the problem. She shoved her hands against his bare chest. Her touch left dark handprints against his flesh, but she managed to break his hold before he lost the rest of his arms.

"Shit, shit, shit," Rumia said, on the verge of panic. "Move, move, move!

Rin didn't hesitate. Like she had with the mushroom youkai, she quickly leapt into the air and circled around, ready to plunge into the ground.

However, this group wasn't as inclined to let her go as the last one had been. Rather than frightening them, the sight of their companion's affliction had angered them into motion. Already most of the fairies were in the air and chasing after her, with the youkai not far behind. Below, the burly youkai sputtered and bellowed orders.

_"Kill her!" _he roared, spittle splattering all over his beard. _"She took my hands! Kill her!"_

Rumia reflexively stumbled away from the screen. "Rin!"

"Stop yelling my name!" Rin screamed back, sounding as panicked as Rumia felt. "I'm trying to-OOF!"

Rin lurched to one side, grasping her head. At the same time, the view spun crazily. Rumia's footing slipped and she fell onto her back.

She quickly sat up. It didn't take long to identify Rin's attacker. A large fairy, one with ragged wings, wild green hair and an outfit that looked like it had been sewn together from bat skins, stood over Rin. A spiked mace was clutched in her hands, and a bloodthirsty grin twisted her features as she lifted it high for another blow.

...

Yamame tried to get a better look at whatever was causing the commotion, but the crowd was clustered in too thick, both on the ground and in the air. Members of the Brawler's Guild were huddled in the center, and she knew that it would be pointless to try to squeeze her way around them.

A raucous cheer erupted from the Brawler's Guild. The crowd parted enough for her to see Milda of the Tattered Wings hitting something repeatedly with her mace.

Yamame winced. Well, that was the end of that.

"Ooooh," Kisume said. "Is that legal? I don't think that's legal."

Yamame pointed at the Brawler Guild members. "You want to tell them that?"

"No, no, not really," came the quick reply.

However, while Kisume was loath to remind everyone of spellcard rules, someone else did.

"All right, what is this?" shouted a commanding voice that rose over the crowd's cheers. "You idiots know the rules about brawling. Break it up!"

The crowd moved aside, making way for the Yuugi Hoshiguma, the blacksmith. But while Yuugi was considered a paragon of the community and held most everyone's respect, Yamame suspected that the reason everyone was so quick to get out of her way was the gigantic armor-clad that followed her. Yamame almost skittered away herself until she recognized the oni's face and relaxed. It was Yuugi's old traveling buddy, Suika Ibuki, doing her size control thing. If those two couldn't restore order, than nothing would.

"What's wrong with you?" Yuugi demanded as she muscled her way toward the Brawlers. "Do you idiots really want another inquiry?" She seized Milda by the neck and bodily hurled her away. "I swear, every week it's something new with you guys." Two lizard youkai found themselves grabbed by their necks and their foreheads bashed together.

Vilt, a rake-thin oni female who wore more iron chains than clothing, put herself in Yuugi's path. "It's not our fault!" she shouted. "We were provoked!"

Yamame felt Kisume's fingers tighten on her shoulders. "This is awesome!" she whispered breathlessly.

The spider youkai shrugged. "Eh, I've seen better. Remember that rout back in seventy-nine? Now _that _was a market brawl!"

Down below, things were far from settling down.

"Provoked? By whom?" Yuugi demanded.

The other oni pointed to the crumpled wreck on the ground. Yuugi glanced at the broken intruder and groaned out loud.

"Ah, are you serious?" she said. "Is that the thing that fell out of the ceiling?"

"Yeah, right out of nowhere!" shouted a nearby beetle youkai.

Milda came clomping back. "And look what it did to our tower!" she hissed, pointed at the broken steeple.

The warrior fairy received a smack upside her head. "You stupid idiot!" Yuugi seethed. "So some poor digger gets lost and falls into our city, and you beat her to a pulp? Do the words 'spellcards' even mean a thing to you? Did you even _think _of at least just using danmaku?"

"Danmaku!" thundered big Tonko Trispine. He elbowed his way toward Yuugi and stuck out his arms, both of which were shriveled down to the elbow. "She did _this _to my arms, and you have the nerve to talk about danmaku?"

A hush fell on the crowd, and all eyes centered on Yuugi, waiting for her reaction. Yamame heard Kisume's teeth chattering, as they always did when she got nervous. She couldn't blame her pint-sized companion, as she was tense with anticipation as well.

Yuugi looked down at Tonko's arms. Her brow scrunched up, and then she glanced up at Suika.

"Hey," she said. "Suika. Isn't this the same thing you were telling me about?"

"Uh," Suika knelt down to get a better look. A low growl rumbled from her throat.

"Yeah," she said as she straightened up. "Had little bits of that all over. And Reimu's foot looked just like that."

"Interesting," Yuugi murmured. She turned to look at the fallen newcomer. There was something predatory in her expression.

Up above, Yamame sucked her teeth. Here it came…

...

_Deep Within_

"Rin?" Rumia said as she shook the Kirin girl's shoulders. "Come on, Rin? You gotta get up, this ain't good at all."

Rin's head listed back and forth. Her eyes were barely open. "Uh…uh…" she moaned.

"Come on, please?" Rumia begged. "Miss Reimu's oni is here. You know, the one who beat you up? I think she's going to do it again."

_"Hey!" _said a voice from the outside. Rumia looked up to see that the huge one-horned oni woman was glaring down at them.

The oni pointed at the large man whose arms Rin had corrupted. _"You wanna explain how that happened?" _she demanded. _"Are you the monster everyone's been looking for?"_

Rumia turned back to Rin. "Come on already!" she yelled, her voice cracking under the desperation. "Wake up! Get us out of here!"

And then it all went even deeper into hell.

_"Yuugi, why are you even bothering with questions?" _rumbled the towering figure of Reimu's oni friend. _"The ESP only understands this!"_

_ESP? _Rumia though. _Wha-_

She had no time for further thought, for then the screen went dark as Suika Ibuki's massive hand closed over Rin's physical head.

...

Everyone, Brawler and civilian alike, practically tripped over themselves to back away from Suika Ibuki as she pulled the disoriented intruder off the ground and held her high.

For her part, Yuugi was just confused. "ESP?" she asked, scratching her head.

"Evil Shadow Person," Suika explained.

"Ah." Yuugi shrugged. "Fitting, I suppose. And you're sure that's her? The same one?"

Suika glanced down at Tonko, who was practically salivating with glee. "Yeah," she said. "I sure am!"

"Huh." Yuugi rubbed her chin as she mused over this new development. She hadn't expected to encounter the Shadow Youkai, or whatever it was calling itself these days, so soon. And she certainly hadn't expected it to fall right through the roof and land in the center of town. While it certainly removed the need to go out and hunt it down, it had chosen a rather inconvenient place to appear. Market brawls, while fun, were always a bitch and a half to clean up. And if it was true that this thing was capable of killing immortals (something she had no trouble believing, given the state of Tonko's limbs), than it would be best to get it out of the city as quickly as possible before some idiot got themselves dead or eaten.

She glanced up at Suika, whose gauntleted hand was starting to tighten around the ESP's head. "Yo, Suika! Wait up."

Suika blinked her huge eyes at her. "Wait? Why wait? I wanna crush now!"

"Yeah, why shouldn't she pop that bitch's head?" someone wanted to know.

"Come on, let her crush that thing!" added an angry voice.

Other furious demands for immediate violence joined the first two, and soon most everyone was shouting at Yuugi, demanding that she stand aside and let the ESP get a little taste of oni justice. Yuugi tolerate for maybe five minutes before her patience snapped.

"Shut UP!" she roared. She swung one muscled arm up to point at the dangling monster in Suika's grasp. "That thing can grow new heads! We can't kill it, and it recovers quickly!"

"So?" Tonko growled. "Just keep squishing it over and over until it stops!"

Yuugi blinked. That wasn't a bad idea, actually. She glanced up at Suika, who shrugged.

"He's got a point," the oversized oni said.

"True," Yuugi said. "All right. Liquefy the murdering punk."

Suika grinned. She held up her fist, which was wrapped around the ESP's head, and began to squeeze.

...

_Deep Within_

"Get up!" Rumia screamed into Rin's face. "You're about to get turned into silly-putty!" She slapped Rin's cheeks with the back of her hand. "What's the point of being immortal three times over if you're just going to stay unconscious?"

Rin shuddered. She blinked her heavy eyelids slowly at Rumia. "Ru…Rumia?" she muttered in a groggy voice as she rubbed her eyes. "What…what…"

"Hurry up and get us out of here!" Rumia demanded. "Before they crush-"

Suddenly Rin's eyes popped open wide. Her head snapped back and her spine stiffened as she tried to scream, but no sound came out.

Rumia stared at her. "Oh," she said with a feeling of dread. "Too late." After a brief pause, she added, "We are so dead."

But then Rin's mouth clamped shut. Though her body shook with pain, she managed bring her head down. Her fingers grabbed Rumia by the shoulders for support. Rumia winced as they dug into the muscle, but stifled the protest she felt rising.

"No," Rin said in a hoarse whisper. "Not…not this time!"

...

Though she was no stranger to witnessing acts of brutal violence, Yamame still winced as Suika Ibuki squished the intruder's head in her hands. It didn't matter how much you could take, that had to hurt. And judging by how the intruder's body thrashed about, apparently it was in full agreement.

"Ouch," Kisume said, echoing Yamame's thoughts. "Uh, that thing is a bad guy, right?"

"I guess," Yamame said. "Yuugi wouldn't have told her to do that if she-"

A sudden cry of surprise rose up from the crowd, and when Yamame and Kisume saw the reason they joined in. The intruder had managed to brace its hands against the underside of Suika's metal-encased fingers and pushed itself out of her grasp. It fell to the ground and lay still.

Yamame stared, her mouth agape. She wondered if the thing was dead. Its head was a shapeless mess, and its body wasn't disappearing the way youkai did upon being killed.

But then the crushed lump on its shoulders seemed to melt into itself. Its features blurred, only to reform anew, creating a new mouth, a new nose, and new eyes, which opened into twin flames of lavender.

"Ew," Kisume gagged. Yamame wholeheartedly agreed.

The monster levered itself up to a crouch and glared at everyone surrounding it. It hissed in fury.

That did it. While the crowd was willing to follow Yuugi's orders to stand back so long as Suika held the monster helpless, there was no chance they would let a challenge like that pass. Even Yuugi and Suika now looked less concerned with keeping order as they were with delivering an economy-sized beatdown.

With a roar of outrage, everyone swarmed forward as one. "I'll squash you _flat!" _Suika howled as she lifted her foot high to do just that.

She brought it down. The force of the impact sent a small shockwave that knocked everyone not in the air stumbling back. Even Yamame almost lost her grip on the obelisk.

The mob stopped in their tracks. "Hey, come on!" someone yelled. "Move your foot and let someone else have a turn!"

Suika complied. She lifted her foot up again to let them have their shot.

A hush fell on the crowd. Instead of a squishy puddle of flesh, there was just a hole filled with incredibly fine dust. The monster was gone.

The roar of anger that rose up was almost deafening. Again the mob started to move forward, reading to dig their way down with their fingers if they had to. Fortunately for them, this proved to be unnecessary.

"Everyone back!" snapped Vilt in a voice sharp enough to cut as she pushed her way to the center. "I got this!"

Yuugi looked her fellow oni up and down. "You got a plan, Vilt?"

Vilt grinned her bloodthirsty grin. "Oh, do I ever." Her bony fingers stroked the manacles that bound her many chains to her body. "What, you think these are just decoration?"

At her command, the half of the manacles clicked open and the chains unraveled themselves from around her body. The tips rose into the air like serpents, manacles clacking together eagerly. And, as one, they plunged into the hole.

...

_Deep Within_

"All right, Rin!" Rumia cheered. She gave Rin an encouraging slap on the shoulder. "Way to bounce back!"

Rin grinned at her. "I know, right? I may stink at fighting, but running away? That I can do!"

Rumia nodded in approval. She watched the earth in front of them disintegrate as Rin burrowed deeper down. "Well, just keep it up. Go all the way to the other side if you can. They'll never follow us-"

The dirt stopped disintegrating. The image had come to a stop.

"-there? Uh, Rin? Why did we stop?"

Rin looked at her. Confusion was written all over her face.

"I…don't know?" Rin said. "I think…something's wrapped around me…"

The view suddenly jerked back and sped away, as whatever it was that had seized Rin pulled her back at high speed.

Rin and Rumia stared at each other, naked horror on both of their faces. However, only Rumia was able to give voice to what they were both feeling.

"Oh, _FUUUUUUUUUUU-"_

...

"Haha, yes!" Yuugi grinned in approval. She patted Vilt's shoulder. "Nice catch!"

The skeletal oni returned the grin. "Always hated fishing, but this kind I can get behind!" she said as she reeled the ESP in.

"How long can those things get, anyway?"

"As long as I want them!"

"Nice," Yuugi said, impressed. "You've got to teach me that enchantment."

"Come by the guild someday. Beat me unconscious, and I'll be happy to," Vilt grunted. "Aaaaaannnnd, here it comes!"

With an explosion of silt, the chains erupted out of the hole. The ESP was caught tight in their grasp. It struggled and lurched as it tried to squirm free.

Everyone started laughing at the sight. "That's right!" Vilt howled. "Dance, little sluggy, dance!" She motioned with her hand, and the chains flipped around so that the ESP was dangling head-down. "Did you really think you could escape from-"

Yuugi's hand came down on her shoulder. "Vilt!" she hissed as she pointed. "Look!"

Vilt looked. And she did not like what she saw. Her chains, which she had assumed were wrapped around the monster, were instead sinking _into _the monster. The end links literally disappeared into its flesh.

What was more, it was drawing them in further. Slowly at first, but quickly picking up speed. In a matter of seconds, Vilt found herself being dragged forward, toward the monster. She threw herself in the opposite direct and desperately clutched at a nearby pottery booth. But the pull exceeded even her immense oni strength, and her hands gave way.

Her companions spurred into action. The monster found itself under attack from all ends by swords, maces, wooden beams, pieces of stone and whatever else could be used as a weapon. Those who weren't members of the Brawler's Guild stayed out of reach and settled for hurling the odd bullet into the fray, though whether or not any of them found their mark was debatable. One enthusiastic young youkai tried to get a spellcard off, but many of his fellows did not fancy getting caught in the crossfire and quickly beat that idea of him.

And it was working. The monster was fading. It slouched to the ground as it slowly succumbed to the blows.

...

_Deep Within_

Rin fell to her knees. Her head slumped onto her chest and jerked with every blow her physical body took.

Rumia was going absolutely frantic. "Rin, what are doing? Get up! Come, you're supposed to be able to take _anything!"_

"Too much," Rin mumbled. "Can't…can't absorb…"

"Well, try again!" Rumia snapped. "Because if you give up now, if you let them take us, you know what I'll do? I'll…" She wracked her brain for a fitting punishment. "I'll never speak to you again! That's right, you'll be stuck here with no one to talk to for the rest of _forever!"_

Rin grimaced. She balled her hands into fists and slammed them down to either side. Under the skin of her back, her muscles tensed and twitched.

"Okay, that means you're about to do something, right?" Rumia pressed. "You're getting all pumped up to do something, right?"

Then Rin let out an earsplitting scream that silenced Rumia. Her eyes snapped open as she shrieked at the screen, "Stop HITTING ME!"

...

The bazaar exploded.

That's what it felt like, at least. A shockwave of heat and force lashed out of the monster, knocking everyone back. Yamame let out a cry of alarm and leapt straight into the air. Kisume screamed in concert and threw her arms around Yamame's neck and held on tight. Once they were high enough, she looked down to see what was going on. It wasn't a pretty sight.

The bazaar was on fire. All of the stalls and stands were burning, and flaming people were running every which way. She saw two fairies burning like torches fall to the ground and evaporate. She saw Tonko tackle a pain-blinded Milda to the ground and kick a pot of water over her. Off to one side, the enormous Suika had fallen facedown into a stall of caged slugs and was lying flat in a daze, her head covered with slime.

Kisume whimpered. She closed her eyes and buried her face into the back of Yamame's neck. The spider knew exactly how she felt.

Not at all surprising, the oni were the least affected by the fire. Yuugi threw herself to the ground, rolled over her shoulder to extinguish the flames clinging to her shirt and lurched forward to grab Vilt by the wrists, stopping her from being pulled any further. However, the monster did not stop drawing the chains in, which meant that it was now being pulled toward them. And seeing how what touching it had done to Tonko, neither of them fancied having it reel itself it the rest of the way.

"Get rid of the chains!" Yuugi shouted. "Drop the rest of them!"

"Are you crazy?" Vilt snapped back. "Do you realize how long it takes to make a set like this?"

"You can't make new ones if you're dead!"

Yamame started biting her nails. Dead? Did she mean dead dead, not just temporarily not existing while their life energies put themselves back together? Was that monster capable of such a thing?

She glanced at it. It was hovering in the air like a wraith, its arms outstretched and talons bared. The aura of flaming darkness swirled and writhed around its body, and its violet eyes were glowing with hate.

Yeah, it was capable of such a thing.

Yamame frantically searched the chaos for some way she could help. There was no way she was going to confront that thing herself, but maybe she could find someone who could.

Unfortunately, no one was of a mind to help. The residents of the Ancient City were so used to fire and heat that encountering a flame that could burn so intensely had shocked them out of their rational minds. Those who that weren't panicking or fleeing were doing their best to help the wounded, and none looked strong enough to stop Vilt from being dragged to her demise.

Except one.

Yamame felt a surge of hope when she saw Suika brace her hands and slowly push herself up. The oni was covered in slug mucus and a good portion of her hair had been flashfired away, but she looked otherwise all right.

Yamame quickly swooped down to her side. "Suika!" she said urgently. "Suika Ibuki! Get up! You've got to save them!"

Suika turned her massive head to look at the (from her perspective) small spider girl with a cowering Tsurube Otoshi in a backpack. She spat out a mouthful of slime and said, "Huh? Who are you?"

"Never mind!" Yamame said. She pointed her finger across the bazaar, to where the two oni women struggled with the monster. "They need your help! Now!"

Suika looked. Her eyes widened when she saw the situation. "Oh, _no you_ _don't'!" _she cried.

Yamame would never have believed that anything so large and encumbered by armor could move that fast. And yet, almost as soon as she saw what was going on, Suika had turned herself around and lunged forward on all fours. Both hands reached out and snatched the chains that bound Vilt to the monster. Suika stood up and yanked the chains into the air, taking both Vilt and the monster with them. With a growl, she gave the chains a hard twist, as if she were wringing out a towel.

"No!" Vilt cried. "They're not-"

It didn't matter. The chains snapped like brittle noodles.

"Suika!" Yuugi called. She released the shocked Vilt.

Suika looked at her.

"Get rid of it!" Yuugi ordered. "Get it out of the city before anyone else gets hurt!"

Suika nodded. But first she wrapped her right hand around the monster and brought it close to her face. "I'm coming for you,"she growled.

Her threat made, she seized the ends of the broken chains and swung the monster around once, twice, and three times before letting go. The monster sailed away, over the tops of the buildings and out of the city. Below, Suika returned herself to normal size and launched herself into the air. She pursued the flying monster, her normally drunken eyes focused by hate.

...

_Deep Within_

"Stop!" Rumia cried. She clung to the screen for dear life as she screamed at Rin. "Stop yourself and start _digging!"_

"Trying," Rin muttered. "Can't. Too much momentum."

"What does that even _mean?"_

Rin didn't answer. She just sat down and crossed her legs. Her eyes focused on the screen. While she might have been unable to halt her trajectory, she was able to turn her body around to stare at the pursuing oni.

"Yeah, I remember you," Rin growled. "You wanna come for me?"

Rumia gaped at her. She couldn't mean what she thought she meant, could she?

Rin slammed her fists down to either side of her. "Well, _here I am!" _she screeched. _"Come and get me!"_

...

Utsuho Reiuji sat on the spiral ramp that connected the reactor to the Palace of Earth Spirits, her Third Leg sitting unfolded next to her and legs dangling over the side. A partially eaten egg-salad sandwich was in her hand, and she sung to herself as she munched on it, pausing at times to pick off pieces of the crust and toss them to the flame-bats circling above the palace. It was a song Satori had taught her once, when teaching her about those who lived on the surface and their culture. Granted, she didn't understand what most of the words meant, but she still liked it, as it was very pretty.

"Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms,

On meadow-hills and mountains

As far as you can see.

Is it a mist, or clouds?

Fragrant in the morning sun.

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms,

Flowers in full bloom."

It was almost scary, sometimes, how close to normal things had gotten. The first week after the fight, Utsuho had been convinced that the palace would crumble into infighting. But despite the inevitable clashes of personality, Orin had managed to sweet talk enough of the more dominant of Satori's pets into cooperation to keep things under control. And those who weren't open to friendly discussion were quickly reminded who the alpha cat was.

Since then, order had been restored and life at the palace went on. Everyone already knew their jobs, and Orin worked extra hard to make sure they did them. At times, especially when Utsuho was hard at work running the reactor, she could also make herself pretend that nothing had happened, that the fight with Yuuka Kazami had been nothing more than a horrible dream. But then she would come down for dinner, and Satori's place at the table would be empty. That made it hard.

Still, they had to carry on until Satori came home. Orin had made it clear that the inhabitants of the Underground were to think that nothing had changed at all. But what Utsuho found strange was how easy it was. She never visited the Ancient City or any of the smaller settlements, but some of the other pets did. And according to them, no one there had the slightest clue that their ruler was missing. Utsuho found this to be a bit troubling. On the one hand, it was a good thing that no one was getting all scared and panicking. On the other, shouldn't somebody miss Satori? She was kind of like their queen, after all. Shouldn't someone care enough to at least check up on her?

Orin had told her not to worry about it, but sometimes, when things were quiet, Utsuho couldn't help but wonder…

"Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms,

Across the Spring sky,

As far as you can see.

Is it a mist, or clouds?

Fragrant in the air.

Come now, come now,

Let's look, at last!"

Today she had found herself with a few minutes of free time and decided to spend it outside. She was rather fond of the lake of fire and magma that now surrounded the palace. The colors it made were so pretty, and she loved playing with the flame-bats that it attracted. The others hated the little creatures and called them pests, but she couldn't understand why. She thought they were cute.

One of them noticed where the flying bits of food were coming from and fluttered close, his burning wings flashing with gold and blue fire. Utsuho grinned and tore off a piece of her sandwich. She held it out.

"Hey there," she said. "Hungry?"

The flame-bat regarded her with suspicion. It was clear that he wanted the piece of sandwich, but was hesitant to approach the much larger creature in order to retrieve it. Utsuho laughed and tossed it to him.

"Well, okay," she said as he snapped it up in his tiny scarlet jaws. "Be that way. You don't have to be scared. I'm not going to…"

Her voice trailed off as her eyes fell upon the scene beyond the bat and the lake of fire. There, off in the distance, the lights of the Ancient City could barely be seen through the smoke and heat. It was a familiar enough sight, but it looked like there was a new light, a big one. Almost as if something were…

"Exploding!" she cried as she jumped to her feet. Her sandwich slipped from her lap and tumbled over the edge, where it was set upon by three flame-bats and torn apart. She didn't pay it any attention.

Something was happening at the city, something bad. They had to be under attack, or maybe the Brawler Guild was getting _way _out of hand. Either way, someone had to do something.

Usually that would be Satori. After all, it was her city. But Satori was gone. So that meant Orin. Utsuho nodded to herself and started toward the palace only to stop when she remembered. Orin was gone. She was busy tending the furnaces that fed the lake of fire. And Utsuho couldn't interrupt that. It was a very important job, and if no one did it, then the fires would go out. Utsuho wasn't really sure what would happen then, but it couldn't be good.

She hesitated. Technically, she was stronger than Orin. So she could probably had the best chance of chasing off whoever was attacking the city. She didn't have to hurt them, just give them a good scare.

But that wasn't a very good idea. She would probably just end up messing things up. And then Orin would yell at her for making trouble, and everyone would be mad at her again…

Two more explosions erupted right outside of the city. Flaming rocks hurled into the sky. Some struck nearby buildings. Utsuho couldn't see if they did much damage, but she was sure that they did.

That did it. Utsuho slammed her right arm into the Third Leg. It closed over the forearm. Lights lit up on its facets and it hummed with power. Utsuho nodded in approval and leapt into the air. Her wings beat the superheated air as she flew towards the city, all three of her eyes burning with determination. All the while, she kept reciting Satori's rules for whenever she went out in public, with slight modifications.

_Don't set anyone on fire. Don't let loose with any dangerous radiation. Don't blow anything up. Don't hurt anybody. Unless it's Yuuka Kazami. But even then…no, then we hurt her a lot. Orin would understand, right?_

...

Suika landed in a crouch right outside of the city. The ESP had landed about twenty feet away, at the end of a blackened trench. Despite having been hurled over a mile by a pissed-off oni, it was still getting to its feet, none the worse for the wear for the impact it had just taken.

Good. Suika wouldn't want this to be too easy.

"Hey," she said.

The ESP looked at her. It said nothing, but its burning eyes flared up. It recognized her.

A mad grin split Suika's singed features. "Ready for round two?"

The ESP spread its fingers. At its command, its hands burst into flames.

That was as good as an affirmative as she was ever going to get. Suika let out a cry that was half roar, half whoop of delight and charged. As she headed toward her opponent, she increased in size, adding weight and mass to her momentum until she was eleven feet tall and running with the force of a charging grizzly.

The ESP thrust its hands at her and sent a cone of flame at her. Suika lowered her head, held her forearms stiffly in front of her like a shield and barreled right through. It burned, it hurt but she endured and kept going. Her right arm swung back to hammer forward, slamming right into the ESP's stomach and lifting it into the air.

The ESP let out what sounded like a cry of pain and tumbled through the air in an ungainly mess.

Suika didn't even give it the chance to land. She continued her charge and tackled it as it descended.

"This is for my gourd!" she roared as she bodyslammed the ESP to the ground. Then, powered by pure rage, she started pounding the abomination with her metal-encased fist, fully intending to end the threat right there and then.

...

_Deep Within_

Rin slumped to her knees. Just as she had while being pummeled back in the city, her body jerked with every blow. She let out small whimpers.

"What are you trying to do?" Rumia asked in bewilderment. "Do you really think you can beat her? Just keep running!"

"Trying…" Rin murmured. Her head flinched to one side and she grimaced. "…trying to absorb. The kinetic. Energy."

"What does that even _mean?" _Rumia cried.

"It means. I want. To adapt. To her punches."

Rumia stared. "Wait, you mean make it so she can't hurt you anymore?"

"That's the…the…" Rin fell to her hands and knees. "…the idea. But it's…not working. I don't. I don't think…I can. Absorb. Kinetic…"

Then she fell to her side.

...

The ESP gave one final shudder and lay still. Suika tilted her head to one side and sighed. Well, _that _had been disappointing. She punched its head one more time and let it drop.

"Suika!" she heard Yuugi call. Suika turned around to see Yuugi running up to her. The other oni had changed into her own armor, a much bulkier set that looked very much like that worn by the ancient samurai.

Suika waved. "Hey there! Too late though. Fight's already done!"

Yuugi skidded to a stop. "Wait, you beat it already?" she asked incredulously.

"Yep!" Suika pointed at the crumpled mess at her feet. "Take a look!"

Yuugi stared at what was left of the ESP. "Wow. Uh, that's…really anticlimactic. I mean, after all that…" She held out her hands. In it was a skull-like helmet. "And I even brought your helmet and everything."

Suika shrugged. "Hey, the armor still helped." She nudged the ESP with her boot. When it didn't respond, she rolled her eyes and turned away. "Guess it was havingan offday or-"

"Suika!" Yuugi cried.

Suika started to turn, but the warning had come too late. The ESP was already up and had gripped her midsection with its talons. Suika reached out to grab it, but it growled and shoved her hard.

_Very _hard.

Now it was Suika's turn to go flying back. Yuugi put herself in her path and caught in her arms. She stumbled a step back with a grunt but managed to keep her footing.

"By Shuten Douj, that thing is strong," Yuugi hissed as she set Suika down.

"Yeah," Suika said in amazement.

"Did it hit that hard last time you rumbled?"

Suika thought for a moment. "No, not really."

"Huh."

Both oni turned toward the ESP, which was standing still.

"What's it waiting for?" Suika wondered.

"Probably for us to make a move." Yuugi handed her the helmet she had brought. "Let's not disappoint it."

...

_Deep Within_

Rumia gaped at her fully revived companion. "How…how the hell are you getting up so fast?"

"I…I…" Rin stared at her hands, looking just as astonished as Rumia. "Wow. I knew that the Hourai Immortals could recover from anything, but…wow. I mean, first I everything was going black, but…right after she stopped punching I started to feel better."

That took Rumia by surprise. She had almost forgotten the regenerative powers Rin had gained from Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou. But even so…

"Okay, you're all better, that's great," she said. "Now can we stop this stupid fight and get _out of here _already?"

Rin didn't appear to have heard her, an unfortunately familiar state of things. She kept looking at her hands. "Mokou and the Princess…" she mused.

Rumia snarled. She stormed over and grabbed Rin by the shoulders. "Hey!" she yelled into Rin's face. "Crazy girl! Remember what I said about ignoring me?"

"Oh!" Rin started. She backed out of Rumia's grasp. "Sorry. I just…got a really interesting idea."

Rumia didn't like the sound of that at all. "It better involve running away," she warned.

...

Wearing a helmet was not something Suika was accustomed to, and with the burns her skin had taken it wasn't exactly comfortable either. But she didn't mind. If it would keep her from taking more burns or having to deal with that freaking taint again, she would gladly bear the discomfort.

Besides, the idea of two fully armored oni waging battle on a nightmarish beast of darkness was the sort of things they made songs about. She just hoped that whatever bard sang the tale remembered to get her name right. She was sick of being confused with watermelon.

At the moment, she was standing directly in front of the ESP, staring it down. The monster still had yet to move, which was a bit worrying. Yuugi was standing by her side. "You ready?" she asked Suika in a low voice.

To answer, Suika roared so loudly that nearby stones shook. She hurled herself forward, every step cracking stone as she clasped her hands together and swung them back, as if she were holding a club.

She expected the ESP to spray her with fire again, or maybe use those darkness tentacles. But it just kept standing still. Suika chalked that up to it having suffered brain damage and pounded its head with her hand, further adding to its mental confusion.

That was the plan, anyway.

To be truthful, she got about as far as swinging her clutched hands forward when it suddenly twisted its body out of the way, ducking under the blow and coming up to ram its knee into Suika's stomach. Thanks to the armor, she barely felt it, but the sudden motion was enough to take her off guard, allowing the ESP to hook its leg behind her knees and grab the face of her helmet with its talon. With one swift motion, its leg went back and its talon went forward. The back of Suika's head hit the ground so hard that the granite shattered.

_..._

_Deep Within_

"It worked!" Rin cheered. She jumped up and down and pumped her little fists into the air. "I can't believe it, it worked!"

"Holy moly!" Rumia blurted, completely forgetting how mad she was that Rin wasn't running away. "How the _hell _did you do that?"

Rin had the silliest grin on her face, like a child who had just managed to climb the tallest tree. "Uh…you know how when I absorb someone, I can use their powers and their senses and look through their memories and all that?"

Rumia gave her a look.

"Right, right," Rin said hastily. "Of course you do. But, as I keep finding out, there's still loads of stuff I can do that I just don't know about, you know? So I got to thinking: what if there's more I can use from the people inside me?"

Rumia decided to leave the snickering for another time. "Okay. Like what?"

"Well, like reflexes and learned skills," Rin said, her grin turning crafty.

Rumia frowned. She thought she had a pretty good idea what Rin meant, but she wasn't entirely sure. "So…what you're saying is…"

"Yup," Rin nodded. "I may suck at fighting. But Princess Kaguya and Fujiwara no Mokou? They probably know more about it than anyone alive." Now her grin was more than just crafty. Now it was downright malicious. "And what they know, _I _know."

...

When Suika had charged the monster, Yuugi had been content to let her have the first wallops. After all, Suika had fought the thing before. That technically made it her nemesis. Yuugi was just there for support. And so she had jogged after her at half-speed, ready to join in on the crushing when her friend decided to give her a turn.

But when she saw the thing take Suika down so easily, Yuugi's heart rose into her throat and she broke into a full-out run. She threw herself forward and tackled the monster with her shoulder.

The monster tried to move out of the way, but there was no time. It took the full of Yuugi's charge in its stomach and was driven back to the floor. Yuugi snarled as she drew back her fist and drove it down at its horribly beautiful face.

But the monster was just as fast as before. This time, it managed to snap its talons up and grab her by the wrist. It wasn't enough to stop her fist from coming down, but it was enough to change its path enough so that it drove into the ground right next to its ear.

Yuugi couldn't help but wonder what had made this thing suddenly become so competent, but she didn't have time to think about it. After all, the monster's face was literally less than a foot away from hers. And so she did the only thing one could do in such a situation: she slammed her helmeted forehead into its face. The back of its head hit the granite with an audible _crack!_

_..._

_Deep Within_

"OW!" Rin cried as she grabbed both the front and back of her head with a hand apiece.

"What just happened?" Rumia cried. "I thought you were supposed to start kicking ass!"

Rubbing her forehead, Rin glowered at her. "Hey, I just found out that I can do this, okay? I'm still getting used to-OW!"

...

Yuugi headbutted the monster again. "Now _stay _down," she warned.

It didn't answer. Of course, she wasn't sure if it could speak or not, but that was beside the point.

With a grunt, Yuugi pulled her arm out of the ground. She grabbed the monster by the collar and stood up, taking it with her.

Then she wrapped her arms around its waist in a big bear hug and squeezed.

_..._

_Deep Within_

_That's it, _Rumia thought in despair as Rin writhed in pain. _We're dead. She finished. I'm finished. We're both finished. That's it, all gone, bye-bye, see yah…_

Then Rin pounded the "ground" with her fists and yelled "ENOUGH!"

Rumia felt the strangest sensation, as if the world of nothingness around her were contracting. Then the view on the screen warped and wiggled. The next thing she knew Rin had somehow escaped the big oni's arms and was driving her back with a flurry of punches and kicks. The oni managed to block the first few, but then Rin threw hers physical body back, landed on her elbows and drove both feet into her opponent's chest, knocking her several feet back.

"What?" Rumia said, her mouth hanging open. "How?"

"I can temporarily return to my gelatinous form, thank you very much," Rin said coldly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm still not used to being able to fight and really don't need distractions right now."

...

Utsuho soared forward, her midnight-black wings occasionally beating the hot air that rose from the stone and odd pool of magma. The Ancient City was dead ahead, and from the look of things, there was some kind of ruckus going on. And it did not look like a danmaku duel. So either the Brawler's Guild was getting out of hand again, or…

Her eyes narrowed. She flattened her limbs against her body and flew faster.

...

What had started off as two oni warriors teaching a renegade monster a lesson had quickly devolved into an all-out brawl.

Suika pounded the ground with her fists, cracking the granite and dislodging a chunk the size of an anvil. With a ferocious battlecry, she hefted it up and hurled it at the ESP.

The ESP, which was busy trading blows with Yuugi, must have heard it coming. It glanced to the side and Suika felt a surge of grim satisfaction when a look of shock passed over the horrid thing's face. It abandoned the fight just in time to grab the rock with both talons. Unfortunately for it, that just left Yuugi open to punch the chunk and drive it right into the ESP's chest.

"All right!" a hoarse voice cheered. "Smash that bitch!"

"Show her what happens if you screw with the Underground!" another put in.

Suika froze. She looked to the side. A crowd was gathering on the edge of the battlefield while others were standing on top of the nearby buildings, consisting of a mix of those who had been attacked at the bazaar and other locals, drawn by the sounds of violence.

That…probably was not a good thing. Suika exchanged a worried look with Yuugi. The residents of the Ancient City were far tougher than most of their fellow Gensokyians, but this was not a fight they should be anywhere near. All it would take was one stray blast of that thing's darkness powers, and someone's life would end.

Unfortunately there was no time to work on moving the battle someplace safer. The ESP tossed the chunk of granite aside and threw a punch at Yuugi, its fist surrounded by phoenix fire. Yuugi sidestepped the blow, swung around to the ESP's back and grabbed it again by the waist, this time from behind.

"Suika!" she bellowed. "Head's up!"

With that, she threw her upper body back, arched her back, and suplexed the ESP right at her fellow oni. Suika leapt into the air, hands open and ready to receive.

She never got the chance. Somehow the ESP managed to twist itself around so that Suika received a face full of feet for her trouble.

A loud groan rose up from the crowd, but Suika was not down for the count. Her helmet had absorbed the blow well, so that even as her back skidded across the ground she already had her hands around the ESP's legs.

Then she stood up, lifting her opponent up with her. The ESP realized what she was attempting and immediately started pounding on her helmet with its fists, but while the clanging hurt her ears, Suika managed to shut it out. She moved her grip up to the ESP's thighs, lifted it straight up and drove it backfirst into the ground.

"Duck!" she heard Yuugi cry. Suika, who had expecting the order, obeyed, bending her body forward. Yuugi rushed up, leapfrogged over Suika and landed feetfirst right on the ESP's face.

A cheer rose up. The crowd had grown, and they were getting excited. Yuugi looked at them, and even through her masked helmet Suika could tell that she was getting nervous.

"We gotta get away from the riffraff," Yuugi told her. "What say we move this to the testing field?"

"Agreed," Suika rumbled. "Give that thing another stomp and let's-YUUGI!"

At the same time Suika shouted her warning, a cry of horror rose up from the spectators. Yuugi looked down and jumped in surprise, or at least she tried to. The ESP had changed. Everything from the shoulders up had melted away, becoming a clear, formless mass that had covered her legs up to the knees and was rapidly crawling upward.

_..._

_Deep Within_

"Wait, are you actually going to _eat _her?" Rumia said.

Rin glowered at her. "You got a better idea? That armor's _way_ tougher than the stone I've been digging through. I can't hurt them through it! But I think I can eat my way in. And hey, let's face it. Having an oni's power will be all kinds of useful, you know?"

"Hey, I'm not criticizing," Rumia said, holding up her palms. "It's just…you know, coming from you…"

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" Rin said in a cranky voice. "I'm sick of people beating me up, and I'm sick of running away from those people just to find more people who want to beat me up!"

Rumia tilted her head. "Uh, Rin? You're not…about to go all bad guy, are you? Because as great as it is that you're growing yourself a spine, I'd really like to get off before you decide to eat everyone in Gensokyo."

"No, I'm not going to go all bad guy," Rin said in exasperation. "I'm just…" Her head jerked up, her eyes widening. "Oh, for Heaven's sake!" she complained. "You had to distract me! See, this is just what I was talking about!"

...

"Hold her steady!" Suika ordered. She was holding the ESP up, one leg under each arm. Across from her, three of the biggest Brawlers had grabbed Yuugi by the arms. The tall oni was not at all happy about the solution they were pursuing.

"If this ends up cutting me in half, I'm going to break your back," she warned. "All of yours. At the same time."

"Oh, we're shaking in our skins," said the Brawler directly behind her. "I guess that's gratitude for you."

"Shut up, all of you," Suika said. She took a deep breath. "Okay. One, two, three, _pull!"_

They pulled. The ESP tried to hold onto its prey, but against the strength of two oni, one marble youkai and one…something massive and covered with bony protrusions, it was a futile effort. The clear slime was slowly pulled off of Yuugi's legs, like a serpent's skin being discarded.

Suika growled and gave the thing's legs a sharp tug. It came free, and the sudden release of resistance made everyone fall back.

Suika breathed a sigh of relief, but that ended when the legs she was holding started to squirm and their color receded. At the other end, the ESP's head and arms reformed, and it sat up to glare at Suika with hate-filled eyes.

"Oh, no you don't!" Suika shouted as she hurled the monster over her back in panic.

Yuugi, who was just managing to get up, looked to see what was wrong and stiffened. "Suika!" she cried. "No!"

"Huh?" Suika turned around and icy fear gripped her heart. In her haste to get rid of the thing she had inadvertently thrown it right at the crowd of onlookers.

"MOVE IT!" she screamed as she ran after it. "DON'T LET IT TOUCH YOU!"

She needn't have worried. The residents of the Ancient City were aggressive and reckless but they weren't stupid. As soon as they saw the ESP flying their way they parted instantly, letting it sail right into an open alley.

_..._

_Deep Within_

"That didn't _work!" _Rumia screamed as she hung onto the screen for dear life.

"I know!" Rin screamed back. "And of course it didn't! Nothing I try works! I'm cursed or something!" Her eyes fell onto the view on the screen. "It's like I'm doomed to keep failing at everything I try, no matter-"

The rest of her complaint was swallowed up as her face filled with horror. "Oh!" she squeaked. "Oh no!"

...

"Yamame, I don't think this is a good idea," Kisume said for what had to be the umpteenth billionth time. Yamame could feel her little friend's body trembling through the backpack.

"We won't be there long," Yamame reassured her as she snuck along the sides of the building. She turned into an alley, one that connected to the edge of the city. "I just want to make sure Yuugi and her friend are okay."

"They're oni!" Kisume squeaked. "They're trained for these sorts of things! We're not!"

"I'm not planning on fighting, I'm just going to make sure things don't get out of hand. We'll be back home before you-"

Kisume's little hands suddenly grabbed her by the hair and pulled hard, sending jolts of pain through the roots. "YAMAME!" she screamed into the spider's ear.

Yamame looked up and her body froze with fear. The dark monster was sailing fast through the air right at them, talons extended and mouth open wide, its steely teeth sharp and gleaming.

_..._

_Deep Within_

Rin was in a state of panic. Thanks to that oni's toss, she was heading straight for that pair of youkai and was going too fast to be able to stop in time. The collision would cover them with that killing darkness, if it didn't cut them in half upon impact.

She had to do something. She had to hold it back. But that was difficult even under the best of circumstances, and there was no way she could muster up the concentration to keep it under control.

And just like that, it was too late. The terrified face of the spider-youkai with the ball-shaped dress filled the screen. Desperate, Rin gathered up all her will, directed it at _everything _she had gained when she had absorbed Rumia and blasted off a singled command.

_NO!_

...

Yamame screamed when the thing hit her. She was driven back and the back of her head cracked against the ground, causing her to black out for a few seconds.

When she came to, she found herself in the most awkward of situations. She was lying flat on her back, with the monster lying almost entirely on her. It had its talons on her shoulders, and was staring at her in the eye. There was a look on its face that greatly resembled surprise mixed with fear, though that didn't make sense, coming from it.

Yamame didn't dare move. She just stared back and tried to keep from screaming, though a few stray whimpers escaped.

The monster stared at her for three excruciating heartbeats longer. Then, slowly and carefully, it removed its talons from her shoulders and stood up.

_"I…I'm sorry," _it told her.

Yamame blinked. She had not been expecting _that._

_"G-get out of here," _it whispered. _"Run. Go where it's safe. Please, just stay a-away from me."_

Yamame just continued to stare. Her head was still swimming from the knock it had taken and she wasn't entirely sure if she was conscious or not.

Then new voices cut into her confusion. "Hey, is everyone all right?" said someone from the other end of the alley. "Did anyone get hurt?"

"Hot hells, there's the monster!" someone else said.

The monster flinched. It leapt onto the nearby wall and scampered up, almost spiderlike itself in its movement. It pulled itself onto the roof and disappeared.

Yamame soon found herself surrounded by people. "Hey, are you all right?" said a fairy with short blond hair. "Missy? Are you okay?"

"I'm…fine," Yamame said, something that was no small surprise to her. "Yeah. I'm good." She tried to sit up, but a sharp pain through her head made her regret it.

"Whoa, easy there," said a stocky youkai. He took her by the arm and helped her steady herself. "Looks like you took a nasty bump. Take it slow."

Yamame nodded her thanks, but then the fogginess cleared enough for her to remember something very important.

"Kisume!" she exclaimed, sitting up straight again. The pain made her wince but she ignored it. "Where's Kisume?"

Those around her muttered in confusion. "Kisume?" one of them, a dark-haired youkai girl with pale skin, asked. "Who's that?"

"My friend!" Yamame slipped out of the backpack and looked inside. She was slightly relieved that it didn't contain Kisume's crushed body, but it was still empty. "Please, you've got to help me find her!" she implored her rescuers. "She's a little Tsurube Otoshi with green hair and wearing a white kimono! She was riding in my backpack when…" Tears started to fill her eyes.

"Uh, is this her?" someone asked.

Everyone turned toward the blond fairy, who was standing a few feet away. There, curled up against the wall and trembling with fear, was Kisume. She was scared out of her wits but unharmed.

"Kisume!" Yamame cried as she scampered to her feet and rushed over. She picked up the little bucket-dweller and gently shook her by the shoulder. "Are you okay? Come on, say something!"

There was a breathless pause, and then Kisume said in a small voice, "I think I peed myself."

Yamame glanced down at the dark spot on Kisume's kimono. She let out a ragged laugh. "Yeah, but don't worry. I almost did too." She hugged her friend tight, not caring one bit about the smell. "I'm…I'm just really glad you're okay."

A wave of relief passed through those gathered, and one or two of the braver ones started chuckling nervously. "Well," said the oni as he patted Yamame on the shoulder (which did not help her headache at all, but she refrained from complaining). "Looks like you're both okay. But still, you'd better get home fast, before something else happens."

Yamame had no objection to this at all. She carefully slipped Yamame into the backpack and put it back on, and soon the two were heading back to the little apartment they shared.

When they were about halfway there, Kisume said suddenly, "Hey, Yamame?"

Yamame glanced over her shoulder. "Hmmm?"

"Is this real life?"

It took a couple of seconds for Yamame to figure out what she was being asked. "You mean…were we almost killed by the Devouring Monster?"

"Yes."

"Yup. We were." Yamame let out a slightly crazy laugh. "But we survived. Just think of what everyone at the Goblinstone Alehouse will say when we tell them. I bet we'll get free drinks!"

"Oh. Okay," Kisume said. There was a dreamy sound to her voice. "That's good to hear."

Then her head slumped against Yamame's shoulder as she fainted dead away.

...

To Utsuho's disappointment, by the time she reached the battle, it was already over. It was obvious that someone had been fighting there, judging by all the broken rocks and the people milling about, but the action was long gone.

She swooped down to talk to a nearby Kappa trader. "Hey there!" she said.

The Kappa looked in her direction. Her eyes went wide when she saw who she was talking to.

Utsuho waved at her and grinned. "Hi there!" she said. "I'm looking for whoever was fighting here. Do you know where they went?"

"Uh…" Kappa immediately pointed toward the city. "Yesh. Dey's gone dataways."

"Thanks!" Utsuho took off in the indicated direction. All around, people cried out in surprise and rushed to get out of the way, but she barely paid them notice. They all looked like they were okay. She needed to find everyone who wasn't.

_..._

_Deep Within_

Rin stared at her open hands. "What…what just happened?" she whispered to herself.

Rumia was quick to provide an answer. "You…you did it!" she said in amazement. "You touched her, and _didn't _make her turn black and shrivel up!"

"I did," Rin said. She sounded as if she could barely believe it herself.

"But you were just holding it back, right?" Rumia pressed. "Like with the mushrooms, right?"

Rin shook her head. "I didn't have time for that. I just told it to stop, and it…turned off."

Rumia grinned and slapped Rin on the back. "Well, there you go! I knew you'd figure it out. It's just like you figuring out how to fight. All takes a few seconds of total panic and you-"

"Oh my _gods!" _Rin gasped.

Rumia stiffened. "What? What is it now?" Her eyes darted to the screen. They were currently bounding from rooftop to rooftop, and while they were definitely being pursued, that was a situation that was quickly become the norm. Besides, they were faster than their pursuers, who were still a reasonably safe distance behind.

"I almost _killed _them!" Rin cried.

"Huh?" Rumia's face twisted in confusion. "Well, yeah. I guess, but it's not like it would have been on purpose."

"But it still would've happened," Rin insisted. "And…Oh gods, I think I was about to try to kill those oni too!"

"So what?" Rumia said. She really didn't understand what Rin was getting so upset about. "They were attacking you! You were defending yourself!" She shrugged. "Okay, granted, you _really _shouldn't have been fighting, what with all the _running _you needed to be doing, but still…"

"But that's just it!" Rin wailed. She grabbed her head, her blue eyes wide with dismay. "I shouldn't have been fighting them! But I was just so angry that I wanted to hurt them, and I just kept getting angrier and angrier and…What's _happening _to me? What am I turning into?"

Rumia nervously glanced at the screen. Thanks to Rin's rising emotional state, her path was starting to wobble. "Uh, Rin? Maybe you can save the emotional breakdown until we can get somewhere safe? Because they're starting to catch up."

Rin swallowed, but to Rumia's relief she listened. Their path straightened.

"Okay, good," Rumia said. "Now, how about we stop going forward and start going straight down? I don't see that bony oni with the chains anywhere, so nothing should grab you this time?"

"G-good idea," Rin said. "Okay, there's an alley up ahead. I'll dive down-"

That was when the armored oni with two horns flipped over the side of the upcoming rooftop and planted her boot into Rin's face.

...

"Gotcha!" Suika cheered as the ESP staggered back. "Thought you could get away, huh?"

The ESP regained its foot and shook off the blow. _"Leave me alone!" _it cried.

That actually made Suika stop in her tracks. "What?" she said in confusion. "Say that again?"

_"I don't want to fight anymore!" _it said. _"I'm sorry about the people I hurt, but please just let me go!"_

"What in the world are you going on about?" Yuugi said as she landed on the roof behind it. "You attacked us, remember? And now you want us to stop?"

_"It was an accident! I didn't even want to come here! Please, I just want to go…somewhere else."_

"Yeah?" Suika's eyes narrowed. "Well, you're gonna get your wish, and go straight into Yukari's magic box."

_"No!" _the ESP said, its horrible voice rising in panic. _"Look, I swear, I don't want to-"_

"Hey!" cut in a new voice. "Hold it right there!"

Suika, Yuugi and the ESP all looked at each other in confusion. Then, as one, they all turned and looked up to behold an awesome sight.

A stunningly beautiful woman hovered overhead, her majestic black wings spread wide. A halo of power surrounded her, and on the center of her chest was the unblinking flaming eye of a sun god. On one arm was a bizarre contraption that looked an awful lot like a gun's barrel, and a dazzling cape displaying the motion of the Universe's constellations was draped over her wings.

"Well, okay," Yuugi said as she stared. "She's here. There goes the neighborhood."

Utsuho smiled as she waved at the combatants. "Hi!" she said brightly. "I'm looking for whoever was causing trouble back there. Can you tell me who it was?"

Suika glanced at herself, and then Yuugi, both of them oni warriors dressed in battle-scarred armor. Then they looked at the ESP, which clearly was no local.

As one, both oni swung their fingers up so that they were pointing at the ESP.

The ESP looked from one oni to the next. _"Wait," _it said as it realized what they were doing. _"Oh, come on! You guys were doing just as much damage as me!"_

"Really? You?" Utsuho scowled as the monster. "Okay, now see here. It looks like you're new here, but you can't go around starting fights!" She gestured with her cannon-thing as she lectured. "I mean, this place gets beat up enough, what with all the brawls people get…Are you listening?"

The ESP was not. In fact, it looked like it had taken quite enough of people pointing things at it. _"Leave me ALONE!" _it cried as it leapt at Utsuho.

"Whoa!" Utsuho yelped as she jerked back. In her surprise, a ball of glowing energy leapt out of her cannon, which then shot forward, missed shaving off one of Suika's horns by mere inches, and continued on to slam into the wall of a nearby apartment complex.

From there, everything happened in a blur. The building burst into flames as its occupants fled screaming from the windows and doors. The ESP passed by Utsuho without trying to touch her and headed down, towards the street. Suika leapt forward after it and hit it with a tackle, wrapping her arms around its waist. However, it continued to dive down, right through the street below, taking Suika with it.

...

Utsuho stared at the building burned with atomic fire. She wasn't sure how that had happened, but she was sure that she was responsible. Oh boy.

Everywhere, people were running and screaming for help. A group of the more level-headed were directing evacuation efforts. The armored oni, the one that hadn't jumped after the scary, glowing person, looked up at her. Its shoulders slumped and it buried its masked face in its palm before it leapt in to help.

"Oh crap," Utsuho moaned. "Orin is going to _kill _me."

...

Suika hadn't been entirely sure what would happen when she had tackled the ESP, but being dragged down through the earth while clinging on for dear life had definitely not been it. She found herself caught in a wave of disintegrated stone, her arms wrapped tightly around the monster's waist and praying that her strength wouldn't fail her now.

Unfortunately, one cannot be in such a position without their host eventually taking notice. Which, of course, the ESP did. _"GET OFF!" _it roared, its voice still audible even through the rush. It sent a spray of flame at her, which melted the silt and sent her cutting through magma.

Suika's response was to give it a strong jerk upwards. If she couldn't stop the thing, she could at least keep it from reaching wherever it was going.

The monster growled. It shoved its talons against Suika's face, trying to push her off. One of Suika's hands slipped, but she managed to hold on with the other while she punched where she thought ESP's face was. It hit, and the blow stunned it and changed its direction yet again. Suika took advantage of its momentary distraction and punched it yet again. And again.

_"Okay, I've had ENOUGH!" _she heard it cry.

Then both of its talons lashed out to hit her full in the face. Suika slipped again, managing to grab the ESP by the knees. But then, just as it had done with Yuugi, its knees contracted and slithered out of her grasp, and Suika was caught up in the wave of grit that washed her away.

The next few moments were a blur of rolling and confusion. When they stopped, she found herself in a tunnel filled with the wake of the ESP's flight.

She lay still for a few seconds, listening to her heartbeat. Thanks to Yuugi's fantastic workmanship, none of the grit had gotten into the armor. But that didn't change the fact that she was still buried who knew how many whatevers beneath the Ancient City.

"Oh great," she moaned. "Not again. Yuugi is never going to let me forget this."

Then, with a weary sigh, she started to dig her way back.

_..._

_Deep Within_

"We got away, right?" Rumia demanded. "You lost them, didn't you?"

Rin shook her head, though it was from bewilderment rather than an actual negative. "I…I don't know," she said breathlessly. "Everything's so confusing. I…I think so, though."

"You… you _think _so? Do you think so or do you know so?"

"I'm not omnipotent!" Rin said. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "I don't know everything! But…but yes. I think we got away."

Rumia stared at her. She wanted to question her further, but there was no point. If Rin said that she didn't know, than she didn't know. Any further interrogation would just make her even more upset.

Her legs suddenly felt like jelly, and Rumia half-sat, half-collapsed on the floor. She slumped over her knees as her body trembled. That had been _way _too close. Sure, they had gotten away at the end, but that had been due to dumb luck and some very surprising discoveries on Rin's part. And given how their luck usually went, they couldn't count on it to save them again.

She looked over to Rin, who was silently sitting and staring at the screen. She tried to tell herself that the situation wasn't all that bad. After all, Rin had figured out how to control her aura of death (or so she claimed. Rumia wasn't ready to start up the celebrations just yet). But that didn't change the fact that once again, Rin had refused to listen to her and had nearly gotten them caught. No, scratch that, they _had _been caught, and had only gotten away by the skin of their teeth.

Rin was dangerous, both to them and everyone else. She was reckless and erratic and more than a little crazy. Granted, Rumia could be all of those things too, but she was at least smart enough to know when to cut her losses and book it. Another fight like that, and they might very well be trapped together in Yukari Yakumo's magic little box for all of eternity. That was, if she didn't just up and eliminate them instead. Rumia wasn't enthusiastic about either fate.

What was she going to do? She couldn't make Rin listen, and she couldn't get rid of her either. She may not hate the little Kirin like she used to, but she wasn't going to let her get them caught either. She had to do something.

The silence hung heavy for several minutes longer. Then Rumia cleared her throat and said, "So…Rin."

Rin glanced at her. "What?" she said tonelessly.

"Which way are we going again?"

Rin shrugged. "Down. I think."

"Are you sure? That oni knocked us off course pretty good."

"I guess. But I'm pretty sure we're still going down."

"Right," Rumia said, not feeling reassured in the slightest. "Just so long as you're sure."

And then they both cried and flinched back as the screen exploded with light, assaulting their corneas. Rumia's eyes watered (how were they doing that anyway?) and she blinked and rubbed them until she could see well enough to check where they were.

As it turned out, they were currently soaring high in the sky, surrounded by clouds with the sun shining bright overhead.

Rumia had absolutely nothing to say.

Rin looked. She stared at the screen with unreadable eyes. Then she put her head between her legs and started to cry.

...

_Okay, full confession time. I was in a really bad mood when I did the last seven pages, and as such, I might have taken it out on the characters. Just a little bit. Hey, it was lousy day._

_And apparently, the site deletes triple asterisks, greater than and less than symbols and only lets me add the divider lines when it feels like it, but triple periods are A-OK? Whatever, I'll take it. Though they've also removed the ability to add links to the author profile pages, meaning the TV Tropes page and Spacebattles thread are no longer accessible from there. Grrrr..._

_Anyway, as a couple of you pointed out after the last update, yet another canon error has popped up. Or rather, it's been around for awhile and has only just attracted attention. Namely, in canon, Makai and Ancient Hell are not the same place, and indeed Makai is more of another plane of existence rather than a physical place, whereas in this story they've been referred to being the same place many times and has even been hinted at as being reachable by digging far enough. This one was actually one I've been aware of for awhile, but since it's existed for almost a year-and-a-half (I've been referring to Shinki as the Queen of Hell ever since chapter thirteen) and was already so ingrained into the story I decided to just roll with it and wondered how long it would be before someone noticed. Which they now have. I may go back and fix it along with some of the other egregious errors (the Akyuu one's already on the chopping block), but that's something for the future._

_On a more pleasant note, the story's two-year anniversary is coming up. Who knows? Maybe I'll do something special this year._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	37. All the Right Reasons

All the Right Reasons

Rika Asakura pushed aside the swinging double-doors that separated the living quarters that she shared with her sister from the Asakura Science Facility's cavernous workshop. None of the lights were on, and as it was still early morning, there wasn't much in the way of natural light coming in through the windows. Still, Rika marched forward, making her way around the piles of metal plating, unconnected wires and loose gears as surely as if the sun were directly overhead. She kept going until she found one shadow that stood apart from the others, slumped against the wall and hidden behind the hulk of their current project. A half-empty bottle of liquor sat nearby. Rika smirked. It had never taken much to get Rikako staggering drunk.

Rika toed her sister's side with her foot. "Hey. Wake up."

Rikako started. Her glasses had become cockeyed in her sleep, and she hastened to straighten them. "Oh! Um, huh?" she slurred groggily.

Rika snapped her fingers, and the lights of the workshop powered on.

"Gah!" Rikako cried as she lurched back and covered her eyes. "Bloody hell, Rika!"

Rika motioned with her hand and the lights dimmed to half-strength.

"Better?" she said. "Great. Get up. We've got to get moving."

"What?" Rikako grabbed a nearby support beam and staggered to her feet. "Why?"

"Because Rin Satsuki's surfaced, that's why."

Whatever last vestiges of sleepiness had still been clinging to Rikako vanished in an instant, and her hangover seemed to stop bothering her. "Wait," she gasped. "Rin? They found her?"

"Kind've. She showed up at the Ancient City yesterday-"

"Wait, you mean the capital of the Underground?"

Rika glowered. "No, the capital of bloody Fairy Land."

"The fairies have their own capital?" Rikako asked, realizing half-a-second too late that Rika was being sarcastic.

"Okay, okay, no hitting!" she said quickly as Rika cocked her fist. "Sorry! But whatever was she doing there?"

"Don't know," Rika said coldly. "She must've forgotten to tell me. But she was there all right. Caused on hell of a ruckus, and popped above ground soon after." Rika rolled her eyes. "Of course, a bunch of bloody fools decided to give chase, but she gave them the slip and dropped out of sight. But there's a real good chance she's still hiding near the Youkai Mountain."

"And that's where we're going now, right?"

Rika walked over to the many-legged metallic monstrosity that took up a good fourth of the workshop. Turning to face her sister, she banged the thing's carapace with her fist. Power whined as the thing turned on. Gears turned, joints groaned and smoke belched out of its exhaust ports as it lurched onto its legs and heaved its massive body into the air.

"Yes," Rika said. "That's where we're going right now."

...

It was in the wee hours of the morning, and mist lay heavy on the Untrodden Valley.

The woman who occasionally called herself Hunter strode over the smooth stones of the riverbank, heading toward the garage of the Kappa engineer Nitori Kawashiro. She yawned every few steps. Whatever it was that the Kappa wanted had better be worth forcing her to come down so early. She was not accustomed to rising before the sun, and saw no reason why anyone else should be either.

A buzzing fly zigzagged its way after her. Instead of swatting it away, Hunter opened her hood enough to let the small insect in, where it clung to a lock of her curly red hair, next to her ear.

"_Okay, you're here," _it said in a tiny voice. _"Is it too late for me to convince you that this is probably a bad idea?"_

"Yes," Hunter said shortly. "If you're not going to help me, then that's your choice. But I'm going through with this."

"_But why? You've heard the reports. This thing can kill youkai. Why take the risk?"_

"Everything worth doing comes with risk," Hunter answered. "Besides, it's not like I'm doing it for me. Just think of what the Temple could do with even _half _that bounty!"

The fly buzzed angrily. _"What, are you stupid? Do you really think we're hurting that bad for money? Have you _seen _the sort of support we're getting?"_

"Plenty for the day-to-day stuff, sure. But with the sort of projects she's got planned, we're going to need a whole lot more."

"_And do you honestly think this is the way she'll want to get that money?" _the tiny insect demanded. _"Through _bounty hunting _for _Yuuka Kazami?"

"She doesn't have to know," Hunter said. "We get anonymous donations all the time. This will just be an unusually large one."

"_And have you so soon forgotten that she's also looking for this same girl, but in hopes of turning her around and curing her of her affliction? Wouldn't handing the girl over to a known monster run contrary to her intentions?"_

Hunter paused. She was now standing on the stony beach that held the entrance to Nitori's garage. She took a deep breath and spoke low but clearly.

"Yes, I know. That's another reason why it's important that I do this."

"_What?"_

"I love her," Hunter said with a shrug. "She saved me from…everything. We don't always agree, but I owe her everything. Which is why I can't let her anywhere near this Rin Satsuki. If Satsuki can kill youkai, she can't allow her anywhere near the Temple." She started moving again. "It's for their own good. Better Yuuka Kazami deal with that beast than let it…" She couldn't finish the sentence.

There was a noticeable pause, and then the fly spoke again. _"And if you get yourself killed, how do you think that'll affect her? Or if Yuuka betrays you, as she is wont to do?"_

"Then…" Hunter said slowly. "Then it will be me that accepts those consequences, instead of her."

"_How very…noble of you," _the fly buzzed in an irritated tone.

"Besides, it may not come to that," Hunter said with a small smile. "And it's sure to be fun. Come on, we used to go on adventures all the time."

"_Name one where we risked actual death."_

Hunter shrugged. "Well, if you want to back out now, I'll understand. Of course, with no one watching my back, the odds of my untimely death will only increase. And you wouldn't want to have that on your conscience, would you?"

"_Oh, stop it," _the fly snapped, its wings flurring angrily. _"You know I'm not going to abandon you now. I'm just hoping I can stop you from doing something extremely stupid."_

"It's only stupid if it doesn't work. Now, if there are no further complaints, I think we'd better see what our Kappa friend wants."

The fly buzzed her ear but complained no further. Hunter smirked and continued down the riverbank toward a pile of water-smoothed stones, in which a circular steel hatch was set. She knelt down and banged her knuckles against the metal plating.

The sound of her knock echoed through the space below. A pause followed, and then she heard the sound of someone scampering up a ladder. There was a metallic _clank, _and the hatch opened to allow Nitori's blue-haired head to pop out.

"Oi!" the Kappa engineer said. "Dere yous is! Lates!"

"My apologies," Hunter said icily. "I shall strive for punctuality in all my future Five AM appointments."

"Never be mindings dat nows!" Nitori said impatiently. Her head popped back inside. "Be following I's nows! And closer doors after yous!"

Hunter did, descending a steel ladder down a narrow concrete tunnel. As she passed from one rung to the next, the fly whispered nervously, _"I don't like this. What if it's a trap?"_

"Hush," Hunter said out of the side of her mouth. "It's a Kappa. It's not their style."

"What be dats now?" Nitori called from somewhere below.

"Nothing," Hunter said hastily. Credit where credit was due, Nitori had sharp ears. "So, where exactly are we…"

Her voice trailed off. The tunnel opened up, revealing Nitori's garage.

It was a large natural cave, carved from the solid rock by years of water erosion. A cold looking lake covered the entirety of the floor, which was fed by a small waterfall along one wall. A small jetty was set up along one side of the lake, mooring two bizarre watercraft and something that Hunter recognized as a one-man submersible.

The garage itself took up the space between the lake and the stony ceiling. A haphazard network of metal catwalks, platforms and ramps connected together. It reminded Hunter a bit of Center Tree, only with less shops and more engineering tools, pieces of unfinished projects and instruments whose purpose she could only guess. Grey wires of every size crisscrossed everywhere, and bright electricity crackled loudly over the antennae of some sort of dial-covered generator suspended on one wall, sending blue sparks into the lake below.

"_Oh my, this is neat," _the fly tittered. _"Quick Robin, to the Kappacave!"_

Hunter frowned. "Huh?"

"_Never mind."_

Hunter shrugged. She followed Nitori up and down ramps, across catwalks and over platforms until they reached the largest platform. It looked like this was the center of Nitori's operations. The end of the platform ended a few feet away from the wall and was taken up by a crazy looking control panel. Hunter wondered if all those blinking buttons and oversized levers actually did anything or if the Kappa just had them there for show.

Then her eyes fell upon a nearby worktable. She recognized its contents instantly. "Hey," she said, pointing. "Those are the same kind of guns you delivered to Eientei."

"Uh-huh," Nitori said as she sat down on a rolling chair in front of the control panel and started playing with the controls. "Only bester. Does notes help lotsies!"

"Glad to hear it. Is that what you called me here to see?"

"Nope!" Nitori gave the ground a hard shove with her boot, rolled down the entire length of the control panel and stopped in front of a large level that took up an entire section by itself. She gripped it with both hands and yanked it down. "Wanters showing yous _dis!"_

The electricity sparking out of the generator suddenly flared up threefold, making Hunter flinch in surprise. Then something a loud _clunk_ echoed through the chamber as something very large started to move.

It was then that she realized what she had assumed to be steel plating covering the nearby wall was actually a twenty-foot door. And, as machinery groaned and gears turned, it was now opening.

"_Oh, my sweet Buddha," _the fly said in awe when they saw what was standing beyond. Hunter was in full agreement. Her maroon eyes opened wide and her jaw hung slack as she stared in amazement.

Nitori swiveled around in her seat to grin at her partner. "Well?" she said in smug satisfaction. "Not bad, eh? Just finishers scrippying it yesterdays!"

Still staring, Hunter slowly nodded. Nitori was quite correct. Not bad at all.

"That'll do, Kappa," she said in approval. "That'll do."

...

Marisa lay back, reclining on one elbow while holding her cup of tea with the other hand. "I gotta admit, Reddie, I was starting to think you were spending all this time just dicking around, ze."

Reimu, who was sitting on her knees on the other side of the kotatsuin, raised an irritated eyebrow. "Yeah? And why's that?"

"Dunno," Marisa said with a lazy shrug. She rolled onto her back. "'Cause I wasn't around to motivate your lazy ass. Or something."

After they had reconciled and finished hunting for Marisa's spell ingredients the day before, Marisa had insisted that she accompany Reimu back to the shrine. Of course, the shrine maiden hadn't exactly been enthusiastic about the idea, partially because Yukari's barrier was still in place and she knew that Marisa would tease her mercilessly about it (which she had), but mainly because Reisen was still staying at the shrine. In addition to providing Marisa with a treasure trove of mocking material, Reimu was a little uneasy with letting the witch in on her current activities. While she trusted Marisa not to blab, the witch was notoriously reckless. And Reimu's operation was so delicate that one stupid mistake could send it crashing down around her ears.

But Mima already knew, which was far more dangerous. And she had to start trusting Marisa again sometime. So in the end, she had brought her back to the shrine, showed her the rabbit, and told her what she was trying to do.

It had taken Marisa almost half-an-hour to stop laughing, and she still hadn't stopped questioning Reimu about the sort of "positions" she had explored with Reisen and wondering why Reimu hadn't invited her to the wedding.

Reimu wanted to hit her. So she did.

Still, once she had calmed down a little, their conversation had become a little more serious. To Reimu's surprise, Marisa wasn't at all bothered by what Reimu was trying to do.

"Eh, it's not like you can help it," she had said with a shrug. "It's your nature."

"What's that supposed to mean?" had been Reimu's indignant response.

"Come on, Reddie. You may be a cranky, selfish lazy-ass-"

"So are you!"

"Just the middle bit," Marisa had said with a smirk. "But still. You do have a really bad hero complex. Sure, you bitch up a storm every time you gotta go outta your way to help someone, but you still do it, ze. It's who you are."

Reimu had no idea if she should feel flattered or offended. Her mind went with the former while her instincts edged toward the latter, so she had quickly changed the subject: namely, how Marisa herself felt about possibly pitching in to help someone who, during their last encounter, had spat her own Master Spark back into her face, especially with the threat of again bringing Yukari's wrath down upon her once again.

That had sent Marisa thinking. "Well," she said at last. "Not gonna lie, the last time I ran into Satsuki, we didn't exactly part on the best of terms, you know what I mean? And seeing how all this shit is all her fault, I'm not really overflowing with fond feelings for the little twerp…"

Reimu folded her arms. "Weren't you the one going on about how that fight with Yuuka Kazami was the best day you ever had?"

"Huh." That had made the young witch brighten. "You know, you're right. Guess I owe her one after all! And hey, if you can forgive her for killing your foot and busting up your ribs, then who am I to complain?" Then her face had quickly darkened into a scowl. "Just promise me you're not going to add her to your collection, ze."

"Uh, collection?"

"Yes! All those nutcases you beat up and can't seem to get rid of later! I don't wanna come by to see you having tea with the blob!"

"Ah. And according to your definition, wouldn't that same collection include yourself?"

"Exactly!" Marisa had said, punching Reimu in the arm. She waggled her eyebrows and tilted her head toward Reisen, who had cringed at the attention. "The display case is getting too crowded as it is!"

That had been last night. It was now morning, and the three of them, Reimu, Marisa and Reisen, were sitting around the kotatsuin. Reisen had prepared a sort of porridge flavored with peach slices for breakfast. She called it "oatmeal." It wasn't bad at all, though Reimu had noted that it was fortunate that Suika had yet to return. The oni race's relationship with peaches was a bit on the antagonistic side.

In response to Marisa's claim of laziness, Reimu scowled and said, "Well, that's self-centered. Did you just expect me to sit around on my hands and wait for you to get back?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

Reimu and Marisa's heads swiveled toward Reisen, who had been the one who had spoken. The Lunarian rabbit had remained silent while the two had bickered, to the point where Reimu had almost forgotten that she was even there.

"What d'ya mean, 'why'?" Marisa demanded, clearly unused to being interrupted while making fun of Reimu. "Because she's a cranky, selfish lazy-ass, ze!"

"But she's not!" Reisen blurted, her face stricken. "She's already managed to convince three of the most important people in Gensokyo to help!"

Marisa let out a dismissive snort. "Hate to break this to you, but me and the turtle ain't that important. I mean, I _should _be, but still…"

"I'm not talking about you two! I mean people like Byakuren Hijiri-"

"Ha! She'd claw through a pile of poop if you told her some poor fairy was buried there."

"-_and _Kanako Yasaka-"

"Is that right?" Marisa sat up and leaned over the heated table. "No surprises there, seeing how Reimu's dating her shrine maiden."

"I am not!" Reimu shouted.

"Right, right, sorry." Marisa coughed into her fist. "_Dated _her shrine maiden. Don't want to make you look unfaithful in front of your blushing bride."

"What's _wrong_ with you?" Reisen cried. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "Reimu's putting her rep-reputation and…and her _life _on the line to help me, and all you can d-d-do is make f-fun of her!"

"Whoa, okay!" Reimu said, quickly rising to her feet before Marisa could retort. "Both of you, calm down! Marisa, shut up. She's going through enough right now, and aggravating her isn't going to help anything!"

Marisa looked like she wanted to say something snappy in return, but instead she just shrugged, saluted and said, "Yassuh."

"As for you," Reimu said, turning her attention to Reisen. "Sorry, I know you're not…used to her, but she really doesn't mean any harm. Seriously, she's like this all the time. This is just how we talk, and I usually give as good as I get."

"Or so I let you believe," Marisa said under her breath.

Reimu ignored her. "But either way, Reisen does have a point. There's enough people at each other's throats right now as it is. So can we at least keep it out of my shrine?"

Marisa shrugged. "Eh, fair enough. Sorry about that, Cottontail. I'll go easy on you from now on, ze."

Reisen looked down and nodded. "I…Okay."

She stood suddenly, mumbled something about seeing if Genji wanted any breakfast and quickly went out into the shrine grounds. The other two stared after her.

"Uh…" Marisa said slowly. "I thought Genji doesn't like to wake up before noon."

"He doesn't," Reimu said.

"Ah….huh," Marisa said. She shook her head. "Wow. I didn't I was going that hard on her."

"You weren't," Reimu assured her. Then she reconsidered. "Well, maybe not for you, but you do take some getting used to."

"No arguments here. And I wouldn't have it any other way." Marisa's trademark grin, always lopsided and slightly maniacal, returned to twist her features. "Makes me memorable." She leaned back and propped her feet up on the kotatsuin. One arm went under her head while she traced pictures in the air with the other. "I just hope that Cottontail can harden up a bit. If this sorta thing's gonna keep happening every time we go at it, we're gonna get _nothing _done."

Reimu quirked up her right eyebrow. She sat down, leaned over the table and folded her arms over its surface. "I wouldn't be so flip if I were you," she said with a small smile. "I didn't tell you what she did to Eirin Yagokoro before she ran away."

A noticeable moment passed without Marisa saying anything. Then the young witch quickly scrambled back to a sitting position. "Waitaminute, you serious?" she gibed, a look of absolute delight on her face. "Reisen actually fought her, or attacked her, or something?"

"Or something," Reimu said with a confirming nod.

Marisa cackled loudly, making Reimu wince back. "Oh, this I gotta hear, ze! Tell me, tell me!"

"You know how she can control waves, like light waves or…or…"

"Radio waves?" Marisa suggested. "Microwaves? Electromagnetic waves?"

"Sure, sure," Reimu said, even though she barely recognized those words. "But more importantly, brain waves?"

Marisa's eyebrows shot up. "Wait, are you saying she…"

Reaching up with one finger, Reimu touched the lower eyelid of her right eye and pulled it down. "Fried her brain," she said in an ominous voice. "Made the good doctor fall to the floor and start babbling nonsense." Her smile evolved into a nasty grin. "And she could do the same to you if you don't let up."

But to her disappointment, Marisa was less than impressed. "Big deal, I'm insane already," she said, shrugging one shoulder. "She'll just make me more of what I am already, ze."

"Er, you may have a point there," Reimu sighed. She stood up. "But still, I'd better go find her."

Marisa eyed her in suspicion. "Since when did you start caring-"

Reimu shifted her sleeve, sending a single ofuda charm into hands and, from there in a single smooth movement, at Marisa's face.

"Ow!" Marisa yelped as she clutched at her nose. "Okay! Point freaking taken! Talk about overreacting!"

Reimu smiled but didn't answer. She headed for the door, leaving a disgruntled Marisa grumbling to herself behind

Outside, the grass was still wet from dew, but the morning sun was difficult to discern through the light of the barrier. Reimu cast a surly glare at the pink-and-purple field of energy that surrounded the entirety of the shrine grounds and the connecting cherry grove. While she was, on some level, grateful for the protection that it provided, and while she was aware that the barrier was advanced enough to permit air, sunlight and warmth through while keeping out more bothersome weather, it was becoming a major pain. It didn't matter that she could enter and leave at will, she wanted it gone.

Unfortunately, so long as the crises were active and Yukari remained out of reach, she was stuck with the damned thing. Reimu gave it one last dirt look and went to go look for Reisen.

She didn't need to go far. Reisen was sitting under the big cherry tree that sat near the edge of Genji's pond, her knees drawn up. She was staring out at the still waters. It didn't look like she was crying just yet, though she was visibly upset.

Reimu walked up to her and sat down. "Hey," she said. "You okay?"

Reisen didn't look at her, though she did nod.

After a moment of hesitation, Reimu said, "Look, I know Marisa's a little…Okay, a _lot _rough around the edges, but ninety percent of what she says isn't serious. And like I said, me and her always give each other a hard time. She just sorta forgot you were there and carried on like always."

"I know, I know," Reisen said quickly. She stretched out her legs and leaned back on her hands. "Don't worry. It…just frustrated me. I mean, you're dealing with so much by helping me, and all she could do was crack-wise…" She took in a shuddering breath and slowly let it out.

Reimu studied the rabbit's face. Was it her imagination, or were Reisen's features even more careworn than before? Granted, the harder life would thin out those cheeks, but didn't account for the deep purple bags that sat under her wet eyes. "Uh, Reisen? You _sure _you're okay?"

That made Reisen chuckle, though not in humor. "Noticed, did you?" she said, turning toward Reimu with a bitter smile. "And yes, I am doing all right. Mostly."

"Mostly?"

Reisen sighed. "Well, okay. So I really haven't been getting much sleep lately. I guess it's got me on edge."

"Ah," Reimu said with a knowing nod. "Worried sick about Rin. Got it."

"Well, that, and…" Reisen shook her head. "I don't know. It's just, in the last week or so, I've started having bad dreams."

Reimu blinked but didn't say anything. She just watched Reisen's face and waited.

"About when this all began, when Eirin…changed her. And after, when I was stuck inside her and she was losing her mind." Reisen swallowed and looked away. "I had a really bad one last night," she said. "About when she, uh, she melted. It's just been bugging me all morning."

"Oh," Reimu said. "Well, I can certainly understand that. But you do know that I'm doing everything I can to find her, so-"

"I know," Reisen said. "I just feel so useless. I mean, don't get me wrong. I appreciate you taking me in more than I can say! But I just wish I could be out there too."

Reimu grimaced, partly because she had expected that this conversation would be coming sooner or later and partly because she knew exactly how Reisen felt. Hadn't she expressed the same feelings to Genji, the day this mess had started? "Reisen, I…Look, I understand how you feel, I really do, but having you leave the barrier is a really, really bad idea. Eirin-"

"I know, I know!" Reisen said. "Genji told me yesterday, about how Eirin called off the Eientei Guard but probably hired sneaky mercenaries."

"I…Oh. Well, he's right."

"I know!" Reisen said again. "I get it! I get why I can't leave." She stared down at the pond again. "I just wish it was otherwise, that's all."

Reimu let a half-smile touch her lips. She patted Reisen on the back. "I get you. Just hang in there. She'll turn up soon."

Reisen gave her a sidelong glance. She returned the smile and nodded her thanks.

"Come on," Reimu said, standing. "Marisa's still back there, and I don't want to give her any more ammunition."

In fact, as soon as they reentered the shrine's living quarters, Marisa sat up straight with a familiar grin and opened her mouth.

"No," Reimu said, pointing. "Whatever you're about to say, don't. Remember your promise."

Marisa rolled her eyes but complied. Reimu and Reisen sat back down to finish their breakfasts.

A heavy silence sat over them, until Marisa said at last, "So…who's number three?"

Reimu blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Not you, her." Marisa turned to Reisen. "You said that Armpits here got three really important people helping her, but only named two." She lifted her cup of tea to her lips. "Who's number three, ze?"

Reimu blinked in confusion. That's right, Reisen had said that, and she herself was curious about the answer. As far as she knew, Byakuren and Kanako formed the rest of her little conspiracy. Maybe she meant Suwako? The frog-goddess was fairly important in her own right.

Wait. Reimu frowned. She couldn't possibly mean…

"Oh, uh, that's right." Reisen brushed a few stray strands of lavender hair out of her face. "Your…You know, your boss. Mima."

Marisa's body lurched forward as she spewed tea across the kotatsuin. Reimu winced as she was sprayed with the lukewarm liquid.

For her part, Marisa was not at all concerned with the mess she had made. "Wha-what?" she gasped, tea still dripping out of her mouth. _"Mima? _For real? But…but she never said anything about it!"

"That because she's _not _in on it," Reimu said testily. She picked up a rag and started drying herself off, though not before favoring each of her breakfast guests with a glare in turn.

Reisen scratched her head. "But…I thought you said…"

"I said that she had _offered _to help if we helped save Marisa from Yukari!" Reimu tilted her head in the young witch's direction. "And we all know how well _that _went down."

"She said that?" Marisa said, her eyes still wide with shock.

"Is that really such a big surprise? And wipe your mouth, you're drooling."

As Marisa hastily cleaned off her chin, Reimu continued. "She said she'll talk to me about it once she comes back, but until then her participation is a big fat 'maybe'. Heck, I'm surprised she's still open to discuss it." She frowned as something else came to mind. "Though come to think about it, don't get your hopes up about Kanako being a big help either."

"What?" Reisen sounded alarmed. "Why?"

Reimu shrugged. "She's always had major reservations about Rin. She was ready to drop out altogether until Suwako convinced her not to. And remember how I told you that she said I had to enlist Mima and your ex-boss first? I don't know about you, but I don't see either of those happening any time soon."

"Huh?" Marisa said. "What're you talking about?"

"Exactly what I said. She wants me to _somehow _bring Eirin Yagokoro aboard, though I have no freaking idea how I'm going to manage that."

"Why? I mean, it's not impossible. And if…" Marisa glanced at Reisen and understanding washed over her face. "Oooooh. Right."

Reisen looked down and sighed.

"But you said she also wants to make sure Mima stays in?" Marisa pressed.

Reimu suddenly felt uncomfortable. She remembered how horrible she had felt upon considering using Marisa as a means of bringing Mima back aboard. "Uh, yeah, she did say something like that…"

"Then what are you worried about?" Marisa demanded, throwing her hands in the air. "Let me worry about the ghost!"

"No, wait!" Reimu said. "You don't have to…"

"Why not?" Marisa demanded. "I'm probably the only person in the world she'll listen to, ze. I can convince her!"

"I know! I just…uh…" Reimu's cheeks suddenly felt very hot, and she was having difficulty meeting Marisa's eyes. She muttered the rest of the sentence under her breath.

"I'm sorry, what?" Marisa said.

Reimu muttered again.

"Yeah, still can't hear any of that. How about you, Cottontail? I mean, you've got those ginormous ears and all."

"They don't work that way, Marisa."

Reimu took a deep breath and said, quite clearly, "I don't want to make it seem like I made up with you just so you'll talk to Mima for me."

Marisa stared at her. Then she started laughing. "Seriously? That's what you're worried about?"

"So what if I am?" Reimu said with a scowl. "I'm just getting a little sick of people manipulating their friends to get what they want. I don't want to do it either."

"Well, did you?" Marisa pressed. "Get back with me just to get at Mima I mean."

"No!"

"Well, there yah go, ze." Marisa shook her head in disgust. "Seriously, Reddie. I'm trying to do you a favor here. Don't make everything about your messed up feelings."

"Okay, okay," Reimu muttered. "Sorry."

Marisa cupped her hand around her ear. "Still not hearing you right, could you repeat that?"

"Go and boil your head."

As Marisa laughed, Reisen said, "But are you sure you can do it? I mean, I don't know that much about her, but it doesn't sound like she's the sort of person who'll do something she doesn't want to, no matter who was asking."

"You forget who convinced her to fight Yuuka Kazami with me," Marisa snickered. "And it ain't gonna be _that _hard. Watch this."

Taking a deep breath, Marisa bellowed, "Hey MIMA! GOTTA TALK TO YOU!"

"Of course, dear," said a silky smooth voice. "What's on your mind?"

Both Reimu and Reisen lurched back, the latter letting out a cry of surprise. The green-haired spirit was now in their midst, floating directly above the kotatsuin. One arm was resting on the elbow of the other, which in turn was reaching up so she could tap her cheek with her index finger. A wry smile of amusement sat on her lips.

"What?" Reisen said, her mind clouded by shock. "Huh? How did…Out of nowhere…Huh?"

Reimu's eyes flitted from one magician to the other. "Wha-what was that? Do you got some sort of weird spell that, I don't know, makes it so you can always hear each other?"

Marisa and Mima chuckled at that. Reimu found herself disturbed by how similar their laughs were. "Good heavens, no," Mima said. "Marisa values her continued independence far too much to allow me to get away with anything like that. But I do like to keep track with what happens at my shrine."

So that was how Mima had known about Reisen. Reimu felt a surge of indignation rise up within her. "You've got spying spells set up here? In my freaking home? I don't remember saying you could do that! And the hell? _Your _shrine? Bull! It's not yours, it's mine!"

"I think you'll find that my seat among the Ringleaders says otherwise," Mima said in an idle tone. "But relax. No harm intended. It's just that news travels so slowly around here, and I wished to be informed should anything important pop up."

Reimu gaped. "But…it's my shrine! And you never told me!" She turned her attention to Marisa. "And you _knew _about this?"

"Uh, yeah?" Marisa said. "You didn't?"

Reimu opened her mouth to start yelling again, but Reisen suddenly grabbed her by the bicep. "Please, not now," she whispered. Reimu shot her a dirty look but settled for a grudging nod.

"Fine," she said. "Later then. But trust me on this, there will be a later."

"Isn't there always?" Mima said, sounding not concerned in the slightest. "But we digress. After all, my, ahem, intrusive habits aren't the reason I was summoned here. Marisa dear, I believe you said you had something you wanted to say?"

"As if you didn't already-" Reimu started to say, but stopped when Reisen's fingers tightened on her arm. She bit back her anger and waited.

As for Marisa, she was wholly at ease with the task at hand. "Yup. Would'ja mind terribly helping them out with their crazy plan to save the psychotic blob of death that eats people? Because I think they'd really appreciate it."

"I'm sure they would," Mima said. She spread her hands. "But I must admit, I find myself without an adequate reason why I should do anything. After all, they did not live up to their end of the bargain."

Marisa snorted. "Yeah, and I didn't want them to, remember?"

"Which is all well and good, but the point remains. What reason do I have to contribute to such a foolhardy exercise?"

Marisa's answer came without hesitation. "Because it's interesting, challenging, experimental, lets you play with magics that you haven't experimented with yet, lets you get a firsthand look at what makes that Satsuki kid tick, and gives you one hell of an opportunity to make a whole lot of people look stupid without them being about to do anything about it, ze. Oh yeah, and you've got nothing else going on right now."

"Ah, those are some excellent reasons," Mima said as her face brightened. She turned to Reimu. "I must say, while I do not hold the same feelings of altruism that drive your own involvement, I am always up for a new challenge. And Marisa is right, I really don't have anything better to do right now." She shrugged and smiled. "All right, I'm in."

"You…you are?" Reimu said suspiciously.

"But of course! Why would I have said so were it otherwise? We can discuss the exact nature of my involvement another time. For now, there are certain customs that must be observed."

"Huh?"

"Why, I speak of your lovely guest, of course," Mima said, motioning to the Lunarian rabbit who clutched at Reimu's arm. "And one whom I have not had the pleasure of being formally introduced to. Come now, Reimu. Mind your manners."

Reimu's dark eyes flitted from Mima to Reisen. "Remember what I said," she hissed to the trembling rabbit. "Let me do the talking." She cleared her throat and said, "Uh, well. Mima, this is Reisen of Eientei. She's the one who raised Rin Satsuki and the person who asked me to help the little nutcase out. She's also going to be staying with us for the time being due to…domestic problems, which, by the way, you are _not _to take advantage of like you usually do. Reisen, this is-"

"Madam Mima," the spirit finished for her. "Evil Spirit of Makai, Grand Sorceress of the now defunct Order of the Poison Sky, former High Warlord of the Serpentine Marauders, retired Mistress of the Fortress of Silence, ex-mentor to _this_ little scamp here," she playfully ruffled Marisa's hair, making the young witch cringe in embarrassment, "and current representative of Hakurei Shrine on the court of Yukari Yakumo. My dear Reisen Udongeinin Inaba, it is an absolute _pleasure _to finally make your acquaintance."

And, before Reimu could stop her, Mima swept up Reisen's hand with her own and pressed her lips to its back.

…

As soon as she realized what was happening, Reisen jerked her hand back with a cry of alarm. She stumbled back half-a-step, and when she looked up again, she was no longer in the shrine.

She stood atop a stone tower, several hundred feet high. Above, the night sky, clearer than any she had ever seen in Gensokyo, stretched like a canopy of black silk embroidered with tiny diamonds. She had not seen so many stars since leaving the Moon, and seeing the Milky Way Galaxy once again naked above her brought it all back with a thrilling sense of shock. It felt like tearing the scab off a wound that she had forgotten she had. And the pain was glorious.

As Reisen stared slack-jawed at the beautiful scene above her, a soft voice said, "It's lovely, isn't it? And before you ask, you're still in Gensokyo, more-or-less. I just enjoyed an unobstructed view of my…future prospects."

With yet another shock Reisen realized that she was not alone. Mima was there, sitting on the far wall. What was more, she was alive. Or at least, she had a physical body, one that was clad with a poison-green robe adorned with silver jewelry. A staff topped with a golden crescent moon was held in her right hand. But other than that, the sapphire blue eyes, the emerald green hair and the tall cap decorated with a golden sun were all the same.

Mima laughed in response to Reisen's staring. "Surprised? Don't be. Though I haven't worn this body for a time long forgotten by most, I at least still remember. It is good to remember where you came from, I think."

She slipped down from the wall and walked over to Reisen, the tresses of her long robe trailing behind her. "Welcome to the top of the Fortress of Silence," she said as she approached. "Don't read too much into the name, I just thought it sounded ambiguously ominous at the time."

Reisen found her voice. "This?" she squeaked. "This is…your home?"

"Once," Mima said. She looked up to the sky, her face will with longing. "A long time ago. And a fine home it was, with everything an ambitious young conqueror could want. I was sorry to see it go."

"What? But…" Reisen shook her head and tried to recover her wits. "But, if it's gone, then where…"

"A memory," Mima said, looking down. "The actual fortress was destroyed over six hundred years ago, and what little remains is sealed up underground. No, this is the Fortress as I knew it. I still come here, at times, to think." She pressed a hand against her right leg. "And remember."

When Reisen didn't answer, Mima said, "A bit of a nasty surprise, I would imagine. Coming here, seeing me like this. I hope you'll forgive my bringing you here so abruptly, but I wanted to speak to you in private, without…outside influences and interferences."

Reisen swallowed. "You mean Reimu?"

"Reimu, Marisa, Genji, Yukari, and anyone who might drop in unexpectedly," Mima said. "Oh, don't worry. They won't notice we're gone, because we haven't left. This is all taking place in my head, free from the boundaries of time. When it is over, I shall remove my lips from your hand and mock Reimu as she tries to lecture me, with no one the wiser."

"We're in your _head?" _Reisen said in horror. "But-"

Mima waved off her protests. "I am well aware of your history of spending time in other people's minds. I assure you, this is far from the same thing as being imprisoned within the fractured psyche of your wayward prodigy. This is to serve the purpose of giving us space to talk, nothing else. You need fear no harm while you're here."

"But…"

"If you believe me to be speaking a falsehood, something that I fully understand, perhaps this will set your mind at ease: I, Madam Mima, holder of all those titles that I just told you, do swear by the things that I hold most dear, by my name, my reputation, my power and the life of my ward Marisa Kirisame, that my purposes for bringing you here are exactly as I have told you, and will visit upon you no harm, be it physical, mental or spiritual. We shall talk, nothing more, and you will be released back to your body at our conversation's conclusion, alive and well."

Despite the sorceress's vow, Reisen was far from reassured. "And why do you even want to talk to me?" she said, careful to keep a fair distance between her and Mima. "Especially in secret?"

"You do realize that if I wanted to hurt you, a few extra feet would mean nothing, right?" Mima snickered. "And as for why I would want to exchange a few private words with you, I'm actually somewhat surprised by the question. My dear child, have you any idea what you have done?"

Reisen blinked. What was she talking about? Did she mean attacking Eirin and running away? True, that was pretty bad, but it had been out of desperation, and Eirin had fully recovered from what she had heard.

"It seems that you do not," Mima said. "Or at least, you do not fully grasp the enormity of your actions."

"What-"

"Reisen, I am going to ask you some questions, and I want an honest answer to each one. They do not have to be correct, but I do want to know your true feelings on these matters. Understand?"

Apprehension welled up inside of Reisen, but she nodded. What else could she do?

"First," Mima said. "I want to know who you believe to be the most evil person currently walking Gensokyo. And," she said as Reisen opened her mouth to ask a question, "the term 'walking' is simply metaphorical. No actual leg movement is necessary. To be active within Gensokyo's borders is enough. Furthermore, you may use the commonly accepted definition of the word 'evil', should you wish." After a brief pause, she added, "This is not a trick question. I am not planning on manipulating any of the meanings to the words I used. Simply answer as honestly as you can. Who do _you _believe is the most evil person currently active within Gensokyo?"

Reisen thought hard. She reviewed the names of all the monsters she had read about, all matter of goblins and ghouls and youkai and spirits, but none of them seemed to fit. She thought of the few villains she had encountered during her time since her arrival, but none of them really fit either. After all, while she certainly resented Eirin for what she had done to Rin and her methods of dealing with the consequences, she did not think of her former master as evil. Yukari Yakumo, while dangerous, was more of a highly zealous opposing force. And despite everything she had heard of Yuuka Kazami, she had no personal history with the notorious youkai. Any feelings toward her were all second and third-hand.

She almost named Mima herself as her answer. After all, that would be the most logical answer. Her own knowledge of Mima's history was spotty at best, but based upon what Reimu had told her, the spirit had once been a villain of the worst sort, and had never truly repented her past sins. But then, she was faced with the same problem with naming Yuuka Kazami. Sure, Reisen had been _told _that Mima was evil and dangerous, but she had never witnessed it for herself. Mima had done no harm to her or anyone she cared about, and most of her villainous acts had either been done before Reisen had been exiled to Gensokyo or occurred somewhere where they could not affect her. While she did not doubt what she had been told in the slightest, the question had been quite specific: Reisen was to name the person that she personally felt was the most evil, not who was the most logical choice.

And then, she remembered intense heat, burning lavender eyes, and mocking laughter. She remembered Tewi falling to the ground, clutching a disgusting black wound as she writhed in pain. She remembered Princess Kaguya and Fujiwara no Mokou screaming in silence as their bodies dissolved. She remembered being struck to the ground as fear paralyzed her. She remembered being convinced that her life was about to end as a horrifically twisted blade being held above her head. And she remembered whose body this person had stolen in order to inflict so much misery.

And, as all these memories came rushing back to her, she knew there was only one way she could answer.

"The Shadow Youkai," she said softly. "That's my answer. The Shadow Youkai is the most evil."

Mima raised a single elegant eyebrow and nodded in approval. "Ah, an excellent answer. For, though she shares this country with many a monster, myself included, she, out of all of us, is perhaps the only without any redeeming features to speak of. After all, Yuuka Kazami does have her set of principles, twisted as they are. I have people I care about and have willingly done things that many would see as noble. But she?" She held up her left hand. Green fire hissed into existence above the palm, which quickly changed shape and color, forming itself into the hideous form that Reisen remembered briefly glimpsing during the Ringleader meeting, a form that had been torn from the memories of a dead man. That of the Shadow Youkai. "The beast who delights in slaughter for slaughter's sake and is driven by nothing except her desire to kill? And is, in many ways, responsible for the seek-and-destroy order that has been sent against your prodigy? Yes, you have answered correctly on two counts."

Reisen blinked in surprise. "Two?"

"Indeed." Mima closed her hand, banishing the horrible image. "Your answer was both honest and correct. She is the person whom you have the most cause to consider a monster, and, by any objective set of guidelines, she is currently the most evil person, the most blackhearted fiend, the one with the most corrupted soul to be found within the length and breadth of Gensokyo. Well done."

Reisen felt a small flurry of relief, but didn't let herself relax. After all, Mima had said there would be more questions.

"And now for the second question," Mima said. "The same rules apply. Who do you believe to be the most _deadliest _person within Gensokyo?"

That question took Reisen by surprise. Deadliest? Wasn't that also the Shadow Youkai? Reisen was pretty sure it should be. But was that really the true answer? After all, the Shadow Youkai was, when it came down to it, just a killing machine. And death was far from the worst thing that could happen to someone, or the most damaging.

And then, with a feeling of dread, Reisen realized the answer. She did not want to say it, but Mima had demanded honesty.

"Rin," she whispered. "Rin is the most deadly."

Mima again raised her eyebrow, but this time there was no smile. "Rin? As if in, Rin Satsuki? The focal point of this enterprise?"

Reisen averted her gaze. She wrapped her arms around herself and nodded.

"Hmmm, well. That is a good answer. And judging by your face, though you hate yourself for it, it is also an honest one, which is exactly what I requested. But ultimately incorrect."

"What?" Reisen said, her head snapping back up.

"There is no doubt that poor little Rin is very deadly. In fact, I would rank her in the top five, a list that includes such characters as the aforementioned Shadow Youkai, Yuuka Kazami and our very own Yukari Yakumo. But does she sit in the number one position? No, I'm afraid she does not."

"I…Uh…" Reisen felt hopelessly lost. What was Mima getting at?

"Rin is limited by her temperament, and she currently has everyone and their ancestors hunting her down. She will be found sooner or later, and when that happens the havoc she can wreak is limited before she is brought down. The same applies to Yuuka Kazami and the Shadow Youkai. Should either of those two decide that the time has come for a rampage, the fallout will leave hundreds, if not thousands dead and the land tortured and scarred. But in the end, Gensokyo will survive to lick its wounds and recover, and those two will no longer be in it. Yukari can erase this country with a thought, and she certainly has no compulsions about sacrificing others to achieve her aims. But again, she is limited by her very nature, and can no more willing act against this land she loves than Reimu has walking unaided through walls!"

"Then who-"

"Reisen, what do you know about me? My history? You've spent some weeks in the ancestral home of my former arch-nemeses, so you must have learned something?"

"Er…" Reisen pushed her hair back as she thought. "I know you used to be some kind of…evil sorceress…"

"'Used to be'?" Mima repeated, her tone gentle but mocking.

Reisen's knees started knocking against each other. "Well, I mean even…I mean…"

"Calm down, child. My promise stands. I will not be offended by your answers. Speak clearly and honestly."

Reisen swallowed and nodded. "Reimu told me how you used to do evil things all the time, like trying to poison the Humans' farms or corrupt fairies and turn them into living bombs. And she said that her family was always fighting to stop you."

"Eh, a bit of an understated version of our long and violent history together, but not inaccurate. Continue."

"Uh, I also know that you tried to take over Makai once-"

"Yes." Mima smiled at the memory. "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling shrine maiden."

"-and that you were kind of a big name during the Magician's War-"

"'Kind of'?" Mima said, her brow rising. She shook her head. "My dear, that is not only a gross understatement, it's damned near an insult."

"I'm sorry!" Reisen blurted out in panic "I didn't mean-"

"I know you didn't, which is why you still draw breath. But I feel compelled to set the story straight: I was not a 'big name' in the Magician's War." Mima's emerald eyes glittered. "I bloody well started the whole thing."

Reisen had absolutely no idea what to say.

"It's amazing really, to read now in history books about events that I participated in first-hand. So often I shake my head at how skewed the accounts had become, that the whole ordeal was a simple matter of one group of spellcasters desiring to bring Gensokyo under their thumb, and the rest of the country's magicians allying against them. One might as well claim that Yukari once led the youkai against your former home out of a genuine desire to conquer the Lunarians."

Reisen, who was at least familiar with that, or at least the Lunarian recounting of it, was surprised. "She didn't?"

"Goodness, no. If she had, she wouldn't have lost, now would she? As for myself, my aim had nothing to do with the desire for territory. The war itself was what mattered. I, after all, had debts needed to repay to…certain benefactors of mine. And blood is a currency that never falls out of use."

The magnitude of what Mima was telling her descended upon Reisen like a crushing weight. "Wait," she gasped, taking a step back. "You…you mean the war, all those people…"

Mima shrugged. "Everything comes with a price, and I had made some very expensive purchases. Fortunately, skullduggery is a game I have long mastered. It wasn't hard, really. Simply a few dropped words over tea with certain persons of influence, the odd bribery, a whisper or two in the ears of their enemies, and before you knew it, war. Of course I had to ally myself with one of the sides to ensure it kept going long enough to satisfy my patronages, but seeing how much fun the whole thing turned out to be, it really was a win-win for me."

Reisen was considering throwing herself from the top of the tower just to escape this monster's company when she remembered everything Reimu had told her about Mima.

"You're lying," she said before she had time to choose more tactful words.

Mima actually stiffened. "Excuse me?"

Realizing how blunt she had been, Reisen winced and backpedaled. "I'm sorry, that came out-"

"You misunderstand me, I do not take offense," Mima said, her voice tinged with wonder. "Straightforward accusations of deceitfulness are nothing I am not used to. I am simply…surprised to hear them from you. Usually they come from those who know me well. But still, I ask that you continue."

Reisen inhaled through her teeth. No choice now. "Well, I may not _know _you, not personally. But I've been at the shrine for a few weeks now, and Reimu-"

"Told you that I was a liar, a cheat, a manipulator of hearts and twister of words?" Mima filled in for her, her lips twisting into the smirk she felt most comfortable wearing.

"Well, yeah," Reisen admitted. "She said that I shouldn't trust you or believe anything you say." Then, with a small jolt of fear, she remembered something additional. "In fact, she didn't want me to talk to you at all, at least not before…Oh crap…"

Mima raised an imaginary glass in a mocking toast to Reimu's precautions. "And she was wise to insist as much. Unfortunately, should I wish to speak to someone without interference, there is little she, or anyone else for that matter, can do about it. And you are quite justified in your suspicions. I might very well be lying. The war might have been nothing more than a greedy grab for power, and my defeat at the hands of my inferiors might have been genuine. But how are you to tell which parts are true and which are fabricated? If nothing else, it only further illustrates the point I am about to make."

"What point is that?" Reisen asked.

"Simply this: given everything I've done, everything I'm capable of, and everything I've tried to accomplish, you would think I would be drained of my power and sealed up in the deepest reaches of Hell!"

Mima spread her arms, and above the stars started to spin around the tower's apex at a dizzying rate. "And yet, here I am, without my followers and fortress, to be certain, but with full command of my powers. Unrestricted and unbound, and, most importantly, with no small measure of control over Hakurei Shrine and its maiden. Eight fruitless centuries of trying to remove the thorn that is the Hakurei family from my side, and all it took was playing nice for a few years for Yukari to hand me what I fought so long to obtain, simply because it was convenient! Why, if I were of a mind, I could float right up to Reimu, the only surviving Hakurei, wish her a good morning, and blow her head right off! With a thought I could reduce the shine to nothing more than a crater and a memory. And, before anyone else has time to stop me, I could use the knowledge I've gained by taking advantage of my newfound access to the Great Barrier's linchpin and speak a spell that will bring it crashing down on everyone's heads!"

"So no," Mima said as Reisen stared in horror. "Rin Satsuki is _not _the most deadly. I am."

Reisen was already afraid. But now the ice water in her veins froze solid. She couldn't speak. She couldn't move. She could barely breathe. All she could do was stand stock-still and pray.

Then Mima laughed. "Oh, relax. Just because I _can _do something does not mean I will. My retirement was genuine, I assure you. I am simply illustrating a point, one that so many people seem to have forgotten. You would think that Yukari out of all people would know better, but despite her zealousness and ruthless nature, it sometimes seems like she has difficulty remembering anything past sixty years. Why, I wouldn't be surprised to find Yuuka Kazami herself living at this very same shrine sometime in the far future, sipping tea with Reimu's descendant!"

"But I've nattered enough on that," Mima said. She lowered her arms, and the stars came to rest. "And you have one more question to answer. Tell me Reisen, whom do you believe to be the most _dangerous_ person in Gensokyo?"

Now Reisen was completely confused. Wasn't that the same thing as deadly? Hadn't Mima just named herself as the answer?

"No, they're not the same," Mima said, almost as if she had read Reisen's thoughts. "Deadly implies ability to cause harm, whereas dangerous concerns an active tendency to do so. A fully trained magician who has a strong sense of self-control and morality is certainly deadly, but not necessarily dangerous. But while a madman with a knife is not capable of the same kind of destruction as a magician, he certainly is far more dangerous. But I agree that the phrasing is somewhat confusing, so let's simplify things: who do you fear the most?"

All right, that explanation helped. But still, the answer remained the same. "It's you," Reisen said. "It…it has to be. You just told me what sort of person you are, and how you can destroy Gensokyo if you felt like it. So it makes sense-"

Mima's eyes flashed and she slammed the butte of her staff to the ground. A noise like a thunderclap slammed into Reisen's eardrums, doubling her over. A split-second later, she was bowled over by a wave of force that shot out from Mima in all directions.

"Sense!" Mima roared. "It makes _sense? _Did I ask you what made sense, what was the most logical answer? No, I did not! I asked for your true feelings, what _you _instinctively believed! You have just met me and only hold the most rudimentary knowledge of my deeds, hardly enough to make me the person you fear the most!"

Coughing, Reisen tried to rise to her feet. "I'm sorry, I-"

Another shockwave knocked her over.

"Honestly child," Mima continued, "if you truly believed that _I _were the most dangerous being in Gensokyo, you would be tripping over yourself to get away as warm urine poured down your leg, if you weren't paralyzed with fear!"

Reisen cowered, bracing herself for another attack. But when it didn't come, she raised her trembling head to see Mima watching her, disappoint filling her sapphire eyes.

"Get up," Mima said irritably.

Reisen did so, raising herself up on weak arms and stumbling to her feet.

"Now, let's try this again: who is the most dangerous person in Gensokyo?" Mima said.

Reisen took in a deep breath to steady her nerves and said, "E-Eirin," she said, her mouth feeling like cotton. "It's Eirin."

"That's better," Mima said grudgingly. "And a good answer it is. After all, she is in many ways just as ruthless as Yukari, and acts as your closest opponent in this enterprise. Furthermore, with Yukari currently on the bench, Eirin's intelligence and skill makes her the most likely to upset your attempts to rescue your sweet little girl, and the desperation forced upon her by recent events have made her dangerous indeed. But it's a bit too late for that answer, I'm afraid. You should have answered honestly from the beginning, instead of trying to think of the answer that I would have agreed with."

Reisen said nothing in response. She just stood still with her head bowed.

"Furthermore, if we examine the question again from an objective standpoint, you would be incorrect yet again. It's true, my current position leaves me free to do a great deal of damage in a short amount of time, and I certainly possess the temperament of someone who would actually do such a thing, but just because I am _capable _of bring the Barrier down does mean I will! And just because I _can _sell you and your allies out does not mean that I will. Remember my analogy of the magician and the madman?"

"But aren't you both?" Reisen said before she could stop herself. When she realized what she had said, she clapped both hands over her mouth and braced herself to be knocked over.

But Mima just laughed. "There are those who might say so. But you are missing the point. You are correct in judging me dangerous. You are correct in fearing me. But Marisa was right: I have nothing going on at the moment, no plots or schemes to occupy my time. I am not currently active, therefore I cannot be the most dangerous. Therefore, that title must fall to someone who _is _active, someone who is now working towards a dangerous goal and has seen a surprising amount of success, someone who is the most likely upset the fragile peace that current hold Gensokyo together and tear it like a spiderweb."

When Reisen didn't immediately produce a name, Mima smiled and said, "Isn't it obvious, Lunarian? The most dangerous person in Gensokyo is you."

…

_Deep Within_

Violet-tinted branches moved as Rin's physical hand pushed them aside. "I think they're gone," Rin told Rumia, who was sitting next to her and resting her chin on her fist, watching the screen.

"Is that so," Rumia muttered. She sighed and moved her head from one fist to the other. "Well, hip-hip-hooray, we dodged a gang of fairies. Freedom must be right around the corner."

"Cut me some slack, I'm doing the best I can here," Rin snapped. "And hey, I got the death field thing under control, didn't I?"

"Okay, okay, you did good there," Rumia admitted. "But we can't hide under a bush forever. In fact, I'm still scratching my head and wondering why we haven't gone underground again."

The last few hours had been nothing short of harrowing. Ever since Rin had been knocked off course by that oni and redirected back to the surface, their bad luck had become downright awful. First they had scared the wits out of a couple of mosquito youkai and had been scared in turn, and then, upon diving back toward the ground, they had come face-to-face with a mad hermit who had immediately given chase, which in turn had driven them right into a caravan of traders heading toward the Youkai Market, and things had continued to deteriorate from there.

But now, it seemed that they had managed to evade their pursuers. Which meant it was time to decide what to do next.

Rin scowled at the question. "Because every time we go underground, we end up running into a cave of people who hurt me or run off to find other people who hurt me!"

"So we've been a little unlucky-"

"A little!"

"Okay, so our luck sucks," Rumia amended. "That doesn't mean that every square inch of the Underground is cave infested. Besides, if that chase means anything, it's that there's even _more _people up here who want to hurt you!

Her words were starting to have an effect, but Rin still looked troubled. "Look, you don't have to dig to the center of the Earth or anything," Rumia pressed. "Just corkscrew down like ten feet and stay there. If you keep filling the hole in behind you like you always do, we should be fine."

"All right," Rin muttered, her shoulders slumping. "I'll give it a shot."

The now familiar sight of dissolving dirt filled the screen, and Rumia allowed herself to relax a little bit. While she was not looking forward to the monotonous boredom that came with hiding with Rin, it was better than the blind panic that happened when they were caught.

Unfortunately, her expected hours of uninterrupted tedium were never realized, because Rin got no further than seven feet down before suddenly bursting into open space.

This time, Rin managed to catch herself before she fell too far and swung up to cling to the ceiling. The cave they had found themselves was only about eleven feet high and eight feet across, though its length stretched out of sight in both directions, making it more of a corridor.

And every inch of the floor was covered with four-foot slugs that squirmed and wriggled over each other. The walls were coated with their slime.

Rin and Rumia stared at the disgusting scene, their minds linked by a single thought: why did this keep _happening?_

And then Rumia had a sickening thought. "Rin, look at the hole," she whispered.

"What hole?" Rin said. "What are…Oh, right."

The view shifted upward, toward the hole in the ceiling that Rin had left in her wake. And, just as Rumia had feared, all of the dissolved earth was now pouring out of it, into the mass of slimy bodies.

As soon as the silt hit their backs, the slugs panicked and tried to crawl out of the way. But as they were surrounded and, in many cases, covered by dozens of their fellows, this set off a chain reaction as a virtual shockwave of mucus-covered bodies spread out from the falling earth, causing mass confusion.

To the slugs' credit, they were able to reorganize themselves with surprising quickness. Then, as one, they turned what passed for their faces up toward where Rin was clinging, their antennae stretched out and reaching.

"Rin," Rumia said, slowly so as to control her nausea. "Why are we still here? Move it!"

"Why?" Rin said. "They're slugs. What are theyOW!"

Immediately Rin's physical body found itself under attack as the slugs spewed balls of grey-green acidic mucus at her, which clung to her body and burned the surrounding ceiling.

"They sneeze acid!" Rin cried. She clawed at her arms, as if that would get the stuff off her physical body. "Why do they sneeze acid?"

Rumia smacked the back of Rin's head. "Because you never learn, you idiot! Everything in this country is dangerous! Now, _move!"_

This time Rin had no problem with obeying, but again Rumia's relief was short-lived.

"NO!" she screamed, grabbing Rin's shoulders and spinning her around so that they were face-to-face. "Down! Not up!"

"But there's _slugs!"_

"_So? _Set yourself on fire and burn through them!"

"But what if they're sentient?"

"They're! Freaking! _SLUGS!" _

As Rumia and Rin struggled, they forgot to pay attention to where they were going. As such, they didn't notice that they were already above the clouds until a rough voice from the outside shouted, _"Hey! Careful, you almost hit us!"_

Rin and Rumia stopped fighting. They turned toward the screen to see three Humans and two squirrel youkai hovering nearby, all of them wearing loose black uniforms.

Their leader, one of the squirrel youkai, was glaring at them with her arms folded across her chest. _"Slow down!" _she shouted. _"This place is hard enough to patrol without you speed demons zipping every which way!"_

Reimu and Rin exchange a look, disbelief written all over their faces. Really? Did this person just mistake them for a random passerby? Was it really going to be that easy?

"What do I do?" Rin whispered, forgetting that she didn't need to.

"Play along," Rumia said. "Don't tip them off to who you really are."

Rin nodded. She cleared her throat and turned toward the screen.

She said, "Sorry about that…uh…"

"Officer," Rumia hissed.

"Officer," Rin repeated, nodding her thanks. "I'll watch where I'm going."

The GPF officer still looked upset, but she sighed and said, _"Okay, fine. Just be careful next…What? What?" _

That last part was directed toward one of the Humans, who was frantically tugging on her sleeve. Rumia's heart fell as the Human leaned over to whisper in the squirrel's ear, his eyes wide and full of dread as they remained fixated on Rin.

"_Sheriff," _he whispered, unaware that Rin could hear him. _"Isn't that-"_

To Rin's credit, she didn't need Rumia to tell her what to do this time. She thrust her hands at the GPF patrol and the screen exploded with flashes of light as she unleashed a spray of multicolored sparks. Less than a second later, before the patrol finished swooping out of the way, Rin was already speeding off in the other direction, tearing through the clouds as fast as her stolen energy would take her.

…

"M-me?" Reisen stuttered, her brain locked up in shock. "But…I can't be…"

"I assure you, you are," Mima said. The sorceress held her staff into the air and released it. It floated in place, and Mima walked over to lay a hand on Reisen's shoulder. "It's just that no one but me has figured it out."

Mima's hand was unnaturally cold. Reisen jerked out of her grasp and said, "But how is that possible?"

"Hmmm, a very good question. Let's examine the situation, shall we?" Mima turned and started to pace around the tower's circumference, speaking as she walked. "To begin, what is you ultimate goal?"

"My…what?"

"Did I misspeak, rabbit? Stutter? Why are you doing all of this?"

Reisen gaped at her. "Don't you already know? Weren't you listening to us all those weeks?"

"Humor me, please."

"I want to save Rin!" Reisen yelled. "That's it! I just want to get her back, to fix her, to make her normal again!"

"And then the two of you will go off together and spend the rest of your lives in peace, I presume?" Mima asked, motioning dramatically in the air. "Live happily ever after, or the closest equivalent?"

"Of course!"

"Despite the fact that thanks to Eirin Yagokoro's experiments, her long period of isolation, the extreme abuse she has suffered and the fact that she's got a superpowered homicidal sociopath lurking somewhere in her head, Rin is still insanely dangerous, yes? Every second she runs free, countless lives teeter on the brink, all thanks to her imperfect metamorphosis!"

Reisen closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. There it was, the biggest problem with her agenda. "I'll…we'll find a way," she said at last. "There's a way, and we'll find it."

"And you'll do just about anything to achieve your goal, will you not?"

"I…uh…" Reisen faltered. While there was no denying that her quest to rescue her surrogate daughter was causing her to make choices and do things that she would have never considered otherwise, but there were still a great many things that she was certain that she couldn't be capable of.

Then again, at the start of the year, she had been certain that she was incapable of using her power on Eirin…

"Don't bother answering," Mima said. She was now standing directly across from Reisen, on the other end of the tower's roof. She turned to face the rabbit. "Despite your hesitation, your actions against your master have proved as much. Which is precisely why you're so dangerous."

"But I didn't mean to!" Reisen blurted. "It just sort of happened!"

"Did it now? And what of pulling Reimu aside and asking for her help? Did that, as you say, 'just sort of happen'?"

"Of course not! But what does that have to do with anything?"

"She still doesn't see," Mima said with a sad shake of her head. "My dear, it's like this: despite the fact that Rin Satsuki is now Public Enemy Number One, or at least she was at the time, you sought to undermine the entire campaign to bring her down, endangering everyone in the process!"

"I didn't!" Reisen protested, her cheeks growing hot. "I only-"

"Don't be ridiculous, of course you did. Certainly, putting everyone in danger was an unintended consequence, but you had to be aware that it would happen, correct? And yet you did it anyway."

The lump in Reisen's throat grew larger, making it difficult to speak. Was Mima right? Was she really no better than the likes of Eirin or Yukari, just with different goals?

Mima started her trek around the tower again, making her way toward Reisen. "But of course you couldn't do it on your own, now could you? You needed help, someone with power and connections. Of course it couldn't be Eirin. Her thoughts on the matter had no doubt been made clear by then. So you sought someone else out. You went to Reimu. Why?"

"Because…" Reisen said, choking the words out. "…because…I thought…"

"You thought that, thanks to the fact that she was a shrine maiden, a mortal and in possession of no real political power to speak of, you would be able to speak to her on more equal footing than if you had approached Kanako or Shinki, correct? And given her reputation as someone who helps people, if in somewhat of a rough manner, you believed that she might give ear to your pleas."

"What's…what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. But it is significant. You see, you didn't just approach Reimu Hakurei, the crabby shrine maiden who lives in perpetual poverty and solves problems. You approached the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, an office that has diplomatic immunity written all over it! Thanks to what she is, and the fact that she really doesn't give a shit, she can and does speak to anyone about anything whenever she damned well feels like it. And because no one of among the Ringleaders would dare touch her, she gets away with it too!"

Mima completed her circle of the tower's top. She now paced around Reisen, who was doing her best not to move.

"And thanks to who, and what, she is, Hakurei Shrine now stands united with Moriya Shrine and Myouren Temple! The three most important places of worship within Gensokyo, one old; one new…well, new to this country at least; and one restored, have put aside their rivalries and have joined forces in a mad scheme that puts their very people in danger of death and their leaders of being sacked by Yukari, should she ever find out! You've gotten the guardian of the barrier, _two_ ancient and powerful goddess and one of the most powerful mages the world has ever seen to ally with you; and all with their respective abilities, influential powers, and vast resources…well, two of them at least…now at your disposal! Well done!"

Reisen felt like vomiting.

"But that's not all," Mima continued. She stopped in front of Reisen and favored her with a warm smile. "When it became apparent that Eirin had become a serious threat to your plans, you attacked her and ran off to seek sanctuary where she couldn't get you. Never mind that Eientei's influence among the rabbit tribes was already in precarious state thanks to the loss of Kaguya Houraisan and the now common knowledge that Eirin had created the monster that made it all happen. But now that you've openly defied her and left her weakened and defeated, I wouldn't be surprised if the tribal leaders are already considering giving her the boot!"

"Tewi wouldn't let them," Reisen said weakly.

"Oh?" Mima raised an eyebrow. "Is she that trustworthy and loyal then?"

Without waiting for an answer, Mima spun around and headed back to where her staff was floating. "Regardless of your intentions, the fact remains: you have united three important political powers in a reckless quest and heavily destabilized a fourth. And yet, despite all this, very few people are paying attention to you. Byakuren and Kanako are more focused on Reimu as their leader, whereas Eirin seeks you primarily because she doesn't want you to do something incredibly stupid. Simply by acting, you are breaking apart the fragile alliances Yukari has forced left and right, and I don't believe you have any intention of stopping."

Mima snatched her staff out of the air and, twirling it like a showman's cane, she turned to again face Reisen. "And to top it all off, you are incurring the services of the most deadliest being in Gensokyo. You have sought the services of Madam Mima and gained them, all without trying." Her teeth flashed as she grinned. "So, to answer _your_ question, I wanted to speak with you in private because, unlike those fools running about willy-nilly trying to backstab and manipulate each other for whatever reason, I am not about to underestimate you, Reisen Udongein Inaba. You are overlooked, you are moving, and you are dangerous. And, to me, that makes you interesting! So, that is the real reason I am throwing my lot with you."

Mima again tapped the stones with the butte of her staff. Reisen cried out in fear and covered her eyes as the tower collapsed under her, its dark stones crashing against each other as they tumbled in a tumultuous avalanche. But instead of falling with them, she felt nothing at all, save for the sudden loss of the cool stone beneath her feet.

Peeking out from behind her fingers, Reisen gasped when she saw that she and Mima were now hurtling up through the atmosphere, though she felt no wind tear at her body. Their speed increased, and soon they had left the atmosphere, passed by the Moon (had she managed to catch a glimpse of the Lunarian Capital, even if it had been only for a millisecond?) and were soon traveling through the inky black of space. The stars dashed past, forming a dazzling corridor of speeding lines of light.

"And now, we come to the most important question of all," Mima said, completely without concern for their extraordinary surroundings. Leaning in close, she murmured, "Do you want me?"

Reisen, who had been watching the passing stars with equal measures fascination and terror, jerked her head up at the question. "Wait, _what?"_

"Well, okay, so maybe that came off as a little too seductive," Mima laughed. "But the question still stands. You now know more about me than you did an hour ago. You know what I am, what I've done…well, enough of it to go on, at least. You know the sort of person I am. Not exactly trustworthy, to be honest. A bit on the deceitful side, at least that's what others say. And very, very dangerous."

"But still," she continued, "I am perhaps the most valuable ally you stand to gain, outside of Reimu herself. You may or may not know this, but I've forgotten more about magic than most master magicians will ever learn, and I have a _perfect _memory."

Their extraterrestrial journey came to a halt. For a moment they floated there, among the stars.

And then the universe rushed at them. Reisen cowered as the stars, planets, black holes, asteroids, novae and every other celestial body imaginable burned their way past her. And yet, though she could practically feel the heat of their passage, they grew no larger to her eye. The tiny pinpricks of lights remained just as small as they came together and gathered over Mima's outstretched hand.

Soon the entirety of the universe had compressed into a single brightly glowing sphere the size of a grapefruit. It hovered above Mima's hand, the only light to be found in the endless sea of black in which they stood. Reisen was reminded uncomfortably of the dark world deep within Rin's mind.

"I have created more spells than I can be bothered to find names form," Mima murmured, her voice low but strong. "I have fought the very laws of existence and brought them to heel. I have bended reality to my will and made it look easy. I can be a most useful ally, Reisen. If anyone stands a chance of breaking Rin Satsuki free of the prison of her own mutated body, it's me. But is it worth the risk, to throw in your lot with mine? Chose now, and wisely."

Reisen slowly stood to her feet. She swallowed back the lump in her throat and forced her body to stop shaking.

For what felt like eternity, no one spoke. Youkai and sorceress stood still in the void, watching each other through the light of the universe. Reisen's crimson eyes bored into Mima's azure gaze, and vice-versa. Mima smiled as she waited for the answer.

Finally, Reisen made her decision. "Yes," she said.

Mima tilted her head to one side. "Oh, you do?" The smile on her lips twisted into a cruel sneer. "But then, everyone does, in the end."

"And no."

With that answer, Reisen realized that she had accomplished something very few before her had: she had surprised Mima. The sorceress blinked and jerked her head back. "Excuse me? Yes…and no? Dear, I'm afraid you cannot give both answers. It's either one or the other."

"And why not?" Reisen challenged. Something seemed to spring alive within her, a fire that fed off her fear and fueled her determination. As it did, she could swear that she heard a voice whisper in her ear:

_Forget the big speeches and the light show. Forget about being impressed and afraid. This is a test. She don't care about whether you want her or not. She just wants to know how you'll answer. So now it's your turn. Impress her. Do something she ain't expectin'._

Heartened by this, Reisen said, "Why does it have to be one or the other? Yes or no? Positive or negative, black and white? I thought I was just trying to do the right thing, but you just got done telling me how much damage I'm causing because of it. You've tried to murder Reimu's ancestors multiple times, but she still tolerates your presence."

"Is there a point in all this?" Mima asked.

"Yes. It's…it's that nothing in this is cut-and-dried. Nothing is simple or easily categorized. Everyone has their reasons for taking the side they have, and they all think they're in the right. There are more shades of grey in this mess than that swill they used to feed us back in the Lunarian Army! So why should my answer be any different?"

Reisen straightened her spine and pointed one finger at Mima. "If you can do half of that stuff you just said, then yes, I do want you as an ally. I want your power; I want your knowledge, your experience. I want Mima the sorceress. But I don't want Mima the snake. I don't want Mima the liar, or the traitor. Things are so dangerous right now that I just can't risk having someone like you around."

"So there's my answer. Yes, and no."

Mima stared at her in amazement. "Well, that was…an interesting answer. And, perhaps, the only correct one you could have given." Her smile slowly returned. "I knew I had made the right choice. My dear, congratulations. You have just successfully incurred the services of Madam Mima, with nothing lost in return except a few grey hairs. You should be proud of yourself, there are few who could say the same."

A sickening feeling moved in Reisen's stomach. "Uh…Wait, I wasn't-"

"Too bad, you've got it. Now, the only question is, what are you going to do with it?" Mima laughed. "Don't worry, you don't have to answer all at once. Sleep on it, talk it over with your other allies. Just don't underestimate the resources you have just gained. Because believe me, they are formidable."

"In fact," Mima said as she drew the glowing sphere closer to her face and regarded it with curious eyes, "I think I'll let you have a bit of a freebie, a something I figured out while nursing Marisa back to health: there _is _a way to cure Rin, one that has nothing to do with me, or Eirin, or even you. Something _everyone _seemed to miss, and yet has been sitting in front of their noses all this time!"

Mima's words hit Reisen's brain like a thunderbolt. Her legs gave out from under her and she fell back onto her butt. _"W-W-WHAT?"_ she choked. "A _cure? _You have one?"

"I just said that I didn't," Mima said, clicking her tongue in disappointment. "But rest assured, one does exist."

"Then…then _what? _Tell me!"

"Ah, no. That would be telling, and your quest to restore Rin is yours. I must only assist, not solve it for you." Mima smiled at Reisen's stricken expression. "But don't worry. It's not hard to figure out, once you've given it some thought. The answer requires you to look back, into your memories. And there, I think, you will find what you seek, among the answers and questions."

"But…" Reisen whimpered.

"Think about it," Mima said. "Consider my words. And while you're at it, you might want to take another crack at that diary you've been avoiding."

"Huh?" Reisen scampered to her feet. "Rin's diary? It has the answer?"

"Who knows?" Mima said, shrugging. "I haven't read it myself. But, if nothing else, it might nudge your mind in the right direction."

Reisen let her head fall and frowned. She had not opened Rin's diary ever since coming here, unwilling to have her memories tarnished by evidence of Rin's past brattiness.

"Give it some thought," Mima said again. "I'm sure it will come to you." She sighed. "Though I should probably tell you now that if you don't want me to upset the delicate balance of schemes you're setting up, you are not to tell Reimu, or anyone else for that matter, of this time we've just spent together. As far as they're concerned, I kissed the back of your hand as a form of silly mischief, nothing more. Understand?"

Reisen grimaced. She did not like the thought of concealing secrets from Reimu. She did not like it one bit, especially since such secrets had a tendency to backfire spectacularly.

But what choice did she have? "I understand," she said softly.

"Good," Mima said. "Now, let us return to the world of the living."

With that, she squeezed her hand around the sphere, extinguishing the light and plunging them into darkness.

…

"Hey!" Reimu yelped. She grabbed Reisen's arm and wretched it away from Mima's lips. "The hell are you doing?"

Mima looked offended. "Hey now!" she said as she straightened up. "That was uncalled for."

"Like I care! What are you trying to pull?" Reimu demanded as she wrestled the dumbstruck rabbit away.

Marisa stood half to her feet. "Jeez, calm down Reddie! Mima just said that she wants to help you. Show a little respect, will yah?"

Reimu ignored her. She turned her attention to Reisen, who appeared to be lost in a daze. "Reisen, you all right?" she said.

"Of course she's all right," Mima grumbled. "I am capable of greeting someone without putting a hex of them, you know."

"That doesn't mean you won't!" Reimu grabbed the back of Reisen's hand and examined it carefully. Mima's lips had left a wet imprint, which Reimu rubbed at furiously with her sleeve.

Mima sighed. "Reimu, while your concern is flattering, I should point out that had I wished to cast a spell on her, I would hardly need to kiss her to do it. And even if I did, wiping off a bit of saliva would not cancel it out."

"Seriously, chill out," Marisa added. "She's just messing with you. You do make it pretty easy."

"Let me be the judge of that," Reimu said coldly.

"What, that you make is easy? Sorry, but I'm kind of an expert on that subject, so I can say, with some authority, that-"

"Shut up," Reimu said, unwilling to play that game. She returned her attention to Reisen, who was still staring blankly at Mima. "Reisen? Hey, you still with us?"

Reisen glanced at her. "What?"

"Did she do anything to you?" Reimu demanded. "Do you feel any different?"

"Oh. Uh…" Reimu blinked. Her eyes refocused, though not all the way. "Yeah. Sorry, I'm fine. She just…took me by surprise." She managed a weak smile. "I'm fine."

Reimu was less than convince. "Uh-huh. And how do I know that she didn't program you to say that?"

Mima settled own on the kotatsuin, he tail spreading across the heated top. "My dear shrine maiden, you are not making me feel welcome. I am starting to rethink my decision to offer assistance. If you are bound and determined to question me every time I so much as scratch my cheek, perhaps I should just go off and find something else to do. Of course, by doing so, you'll lose the support of Moriya Shrine, leaving you with naught but Myouren Temple. A powerful ally, to be sure, but far from enough for your purposes."

Reimu grimaced. "All right, all right. Just know that I'm keeping an eye on you."

"And you are wise to do so. But even so, I really cannot blame you." Mima batted her eyes and blew the shrine maiden a kiss. "I am worth staring at, after all."

Marisa clapped a hand over her mouth as she snorted back laughter. Reimu found herself wishing that the witch were closer so that she could smack the back of her head without having to go through Mima.

"And now that that's settled," Mima said, clasping her hands in her lap. "There's something else that demands your attention."

Reimu felt her pulse quicken. This couldn't be good. "Yeah?" she said cautiously. "And what's that?"

"The fact that you and Marisa should be gone and out in the field already. After all, Rin Satsuki is currently on the run, and there are a whole lot of people going after her.

The other three occupants of the room could not have been more stunned if lightning had crashed right through the roof to set the kotatsuin on fire and a troupe of fairies had leapt out of the flames to perform the can-can. That at least could have been reasonably blamed on Marisa. But they had grown so accustomed to the idea that Rin Satsuki was laying low and they would have to go and find her that this news shocked them speechless.

Well, all of them except for Marisa of course. "Wh-wh-what?" she stuttered, her eyes looking ready to pop right out of her skull. "When did _this _happen?"

"Yesterday afternoon," Mima said. "Haven't you heard? She popped up in the Ancient City of all places and got into one hell of a fight with the locals before turning tail and heading back to the surface. When last I checked, she was last seen fleeing into the Great Youkai Forest earlier this morning and was still actively on the move."

A small but highly significant tidbit of information managed to squeeze past the mental blockade that the news had enforced on Reimu's mind. "Wait!" she said with a small gasp. "The Ancient City? Bu-but that's where Suika was!"

"And still is, if my information is correct," Mima told her. "Which, of course, it always is. And as I understand it, she was one of Satsuki's principle opponents."

A cold feeling of dread seeped into Reimu's stomach. "Is she-"

"She's fine. Or at least, alive and ambulatory. I don't know, I didn't bother to check in person. But she definitely survived."

Marisa let out a low whistle. "Damn, that's two-for-two. The next time I see the little goose-stepper, I'm buying her a drink."

Reisen chose that moment to break into the conversation. "Was anyone else hurt?" There was a distinct note of urgency in her voice.

"Oh, most certainly," Mima said amiably. Despite her professed loyalty to Reisen and Reimu's cause and promise to further their intentions, she was clearly enjoying the horror her words was creating. It was who she was. "There were even a couple of fatalities."

Reisen's face went white as a sheet.

"Fortunately for them, they so happened to be either youkai or fairies, and popped back into existence a few moments later. So no, no one was…permanently inconvenienced. But that doesn't change the fact that things down there are currently something of a wreck. So I'd hurry up and find her, if I were you. I understand that competition is fierce, and public opinion really isn't favoring her at the moment."

The witch and the shrine maiden stared dumbfounded at Mima for a few heartbeats longer. Then Reimu leapt up and scrambled into the next room, whereas Marisa held up her hand and summoned her broom to her grasp.

"See yah!" Marisa shouted, throwing open the door and sailing out of the shrine.

"Wait!" Reimu said as she darted after her, her spellcards clutched in her hand. "You need me to get past the barrier, you idiot!"

In short order they were gone, and Reisen was left alone with Mima. She eyed the spirit warily, expecting her to do something, perhaps continue their conversation or take her for another frightening trip through space. But instead, the spirit simply remained where she was, watching the open door that the two girls had just dashed through. She let out a low chuckle of amusement.

"Well, Marisa was right about one thing," Mima said. "Reimu does make it all too easy."

Reisen inhaled sharply. "Wait, you mean that was a _lie?"_

"Hmmm? Oh, you mean all that news about your prodigal? No, that was true enough. I was referring to in general."

With a sigh, Mima levitated herself back into the air, the shapeless green blob she had been resting on reforming itself back into a proper tail. "Well, I suppose I'd better go after them. This does, after all, promise to be highly entertaining, and I'd hate for them to perish due to some ill-time fireworks. I'm afraid we'll have to speak later, my dear."

"Um, yeah," Reisen said with a nervous swallow. "Look, I don't think-"

"Later," Mima repeated firmly. "If nothing else, the extra free time should allow you to catch up on your reading. I'll be sure to tell you all about the fun when we return."

"But you are going to bring Rin back with you, right?" Reisen pressed. "You're going to save her?"

"Capturing her is more likely at this point, truth to tell. And that's entirely up to Rin herself."

With that, Mima vanished from sight. No poof of smoke, no flash of light. One moment she was there, and the next Reisen was left sitting by herself, with nothing to do but wait. And worry. And pray.

…

If there was one thing that could be said about the denizens of the Ancient City that had nothing to do with brawling, alcohol and pointy purple hats, it was that they were a tight-knit community. Everyone knew each other, if not by name, then at least by face, and when something went wrong, the whole city pitched in to help.

Yesterday, something had gone horribly wrong. But in the time between the disaster and the following morning, the city was well on its way to a full recovery. The destruction in the bazaar had been completely cleared away, and the apartment building that Utsuho Reiuji had accidentally blown up had been extinguished of all flame and most of the radiation had been cleaned away. Before the day was over, everything that could be salvaged will have removed from the wreck and the rest of the building was well on its way to being demolished and cleared away to make room for its reconstruction.

In short, despite the pounding it had taken, the cleanup had gone exceptionally well. There was just one problem. While the bazaar had been destroyed by a known felon and thus everyone was prepared to put the blame solely upon Rin Satsuki's shoulders, the ball of radioactive fire had been fired, however inadvertently, by someone who wasn't even supposed to be in the city in the first place. And that same someone also so happened to be the personal pet of someone in authority. And that person in authority also so happened to be not especially popular with the local populace.

The aftermath was predictable.

Orin stood in front of the bridge that led to the Palace of Earth Spirits, speaking to the mayor, a tall oni with a full beard who had a habit of confusing newcomers when they learned that she was in fact a woman; the manager of the ruined apartment building in question, a short, portly man with a balding scalp and a thick mustache that might have been Human if it weren't for the fact that he had stubby horns and a pronged tail; and one the heroes of the day: the blacksmith, Yuugi Hoshiguma. No one there was happy at all, least of all Orin herself. The others had legitimate complaints to make and a convenient target to direct them to, whereas she had to just take it.

"Four!" the apartment's manager thundered, his voice impressively deep for such a diminutive man. "Four of my tenants, dead by radiation poisoning! And none of them were happy when they resurrected."

"I know, I understand," Orin said as calmly as she should, though it was taking every ounce of self-control to keep from tearing her own hair out. "And we will do everything-"

"Which is to say _nothing _of the damage sustained by the nearby buildings from the rubble," the mayor said, wringing her large-knuckled hands. "The insurance claims are coming in already, and the fact that no one from the Brawler's Guild is responsible has driven my poor confused secretary to stop drinking!"

"Yes, I know," Orin said. "I assure you, everyone who has suffered any sort of loss due to Utsuho's actions will be fully recompensed."

"And what of the damage to the market?" the mayor demanded. "Nearly every open-air shop was destroyed! That market is the center of our economy, and with it gone…"

Orin frowned. "Excuse me, but I was led to believe that Utsuho had nothing to do with that. In fact, as I understand it, _that _damage was caused by…by the Shadow Youkai."

"I never suggested differently!" the mayor said, her voice rising. "But the fact remains that our town is now suffering, and one can't help but notice that not only was the pet of our _esteemed _leader Satori Komeiji involved, but Ms. Komeiji herself is noticeably absent in this time of crisis!"

"Exactly!" said the short, horned man. "The one time we actually need her, and she decides that she has better things to do!"

Orin had to fight to keep the fear she was feeling from showing. "As I explained, Satori has been called away by Yukari Yakumo to serve as a consultant for the Shadow Youkai situation. When, and how, she returns is entirely up to Yukari. I've already contacted them and informed them about the attack. I have the promise of the Yakumo estate that relief will be sent."

Which was true enough, though it had been with Yukari's kitsune, Ran Yakumo, that Orin had spoken to. Ran had taken the news more-or-less as Orin had expected, with plenty of worry and no small amount of barely restrained fear. Orin hadn't gotten to see Yukari's reaction, but her imagination had provided the scene for her. She had no doubt that it had been…violent.

"And when will that be?" the mayor demanded.

"When they send it," Orin said. She couldn't keep her voice from acquiring a bit of an edge. "Look. I understand that you're upset, I really do. And you have every reason to be. But the problem is being dealt with-"

"By us!" the mayor roared. "What exactly are _you _doing?"

That made Orin wince, but she forced herself to continue. "We've already contacted Yukari for help, and Utsuho did her part to clean up the radiation. And you already have my word that all injured parties will be compensated. And seeing how you want no one from the Palace of Earth Spirits anywhere near the recovery efforts, what more do you want?"

"Oh, I'll tell you what I want," the mayor growled. She shoved herself up against Orin, forcing her to back away to avoid having her face buried in the woman's beard. "I want that bird put on a godsdamned leash. I want our so-called leader to do some actual leading. I want-"

And so on. Orin had to smile and apologize and endure nearly ten minutes more of abuse before the mayor and the manager decided that their time was better spent elsewhere. However, Yuugi Hoshiguma, who had remained silent for most of the conversation, lingered behind.

"Look," she said once the other two had left. "I know the kid didn't mean any harm. And I know she just wanted to help. But this sort of thing is exactly why we didn't want her coming near the town in the first place. Suika and I had things under control before she showed up, and we could've brought that thing down if she didn't get in the way."

Orin took a deep. "I _get _it," she seethed. "The point. It's been made. Over and over and over-"

"I know, simmer down. I'm not part of the anti-Satori brigade. I've got no real beef with the Komeiji family. But there are a lot of people that do, plenty of which who ain't real happy with Yukari Yakumo putting your boss in charge. The bird going crazy with power a few years ago didn't make things better, and neither is what just happened. Someone's going to do something about it, sooner or later.

The oni's words made Orin bristle. "Is that a threat?"

"No, it's a _warning. _I ain't gonna do anything, but someone will. And I think you've got problems enough without having to deal with an angry mob."

"Yeah, I know," Orin said, her shoulders slumping ever so slightly. "And thanks, I guess."

Yuugi looked over her shoulder and sighed. "Look, I need to get back. Just remember what I said. If you need me for…anything, you know where to find me."

"Like what?"

"You know. Anything."

With one final nod, Yuugi turned and flew back toward the city.

Once she was sure that no one else was going to come by to fill her ear with complaints, Orin turned and stormed back toward the palace. "Need her for anything, she says," the redheaded kasha muttered to herself. "What she means, 'You need to put a collar on that girl, and I've got one special made! And if you order now, I'll throw in this giant birdcage, half-off!'"

So intent was she on her private ranting that Orin didn't realize that there was someone leaning next to the front door until she had grasped the handle. "Might not be a bad idea," said Jun, the Alpha of all the canines in Satori Komeiji's care. In his youkai form, he was lanky man with lean muscles, grey eyes and short, spiky pale blue hair. His left eyebrow was pierced with three small silver hoops and two pointed ears stuck up on either side of his head. He uncrossed his arms and stood up straight. "You ask me, she shoulda been put in a cage from day one."

Orin whirled to face him. "Back off, Jun," she hissed, baring her teeth. "You've been warned already."

He turned his head and spat. "And hey, looks like I was right," he said, ignoring her warning. "The bird goes out into town one time, and a building blows up. Yeah, but she's so cute and dumb, let's just sweep it under the rug and pretend nothing happened."

"Just keep talking, dog. Just give me an excuse."

"How long are planning on covering for her? When she blows up the palace and fries half the pets, are you gonna just keep-"

Orin lashed out, shoving on arm against Jun's throat and snatching his wrist with the other. He tried to push back, but Orin was stronger, and in short order she had him pressed up against the wall, his feet dangling bare centimeters from the ground.

"I've told you time and time again to keep your big, drooling mouth shut," Orin growled. "I'd start listening if I were you."

Despite the fact that he was literally backed against the wall, Jun still had a wolfish smile on his face. "All right," he said, his voice ragged and choked. "You're the boss. For now."

"Yeah, I am. So unless you're planning on challenging me right here and now, I'd suggest you tuck that stubby little tail of yours between your legs and go bury a bone or something."

"One day, Rin," Jun said as Orin released him. "One day you're gonna slip. And when that happens, all the zombie fairies in the world ain't gonna save you."

"But not today," Orin said, holding his gaze. She gave him a hard shove to the shoulder. "Go on, get."

Jun smiled. He brushed off his shoulder with a lazy flick of his fingers and sauntered off. Orin's eyes followed his every move. It wasn't until he was gone from her sight that she allowed herself to slump against the wall.

What a day. Not only was their charade of Satori still being in charge dangerously close to being blown, but the fragile chain of command that kept the pets in place was in danger of being shattered. This was far from the first time Jun had gotten into her face, and with Satori gone, he was getting bolder every day. She knew she could handle him should he decide to challenge her. She was stronger than he was, both in physical combat and danmaku. But he had a strong support base among the pets, and the last thing they needed was an internal power struggle.

But as much as she hated to admit it, as much as she disliked the arrogant butt-sniffer, he did have a point. Unintentionally or not, Utsuho had messed up in a big way. And Orin could cover for her, not this time.

Instead of returning to the Palace of Earth Spirits, Orin headed upward, flying over the turrets and spires, up through the spiral double-ramp and straight to the reactor's entrance. She went inside, navigating the steel corridors until she reached the reactor's heart, the huge, bowl-shaped room from which Utsuho exercised her control over the entire facility.

The Hell Raven was there, sitting near the bottom of the metal depression. Her back was to the door, and her arms were wrapped around her legs, which were drawn up under her chin. She was staring at her Third Leg, which was standing plugged into its slot at the room's center.

She hadn't reacted as Orin entered, though she had to have heard the noisy door open. Orin sighed and slid down to sit next to her.

Though Utsuho didn't react to her approach, when Orin reached her at the bottom she took a deep, shuddering breath and asked, "How bad is it?"

Orin hesitated, and said, "Pretty bad. The city's pissed off beyond belief, and Jun's getting uppity again. He all but said that he's going to challenge me soon. It's going to take everything we've got to keep them from finding out about Satori. Maybe more."

Utsuho groaned and grabbed her head with her hands. "Oh gods," she whimpered. "Orin, I'm so…I'm just so…"

"I know," Orin said, placing hand on Utsuho's shoulder. "But…but I can't let this go. You know that, right?"

Utsuho sniffed, swallowed noisily and gave a brief nod.

"This…this is too big. You knew you're not supposed to go anywhere near the city, and you did so anyway. I know you just wanted to break up the fight, but…Okuu, a whole building! And at a time where we're holding the Underground together by the skin of our teeth."

"I'll go," Utsuho whispered. "You're right. I'm too much trouble. I'll go, and…"

Orin's head jerked back in surprise. Is that what she was thinking? "What? No! Hot hells Okuu, just because I'm mad doesn't mean I'm going to kick you out!"

"Really?" Utsuho looked at her then, her eyes wet with tears.

"Of course not! I don't care what Jun says. So long as Satori's gone, I'm still in charge. And I say you're always going to be part of the family.

"Still," she said. "I am going to have to ask…Well, no. Not ask. I'm going to have to tell you to stay here. In the reactor. Until Satori comes back. I don't want you to enter the palace or go outside. At all. Do you understand?"

"I think so," Utsuho said, wiping her nose with her arm. "I'm grounded. Again." She managed a weak smile. "That's…not so bad."

"Maybe not now," Orin warned. "But it's mainly because I honestly can't think of anything else that I can stomach. And we still don't know when Satori's coming back. And when she does, well, I'll leave _that _decision up to her."

Utsuho winced, but she nodded again.

"Until then, I'll bring you your meals and visit you when I can, but it's going to be hard, what with everything that's happening. Just _please _promise me you'll obey. We can't have another accident, not now."

"Of course!" Utsuho said quickly. "Don't worry, I'll be good."

"I know," Orin sighed. "I know you will."

A short pause followed, and then Utsuho cleared her throat.

"Uh, Orin?"

"Yeah?"

"Satori…She's coming back, right? They're going to get her back, right? Yukari and Reimu and all the rest? They're going to beat Yuuka Kazami and save everyone, right?"

Orin did her best not to wince. The truth of the matter was that she had been harboring serious doubts about the success of that operation. While she knew that it was high on Yukari Yakumo's list of Things to Do, given what she had witnessed of Yuuka's capabilities she had no idea if anything on that list would ever be checked off.

Still, she couldn't let Utsuho see that. "Of course!" she said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster up. "What are you talking about? Yuuka's days are numbered, and Satori will be back to set everything straight before you know it. We just need to keep things in shape for her when she comes back, that's all."

Utsuho immediately looked cheered, and Orin couldn't help but shake her head in amazement. The Hell Raven was hands-down the most powerful being to be found within the Underground, but in so many ways she was still the same sweet, naïve girl whom Orin had saved from vampire bats so many decades ago and had followed the kasha around ever since. Even with her brief bout of insanity brought upon by her sudden power-up, her personality had remained more-or-less unchanged once she had been brought to her senses. Orin had dreaded that, expecting the madness to have left a permanent mark, but such had not been the case. Whether it was due to the impenetrable nature of Utsuho's simple but kind heart or some "cheating" done by Yukari Yakumo, Orin had never asked. She was simply grateful to have her friend back.

She put a hand on Utsuho's shoulder, and the Hell Raven instinctively leaned into her. They sat there, enjoying the spare moments of peace before Orin had to leave again.

…

Suika Ibuki sat down on a slab of stone and wiped her sweaty brow. Before her, the demolition of the devastated apartment building was nearing its end. Suika herself had just finished breaking up the cracked foundations and now watched as the others hauled the rubble away to be disposed of.

It had been some time since she had participated in real manual labor of this caliber. She had to admit, it felt good to stretch her muscles. Though she never really regretted her decision to leave the Ancient City to pursue a life of wandering, she was considering extending her stay, perhaps for another year or two. Reimu should be okay without her.

"Hey, short stuff," Yuugi said as she approached. The taller oni walked over the slab and sat down next to Suika.

Suika nodded to her. "How'd it go?"

"Oh, bad," Yuugi said with a shrug. "No surprises there. Satori Komeiji sure picked a hell of a bad time to be gone."

"Doesn't she always," Suika said with a scowl. "You'd think being a mind-reader she'd know better."

"Mind-reader doesn't mean the same thing as fortune-teller, little buddy. You think you can convince that gapping friend of yours to send her back?"

"Sure." Suika pressed her hands against the stone and pushed herself off. "Sometime _after _we've finished beating the ESP into a squishy little pulp."

Yuugi shook her horned head in disbelief. "The first time you fought that thing you actually fell over unconscious, something that has _never _happened during all our adventures. The second time, you got buried thirty under the city and it took you half-an-hour to dig your way back. And you're still looking for a third?"

"Is it still loose?"

"Well, yeah."

Suika threw her hands up. "Well, there you go! Go get our armor, and let's head up to the surface! If we hurry, we can catch it before it before those idiots topside get themselves digested!"

Yuugi threw her head back and let out a deep, belly laugh of delight. "Yes!" she cheered, slamming her fist against the slab and cracking half it off in the process. "All this time, and you're still the same Suika I know and love! All right, let's up there, find the ESP, and show her why you don't fuck with the Devas of the Mountain!"

Then she slipped the pack she was carrying from her shoulder. "First things first though," she said as she rummaged around inside. "I've got something here for you."

"Huh?" Suika tilted her head in confusion. "What?"

"This. The resin finally hardened last night, and the spells took hold." From within the sack Yuugi pulled out a very familiar object. Suika's heart leapt when she saw what it was.

It was her gourd, fully restored. There was not a crack to be seen. Not that it was the same. The paper charms that had once covered it were gone. In their place were numerous carvings and arcane symbols. But still, it was her gourd.

"Just like I promised," Yuugi said, holding it up for her to see. "Took a bloody long time to get the resin just right, but I got it in the end. Even found you a new sake bug, only this one's a bit more, shall we say, versatile than your last one. _Alcohol _bug would be more accurate, actually. And it's all thanks to these." She held it on its side and started pointing out the specific carvings. "See this? Honey mead. You know, like what those fellows with the horned helmets and the weaponized shouting used to make? And over here, this'll let it make that dark wine I've been stockpiling. Or if you just want good, old-fashioned beer, this will-"

Yuugi might have gone on, but that was when a tear-streaked Suika caught her in a bone-crushing hug that forced the air out of her lungs and came uncomfortably close to breaking her spine. She grimaced with pain but endured it as Suika bawled with gratitude.

...

_Hey, hey, hey! Guess what day it is! That's right, it's Imperfect Metamorphosis' two-year anniversay!_

_=fireworks n' shit!=_

_I can't believe this story has lasted this long, but I damned glad it has. It's also hard to believe that a full year has passed since Revelations. But that's the current of time for you. It also means that neither Shinki or Sariel has so much as made an appearance in over a year, which kinda sucks. But hey, their time will come._

_Anyway, I said I'd do something special for the occasion, so here we go. In addition to this update, the next chapter of Rhapsody of Subconscious Desire is now up as well. And, because we all need a little comedy to do with our drama, I also uploaded a rather...cracky one-shot as well. Do enjoy. _

_At the same time, I've got a bit of an announcement to make. Something else has also gone up, namely the first chapter of a Puella Magi Madoka Magica story called Resonance Days. This is my first non-Touhou work, I'm both nervous and excited. I hope some of you will check it out!_

_Anyway, about this chapter, the funny thing is that despite being the two-year anniversary chapter, the original plan was for it to be fairly short and fillerish, with no real purpose other than to bridge the gap between the craziness of the last chapter and the craziness of the next chapter. But then, even though Mima showed up. And then she started to speak. _

_Oh yeah. That was interesting._

_But anyway, just keep in mind that Reisen is right. Mima is a liar. Therefore, anything she said, whether to answer her own questions or about her history should be taken with a grain of salt._

_Also, on another note, while Orin's treatment of Jun may be harsh, given that, despite being a jerk, he did have a fair point, please keep in mind that despite being youkai with human-like traits, they are still animals. And beating the crap out of an upstart is simply the way pack leaders exert their authority._

_Anyway, now that I've gotten so many updates up this month, I'm gonna need some recovery time. So let me just put a definite date for the next IM chapter: it will be up exactly one month from today, on the 19th of April. I should probably have another RD chapter up before then, as it's almost done, but don't expect anything Touhou related until then. Fortunately, now I figured out a way around that damned divider deleting glitch, I should be able to upload the edited chapters, which should resolve a lot of problems._

_It's been a fun year, guys! Here's to another one. _

_Until next time, everyone!_


	38. Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal

A low but powerful hum, the kind that you feel in your teeth, filled the manicured lawn of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The source of the noise was Patchouli Knowledge's Light Barrier Generator, which was just beginning to power on.

Patchouli stood a safe distance away. This was the third such generator she had constructed over the last few weeks. After the first two had failed (both of them explosively), she had started over from scratch, tearing down the design and rebuilding it anew each time. This one resembled the original model only in that it possessed the same gear-shaped platform containing a low, crystal dome, the only component that Patchouli had judged to have been in perfect working condition from the start. However, instead of being surrounded by a series of metal columns, each topped by a different colored gemstone, this one had a four-foot wall of solid glass cut into a hexagonal shape, with each facet a different color to replace the faulty gemstones.

As for Patchouli herself, the mask of arrogant impatience she usually wore was now being marred by no small measure of frustration. Her mouth, well-set in its customary frown of indifference, was now drawn tight, and there were heavy bags under her eyes, so dark that they might have been bruises, that spoke of many nights of sleep missed. While she generally enjoyed solving impossible problems of magic, this one was taking its toll on her.

It wasn't that it was beyond her capabilities to solve (though that may prove to be the case), it was the conditions she was forced to work under. Satsuki was still loose, and despite her promise of a defensive system, the mansion remained just as undefended as ever. Patchouli kept expecting to wake up with her body already half devoured by a hungry gelatinous mass, or to look over her shoulder to see a glowing figure holding the Shadow Youkai's horrific sword coming over the horizon, laughing in anticipation of the slaughter it intended. After all, Patchouli (and Sakuya, she had to admit) had taken a leading role in creating the elixir that had artificially enhanced Satsuki's powers. It had been Patchouli's idea (with perhaps _some _input from Sakuya) to use Flandre to subdue her. And in the end, Patchouli had been the one to serve as the abomination to all that is good and holy's jailer. And as it made sense for Satsuki to seek revenge against the person who logically posed the greatest threat, it was quite astonishing that she hadn't shown up already.

And then there was her, ahem, _employer. _Remilia's recent behavior was nothing short of insufferable. And it wasn't that she was hovering over Patchouli's shoulder, bombarding her with the usual barrage of wry sarcasms and unreasonable expectations. That would have been preferable. Instead, she seemed to have forgotten that she had given Patchouli this task. Ever since she and Sakuya had come back from the battle against Yuuka Kazami, Remilia had remained secluded in the clock tower, refusing to see anyone, eating only enough to survive. By now, she had taken Flandre's place as the mansion's mad vampire, locked away from the rest of the world.

While Patchouli certainly did not begrudge Remilia her grief, one had to wonder how long she intended to keep this up. After all, Flandre was not going to be saved by letting herself waste away. She had to return to the world of the living (an ironic way of phrasing things, if one thought about it) sooner or later.

Still, Patchouli had too much on her plate to play grief counselor to overly dramatic vampires. She had a job to do, and unlike Remilia, she intended to see it done.

She felt the currents of magic that surrounded the generator as they slowly rose in strength and intensity. By now, this part was becoming quite routine. The real test would happen once the barrier actually activated.

A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that, yes, her assistants were still nearby. However, their faith in their boss' chances of success was best demonstrated by the stone wall that they had constructed more than thirty yards away from the generator and were now huddling behind. Tokiko was even wearing a bronze helmet she had salvaged from the armory. Patchouli was rather irritated by the open display of distrust, but considering how the previous attempts had gone, she could not fault them.

And then the rising energies reached the designated point. With a weary sigh, Patchouli gave the mental command.

Just like every time before, there was a brilliant flash of light and a sparkling barrier sprang to life over the generator. Like before, the color was in a constant state of flux, pulsing from one to the next, working its way along the electromagnetic spectrum.

Well, that was done. And now it was time for the tricky part.

Like she had done each time before, Patchouli levitated one of Sakuya's knives directly over the barrier's apex, point down. And then she let it fall.

The first time around the barrier had exploded upon impact. The second time the knife had frozen in place for five seconds before shooting off into the atmosphere, taking the entire generator with it. And then it had exploded.

This time it hit the barrier and bounced its way down to land on the grass. The barrier continued to pulse along, unaffected by the contact.

Patchouli blinked. That was exactly what it was supposed to do. Had she finally found success?

She glanced over to Koakuma and Tokiko, who had dove behind their cover as soon as the barrier had powered on. Koakuma was now peeking out over the top of the wall, clearly wondering when the explosion was going to happen.

Patchouli rolled her eyes in contempt. "Oh ye of little faith," she called over to them. "I told you that I would figure it out sooner or later, did I not? Now, come out from behind that ridiculous-"

Still lying on the grass, the knife started quivering.

"-uh-"

As if it were drawn by some magnetic force, the knife sprang to the barrier's side. It skipped its way up until it was once again standing point-down at the very peak of the barrier.

Patchouli braced herself, ready to cast a shield of the more mundane variety.

But then the knife started to spin around and around, until it was twirling like a drill. It dug its way through the barrier, stopping only when nothing but the hilt remained visible.

And then the barrier deflated, folding in on itself like a canvas deprived of its support. Patchouli watched in equal parts disappointment and fascination as it sank onto the generator, covering it like a blanket.

There was a brief flicker of static, and then the barrier winked out of existence. The knife tumbled again to the grass as the generator simply turned off.

Patchouli remained standing in place for another minute. When she was certain that there was to be no explosion, she took a deep breath and walked over to examine this bizarre new failure.

While she couldn't immediately pinpoint the reason for the barrier's impression of a pricked balloon, she did see that the glass wall, previously flawless, was now shot through with a web of near-microscopic cracks. That in itself told her that her new method was faulty to begin with. Back to the drawing board.

With a sigh, she stood up and walked over to her cowering assistants. "All right," she said. "You can come out now. It's broken, but at least there's no danger of flying shrapnel. I suppose this could be considered a step in the right direction, but considering the circumstances…"

She rolled her eyes, and continued. "At any rate, it would probably be safest not to tempt the fates, so I'll handle the cleanup. You two, go back to the library and…" Her mind faltered. Good gods, she needed sleep. "…go shelve something."

"Yes, Ms. Knowledge!" Koakuma said, clearly relieved to be excused from the testing area. "Right away!" She grabbed Tokiko by the arm and bolted toward the mansion.

Patchouli returned to the generator. She considered dismantling it now, but decided against it. There still was no guarantee that it wasn't a nudge away from blowing to bits, and she would prefer to have her senses and reaction times in a more operable condition before taking the risk. To that end, she simply covered the whole apparatus with a force barrier that would contain any potential explosion and headed back toward the mansion, her thoughts focused on her nice warm bed.

Unfortunately, she was interrupted. Sakuya stood by the door, watching her with an expectant look on her face. Patchouli sighed and kept walking. Whereas Remilia had consigned to becoming a non-entity, Sakuya had taken her defeat as a sign of inadequacy, and was now channeling the humiliation as fuel for a relentless quest to eradicate all signs of weakness, both within herself and throughout the mansion. The fairy maids, already fearful of her, now performed their duties with an energy that could only be described as outright terror, and Hong Meiling was now consuming enough caffeine to initiate cardiac arrest in a Human.

The only reason Patchouli did not join the ranks of the intimidated is because she refused to let herself be cowed. While she did sympathize with what Sakuya and Remilia were going through, she considered herself far too old to put up with such nonsense, even if the aforementioned two were several centuries her senior.

Indeed, even before Patchouli reached the door, Sakuya simply said, "You failed."

Patchouli stopped and regarded the maid with a look of pure disdain. "You know, I do believe you are correct. Thank you for pointing that out. I was about to declare the whole thing an overwhelming success. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go make the appropriate corrections to my reports."

She tried to move past the maid, but was stopped when Sakuya put a hand on her shoulder. It was not a kind gesture.

"The Mistress may have tolerated such insolence," Sakuya said in a low, dangerous voice, "but I will not."

"Is that right?" Patchouli pushed the offending hand from her shoulder. "Promoted yourself to the rank of Mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion already, have we? A bit premature, seeing how Remilia yet lives."

"So long as the Mistress remains indisposed, I will-"

"Indisposed!" Patchouli shouted.

Shocked that Patchouli would dare cut her off, Sakuya didn't even follow up with a retort.

The two women, each far more powerful than anyone ever had a right to be, stared at each other in surprise and resentment. Finally it was Patchouli that broke the silence.

"Indisposed," she said again. "She has been up there for _weeks!_ The mansion is going to pieces, and all she wants to do is cry in a corner-"

Sakuya found her voice then. "How dare you?" she exclaimed. "If you had even a _fraction _of a clue what she went through-"

"Of course I know, you cretin! You told everyone!"

"As if that brief summary could even begin to explain the mental and emotional torment she is experiencing-"

"Torment _you _are allowing her to wallow in!"

Sakuya's icy demeanor cracked then. Her hands clenched into shaking fists, and her powdered cheeks flushed bright red.

She whispered, "You would insinuate that the Mistress' current condition is somehow _my _doing?"

"Of course, everything, from successes to failures, all have to be about you," Patchouli said, rolling her eyes. "Of course I'm not. But you are allowing it to continue!"

"Her orders were perfectly clear-"

"Yes, but in her current state of mind, I wouldn't put much stock in her ability to make rational decisions."

"That doesn't matter! She is the Mistress! Her orders are meant to be obeyed, whether or not-"

Patchouli drew herself up to her (admittedly unimpressive) full height and shouted, "Her _orders _are nothing short of suicidal, and if she wishes to be treated like the Mistress of this household, then the time has come for her to dry her eyes, blow her nose, come down and start _doing her job!"_

Her finger jabbed at Sakuya's breastbone. "And if _you _had so much of an ounce of the loyalty you claim to possess, you would have disregarded her so-called orders for the lunacy they are and saved her from herself weeks ago. Instead, she wastes away while you content yourself by strutting around, playing drill sergeant!"

Truth be told, Patchouli was surprised that she was saying such things. While she was no stranger to pointing out other people's faults, to be so openly vicious with her words was not something she usually did. She attributed it to the lack of sleep, the lack of success, and having had to put up with this nonsense for far too long. Understandable, but still surprising.

And, judging by how Sakuya's cheeks were now the color of roses, the maid quite agreed. This also was a surprise. Sakuya normal reaction to hostility was to grow all the more colder. What little emotion she permitted herself was always under tight control. It was how she operated.

But now, in response to Patchouli's direct accusations, something that should have only resulted in an icy glare, that control was slipping. Her lower lip was started to tremble, and though it flew in the face of all sense, Patchouli could swear that there was a flicker of wetness around her eyes.

And, with a flash of uncharacteristic sympathy, Patchouli understood. How many nights had Sakuya cried herself to sleep, locked away in her room where no one could see? How many times had she relived the battle in her mind, witnessing Flandre's demise over and over again while wondering how she might have prevented it? How many hours had she paced the halls of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, seeing even the slightest deviation from normal operations as a result of her own failure?

It was strange, that losing Flandre would be the cause of all this. After all, the unstable vampire girl had been, hands-down, the least useful member of the household. She produced nothing of worth, never made _anything _better, and seemed to exist only to be pampered and tucked away in the basement. Furthermore, her insanity and overwhelming power made her an extreme liability. A ridiculous amount of money had gone into fortifying the lower levels against her frequent temper tantrums, and whenever she was permitted to come up, it was with the knowledge that one shift of her mood could potentially result in shattered walls and spilled blood. With all that in mind, her loss, as tragic as it might be, might on some level be considered a relief, the removal of a heavy burden. And yet the household was falling apart as a result.

Patchouli supposed that was what they called love.

With a sigh, she realized what she was about to do. Of course, she had to be the one to do it. After all, who else would?

"Excuse me, please," she said, pushing her way past Sakuya.

Sakuya snapped out of her trance. "And where do you think you're going?" she demanded.

"I'm going to do what you should have done weeks ago. Now, if you had ever cared for her as anything other than a boss, you will _stand aside!" _

Sakuya said nothing. Patchouli marched inside, not sparing the maid another look.

She made her way through the mansion, taking her course higher and higher, up over the winding staircases until she finally reached the topmost level and stood before the wooden door that led to the clock tower.

Despite her commitment to her course, Patchouli hesitated before opening the door. After all, while necessity demanded her actions, offending an emotionally unstable vampire, especially one as strong as Remilia, was always hazardous, even to one as powerful as Patchouli. And seeing how the Scarlet Devil Mansion was Remilia's place of power, the odds did not favor the magician should things come to a contest of strength.

Still, there was no backing out now. Patchouli opened the door.

Inside, the hundreds of gears that moved the clock's hands revolved endless against each other, many of them hovering in the air with no visible means of support. Patchouli ignored them and looked up, at the rafters.

"Remilia?" she called. "Remilia Scarlet! Come down here, young lady! We need to talk!"

A sharp wind, bitter cold, howled down from the ceiling. Patchouli winced and held onto her cap as it tore at her heavy robes. "Enough of this childish behavior!" she snapped.

"_Go away!" _hissed a voice like dead leaves.

"No! Not until you pull yourself together and start doing your duty!"

There was a thin shriek of anger, and something small dropped from the roof to lunge at Patchouli's neck. The magician, who had been expecting such an attack, merely lifted up her hand and muttered a ward. A massive, encircled six-pointed star blinked to life directly in front of her. The falling figure collided with the barrier and rolled into a wheezing heap on the floor.

Patchouli stared. She had known that Remilia's condition had suffered due to her self-imposed isolation, but she hadn't known that it had been _this _bad. Her skin had withered and now stretched tightly over her skeleton. Her once fine clothing now hung in filthy tatters to her bony frame. Stringy blue hair, caked with dust and spiderwebs, hung about her wide, yellow-red eyes, and her fingernails, usually perfectly manicured, were now nibbled to ragged nubbins.

Suddenly Patchouli felt her anger giving way to pity. It was difficult to maintain any genuine ire toward this pathetic creature. Remilia was showing definite signs of Stage One Blood Starvation. If allowed to progress, her condition would deteriorate until she was little better than a zombie that craved blood instead of brains.

However, hugging her and whispering "Poor baby" wasn't what Remilia needed at this point. Patchouli recalled how Remilia had let herself to descend to this state, summoned up as much contempt as she could, and said, "Remilia Scarlet, just look at yourself! What are you trying to accomplish?"

Still wheezing, Remilia spat out a gob of yellow mucus, looked up at Patchouli with eyes full of resentment and gargled, "Leave me alone!"

"And let you continue to destroy yourself?" Patchouli demanded. "The great Scarlet Devil, reduced to a weak and filthy madwoman, lacking even the sense to pick herself up out of the dust!"

"Go!" Remilia slashed out in Patchouli's direction. "I…I deserve this!"

"Oh, so it's shame that drives you to do this? Guilt? Perhaps by suffering, you hope to atone for your sins?" Patchouli shook her head. She was now finding it less difficult to feel contempt for the vampire. "Pathetic. You and I both know better. You know this has nothing to do with Flandre."

The sound of her dearly departed sister's name seemed to ignite a fire within the fallen vampire. "You!" Remilia practically screeched as she scrambled to her feet. "You dare…speak her name…"

"That's the second time today that someone's had the nerve to be offended that I spoke the truth," Patchouli said. "And yes, I do. Because you're not doing this as a means of penance. No, you're making this about you, like you always do. It isn't enough for you to quietly mourn and come to terms with what has happened. You have to go and make some grand gesture, turn yourself into the dark, tragic figure, secluding yourself in the clock tower as an outward expression of grief. Yes, it's all very dramatic. But tell me, Remi. Where has that gotten you, hmmm? And how, exactly, will this help Flandre?"

"You don't understand!" Remilia cried. Tears flowed freely from her eyes as she implored Patchouli. "You _can't _understand! It's all my fault! She died because of me!"

Patchouli sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes. She wouldn't have been there if it hadn't been for your thickheaded idea to blackmail Yukari Yakumo. We know. But are you really so self-centered so as to claim all the blame for yourself? After all, was it not I, with some marginal assistance from Sakuya, that created the beast that jumpstarted this whole catastrophe to begin with? Was it not Yukari that insisted that Flandre be used as a weapon? And further to the point…"

Patchouli marched straight up to Remilia, bent over and jabbed at the wasted vampire's chest with her finger. "Whose hand was it that pierced Flandre's heart? Why, I do believe it was _Yuuka Kazami's! _But no, let's forget all that. Let's declare the whole thing to be wholly your doing, despite the fact that it flies in the face of all logic!"

"Don't you dare touch me!" Remilia cried, swatting Patchouli aside.

Patchouli flew through the air to smash into a cluster of floating gears. The machinery proved to be more resilient than the magician's soft body, and Patchouli slumped to the ground, dazed by the impact. _That _hadn't been expected. Even in the state she was, Remilia's strength was still substantial.

"You…you stupid, stupid bookworm!" Remilia hissed as she staggered over to where Patchouli lay. "Acting like you're so smart. But you know what you are! A nerd! A stupid, know-it-all _nerd!"_

Despite the pain Patchouli's back was in, she felt more aggravation than anything. Had things really become this stupid? Whining and name calling?

"All right, that's enough," she growled. She held out her right hand. There was a blinding flash, and it was Remilia's turn to fly backward.

"You can knock me around all you want," Patchouli said as she rose unsteadily to her feet. "You can scream, pout, throw things, I don't care. And you can remain locked up in this tower, tearing your ears apart every time the bells strike a new hour, letting yourself waste away into a skeleton. But that will solve nothing! Yuuka will still have Flandre in her clutches, to mold into anything she pleases, and you will have done nothing to prevent it!"

"Or!" she said, before Remilia had a chance to recover enough to retort. "Or, you can get your act together. You can get over yourself. You can halt the decay that has set in, become the Scarlet Devil once again, and you can go to Yuuka Kazami, tear your sister out of her hands, and show that botanical lunatic what happens to those who humiliate Remilia Scarlet!"

Remilia stared up at her, her mouth slightly open. Patchouli wasn't sure how much of an effect her words were having, but Remilia was listening. Yes, she was listening

Patchouli knelt down next to the little vampire. "We've been friends for a long time, Remilia," she said softly. "And I know we irritate each other constantly. But I also know how much you love Flandre, and it hurts me to see you like this. So please, get over your self-absorbed pity party. Pull yourself together, and become the woman who won my respect and loyalty to begin with."

Remilia let out a choking sob. Her withered shoulders shook as she doubled over.

And then she grabbed Patchouli in a fierce embrace. The magician almost recoiled at the sudden physical contact, but stifled the impulse just in time.

"Why couldn't I do it, Patchy?" Remilia sobbed into her friend's shoulder. "Why couldn't I protect her?"

"Because you're a stuck-up, self-absorbed little idiot who constantly lets your ego drive you to make stupid decisions," Patchouli said as she gingerly put her arms around Remilia's frail body. "But I try not to hold that against you."

Remilia managed a shuddering laugh. "You're the one to talk."

"Touché," Patchouli sighed. "But that would make me qualified to call it when I see it, now wouldn't it?"

"I suppose so," Remilia said. She slowly drew back and blew her nose on Patchouli's sleeve. Patchouli grimaced but didn't protest. She just pointed a finger at the gob of thick mucus and disintegrated it. Then she helped Remilia to her feet.

Remilia faltered but managed to stand. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Don't apologize," Patchouli said. "Just promise me you'll stop moping, and we'll be even."

"Not about that! Well, yes, about that too, but I'm sorry. For hitting you."

"Forget it," Patchouli grunted. "One can't confront an emotional wreck of a vampire without expecting a few bruises."

"I mean before. You know, when this…all began."

Patchouli frowned. Then she blinked. "Oh, right. That." Truth be told, she had almost forgotten about that. "Well, you should be! But apology accepted. And, for what it's worth, I'm sorry for my part in creating the creature, endangering your sister during the containment attempt, and for using your home as its prison without your leave. Now, can we move past the tearful hugging and apologizing? It does not suit us."

"You are correct, it does not," Remilia laughed. "You're a good friend, Patchouli. More than I give you credit for." She closed her eyes and moved her face closer to Patchouli's arm. "And…your smell is…quite appealing-"

"All right, that's enough of that!" Patchouli cried as she shoved Remilia away. "If you're so starved that you crave _my _anemic blood, then you truly are in bad shape. May I suggest an alternative: you restrain your hunger for a few minutes longer, and we'll go downstairs and have Sakuya make you some breakfast? I assure you, you'll find that to be far more appetizing."

Remilia shuddered. "You are…correct, of course. My apologies."

"Glad we had that settled," Patchouli muttered. Still, as a precaution, she cast a quick spell that masked her scent. Remilia rolled her eyes but didn't protest.

Patchouli took Remilia by the hand and led her from the clock tower. The mansion seemed deserted as they passed through the upper levels. But when they reached the staircase that led down into the foyer, what they saw made them stop and stare.

The entirety of the mansion's staff was gathered in the room below. Dozens of fairy maids clustered together, whispering nervously. Koakuma and Tokiko were sitting in a corner together, caught up in some kind of argument. Hong Meiling paced back and forth in front of the front door. Sakuya stood at the foot of the stairs, looking worried out of her mind.

As soon a Patchouli and Remilia appeared, all conversation ceased. Everyone turned their heads upward to stare at the pair.

Remilia cleared her throat. "Well," she said, her voice raspy. "This is…Ah, I know I haven't exactly…"

And then the room burst out into thunderous applause. Dumbstruck, Patchouli and Remilia could only stand frozen as the fairy maids soared into the air, cheering loudly. Hong Meiling jumped up and pumped her fists. Koakuma and Tokiko clapped enthusiastically, relieved smiles on their faces.

As for Sakuya, she did not jump in place. She did not voice a cheer. She didn't even clap her hands. She simply marched straight up the stairs until she was standing in front of the pair. She stared down at the wreck Remilia had become, her face a frozen mask.

Remilia blinked. "Sakuya, I-"

Sakuya lunged. She seized Remilia by the arms, pulled her fully off the ground and smothered her in a crushing embrace. And, for the first time in her life, Patchouli saw Sakuya Izayoi cry.

Everyone started cheering again. Caught up in their tearful reunion and whispering apologies to each other, Sakuya and Remilia didn't even notice.

Patchouli sighed. "You're quite welcome," she said. When this failed to elicit a response, she shrugged and made her way down the stairs. Now that the Mistress had been saved, her thoughts were focused solely on her bed.

She didn't even get halfway before she was mobbed. Suddenly, she was crowded around on all sides by enthusiastic fairies, all falling over each other in their rush to congratulate her.

"I can't believe you brought her back!"

"Sakuya's not so scary anymore! Thank you!"

"Man, we thought she was going to eat you!"

"Did she turn you into a vampire too? Can youkai even become vampires?"

"You're so cool! Can I have your autograph?"

"Thank you, thank you," Patchouli groused as she tried to push her way through. "You're all too kind. Now, if you'll please let me through-"

That was when Tokiko and Koakuma each grabbed her by an arm. Before she could inquire as to their intentions, they lifted her off the ground and onto Hong Meiling's shoulders.

"Three cheers for Patchy!" Hong shouted to the crowd. "Hip-hip…"

"HOORAY!" the room roared.

As Hong paraded her through the gaggle of adoring fans and the chants, cheers and praises continued, Patchouli just groaned and buried her face in her hands. At this rate, she was _never _going to get her nap.

…

While the Scarlet Devil Mansion was busy pushing itself toward recovery, others were plunging headlong to potential disaster. Reimu Hakurei flew through the clear, spring sky, heading toward the Youkai Mountain will all speed. Next to her, Marisa Kirisame leaned forward on her broom, heading in the same direction.

It was a familiar state of circumstances: the two of them flying together to confront some sort of problem. However, the exact details of the incident were twisting Reimu's stomach into knots. Rushing forward to confront an unknown danger and save the day was familiar, almost routine, territory. Rushing forward to confront a known but completely unstable danger with the spirit of notorious serial killer locked away in its mind while everyone Reimu was supposed to be protecting got in her way and put themselves in danger in some sort of foolhardy attempt to be the hero that brings down the beast was something else entirely.

Reimu had been in this business a long time. As such, she had developed a sort instinctive sense that told her when she was going to have another bad day. And boy howdy, was it going off now.

Marisa maneuvered her broom within earshot. "So, what the plan?" she called.

"Plan?" Reimu asked.

"Yeah! You've got a plan, right?"

Reimu blinked. "Marisa, we only found out about this maybe ten minutes ago! Why in the hell would I have come up with a plan?"

"I dunno. I sure haven't, so I figured maybe you did, ze!"

"Since when have I ever had a plan?" Reimu demanded. "Most of the time we just show up and make it up as we go along!"

Marisa laughed. "Nothing wrong with that! The last plan I was part of was a complete disaster, and didn't get better until we started making shit up!"

"Right. Well, that's what your best at, right?"

Marisa flicked the brim of her hat and favored Reimu with a cocky grin. "Damned right, I am! Well, that and property damage."

Reimu sighed. "Just so long as you remember to stick with the former and ease up on the latter, we should be fine."

"I make no promises. But seriously, when we do find Satsuki, what do we do?"

"We…" Reimu sighed again. "Well, try to keep people away from her, try to keep her away from people, try to talk sense in her, try to beat sense into her if that doesn't work, and pretty much just make things up as we go along."

"Eh, I've heard worse ideas," Marisa said with a shrug. "Though you do realize that part of the-Hold up!"

Reimu looked up to see a fairy gang heading directly toward them. And, judging by the looks of almost maniacal glee on the little creatures' faces, the collision course was not accidental.

This was confirmed when hundreds of tiny bullets in yellow and green headed Reimu and Marisa's way.

Moving as if linked by a single mind, Reimu and Marisa spun around the hail of danmaku and separated, Marisa heading above the cluster of tiny fairies while Reimu swooped low. Before the fairies even realized that they had missed, they found themselves under attack as Reimu strafed them from below with a flurry of explosive ofuda charms. This sudden show of opposition incited a mass panic within the gang's internal structure, and the fairies flew this way and that, crashing into each other in their mad rush to escape.

Unfortunately for them, that was when Marisa made her move.

A swarm of shooting stars rained down from above, sparkling in a myriad of colors, trailing their glittering tails behind them. It was all very pretty, but as they fell among the fairies, they exploded, showering their victims with destructive sparks. When the smoke cleared, nothing remained but falling fairy dust.

That done, Reimu and Marisa reunited, and as that brief scuffle was so routine that it didn't even merit mentioning, Marisa simply picked up where she had left off: "You do realize that part of the problem is that we gotta find Satsuki before we do any of that, right?"

"I know," Reimu said. "But I really don't think that's going to be a problem."

"Yeah?" Marisa looked at her quizzically. "And how are you planning on doing that, ze?"

Reimu shrugged. "Same way I always find you. Just follow the explosions."

…

Humming to herself, Sanae tipped the bowl full of batter into the waffle iron, filling the tiny grooves with the pale ooze. At her side, Suwako stood on a stool and flipped the omelets with a spatula.

Breakfast was always an early affair at Moriya Shrine. After all, many of their worshippers were early risers, and it would be bad business not to be ready to accommodate them. However, Kanako had always been a slow riser, so, per tradition, she sat at the table while Sanae and Suwako prepared the meal, sipping a cup of coffee while her half-lidded eyes scanned the daily news.

As she set the griddle's lid over the batter, Sanae glanced over to her goddess. "Anything about the attack?"

Given the disconnected manner of its communities and the sheer size of the Wilds, news tended to move slowly, at least in an official format. Gossip, however, was bound by no such restrictions, and Kanako's status as the matriarch of two of Gensokyo's major civilizations meant that she was privy to sensitive information before it was made public, sometimes even before the likes of Aya Shameimaru and her rivals could get their hands on it. At any rate, word of what had gone down in the Ancient City had reached Kanako hours after it had occurred. Especially since she already had all of her informants keeping their ears to the ground for any news concerning Rin Satsuki.

Kanako yawned as she looked up from the paper. "In a sense," she said. "I really have to give Aya credit for even _hearing _about it, just like I need to find out who her snoops are so I can have them arrested." She tossed the morning's copy of the _Bunbunmaru _aside. "But really, the whole thing reads more like an advertisement for that ridiculous bounty, and made the oni seem like competition for the hunters." She groaned and massaged her forehead with her fingertips. "As if those people don't have problems enough."

"So you're going to do what you said?" Suwako asked. "And help with the rebuilding efforts?"

Kanako shrugged. "I see no reason why not. A show of good faith never hurt anyone, and this country is starved for neighborly support. And let's be honest: the more damage we can prevent from this disaster, the better."

"Though," she said, tapping her lower lip in thought, "come to think of it, maybe this isn't so much as a disaster as an opportunity making itself known. If we can build up enough support in the Underground, we might be able to start gathering faith from there as well. Perhaps even expand the franchise. I've been thinking about building a sister shrine for some time now, and the Ancient City might be the perfect place-"

An oven mitt flew through the air to hit her in the head. "No!" Suwako declared, hopping off her stool and jamming her tiny fists onto her hips. "No exploiting horrible disasters for personal gain! We've already talked about this!"

Kanako blinked in surprise. She looked up, her pupils narrowing to reptilian slits. Apparently sensing another argument brewing, Sanae tiptoed toward the corner of the kitchen, ready to get out of the way.

Indeed, Kanako was ready to start debating the point, but after a few seconds of careful consideration she thought better of it. "Eh, okay. You've got a point," she grumbled, taking another sip of coffee. "Maybe that was a little heartless."

Suwako relaxed. "Just a little," she said, getting back onto the stool and returning her attention to the eggs. "Though you still haven't answered the fifty-million yen question."

"And what might that be?"

"The fact that it was Rin stinking Satsuki that started the rumble in the first place," Suwako said, gesturing with her spatula. "What are planning on doing about that?"

Kanako frowned. "But she's not there anymore."

"So? She's still been driven out of hiding. And you told Reimu that you'd help fix the girl."

Kanako cocked an eyebrow. "I said _help_, not jump headlong into a brawl. This isn't a problem that's going to be solved by making a bad situation even-"

The rest of her sentence was cut off by the sound of a loud _crash _coming from outside, as if a comet had just hit. The shrine maiden and her two goddesses stared at each other as they wondered what in the world that had been. Then, as one, they all rushed for the front door.

The top of the Youkai Mountain was often covered by thick clouds in the morning, which meant the entirety of the shrine grounds were covered with swirling fog. However, as the mystery object had come down right in front of the house, they had no difficulty making it out.

The comet comparison now seemed even more appropriate. A burning trench, at least seven feet long, had been scoured through the gravel path. But the object that was stumbling its way out of the trench was no chunk of extraterrestrial mineral. It was a woman, and a very strange one at that. The glowing lavender eyes and talon-like fingers could be dismissed as standard youkai equipment. However, the aura of black, red, and purple was a bit more noteworthy. As were certain facial features.

Kanako was nothing but intelligent. And her memory was exceptionally good. She had already met Kaguya Houraisan in person, and had seen pictures of Rumia of the Darkness and Fujiwara no Mokou. And given that who her mind was already focused on, it did not take much to start drawing certain conclusions about their surprise trespasser.

"_Stupid mountain," _the woman grumbled to herself. Her voice sounded like rusted cans. _"Why do you have to be so hard to see anyway?"_

Then she looked up and saw Kanako, Sanae, and Suwako staring at her.

"_Oh," _she said, her head jerking back in surprise. Her eyes flitted from one face to the other. _"Er, s-sorry about your…" _she glanced at the still-flaming rut, _"…ground. Couldn't see where I was going, you know? So, ah, I'll just be getting out of your hair, 'kay?"_

"Rin…Satsuki?" Kanako said, her hesitation coming not from uncertainty but from disbelief that this individual would show up in such dramatic fashion at her front door.

At the sound of the name, both Suwako and Sanae stared at the elder goddess in shock, but she didn't pay them any mind. Her attention was focused on the strange woman standing before her, who was also staring at her in shock.

"_Oh," _the woman said. _"Er…uh oh."_

Then, before anyone could say anything, the woman was already back in the air and flying away in panic.

Sanae immediately moved to follow, but Kanako grabbed her by the shoulder. "Where do you think you're going?" she demanded. "Have you lost her mind?"

"But…that's her!" Sanae protested, pointing at the sky. "Rin Satsuki!"

"I think we've figured _that _part out," Suwako said. She seemed transfixed by the burning gouge Satsuki had left behind.

"We can't let her get away!" Sanae said.

"I never said we were," Kanako said. "But just running after her is suicide! Remember what's happened to everyone who's tried?"

"But I can't just stay here and do nothing!"

"She's right, Kanako," Suwako said. "You can't stick her on the sidelines this time."

"Who ever said I was going to? I'm just trying to reduce the number of people doing stupid things!"

"Then-"

Kanako looked down at Sanae's pleading face and sighed. "Look, if you want to do something so badly, go and find Reimu and have her get her little keister over here. This is her pet project, so she can come deal with it herself. And while you're doing that, keep an eye out for the _Palaquin. _I heard it's patrolling the area, and we can use Captain Murasa's help as a deterrent. But, under no circumstances, are you to try to confront Rin Satsuki. That's an order. Understand?"

"Got it!" Sanae leapt into the air and shot off. To Kanako's relief, it was the opposite direction from the one Satsuki had taken. She didn't really think Sanae would disobey a direct order, but she didn't like to make assumptions.

Suwako scratched her chin. "Why not just send that snake of yours to get Hakurei?" she asked. "It'd be quicker."

Kanako grunted. "This early? It'd take him half an hour just to wake up. Besides, the further Sanae is away from this mess, the better. And hopefully it'll all be over before she gets back."

"You don't really believe that, do you?" Suwako said with a laugh.

Kanako didn't, but she wasn't about to admit that. "As for you," she said to the little frog goddess, "head down to Boss Tenma and wake him up. Have him mobilize the Hanataka to act as crowd control. We'll need all the help we can get to keep people away from Satsuki. And after that, head over to the Kappa Village and see if you can't scare up the Head Engineer and get her help. Same rules apply. Crowd control, no direct confrontation. I don't want so much as a fairy going anywhere _near _Satsuki."

Suwako shrugged. "No problem. But what are you planning on doing?"

Kanako aimed a kick at Suwako's rump. "Just get going."

…

Unfortunately for Kanako, Sanae's errand to Hakurei Shrine did not keep her away from the action nearly as long as she had hoped. After all, Reimu and Marisa were already well on their way, and Sanae met them when they were a little more than two-thirds of the way there. An exchange of information quickly followed, and soon all three were heading back toward the Youkai Mountain and the surrounding area.

As they flew, Reimu peppered her fellow shrine maiden with questions. "Did she seem threatening in any way? I mean, did she look like she wanted to attack you?"

Sanae shook her head. "Well, no, actually. She looked like she got lost in the clouds and ran into us by mistake. In fact, as soon as Kanako figured out who she was, she got out of there as fast as she could."

"Humph," Marisa grunted. "Well, that's _kinda _promising. At least she hasn't gone _full _psychopath."

"Which may change if people keep shooting her," Reimu warned.

"Well, obviously. Hell, wouldn't you?"

Reimu would, actually. Which was the main reason she wanted to get there before things again spiraled out of control. "What about the bounty hunters?" she said to Sanae. "Will Kanako be able to control them?"

"Probably. She'll give it her best shot, definitely. I can't promise that nobody will get in the way, but she'll be able to keep the worst of the rabble away."

"About the best we can hope for," Reimu muttered. She took a deep breath. "Okay, here we go."

It didn't take long for them to cover the rest of the distance, and soon they were speeding around the side of the Youkai Mountain, searching the surrounding forests and fields for any sign of the inevitable conflict.

"Shouldn't you be gone by now?" Reimu said as they swung past the Waterfall of Nine Heavens. "I'm pretty sure Kanako doesn't want you anywhere near this mess."

Sanae grimaced. "I know. But I'm not just going to sit in my room and hide. Just because I can't get directly involved doesn't mean I won't keep an eye on things."

"That's gonna get a little difficult when Satsuki sucks them right out of your skull," Marisa noted. "I guess you can always keep an ear on things. Or nose. Hey Reddie, yah think Satsuki will leave her nose alone, ze? Maybe all the snot will keep her away. Unless she likes to suck that too, you never know."

"You're not helping," Reimu told her as Sanae rolled her eyes. "Also, ew. Can you please knock it off with the disgusting wisecracks and concentrate on looking for-"

They swung around a stone outcropping, revealing a small valley ringed by a range of hills.

"-any sign of…Oh, hello."

The three girls came to a stop. The Hanataka hovered at attention above the hills. Their polearms were held stiffly in front of them, and their masks conveyed the grimness of the situation. Down in the valley, a mass evacuation was taking place, as dozens of fairies, youkai, a few Humans and various other entities were being herded out by several Kappa equipped with weapons that Reimu couldn't even begin to describe.

Marisa whistled through her teeth. "Guess this is the place, ze. But _damn, _Kanako works fast!"

"I'll say," Reimu said in appreciation.

"Thank you," Sanae said. "And you're welcome."

Reimu didn't even bother with a witty comeback. Credit where was credit was due, Kanako had come through. If this was what the resources possessed by her allies afforded her, then perhaps she should start taking advantage of them more often. That is, of course, assuming that they weren't successful in bringing Rin around today. But she wasn't nearly so optimistic to expect something like that.

"So where do you think this is?" Marisa gestured down at the valley. "I mean, what if she's gone underground again?"

"I think Kanako has already prepared for that possibility," Sanae said. "After all, the Kappa have state-of-the-art excavation equipment."

"Since when does several tons of dynamite count as 'state-of-the-art'?" Reimu muttered as she scanned the scene. She didn't really expect to spot Rin from the air, but perhaps she could pick out one of those taint trails she was always leaving. "Still, this is gonna be a whole lot easier without the riffraff getting in the-"

Marisa suddenly seized Reimu by the arm, her fingers digging tightly into the muscle.

"Ow!" she cried, wrenching her arm free. "The hell was that for?"

And then she got a good look at Marisa's face.

Over the many years of their friendship, Reimu had grown to know the expressions that the young witch was most comfortable wearing. Cockiness was a common sight, as was arrogance, mischievousness, greed, anger, and sometimes outright lunacy. On occasions, rare as they were, Marisa would soften and emote such things as concern, chagrin, and even compassion. Those didn't happen often, but Reimu had seen them enough times to confirm that they existed.

However, she could probably count on one hand the times she had seen Marisa display outright shock. Not surprise, but pure, white-faced astonishment, as she was now.

"Uh, Marisa?" Reimu said. "What…"

Then she looked at Sanae, who was likewise staring in the same direction as Marisa, her jaw hanging open and eyes popping out.

Marisa pointed a shaking finger and said something that sounded like, "Uhbuhbwah."

While Reimu was unfamiliar with the phrase "Uhbuhbwah," the sentiment was clear. She turned, readying herself for what promised to be something big, something completely horrible, something that was going to ruin everything.

And when she saw what it was, Reimu own face when white as a sheet as she joined her friends in slack-jawed staring.

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia watched grimly through Rin's eyes as the Kappa and Tengu scurried through the air and the ground, clearing the valley of all its occupants. Rin had taken shelter in a thicket, and though the surrounding foliage kept them out of sight, they still had a good view of what was going on around them.

"What are they doing?" Rin wondered out loud. "Why aren't they looking for us?"

"Isn't obvious?" Rumia muttered. "They're getting everyone out of the way so they can cage us in. Duh." After a brief moment of reconsideration she added, "That, or they're going to just drop a bomb on us. Hey, how are you at surviving bombs?"

"Pretty good," Rin said, though her heart obviously wasn't in it. "But it's not fun. So, any ideas?"

Rumia shot her a sidelong look. "That cave of slugs is miles away, dumbass. Go _down."_

Rin whimpered. "But every time I do-"

"Things go bad, yeah. But just sitting here is suicide. And going straight up," Rumia pointed at the Tengu warriors taking position in the air, "ain't the best idea either. So just close your eyes when you start digging. That way, if we go through anyone, you won't know."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," Rin hissed. "I told you, I'm not…Wait…"

"What?" Rumia said. Then she looked at the screen and promptly forgot how to speak.

There was something entering the valley, something that was sending the Tengu into a frenzy. They shook their polearms at it and tried warding it off with blasts of danmaku. It paid them no mind as it plodded up and over the hills.

It had to be at least thirty feet tall and made from what looked like polished bronze, though in this day and age Rumia would not be surprised if it turned out to be some sort of magical new alloy. Its body was compose of three components: a huge, oval back section studded with blinking lights and smoke-belching exhaust ports, a small middle section that contained a spinning radar dish, and at the front of the whole contraption was a single unblinking red eye. The thing strode forward on eight thin, multiple-jointed legs that extended out of the middle section, four to each side.

"Rumia?" Rin said in a small voice.

"Uh…Huh?"

"Is that…Is that a giant one-eyed metal spider?"

Rumia took a deep breath. Oh yes, this was going to be painful. "Yes Rin. That is indeed a giant one-eyed metal spider."

…

Rika Asakura hunched over the Strutter's technical readouts, watching for any sign of deviating from the safe zone. "Come on, baby," she muttered. "Keep it together."

"Don't worry so much," Rikako said. "She's passed every test so far."

"Shut up, you'll attract the jinx gods," Rika hissed.

The two of them sat in the Strutter's cramped cockpit, surrounded by the various switches, buttons, and levers required to keep it going. Thus far, it had made the journey from the Human Village without trouble, which was a heartening sign. Still, since this was the Strutter's maiden voyage, Rika found herself fretting over every unexpected groan.

Still, Rikako had been correct. The Strutter was their greatest creation thus far, surpassing even their previous magnum opus, the Evil Eye Sigma, which had been wrecked by none other than Reimu Hakurei a few years back. Not wanting to allow something so beautiful go to waste, the Asakura sisters had salvaged the Sigma and had reconverted it into the Strutter's cockpit. Rika considered it a rebirth of sorts.

But now that they were actually taking it into battle, and it was taking a grand effort of willpower for Rika not to gnaw away at her fingernails. Her brown eyes flitted from one gauge to the other, convinced that at any second they would all dip into the danger zone.

"Rika," Rikako suddenly hissed. "Problem."

Rika's heart leapt into her throat. "What? What? What broke?"

"Nothing! But I think those guys want to change that."

Rika looked up to see several Tengu wearing weird masks and carrying gleaming bladed sticks putting themselves in the Strutter's path. They kept shouting and making threatening gestures with their weapons.

"I think they want us to leave," Rikako said.

"Yeah, no shit," Rika snorted. "Well, guess we found the competition." She reached up to pull down three levers. "Let's clean up the playing field."

…

"I, er, duwhat?" Sanae said, unable to articulate further than that.

"Reimu, be honest with me here," Marisa muttered to the shrine maiden. "Did I fall off the wagon with the mushrooms again? It's okay to be honest, I won't be offended."

Reimu rubbed her eyes, blinked several times, and looked again. Nope, the giant bronze spider with a huge eyeball fixated to its front was still marching into the valley. "If you did, I'm in the same boat here. I mean, holy wow. Where in the hell did-"

Then she frowned. "Waitaminute, I've seen that thing before!"

"You have? Ha! I knew you were getting into my mushrooms."

"No, I'm serious! The Asakuras had that thing sitting in their workshop!"

Sanae blinked. "The Asakuras? You mean those nutty inventors from the Human Village?"

"Yup," Reimu nodded. "I was the one who gave them Yukari's summons. You know, for that Ringleader thing?" She motioned toward the many-legged contraption. "They were working on it when I showed up."

"Guess they finished it," Marisa observed, rubbing her chin. "You think they're here for the little snot-ball too?"

"I'd be very surprised if they were just taking their pet abomination for a walk," Reimu said. She took a deep breath. "Okay, this is all kinds of bad. We gotta get that thing out of here, before-"

The monolithic arachnid suddenly stopped plodding forward. Tiny openings appeared all along its carapace, and a barrage of rockets shot forth in bursts of smoke and fire. The Hanataka immediately scattered as the rockets exploded in their midst.

"Well, there goes our crowd control," Sanae muttered as the Hanataka hightailed away from the monstrosity. She glanced down at the valley itself to see that the Tengu were not alone in their desire to be elsewhere. "And there goes the Kappa. So much for discipline."

"Normally I'd agree, but in this case, I really can't blame them," Reimu said. Her shoulders heaved with a heavy sigh. "Well, I guess we'd better get to work taking that thing out before-"

Sanae screamed.

Reimu spun around, ready for immediate action. She expected to see her fellow shrine maiden under attack, but Sanae was fine. She was, however, once again staring at the valley with her mouth agape and her eyes bulging out of her skull.

"Oh, oh shitting bricks," Marisa said, her eyes fixated in the same direction as Sanae's. "Hey Reddie, you gotta see this. The crazy train has just jumped the tracks, ze."

Fearing the worst, Reimu looked. And then her brain once again locked up.

There was a _second _several story metal monstrosity striding into the valley, this one of a humanoid shape. Its movement was far smoother than that of the Asakuras' spider, and it didn't release clouds of steam with every step. The sun glinted off its golden head, and its eyes glowed pink.

Sanae screamed again, and this time Reimu realized that the cry was not one of pain, fear, or warning, but a squeal of delight. "She did it!" Sanae sputtered. "Oh my gods, _she actually built it!"_

Marisa gasped. "Hold up! I've seen that thing before! Ain't that the-"

"Yes!" Sanae cheered. "It's the godsdamned _Hisoutensoku!"_

…

Nitori Kawashiro hung suspended in the center of the Hisoutensoku's cockpit. Thick cables and curling wires trailed in and out of the grey rubber full-body suit she wore. Her arms and legs slowly moved forward, imitating the motion of walking. Motion sensors in the suit captured her movement and sent the data through the cables and wires to the Hisoutensoku's hard drive, which in turn sent the command to the giant robot's limbs to copy her movements. A large visor covered her eyes. On it, a digital representation of whatever the Hisoutensoku was seeing was displayed before her, while smaller screens arrayed around the primary one gave her a 360 view of her surroundings.

It was her crowning glory, her proudest achievement, perhaps the greatest thing produced by a Kappa, period. It had also cost her a ridiculous amount of money, most of which she planned on recovering during today's little excursion. As such, she got to field test the Hisoutensoku and regain her lost expenses all in one go. It was about a beautiful setup as she could ask for.

The mic in her ear crackled, and Hunter's voice came through. _"Hey, big guy. Everything working okay?"_

"Perfectionly!" she said with a wide grin. "Everything working out ah-heys!" She quickly scanned the valley floor. "But no cans sees you, anyplaces! Wheres be you?"

"_Don't worry about me, I'm here. Just make sure you're ready when the fireworks start." _There was a brief pause, and then Hunter added, _"Which may be sooner than later. There's a bunch of Tengu that look like they want to get in the way, and it looks like they've got a lot of your kind helping them."_

"Eh?" Frowning, Nitori gave a brief mental command to scan for Tengu and Kappa lifesigns. Sure enough, there were a great deal of them in the valley she was approaching. And from the look of things, this wasn't a friendly gathering.

"_Yeah, I think the competition got here first," _Hunter said from wherever she was. _"Damn it. I just hope the bounty's not so important to them that they try to take your toy down."_

Nitori zoomed in on one of the Tengu, giving her a good view of its mask. Uh-oh. "Er, don't be thinkings dat dey's bounty hunterings. Lookie like dey be der Hanataka."

"_The who now? Wait, aren't they like…some kind of Tengu police force?"_

"Sometheres like dat…"

"_Crap," _Hunter hissed. _"The hell are they doing here? Yukari Yakumo said that the bounty was legal! Oh, shut up, I don't care. We're outside of Kanako's area of control anyway."_

Perplexed, Nitori said, "Who'yer talkings at?"

"_Never mind! Okay, hopefully they won't give us trouble, but if they do…Uh…"_

Nitori frowned and tapped the side of her helmet. Was the mic broken. "Hey, Hunter? Wherein you be?"

"_Er, sorry. But wow, you have got to see this. Look to the southwest."_

Nitori did so.

"_Holy bastard offspring of the gods," _Hunter said._ "I knew we had to worry about competition, but damn! I guess it's a good thing I teamed up with you after all, eh?" _

Nitori didn't reply. She had forgotten how.

After a few more moments had passed by, Hunter took notice of her partner's silence. She cleared her throat and said, _"Ah, Nitori? You still there?"_

"Uh…" Nitori said as she continued to gawk at the metal arachnid as it lurched its way into he valley. "…I dink so…"

"_Fantastic. Er, I really hate to press you, but that thing doesn't look friendly. And…Yup, it saw you."_

True enough, the spider's single glowing eye had focused on the Hisoutensoku. It stopped in its tracks, apparently as surprised to see Nitori's vehicle as Nitori was to see it.

However, its shocked stupor did not last long. With an angry puff of steam it started striding toward the Hisoutensoku. Two ball-joint forearms extended out from its underbelly, serrated pincers clanking. The challenge was clear.

"_Well, I can see where this is going," _Hunter muttered. _"All right, change of plans. I'm going to keep looking for Satsuki. Can you handle the arachnid?"_

Nitori snapped herself out of her own trance. She scowled and readied the Hisoutensoku's weapon systems. "Yeah," she said. "I gots dis."

…

"I thought that thing was a balloon!" Reimu shouted. "I'm _sure _it was a balloon! Just a big blow-up version of the Kappa Bazaar mascot! Why is it real now?

Sanae would not stop grinning. "Nitori Kawashiro always kept saying she would make it for real, but I never took her seriously. But…holy crap, she actually did it!"

"Nitori made that?" Marisa said, perking up. "Damn! Why didn't she give me one of _those _when we went underground, ze?"

"Because it wasn't made yet, genius. I don't think…"

Reimu's voice trailed off. The metal spider and the Hisoutensoku had noticed each other. And from the look of things, neither of them appreciated the other's presence.

The metal spider broke out into a lurching charge. As it neared, rockets shot forth to explode against the Hisoutensoku's armor. The giant humanoid staggered back. Then it recovered and swung out with a hand the size of a horse-cart, swatting the side of the spider's one-eyed head and knocking it to the side.

Oh, this wasn't going to be good. Even though she knew that it was a tremendously bad idea, Reimu grimaced and prepare to intervene. Maybe if she managed to get inside one of those things she could-

Sanae lunged forward to grab her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. Reimu struggled and shouted, "The hell are you doing!"

"Keeping you away from them!" Sanae shouted. There was something weird about her eyes. They were bulging wide and shining with something not unlike madness.

"Why?" Reimu demanded.

"It's a giant robot fight, Reimu! A giant robot fight!"

"_SO?"_

"And I know you!" Sanae cried. Her voice was cracking from emotion. "You'll try to break it up!"

Reimu gaped at her, unable to believe what she was hearing. She shot a look at Marisa, eyes pleading for some kind of assistance.

Marisa quirked an eyebrow. She glanced over to where the two behemoths were battling. The metal spider had recovered from the blow and was now using its pincers to hold back the Hisoutensoku's hands. In response, the Hisoutensoku simply drew back its right leg and kicked the spider right in the thorax. The force of its foot didn't quite lift the spider off the ground, but it was enough to send it stumbling back.

The witch shrugged. "She's got a point, Armpits. Some things just don't happen every day." She looked at Sanae and smirked. "Five thousand yen on the spider."

"Ha! You're on! The Hisoutensoku's gonna smash that thing like the bug it is!"

Reimu couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What's wrong with you idiots?" she cried as she tried to squirm out of Sanae's grasp. The other shrine maiden held on with a strength born from madness and desperation. "Someone's gonna get hurt!"

"Yeah, probably," Marisa said with a shrug. "But unless you have some kind of super robot remote control to turn them off, I can't really see any way to stop them. You know what they say: robos gonna rumble."

Reimu jabbed her elbow into Sanae's gut, forcing the other girl to let her go. "Fine!" she shouted as she flew towards the valley. "Stay here and take bets! I'm going down there to keep this from getting any worse!"

…

Rikako winced as the cockpit shuddered. "Status report!" she cried to her sister.

"Ah, ah," Rika said as she frantically scanned the readouts. "So far things are holding up!" she said. "But I wouldn't trust to hold together much longer."

Rikako nodded grimly. Remember the devastation that usually accompanied any of Satsuki's rampages, they had designed the Strutter to take quite the beating. And from the look of things, the extra armor was paying off. But Rika was right. Trusting in it to survive any long term pounding from that Kappa machine was not the best course of action.

"Okay, let's see what we can do to disarm them," she said as she flipped a line of switches. "Activating cutter chain!"

…

_Deep Within_

A tremor rumbled through the world of nothingness, knocking Rumia off her feet. "Rin!" she shouted as she tried to push herself back up. "I swear, if I find out that you're cursed for real, I'm going to kick your head in!"

"Get in line!" Rin shouted back, though she sounded just as panicked as her unwilling companion. "But seriously, this is stupid! Where did those things even come from?"

Rumia gave up on trying to stand and power-crawled her way toward Rin. "Run now, read about it in the newspapers later!"

"Okay," Rin said. "Here we go-"

A sudden screeching noise permeated the world inside Rin's mind. The two youkai girls winced and slapped their palms over their ears.

"What's that?" Rumia shouted.

"WHAT?"

"I SAID, what's-"

The view on the screen swung up, revealing the answer to Rumia's question. A bladed chain had shot out of the giant spider and had wrapped itself around the wrist of its humanoid opponent. The two-legged robot immediately started yanked back, trying to pull the spider of its feet, but that was where having eight legs came in handy. The spider kept its balance.

And then the chain was rapidly retracted.

"Oh boy," Rumia said as sparks flew and smoke appeared. "This is gonna-"

The chain snapped back, and the captured hand fell loose. It tumbled to the valley floor, narrowly missing flattening Rin by mere feet.

"Rin!" Rumia screamed. "Get-"

"I know, I know! Escaping!"

…

"Wha!" Nitori cried as the cockpit filled with flashing red lights and loud klaxons. "How dey does dat?"

There was a crackle of static. _"Nitori, the hell is going on up there?" _Hunter's voice demanded. _"You said you had things under control!" _

"Yeah, yeah, workings in this!" Nitori frantically struggled to bring the weapons back on line, but the fact that the spider was renewing its rocket barrage made things difficult.

"_Well, work faster, or you're…Oh, crap. _

"Eh?"

"_Nitori, look right behind the spider's butt. Satsuki's making a run for it."_

"Wha!" Nitori's head reflexively snapped up, though the action was unnecessary. Hunter was right. A glowing humanoid bearing some _massive _energy readings was shooting to the sky, right behind the arachnid's abdomen.

"Oi!" the Kappa said angrily. She held up her left arm. "No you not!"

…

Though Reimu managed to reach the site of the battle without being hit by a stray rocket, she still had no idea how to stop the two behemoths from destroying each other and everything in a mile's radius. They were most likely armored against danmaku and spellcards. Perhaps her original plan of trying to find her way into the place where they controlled the robots, the…dickpit, or whatever it was called? Of course, it did mean leaping right into the center of the battle, but she had been in some pretty intense firefights before…

Then the spider sawed off the Hisoutensoku's right hand. Reimu filed that idea under "Stupidly Suicidal" and tried to find another way to approach the problem, one that didn't involve her turning into a greasy little smear.

That was when a very familiar looking figure shot out of the forest and flew into the air, just behind the spider. Reimu's eyes boggled when she recognized Satsuki.

"Hey!" she said as she moved to pursue. "Wait!"

Unfortunately, the Hisoutensoku had seen her too. It held up its remaining arm and fired a shining harpoon connected to a thin, steel cable.

Nitori's aim was perfect. Satsuki was speared right through the belly. But the spider, apparently taking the gesture as an attack against itself, lunged up and grabbed the offending arm in its pincers and yanked it down, sending the Hisoutensoku sprawling. Caught up by the sudden motion, Satsuki was whipped around and slammed against the spider's carapace.

"No!" Reimu cried. "You idiots are only making it-"

That was when something thick, wet, and sticky struck her right arm. She had just enough time to look down and see her entire forearm covered in a thick grey mass attached to a tether that led down to the forest before her left arm was likewise ensnared.

A second later, Reimu found herself yanked down toward the ground. She flew back against the pull as hard as she could and managed to slow her momentum some, but still landed hard enough to stun her.

When her senses cleared, Reimu came to the sickening realization that her body was now fully wrapped up in the stuff, save for her head. Furthermore, she was hanging above the ground, pinned to a massive spider's web.

She heard snickering. Looking up, she saw a tarantula youkai with a black derby and a hideous quivering smile crouching on the opposite end of a web. Before she could speak, a katana came out of nowhere to press against her throat.

"I don't think so, shrine maiden," Meira hissed into her ear. "The bounty's ours."

…

_Deep Within_

"She _harpooned _me!" Rin cried as she clutched at her stomach. "I got harpooned!"

Rumia, whose attention was focused on the fact that they were now tumbling over the metal spider's bloated abdomen, said, "How the hell is that any worse than anything else that's happened to you?"

"It's still not any fun, dork!" Rin shot back.

"Well, whatever! Just absorb it or cut it off so we can get out of here!"

Rin called her a word that Rumia hadn't been unaware that she even knew, but fortunately she saw Rin's physical hands come into view on the screen. They burst into white-hot flames and seized the cable that was tethering them to the giant robot.

After a few seconds of this, Rin said, "Er, Rumia? Bad news."

Rumia buried her face in her hands. "What?"

"I…think it's fireproof."

"Then use something _else!"_

"Like what? Mokou's fire is the strongest thing I have that-"

The spider reared up and yanked down hard on the massive arm it had been gripping. The humanoid robot lost its footing and tumbled to one side. Unfortunately, this meant taking Rin with it.

"-WHOA!" Rin yelled as her physical body was dragged across the spider's body and over the side, heading right toward the robot's open hand.

…

"At last," Meira purred as she held the Hakurei shrine maiden's head down against the blade of her katana. "At last, you lie helpless against my sword."

"Hey! Meira!" Tony shouted impatiently. "Either kill her or don't! But let's hurry up and go before our prey gets away!"

Meira's temper flared. "Shut up, webspinner! I've waited years for this! I'm not just going to let this opportunity slip away!"

Despite her predicament, Reimu Hakurei seemed to be more confused than anything. "Er, yeah. Hey, sorry, but have we met?"

Meira's jaw dropped. "W-what?" she stuttered. "What do you mean? I'm one of your oldest enemies!"

A moment passed, and then Reimu shook her head. "Nope, sorry. That doesn't narrow it down at all."

"From, from the beginning!" Meira shouted. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "When you first started your youkai extermination career!"

"Still nothing."

"How can you just forget me?" Meira demanded, aghast at what she was hearing. "I was there, fighting you before anyone else!"

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Okay, look. Rika Asakura's up in that ugly, creaking thing, and you're definitely not Mima or Sariel. So unless you were just some pest I crushed on my way to something important, I really don't know what to tell you."

Meira was struck speechless. Granted, the shrine maiden had been the victor during their first (and only) previous encounter, but Reimu had just been a little girl at the time. Surely being attacked by a fully trained samurai had left some sort of impression.

"Uh, I tried to defeat you and take your power?" she pressed, desperate to jog some sort of memory. "And you…you were riding on a flying turtle?"

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that was pretty much my everyday life. Still is, only I mostly leave the turtle at home."

Despite his earlier insistence that Meira hurry, Tony seemed to be enjoying the spectacle. "Well, I really gotta say lass, you sure know how to leave an impression."

As for Meira, the frustration was pushing her dangerously close to tearing her hair out. "You…you thought I was coming on to you!" she very nearly screamed.

"Oh please," Reimu said in disgust. "Do you realize how many wannabe-seductress youkai I deal with each week? And seducers too, for that matter. It's like every single one thinks they can get at me by making defeating me sound like it's a form of rape or something."

"I'm not a youkai!" Meira screamed. She shoved down on Reimu's head, so that the skin of her neck touched the katana's blade.

"You're not?" Reimu said, completely heedless of how close she was to having her throat slit. "Well, no wonder I don't remember you! At least youkai make an effort to be at least halfway memorable."

Tony scratched his head. "Eh, you might wanna ease up a little there, girly. Meira ain't the scariest bloke around, but she is about five seconds away from cutting off your pretty little head."

"No, she isn't," Reimu said.

"What makes you so sure?" Meira demanded. "I could do it right now, and there's not a thing you can do to stop me!"

"Don't have to," Reimu said. "In fact, I really don't give a damn who you are or where I met you. I just wanted you focused on me so they could get close." Carefully moving her neck off the blade, Reimu tilted her head toward the sky.

Tony saw it first. "Oh, bloody hell," he said, the blood draining from his face.

Bewildered, Meira looked up to see two girls that she had never met in person but recognized instantly, thanks to their frequent appearances in the papers.

Sanae Kochiya, shrine maiden of Moriya Shrine, folded her arms and shook her head. "Well, isn't this pathetic," she muttered. She glanced to her companion. "So, which one do you want?"

The other, the notoriously destructive and unstable magician Marisa Kirisame, grinned in a manner that suggested imminent violence. "I'll take the spider. Reimu wants me to keep away from Humans, seeing how I almost killed the last group, ze." She tossed a wooden octagon into the air and caught it.

"Fair enough," Sanae said. She flicked the fingers of her right hand, revealing three spellcards.

Despite the sudden change in numbers, Meira did not flee. After all, she was twice the age of either of the girls, and thus far more experienced. And though they may have been unfairly blessed with inordinate amounts of power, she had training and discipline on her side. Perhaps she would walk away from this with more than Reimu Hakurei's power.

However, Tony did not share her optimistic views. "Fuck!" he shouted as he dived right off his web and scrambled into the underbrush.

"Hey!" Meira shouted after him, surprised that she had been abandoned. "Where are you going? We can take them!"

"Oh, you can, huh?" said Marisa Kirisame. She pointed that wooden octagon at Meira. White light started to glow at its center. "Alrighty then, let's see you prove it."

…

"Fall!" Rika screeched as she pounded at the weapons controls. "Why don't you fall, you stupid son of-"

"Hold it together!" Rikako snapped back. Her hands were wrapped around the levers that controlled the Strutter's arms as she tried to shoved the Kappa robot off its balance. "We've got it on the ropes! So don't lose your head now."

"Right, right," Rika seethed. Out of all the lousy luck. One would think, given how unadvanced most of Gensokyo's technology was, that by using a giant robot as their weapon of choice meant that they were going to go into battle unchallenged. But apparently great minds think alike, or someone had ratted their project out to the Kappa, which had spurred the slimy reptiles into making one of their own. Rika favored the latter theory.

At any rate, the fight was going well. While the other robot's humanoid shape gave it greater maneuverability and physical strength, the fact that the Strutter possessed multiple legs gave it better footing on the uneven terrain. And, at the moment, both leverage and gravity was working in their favor. Rika watched in maniacal delight as the Kappa robot pounded ineffectively on their armored carapace with its damaged arm as Rikako slowly pulled it off its feet.

"Come on, just a little further," Rikako muttered and she held onto the bucking controls. "Just a little-"

And then Rika noticed something tethered to the humanoid robot's remaining hand. "HOLY SHIT, THEY'VE GOT RIN SATSUKI!" Rika suddenly screeched.

Rikako's head whipped up. "What?"

"THERE!" Rika pointed. "RIGHT THERE!"

Rikako saw it then. A struggling person was attached to the other robot's wrist by a steel cable, one that it was busy trying to absorb. "Oh, no you don't!" Rikako shouted as she yanked at the controls. One of the Strutter's arms released its hold on the other arm to seize the cable. The pincer clamped down, severed the cable in half.

Unfortunately, the sudden loss of resistance allowed the humanoid robot to twist its arm fully out of the Strutter's grasp. It regained its footing and swung its arms away, taking Rin Satsuki with them.

"No!" Rikako cried. She readied the cutter chain for another shot, but before she could fire it off, the other robot squeezed its metal fingers into a fist, drew its hand back, and slammed it forward, catching the Strutter's cockpit in a massive uppercut that lifted it fully off the ground and nearly sent it falling backwards.

…

"Yesh!" Nitori cheered. "Be taking _dat, _you, you inferious steampunk piece of junk!" Into the mic, she added, "Hunter! Yous be seeing dis?"

"_Yes, most impressive," _Hunter said dryly. _"Unfortunately, you do seem to have lost our quarry."_

"Eh?"

"_Check your remaining hand, please."_

Nitori blinked and ran a quick diagnostic. The results were less than encouraging. "Hey!" she sputtered. "Satsuki gone what place?"

"_She seems to have dropped off, probably sometime between that uppercut and when the spider cut the cable. I'm looking for her now, but in the meantime I'd advise that you be careful. It seems that the lesser competition is trying to sneak in."_

The spider was trying to regain what passed for its senses. To its credit, the head had managed to stay on, though the blow had done damage, if the way its legs kept scratching at the ground, carving deep gouges into the ground, was any indication. Nitori kneed it in the chin and said, "Who be here?"

"_Mmmm, I count two shrine maidens, one witch, and a handful of nobodies."_

"Waiting now," Nitori said, feeling panic rise. "Does you means-"

"_Yes, _those _shrine maidens and _that _witch, I'm afraid. Fortunately, they're currently occupied with some of the riffraff. I'm keeping an eye on them. Meanwhile, I'd suggest you finish off the spider quickly. We can't afford any more distractions."_

"Yeah, yeah, I gotten dis," Nitori muttered. She turned her attention to the twitching and sparking spider. "Ah-hey den, hows you handling dis?"

…

_Deep Within_

Rin hunched forward, hands balled into fists and knuckles pressed against the sides of her head. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her teeth were bared in a grimace of exertion. She had managed to absorb the harpoon, but the cable was still attached.

Rumia, of course, found this tactic to be extremely stupid. "Rin, the harpoon's gone! Just push the rope out!"

"Trying," she muttered. "But it's sinking into my back, so yanking it out kinda hurts, you know?"

Rumia shot a nervous glance at the screen. While she was growing used to the constant terror, being tether to the arm of one metal giant while it battle another metal giant did not speak well of their chances of survival. "Well, bite the bullet and deal with it!" she said. "Because I bet getting crushed by those two will hurt a whole lot more!"

And then, to both of their great surprise, the problem was solved for them. The spider suddenly reaching toward them with one of its massive pincers. Rin and Rumia cried out and cowered, convinced that they were about to become stuck in the middle of a very painful game of tug-of-war.

But instead of seizing up Rin's physical body, the pincer instead went after the cable holding her in place, snipping it in two. The two youkai girls blinked and glanced at each other in surprise.

"Uh, okay," Rumia said. "Thanks, you huge, scary-"

The hand they were standing on swung back, dislodging its passenger. The girls screamed as Rin fell through open air. She slammed against the spider's shoulder and slid down its front, her talons digging gouges in the metal until she came to a stop.

"No!" Rumia shouted. "Bad place to stop, bad place to-"

And then a giant hand slammed into the robot and sending it staggering back, dislodging Rin yet again. She spun through the air between the combatting giants to slam headfirst into the ground between the humanoid behemoth's feet.

"Ugh," Rin muttered as she tried to shake off the stun of the impact. "Wha-"

And then the ground shook as the humanoid robot slammed its knee into the spider's chin. Metal crunched as both foot and arachnid came crashing down to the ground. Rin darted from side-to-side to avoid being crushed.

"What's _wrong _with these people?" she screamed as metal slammed into the earth from all around. "No way this can all just be because of me!"

"It's not!" Rumia said. Despite herself, she was starting to giggle from the sheer ridiculousness of it all. "This country is just full of stupid people with _way _too much power!"

As if to demonstrate that exact point, the spider disappeared.

Rin stopped scurrying around. She looked up.

The humanoid robot had somehow managed to wrap both of its arms around the thin part of the spider's abdomen and lifted it fully into the air. It straightened and held its captive aloft, rear end facing the sky and giant eye staring at the ground. Even if it was nothing more than a large machine, Rin could swear that she saw a look of fear in that eye.

"Oh my _gods," _Rumia whispered, her face going pale. "It's not gonna do what I think it's-"

It did. Joints screaming from the strain, the humanoid fell to its knees, piledriving the spider's face into the ground. Metal crunched, sparks flew, and electricity crackled along the spider's body.

Before it hit, Rin threw herself to one side, putting herself out of the way of the humanoid's knees. Then she had to skid to a stop and change direction to avoid running into the spider's head.

"Gotta get outta here, gotta get outta here," Rin muttered over and over as heavy metal rained down all around her. The shockwaves generated from the impacts threatened to bowl her over, and it seemed that everywhere she turned, another robot piece was slamming into the ground and missing her by mere meters.

At least this time Rumia wasn't screaming in her ear. In fact, the other youkai was being uncharacteristically quiet, which was a good thing. Right now, Rin needed all the concentration she could get.

Unfortunately, she was running out of time and room. The way the robots had fallen was forming an accidental cage around her, and given how ineffectual her fire had been against them, she didn't have high hopes of blowing her way out. Of course, she could always just dig her way out, but given how her previous subterranean experiences had gone, it wasn't a path she was eager to take.

However, from the look of things she might not have a choice. Rin's already grim face hardened further as she readied for what promised to be another disastrous escape route.

And then Rumia did something that took her by surprise: she said something useful.

"Legs."

Rin turned to her. "Legs?"

"Legs," Rumia repeated. Her eyes were nearly popping out of their sockets as she remained focused on the screen. "Robot legs."

And then Rin got it. There was one gap remaining, between the kneeling legs of the humanoid robot. It wasn't much. The impact had disturbed the ground, pushing it up to fill most of the space. But that wasn't much of an obstacle. Cutting through dirt was familiar territory.

There was a glimmer of sunlight between the top of the mound and the robot's pelvis. Rin focused on that glimmer. She centered all of her attention on that tiny gleam and shot forward. The destructive energies she had gained from Rumia's darker self surrounded her, and she tore through the dirt to shoot into the open air behind the robot.

"Aw yeah!" Rumia cheered. "Now, don't stop until-"

A sudden tearing pain cut through Rin's middle. She cried out and doubled over as her physical body fell forward to skid through the grassy dirt.

Somehow, the humanoid robot had noticed what she was doing and had pointed its remaining hand over its shoulder to hit her with a second harpoon. With a screeching whir, the steel cord started retracting, dragging her back to where the robots were still embracing.

"Oh crap," Rumia breathed. She shot a fearful glance at Rin. "Uh, Rin? Are you…"

Still shaking, Rin looked up at Rumia with pain-filled eyes. "I hate these people," she sobbed. "I really, really hate these people."

…

"_Nice shot," _Hunter said.

"Thankees," Nitori muttered. Truth be told, she was now more concerned with the obscenities her readings were now screaming at her.

As impressive as it had been, it seemed that picking that spider up and piledriving it back down had not been a good idea. The strain had nearly ruined the Hisoutensoku's knees, and its elbows weren't in the best shape either.

Fortunately, the spider had at least been taken out of the game. It lay unmoving in front of the Hisoutensoku. If worst came to worst, Nitori could always just salvage it for parts.

"You cans handlers der Satsuki?" Nitori said. "I is not moving anyplaces."

"_No? Figures. All right, just hold her still as best you can. And hey, those sensors of yours still working?"_

"Oi."

"_Great. Let me know if anything interesting shows up."_

…

Reimu stood still as Marisa use a wide-band but low-energy wave from her hakkero to disintegrate the web. "Just for the record," she said, trying not to fidget, "you two were still planning on helping me before those two morons showed up, right?"

"Eh," Marisa shrugged. "We figured you could handle yourself against a couple robots. But I guess a bug in a bowler and a wannabe samurai were too much for you."

"Hey, they caught me by surprise. And I still could've taken them."

"You're welcome. Now, hold still." Marisa half-closed one eye and stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth as she concentrated on freeing the remainder of Reimu's back. "What did you do to that lady anyway?"

"Got me. I deal with troublemakers like her all the time." Enough of the web had been cleared away for Reimu to pull herself free. She stood up and picked more of the sticky strands out of her hair. "I guess she just took it personally."

Sanae said, "You should've invited her to tea afterward. That usually does the trick."

Marisa snorted. "Yeah, like we need any more members of _that _club. But now that Reimu's untangled, there's something we kinda need to address, ze."

She pointed toward the two, some meters away. The Hisoutensoku still knelt with its handless arm wrapped around the spider's middle, and the spider still lay facedown in its embrace. The Hisoutensoku still moved, however feebly, indicating that the Kappa inside had survived, but the aside from the odd twitch of the legs, the spider was motionless.

Reimu grimaced. She wasn't sure what the exact odds of the Asakura sisters having survived that, but they couldn't be good. She imagined forcing the cockpit open, only to find two mangled bodies lying broken among the sparking wires and twisted metal.

"Well, one thing's for certain," Sanae said as she stared at the mechanical carnage. "You owe me five thousand yen."

Marisa flicked a handful of stardust at her. "Get serious. I've seen those enough of those…what'cha call 'em again? Those illusions with stories on that clunky screen?"

"What, anime?" Sanae said, sounding slightly offended. "And what do you mean, 'clunky'? That's a seventy-two inch plasma-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Seen better from the Kappa. But anyway, you've shown me enough so that I know that when two big-ass robots throw down, it ain't over until one explodes, ze."

Unable to counter such logic, Sanae's face fell. "Okay, so maybe you have a point there, but it's really inevitable at this point. There's no way it's getting up from-"

The subject of their conversation finally cut through Reimu's dumbstruck mind. "What's _wrong _with you two?" she nearly screamed at them. "The Asakuras might be dead, and all you two care about is who won your stupid bet? I mean, come on! I'd expect this from wild youkai, but…"

Sanae winced at that and mumbled something that might have been an apology. Marisa, however, simply shrugged and said, "Hey, some of my best friends are wild youkai. Besides, I didn't make them get inside several tons of metal and go all apeshit on the Hisoutensoku."

Reimu shot her a disgusted look. She turned away to head toward the scene of devastation.

With an exasperated sigh, Marisa said, "All right, all right, let's go check to see if the idiots survived. Don't expect me to be overflowing with sympathy though."

"Oh, give me a break," Sanae said. "You know if someone asked you to drive that thing and fight another giant robot, you'd do it."

"In a godsdamn second," Marisa agreed amiably. She mounted her broom and took off after Reimu, who was trying very hard to ignore her companions. "I'm just pissed that they got flattened so freaking quickly, ze."

Sanae fell into place beside her. She looked around. "Hey, speaking of which, what happened to that ugly spider with the hat and the stupid woman with the sword?"

"Them?" Marisa shrugged. "Don't know, don't care. If they have any brains at all, they'd have already gotten their asses out of this valley and as far away as possible."

…

Her clothes torn and singed and tears streaming from her eyes, Meira half-ran, half-limped toward a copse of evergreen trees, the closest thing to cover she could see. She kept trying to summon up the energy to take to the air, but her injured leg was dragging her down.

It wasn't fair. She could have beaten them, had Tony not deserted her. And she needed to win today. She _deserved _to win. The eyes of her ancestors were upon her, demanding victory. Without victory, there would be no redemption.

Reaching the copse, she collapsed against one of the trees and slumped to the ground. Sobs of humiliation threatened to rise up, but she refused to release them. No, she wouldn't be beaten. She was a samurai, not a loser. Samurai were not losers.

"Well, that went about as well as I expected."

Meira glowered through tear-blurred vision at Tony, who was standing perched halfway up a nearby, his feet pressed flat against the trunk to hold him up and his arms folded over his striped shirt. His quivering teeth were bared in a horrid grin.

"That's because you _abandoned _me!" she shouted up at him. "We could've won if you hadn't been such a coward!"

This accusation was met with a bark of harsh laughter. "You serious, doll? Gimme a fuckin' break." Tony stepped into the air and dropped to the ground. "Did you see who we was up against? I got my ass exterminated by the one with green hair once a few months back, and it weren't like she took me by surprise, neither. And from what I been told, she's prob' the weakest of the bunch! Face it, running like hell were the only thing to do."

"But you don't _know _that!"

Tony rolled his bulbous eyes. "You keep doing this. Going after things way too big for you, trying to prove something, and the next thing you know your ass is all kinds of kicked and you're running away crying. Over and over and over…"

"It's not done!" Meira shouted back. "We're not done yet!" She pointed the tip of her katana toward the center of the valley. "Satsuki's still out there! We can snatch her while everyone's distracted with fighting each other!"

Tony let out a derisive snort. "Which be exactly what I said five minutes ago! Fine, let's go-"

At first Meira thought that her partner had stopped talking, perhaps because he had seen something approaching. She glanced around but saw nothing. Then she saw that Tony's mouth was still moving, but no sound came out. He noticed, and grabbed at his throat with his bushy eyebrows twisting in bewilderment.

She tried to ask him what was wrong, but the words would not come out. In fact, all sound had ceased entirely.

Meira and Tony gabbered at each other soundlessly, each impotently trying to make sense of the situation. Tony clapped his hands and Meira pounded the hilt of her sword against a tree, but again no noise was produced.

This made no sense. Was this the witch's doing? Or Satsuki's? Or maybe even the robots'? Had they been deafened by some new attack? Or…

Something small flew through the air to land between them. They looked down. It was a string of dull red firecrackers, the fuse lit and burning. Then they looked up at each other. Though Meira could not hear the words formed by Tony's mouth, she could read their shape perfectly well.

_What the fu-_

And then the world was filled with noiseless explosions.

…

Sunny Milk pumped her hand into the air and cheered, not caring that the actual cheers couldn't be heard. Their sneak attack had worked perfectly, and now their enemies were already falling.

Lunar Child was kneeling next to her, setting up the fireworks. Sunny pushed her rump with her foot and pointed. Lunar nodded and lit another match.

…

"Hey, waitaminute," Marisa said. She seized the tip of her broom with both hands and brought it to an abrupt stop. From there, she turned her head this way and that, a puzzled expression on her face.

Reimu and Sanae turned to look at her. "What's up?" Reimu asked.

"I dunno, I just _feel _something," the young witch said. "Some kinda disturbance. Like, there's an explosion nearby, and I'm not involved."

Sanae scratched her head. "You…can sense…explosions?"

"You're surprised?" Reimu said. "Seriously, she knew about that geyser Utsuho Reiuji caused before Yukari did." To Marisa, she said, "Look, we can investigate that one later. For now, we have _bigger _things to worry about."

Marisa nodded reluctantly. "All right, sure. So, what first?"

Scratching her cheek, Reimu looked at the two conjoined mechanical combatants. "Well, the first thing would be to see if Nitori and the Asakuras are okay. After that, we get out of there. Then we smack them upside the head for being such a-"

Sanae suddenly seized her bicep with such force that Reimu let out a yelp of pain. "Hey!" she cried, yanking her arm away. "Stoppit!"

"Reimu," she said, her breath coming out in panicked gasps. "Look!"

Reimu looked. The Hisoutensoku had one arm raised, its fist pointing over its armored shoulder. From the wrist extended a long, steel cable. And attached to the cable was…

"Rin," Reimu said, her eyes widening. The mutated Kirin hadn't changed since last they met, which meant that she hadn't eaten anyone new. That was good news. But her current predicament was all kinds of bad. The cable was sticking right into her back and was reeling her in like a hooked fish. Rin was fighting back, seizing trees, roots, large boulders, anything she could hang onto. The fact that she was making it a fight at all was impressive. Obviously she was in possession of great physical strength, and Reimu was willing to bet it wasn't from Kaguya or Mokou.

"Shit, that's her?" Marisa said, shoving her hat back so she could scratch the top of her head. "Wow, I almost feel sorry for her."

Swallowing, Reimu said, "Okay, this can't be good. Uh, you two! You go check on the idiots in the robots and try to get them out. And for the gods' sakes, don't go fixing things so you'll win your stupid bet!"

"Yeah, I got it," Marisa grumbled. "And you'll be helping the freak, I take it?"

"Uh, Reimu?" Sanae said. "How…exactly are you…"

"I'll figure it out!" Reimu snapped. She swung a commanding finger toward the robots. "Now go!"

Marisa glanced at the green-haired shrine maiden next to her and shrugged. "We'd better do what she says. She's getting _that _look on her face, ze." With that, she swooped down toward the crushed face of the spider, while Sanae headed up toward the Hisoutensoku's cockpit.

"And make them stop reeling Rin in!" Reimu shouted after her. Then she turned her attention back to the struggling Satsuki. With a deep breath, she readied herself for another unpleasant confrontation.

And then movement caught her eye. Someone else was walking toward Satsuki, someone wearing an all-concealing black robe. The stranger was hunched over and carrying some kind of large rifle with both hands. Reimu had never really cared much for guns even at the best of times, and in this situation she liked them even less.

And then, to her horror, the robed figured stopped walking, took aim, and fired a red burst of energy at Satsuki's head.

…

…_dark…_

…_dark…and warm…_

…_but painful…everything hurts…_

…_something sticky…and warm…_

…_blood?_

…_where…did that…_

Rika Asakura opened her eyes. Or at least she thought she did. Everything remained just as dark as before.

And then sparks burst less than a meter from her face, illuminating the rat's nest of loose wires and twisted metal around her.

Shocked back to full consciousness, Rika sat up with a gasp, though the sharp pains lancing through her skull made her regret it. Though it didn't seem like anything was broken, she still ached all over. There was a sizeable bump on her head, and her forehead bled from a gash. Considering what had just happened, she considered herself to be extremely lucky.

However, the Strutter wasn't so fortunate. The cockpit was an absolute wreck. Though the only light was from the sparks and a few brave illuminated buttons that glowed steadily on, it was enough to confirm that the piledriver had taken it out of the game. The fact that the emergency lights had failed to turn on like they were supposed to spoke volumes of the damage that had been taken. Furthermore, judging by which was gravity was pulling, the whole was now facedown.

"Rikako?" Rika coughed. She smelled and tasted smoke. That was a very bad sign. She groped around for the emergency lights' manual control. "You all right over there?"

She found the switch and flicked it. To her relief, they powered on, illuminating the cockpit with a soft orange. The damage was just as bad as she had expected, though her attention was focused on Rikako.

Rikako was slumped forward in her seat, held up by her harness. Her purple hair hung around her face, and her jumpsuit was torn and bloodied. Her glasses had fallen from her face and wear now lying against the shattered windshield. She didn't look good, though Rika didn't think she was dead.

"Rikako?" Rika said again. She shook her by the shoulder. "Hey, c'mon dumbass. Wake up."

Three heart-stopping seconds passed, and then Rikako groaned. "Oh gods," she muttered as covered her face with her hand. "What…"

Rika sighed with relief. It seemed that she had not used up all the luck. "Oh, thank the gods. You're okay."

"That's debatable," Rikako said. She leaned back the best she could and squinted at Rika. "What…just happened?"

"You don't remember?" Rika said. "That big Kappa 'bot picked us up and piledrived the whole bloody thing."

Rikako's face lost what color remained. "But…the Strutter!" She looked around at the ruined cockpit. "It's not…dead, is it?" She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

"I don't know, I just woke up," Rika groused. Truth be told, she was trying her best not to think of the Strutter's very likely demise, because having to face that possibility would likely initiate a full emotional breakdown. She looked at the cracked readouts. A few still worked, though the information they were displaying was not encouraging. "Hopefully, the Sigma took the worst of it, and the body's still-"

A loud banging cut off their conversation. Someone was slamming their fists against the emergency exit, at the cockpit's back.

"Hola, mad scientist girls!" said a loud and obnoxious voice. "You guys alive in there? You better answer soon, because otherwise, I'm claiming this baby for my own, ze!"

…

It didn't take long for Sanae discover the round porthole at the base of the Hisoutensoku's neck. Once there, she started hitting it with both her fists.

"Nitori!" she shouted in the Kappa language. "Nitori Kawashiro! I know you can hear me, and if you don't open up right this-"

The porthole irised open, and Sanae wasted no time jumping right in.

The cockpit surprised her by its simplicity and its elegance, both of them qualities not commonly found among the Kappa. The floors and the walls were all plain steel, lit as they were by a pulsing red light. Nitori hung in the center of the room, wires of numerous sizes attaching the grey jumpsuit and heavy helmet she wore to the ceiling and the floor and holding her up.

Nitori glanced at her, managing to look sheepish even through the helmet. "Er, hi?" she said in the same tongue. "Be in troubles dis am I?"

Ignoring the question, Sanae rushed up to her and started pelting her with questions in the Kappa's native tongue. _"How'd you do it? The Hisoutensoku, I mean. Where'd you get the materials? Or the funding? And did you really perfect motion imitation technology? Oh my gods, that is so cool!"_

Nitori was taken back by both the sudden praise and hearing her own language from a Human, but she recognized Sanae a moment later. _"My thanks, lady Sanae of the esteemed House of Kochiya, shrine maiden and mouthpiece of our lady Kanako, may her miracles be praised!" _Nitori said, sounding flattered. _"Truly, thine presence is an expected honor to this humble Kappa, and thine words of appreciation for this small triumph pleases me far more than-" _

"_Oh, wait, wait, wait!" _Sanae said, slapping her forehead. _"Right. Reimu Hakurei said to stop reeling in Rin Satsuki right now."_

"_What?" _Nitori gaped. _"But my actions are well within the bounds of legality, as stated by none other than Yukari of the House of Yakumo! For sooth, the criminal impaled upon my spear is a cursed fugitive, and must be-"_

"_I know, I know!" _Sanae said quickly. _"But there's more to this than you know. Seriously, just turn that thing off."_

…

"NO!" Reimu cried. She thrust her hands out in front of her. There was a burst of red light, and the Hakurei Ying-Yang Orb materialized in the air in front of her. It spun around and around on its axis, the black-and-white blurring into each other. Then it broke into two smaller orbs, dividing like cell. These two split further into four, which then started chasing each other around Reimu's waist.

Now properly armed, Reimu swooped down at the hooded figure, who was still coldly blasting at Rin, each shot a different color from the last.

"Hey!" Reimu called. The hooded figure looked up, and Reimu got a brief look of a freckle-covered face and a pair of startled maroon eyes. Then a hail of ofuda-shaped bullets rained out of the orbs, pelting the hooded figure.

Reimu's target stumbled back, bowed by the onslaught of danmaku. "Get out of here!" Reimu shouted as she kept up the attack.

To her surprise, the hooded figure obeyed. She dropped her gun and shot away, fleeing Reimu's wrath.

Reimu stopped firing and returned her attention to Rin. From the look of things, Sanae had managed to get Nitori to stop dragging the Kirin around, though she was still attached to that cable. She tried to swoop down to Rin, but then two strong arms appeared out of nowhere to wrap around her waist.

"Sorry hon," said a low, smoky voice that sounded vaguely familiar. "Can't have you doing that."

Before Reimu could form a question, the arms threw her back in a sudden suplex, and she was sent spinning away.

Reimu's disorientation lasted but a moment. After all, she had been taken by surprise before. She brought herself to a sudden stop and hurled herself back the way she came, ready beat an inordinate amount of sense to whoever had thrown her.

Unfortunately, they had made a hasty exit. However, the hooded figure was returning, her gun back in her hands. As soon as she was within range she snapped the rifle at Reimu and started firing.

Reimu shot off, circling around the hooded figure in a wide arc as the shots exploded mere inches behind her. She could feel the heat on the bottoms of her feet. Scowling, the shrine maiden returned fire, sending off a cluster of homing charms.

The charms zeroed in and slammed into the side of the rifle, knocking it from its owner's hands. Reimu came to a stop and pulled out an Exorcising Border spellcard, ready to remove this latest pest from the equation.

And then the strong hands reappeared, this time to grab her by the wrists and force her arms to stretch out to either side.

"Kiddo, I'm not gonna repeat myself," said the earthy voice. "You gonna want to clear out and stay out of this, you hear? This has nothing to do-"

A shrill scream cut her off. The hooded woman had been set alight and was burning like a torch. She screamed and yanked at her flaming robe, desperate to pull it off.

The source of the fire was Rin herself, who was firing off a torrent of flame from one hand like water from a hose. The hooded figure fell to her knees and continued screaming.

Then there was a loud _pop, _and the hooded figure simply vanished. Smoke rose up from where she used to be and the fire that had covered fell to scorch the grass, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Reimu gaped. She had seen youkai and fairies disappear upon being exterminated many times, but it had never looked like that before.

Rin, however, was not so dumbstruck. Instead of staring at the results, she merely turned her head and focused her burning lavender eyes on Reimu. Or rather, on the person currently holding Reimu by the wrists.

"Aw, snap," the person muttered. And suddenly, their grip disappeared. Reimu whirled only to find absolutely no one behind her. By this point, she was hardly surprised at all.

Now that her two mystery combatants had vanished, Reimu was finally able to make it to Rin, though she did so slowly so as not to come off as threatening. Rin watched her the whole way.

"Rin," Reimu said as she approached. "Are, ah, are you…okay?" She winced. That was probably the lamest opening line possible, but it was the only thing she could think of.

Rin tilted her head to one side. She looked down at the thick cable connecting her to the Hisoutensoku and then back at Reimu. _"I've been harpooned twice in the last five minutes," _she said at last. _"After that, some strange lady I've never met before started shooting me in the head. About an hour ago I was chased all over Gensokyo by everyone and their grandmothers, and somehow wound up in a pit full of acid sneezing slugs. And yesterday, I got beat up by a bunch of oni. Oh yeah, and there's a giant metal rope stuck to me." _There was a weighty pause, and then Rin said, _"So I'm doing just dandy, thank you. How's your day been?"_

Reimu cleared her throat. "Er, right. Look, I know you have no reason to listen to me, but I really am on your side. So…"

With a weary sigh, Rin flopped onto the ground and said, _"Look, Reimu Hakurei. I'm having a really crappy day. Are you really going to try to convince that you want to help me again?"_

"Well, I do!"

"_Really? That's just great. Hey, here's an idea: how about you start by GETTING THIS CABLE OUT OF ME!"_

That was actually a reasonable request. Reimu rushed the rest of the way to where Rin lay. It was not a pretty sight. The cable was literally sinking into Rin's back like a skewer.

"Uh," Reimu said, not wanting to touch her. "Can you…push it out?"

Rin sighed. _"You know, Rumia asked me that same question when the first one hit. And this might not have occurred to you, shrine maiden, but I am perfectly capable of feeling pain. And the tip of this thing has already been absorbed, so yanking it out will be pretty similar to pulling out a handful of your hair by the roots. So, yes, I can probably _can _push it out, but I'm not really a fan of blinding agony."_

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"_Find a way to cut the cable, so I can absorb it without dragging me closer to that…thing."_

Reimu glanced at the Hisoutensoku. "Uh, my powers really don't do well against metal. That's really more of Marisa's thing."

The sound Rin made then was not quite a sigh and not quite a whimper, but occupied the ground between the two. _"Then…there's no helping it," _she whispered. _"Okay. Listen, if you really want to help, grab that cable, and when I tell you to, pull on it as hard as you can."_

"Uh, how do I know you're not going to take off as soon as you're free?"

Rin's talons impatiently drummed the ground. _"Let me put it this way. This thing is coming out in the next thirty seconds with or without your help. Whether or not I feel like listening to you at the end of those thirty seconds is entirely up to you."_

…

There was a sharp ledge to the north-western side of the Youkai Mountain that sheered away into a cliff. From there, it was a straight drop all the way to the ground below. From there, one could survey miles of Gensoyko's landscape, even as far as the Forest of Magic. It was a magnificent view, and made a popular place for tourists and young couples.

Most days, it saw a fair amount of traffic. Today, it was downright crowded, with numerous Tengu and a smattering of other races pushing against each other's shoulders or hovering in the air as they watched the proceeding in the valley below. Everyone chattered at each other as they voiced their opinions on what was going on and gave their predictions on the eventual outcome. Having been forced out of the valley, the Hanataka hovered in front of the crowd to make sure no one ventured beyond the ledge's border, doing their best to look important and trying not to call attention to the fact that they had recently been scared shitless.

By the time the Hisoutensoku had piledrived the Strutter, the crowd was so thick that all spots along the cliff's edge were taken. One would think that it would be impossible for a newcomer to make their way to the front.

Still, when one showed up, people quickly made room, shoving against each other and allowing the newcomers to pass.

Kanako Yasaka stormed her way to the cliff's ledge, her fingers bunched into fists, her face grim. She paid no attention to the open stares of unease and devotion that surrounded her. Once she was at the ledge, Kanako peered out. Her grim face became even grimmer when she saw what was below. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised, given where they were, but still…

She was going to _kill _Nitori Kawashiro. Hopefully the owners of that spider…thing was a Kappa, so she could kill them too.

"Quite the spectacle, isn't it?" said a soft, amused voice. Kanako looked down to see Mima sitting perched on a small ledge a few meters down. The spirit held a pair of opera glasses to her eyes, and was munching on a honeycake.

"Is that was this is to you?" Kanako demanded. "Just some early morning entertainment?"

"But of course," Mima said, taking no offense to the anger in the elder goddess' voice. "What else would it be?" She glanced at the rabble huddled above her. "And it doesn't seem that I'm the only one who thinks so."

Kanako seethed. She turned to face the whispering crowd.

"All right, all of you clear out!" she shouted. "Does this look like a danmaku tournament to you? Go home, and stay there!"

There were certain advantages to being a revered deity. One of them was instantaneous obedience. No sooner were the words spoken than the crowd made a very hasty exit.

Kanako turned back around, muttering to herself. Then, to her displeasure, she noticed that the Hanataka were trying to clear the area as well.

"No!" she said. "I didn't mean you!" She turned to their leader, Momiji Inubashiri, who was trying very hard not to meet her goddess' eyes. "Get back down there and make sure no one else enters the valley!"

Once the Hanataka had made their meek exit, Mima said, "Well. My compliments. It's been my experience that angry gods often receive at least double the faith of their more benevolent counterparts."

"Is that the only reason you're here?" Kanako demanded. "To watch people get hurt and try to get under my skin?"

Mima sniffed. "Not at all," she said. She finished the last of her cake and licked the honey from her fingers. "Though in your case I'd hardly need to 'try.' No, I'm here to keep an eye on things and ensure they don't spiral completely out of hand. I don't often do duty as a guardian angel, but your kind knows that our girls could use one."

"Our girls?" Kanako said, her face draining of blood. "You mean…"

Mima snapped her fingers and muttered a brief word. A head-sized bubble sparked into existence in the air in front of Kanako. In it, she could see Sanae flying forward, in the company of Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame.

Her temper exploded. "Why that disobedient little brat!" she roared. "I told her to stay away!"

"Well, girls will be girls," Mima said with a shrug. "Don't judge her too harshly." She lifted the opera glasses back to her face. "After all, upon being confronted with a spectacular showdown between two mechanical engines of destruction, anyone of her upbringing would want a closer look. Or anyone else, for that matter."

"That's not the point! She could be killed!"

Mima laughed. "So? My dear goddess, if that is what you're so worried about, I'd advise you find her another line of work, posthaste. Such as housewife. Or seamstress. Or would those sharp needles be too dangerous?"

"There's a difference between youkai exterminating and jumping headfirst into…" Words failed her for a moment. "That!" she said at last, pointing.

"And that is why, despite having two gods and all the faith and moolah you have been gathering as of late, you will always play second fiddle to Hakurei Shrine. Because though it may be a barely maintained backwater wreck with no real deity to speak of, at least its shrine maiden has absolutely no problem with putting herself in danger day in and day out." Mima shrugged and lifted the glasses back to her eyes. "Honestly, if you ever hope to compete, you really have to learn that risk is part of the business, and that…Oh, hello."

"What?" Kanako demanded, though she wondered if she truly wanted to know the answer. "What is it?"

In response, the view on the floating bubble shifted. Kanako's heart stopped when she recognized two figures walking toward the robots.

"How very strange," Mima murmured, more to herself than Kanako. "Because if my highly reliable sources are correct, she is in no condition to be walking around." Her eyes narrowed. "I don't know about you, but I smell a rat."

…

Rin gasped as the cable came free. Her eyes squeezed shut as she pressed the back of her right hand against the hole in her back, which was already starting to close.

When she had finished healing, Rin straightened, brushed herself off, and said, _"Well, _that _hurt about as much as expected." _She looked up at Reimu. _"Thanks, I guess."_

Reimu nodded and dropped the end of the cable. "Are you ready to listen now?"

Rin rubbed her chin. _"Maybe. Did Reisen really ask you to help me?"_

"Yes, she did," Reimu said, her voice tinged with irritation. "Hell, she's even staying at my shrine now!"

Rin stiffened. _"What?"_

…

_Deep Within_

There is a moment familiar to predators and hunter, that singular moment that occurs right when the unsuspecting prey finally wises up to the fact that there is someone intending to kill them nearby and realizes that its life is now measured in seconds. In this moment, the body may freeze, and the brain will lose its capacity for any thought other than "I am about to die." People from the Outside World commonly refer it as being like "A Deer in the Headlights." And while the analogy does not make any sense the majority of Gensokyo's natives, they are very familiar with the moment in question. After all, Rumia had experienced it several times in the last couple of days.

When the mushroom youkai had wandered into the cavern Rin had been hiding in, she had been convinced that they were mere minutes away from being caught. When they had burst through the ceiling of the Ancient City and landed in the middle of a crowd of oni and the types that like to hang about with oni, she had been convinced that, adaptability or no adaptability, regeneration or no regeneration, Rin was about to be turned into a gooey little smear, taking Rumia with her in the process. And things had gone downhill from there.

And now, as she sat with her face in her hands as Rin again conversed with Reimu Hakurei, Rumia had no idea how she was supposed to feel. Her instinct was telling her to scream at Rin for stopping to listen to something that had to be a trick when she should be making tracks for places elsewhere, but she had done that so many times that she was just plain sick of it. It didn't matter where they ran, someone always found them, and the chaos would begin anew. She was tired of the cycle. In fact, she was tempted to encourage Rin to take Hakurei up on her offer. Best case scenario (something that Rumia wasn't nearly so optimistic to expect), Reimu was telling the truth, and the two youkai fugitives would find themselves with some much-needed protection. Worst case, the shrine maiden was lying, and Rin and Rumia would find themselves in Yukari Yakumo's hands. That was not something Rumia wanted by a longshot, but at least it did mean an end to this madness.

"_I'm serious!" _Reimu said, her voice as strangely distorted as ever. Rumia wondered if Rin at least could hear things normally. _"She got into a fight with Eirin because of you, and ran away! She's staying with me now!"_

"But…" Rin said, and then let her voice trail off.

"_Rin, look, I know you don't have any reason to trust…anyone, but I'm serious. I am trying to help you. And I'm not alone. I've already got Byakuren Hijiri from Myouren Temple and Kanako Yasaka from Moriya Shrine working with me, and you already know about Mima." _Reimu scratched her head. _"Even if she's just helping because she's bored. But seriously, I don't know if Rumia told you who they are, but those are some big names. Important people with a lot of power. We just need your cooperation, all right?"_

Rumia let her hands fall and she collapsed onto her back with a sigh. So, it was a trick after all. She was willing to believe that Reimu Hakurei had been cajoled by Rin's bunny girl of a mother figure, and _maybe _Madam Mima was in on it too, even if her motives and goals were suspect. But this just went beyond the line of credulity.

Whatever.

Rin bit her lip. She glanced over at Rumia, who just shrugged and waved a hand in a vague manner. "Up to you," Rumia muttered. "Your call."

…

"Uh, Rin? I kinda need an answer now,"Reimu said, glancing around nervously. "We're working on borrowed time here. It won't be long before someone else shows up."

Rin stared at her a few moments longer, and Reimu found herself wondering what exactly was going on in that twisted and abused mind of hers. Was she speaking to Rumia? Consulting her for advice? Or was she receiving orders from the Shadow Youkai? With the power she held, Rin was perfectly capable of killing Reimu any time she felt like it, and there was little Reimu would be able to do about it.

"…_I…" _Rin said. Whether she was aware of it or not, her hands and arms were twitching. _"…I don't…"_

Reimu heard grass rustling nearby. Someone was approaching. Her head snapped up while her hands reflexively filled with spellcards. She was so close to finally reaching Rin. There was no way she was going to let some punk bounty hunter mess it up for her now.

But then she got a look at who it was and she felt the world collapse out from under her.

Yukari Yakumo strode through the grass, wearing a purple dress and her customary mopcap and twirling her umbrella over one shoulder. Ran Yakumo followed close behind, wearing that same white dress that she wore every time Reimu had seen her, her hands resting in the opposite sleeves. Despite what the recent reports had told her about Yukari's condition, the elder youkai looked just as healthy and beautiful as ever.

Rin had noticed her as well. Her back stiffened and her bladed fingers stretched out as far as they would go. The look in her eyes occupied the border between terror and resignation.

"Wait," Reimu said, desperate to avoid another disastrous misunderstanding. "She's not with me. I didn't even know she was here."

Rin didn't acknowledge her.

"Reimu Hakurei of Hakurei Shrine, you have done well!" Yukari called as she approached. "And now, please leave this place." She smiled. "The situation is under control. You need not fear, I will take Rin Satsuki safely into my custody."

…

_It's my birthday and I'll update if I want to! Update if I want to, update if I want to!_

_You would update too if it happened to you._

_Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh! Duhduhduhduhduh…_

_Okay, full confession time. While this chapter (and the next, as I had to split it into two due to length constraints) has plenty of plot significance and isn't filler, it was originally conceived for one reason and one reason only. And that was to have a giant robot fight. Why? Because giant robot fight._

"_But IM is supposed to be a serious story! After all that angsty drama, aren't giant robots kind of-"_

_No. Giant robot fight._

"_But it doesn't fit the overall tone!"_

_No. Giant robot fight._

"_Now you're just been obtuse."_

_NO! GIANT ROBOT FIGHT!_

_Even so, this does illustrate something I've started noticing. Put the scheming Yukari and the…whatever-the-hell-she-is Yuuka on the bench, take a step back away from all the manipulating and arguments, and Gensokyo really is a rather silly place. And I for one enjoy a bit of silly. _

_Even if poor Rin had to suffer. Just like she always does._

_=cough=_

_Anyway, given that it's my birthday and this story has been going steadily for two years now, I do have one request. As many of you know and have been contributing to, this story has a kickass TV Tropes article that is growing steadily by the month, which I _really _appreciate :D! But as awesome as it is now, those Awesome/Funny/Heartwarming/Tearjerker/Nightmare Fuel sections at the top of the page are looking mighty empty, wouldn't you agree? _

_Hint, hint. ;p_

_Okay, that's enough shameless begging for one day. And by the way, the Madoka fic also just updated. _

_Until next time, everyone!_


	39. Do You Know Your Enemy?

Do You Know Your Enemy?

Reisen sat cross-legged on her sleeping mat, Rin's diary sitting on her lap. She had been staring at the moldy old book ever since Reimu, Marisa, and Mima had left, trying to work up the nerve to open its frayed cover.

One would think that, given Mima's promise of a cure and her suggestion that a clue might be found within Rin's recorded thoughts, Reisen would be tripping over herself to dive into the diary's contents. But thus far, her reluctance was holding fast. Part of the problem was that the last time she had read the diary she had learned things about Rin's feelings that she would have been happier not knowing. But her main obstacle was that she was all too aware of the fact that her protectors were out chasing Rin down, fighting against all of Yuuka Kazami's bounty hunters, Yukari Yakumo's agents, and Rin's own distrust and mental instability. Lives were teetering on the brink, lives of people she knew and cared for, lives that were in danger partially due to her own actions. And she was stuck here, unable to do a damned thing about it. The worry and frustration made focusing on anything else aggravatingly difficult.

Reisen took a deep breath. Well, nothing gained by doing nothing. She slowly opened the cover and turned the yellow pages until she found the part where she had left off.

_I can't believe we've got such a stupid teacher. Ms. Lightfoot is so dumb and unfair! Just because I know more and told her so doesn't mean she had to-_

Reisen skipped ahead a few entries.

_Why are we working for that idiot princess again? Why do we even call her a princess? Okay, making herself immortal and trying to take over the moon was pretty cool, but now all she does is sit around and do nothing! Unless she's fighting that crazy lady from the forest. I don't really get where she came from, but-_

A few more pages flipped by.

_ARRRGGGHHH! Reisen is so FRUSTRATING! She keeps bugging me and asking about stuff that's not her stupid BUSINESS! I don't get why Dr. Yagokoro even hired her! I mean, Dr. Yagokoro is so smart and strong and really, really cool, you know? But Reisen is so clumsy and kinda useless at-_

Reisen flinched and looked away from the book. Is this all there was of Rin? Endless arrogant whining and insulting the people who had gone out of her way to help her? If so, why was Reisen risking so much to help her?

The very thought filled her with shame. Of course she wasn't going to turn her back on Rin just because the little Kirin had gone through a bratty phase.

At least she hoped it had just been a phase…

Reisen started flipping through pages, giving the entries only the briefest of glances. It was more of the same. Not every single one was a declaration of arrogance and resentment, but enough of them were. While Rin had to be commended for her dedication to the diary, Reisen was starting to wish that her onetime ward had just abandoned it.

And then, when she was almost halfway through, things changed.

She came across an entry that stood out. The ink was newer, less faded. The handwriting, while definitely still Rin's, was noticeably neater. Reisen checked the date and compare it to the previous entry. There was a gap of almost four years.

The entry read: _Okay, wow. I almost forgot about this thing! I remember I used to write in it all the time, but after awhile I just stopped, I guess. I found it in Tewi's room, believe it or not. No, I don't want to know how it got there. Actually, I kinda wish I hadn't found it. I'm reading through all the stuff I wrote, and ug, I was such a little jerk! Did I really whine that much? If so, I really wish someone discovers time travel, so I can go back in time and slap myself! I guess now I know why Tewi never liked me, if she's read all this. Still mad at her for stealing it though._

Reisen felt a great weight leave her shoulders. She let out a small, nervous laugh. So it had just been a phase after all, one that she had grown out of. Encouraged, she continued on.

_Anyway, I guess I should probably just get this out of the way. I'M SORRY EVERYBODY! I'M SORRY I WAS SO STUPID! THANKS FOR NOT LETTING THE FAIRIES CARRY ME OFF! Especially Reisen. Ug, I can't believe I said all that stuff about her. _

Reisen's smile perked up.

_Anyway, now that __that's __out of the way, I guess I should catch up, huh? I mean, it's been like four years, you know? I'm still living at Eientei, no big shock there. But I have gotten to go outside of the forest a couple times. Don't tell anyone, but a couple months ago me and Reisen sneaked out to go to the Winter Solstice festival. That was pretty cool. We got kicked out, but it was still pretty cool. I'll tell you about it later. _

_But the funny thing was, until a few weeks ago, my life was pretty much the same as it was when I last wrote in this thing. I mean, I don't go to that school anymore, but still, no big change. But you know how I always wanted to become a nurse and work for Dr. Yagokoro? _

_WELL, GUESS WHAT!_

Reisen's smile disappeared. Oh no…

…

Humming to herself, Elly pushed a trolley laden with plates through the mansion's hallways. The roots, shoots, and vines that normally covered the floor hastily removed themselves from her way, either by retracting between the stones or slithering over to the walls, so as to give the trolley's wheels a smooth journey. That was another thing Elly loved about her life in Yuuka Kazami's employ. Even the houseplants were considerate.

The renegade Shinigami had to admit, things were looking up. Though her master's grievous injuries had frightened and agitated her to no end, Yuuka's recovery had gone splendidly. The extended period of bed rest had done her good, and her mutilated soul was mending up nicely. She was now well enough to take long walks through the fields and tend to her gardens, even if she still required the use of a cane. Of course, she would never be whole until the fragment currently held by their enemies was recovered, but Yuuka was nothing short of confident that it would soon be in her possession once again.

In the meantime, Elly was more than happy to oversee every step of Yuuka's recovery, from fixing her meals (but of course, she did that anyway), to helping her dress in the morning and undress at night, to faithfully standing ready with the loofah when she had her baths, and even readying and delivering one the Tulip Room's residents whenever Yuuka was of the mood. After all, such activities were good for the body and the soul, and her master needed to be healed in both. So long as she was able, Elly would not see her master denied any of her customary pleasures. Of course, that last bit was usually done either late at night or when Yuuka's guests were playing in the field. While Elly was getting along better with them than she had been, there were some things they were best left ignorant of, and Elly did not relish the idea of answering the awkward questions that would follow.

But the chore of the moment was innocent enough. Having just served lunch to her master's guests, Elly was now bringing Yuuka her meal. Yuuka preferred to share her meals with her guests, but she had a tendency to oversleep, and at times wouldn't rise until noon. Elly was fine with letting her slumber, but Yuuka had insisted that she not be allowed to miss both breakfast and lunch, and so if she was not already up and about by midday, Elly was to wake her.

She approached the door to Yuuka's bedroom. As usual, the wall vines wrapped themselves around the handles and pulled the door open for her, allowing her to push the trolley right in.

"Good day, Master!" Elly said cheerfully as she entered the sunlit room. "Lunch time! You'll love what we have today: fillet of trout, seasoned with…"

Her announcement of the day's menu trailed to a stop when she saw the giant bed that sat in the center of the room. It was empty.

"Master?" Elly said, tilting her head to one side. Had Yuuka already risen and wandered off without her knowing? But that didn't make any sense. Elly was always informed the exact moment her master wanted to get out of bed. How else would she be ready with her daily outfit?

"Master, are you here?" she said, walking around the bed. "I brought you your lunch." She stood still for a moment, listening. But there was nothing to hear. "Master?"

Then something nudged her shoulder. Her heart rising, Elly spun around, but was disappointed to see that it was just one of the vines, curling down from the ceiling. However, held tightly between two leaves at the tip was a note.

Frowning, Elly accepted the note and read it. Then she read it again, in the mad hope that she had somewhere misinterpreted its message. It read:

_Dearest Elly,_

_I apologize for leaving so suddenly, but I have just learned of an ongoing situation that I simply cannot miss. Please forgive me for not informing you, but time is of the essence, and I did not wish to wake you._

_Do not worry about me, I will be fine. I have already made sure that no one will recognize me. I will be just another face in the crowd, if not an exceptionally attractive one, if I do say so myself! And I assure you, I have no intention of stepping on anybody's toes or challenging anyone to duels. This is a simple sightseeing excursion, nothing more. _

_Oh, and please do not let the girls know that I am gone, especially Cirno. I love the dear child, but she is headstrong to a fault, and will likely insist on following._

_xoxoxoxoxo_

_-Yuuka_

Elly's face drained of blood, and she quickly sat down on the side of the bed. Yuuka, gone? And Elly had been up since six, so it had to have been in the very early morning. What was she thinking, going out in her state? And with so many dangerous people out there.

"Why didn't anyone tell me about this?" she demanded of the room's plants. "How could you just let her go off, and not tell me? She's in danger! Don't you care for her? At all?"

She stood up angrily and marched toward the door. Her first stop was her room to retrieve her scythe. From there, into the Wilds of Gensokyo. Any incident large enough to draw Yuuka's attention would be easy to find, and from there Yuuka's energy signature would draw her like a moth to flame. Elly was going to find her, and find her quickly.

Then she felt a second touch to her shoulder and turned around. It was the vine again, with a second note to offer her.

Elly gaped at it, and then tore the note from its grasp.

_Come now dear, no need to go storming off after me. I already told you that I plan on being careful. I appreciate your concern, but please have __some__ faith in my abilities! I'll return soon enough._

_Also, don't be harsh on my bedside attendants. They are only following my instructions._

"This is madness!" Elly shrieked as she tore up the note. "What does she think she's doing? She can't just take off without telling me, not in her condition!" She whirled around, ready to go off anyway. "She needs me. I'll show her, she needs me!"

Then the vine curled around her to present her with a third, this one already unfolded for her to read.

_No Elly, no._

_Sit._

_Stay._

Elly made a noise not unlike a singing teakettle. She tried to form words, but her mouth had forgotten their shapes.

Then she spun on her heel, stomped over to Yuuka's bed, and sat down with her legs crossed and arms folded. So Yuuka wanted to stay put and wait? Fine. She would follow her orders to the letter, and not move from this spot until Yuuka returned home.

But as angry as Elly was, she could help but wonder: what in the world could be so important that Yuuka would risk exposing herself to witness?

…

"I don't get it," Reimu said as the smiling Yukari approached. "What is she doing here?"

"_Isn't it obvious?" _Rin muttered darkly. _"Besides, she just said it."_

"I get _that, _but last time I checked, she was still beat up too bad to leave her house!"

Rin's head jerked back. _"Wait, she what? When did _this _happen?"_

"Not important," Reimu said quickly. "Okay, I'm going to try to talk to her. Just…hang back, and don't do anything stupid."

"_If you say so. But if she so much as throws a rock at me, I'm gone."_

Unsure if she should take that as an encouraging sign, Reimu cautiously put herself between Yukari and Rin.

"Uh, hey there, Yukari," she said, holding her palms up. "You're looking…a hell of a lot better."

Yukari's smile wavered, but recovered. "Thank you. Now, please evacuate the scene. We'll take it from here."

"Uh, yeah. About that." Reimu took a deep breath. "Yukari, we need to talk."

"Talk?" The slightest of frown furrowed the elder youkai's brow. "Can't it wait? I need to secure Rin Satsuki before…she escapes."

Reimu swallowed. "Uh, yeah. See, that's what we need to talk about." She glanced over her shoulder at Rin. The mutated Kirin looked ready to leap away at a moment's notice, but seemed to be willing to give Reimu a chance.

"Later," Yukari said firmly.

"No," Reimu said. "Now."

Yukari's golden eyes flashed. "You dare talk back to Yukari Yakumo? Little Human, I could melt the blood in your veins!"

Reimu frowned. When did Yukari start using such cheesy lines?

"_Try it," _Rin said. _"We'll see who melts who."_

"Shut up, Rin," Reimu hissed. To Yukari, she said. "Okay, I know you just got over a long…illness. Or something. But seriously, let's…just calm down, and try talking this out. Rin's not the danger you think she is."

Yukari looked dumbfounded. She exchanged a look with Ran, who looked just as perplexed.

"You and I both know this thing has gotten way out of hand," Reimu continued. "And attacking Rin now is just going to make things worse. She's willing to cooperate if you give her a chance." Then she leaned over to Rin and mumbled out of the corner of her mouth, "You're willing to cooperate, right?"

"_That really depends on if anyone else tries to hurt me."_

Close enough. Reimu looked back to Yukari. "I know you're obsessed with protecting Gensokyo, but maybe there's a way to do it that doesn't involve stuffing people down dragon throats. Come on, at least give it a chance?"

"Uh…" Yukari scratched her head. She turned to whisper in Ran's ear. The kitsune whispered something back to her.

Rin nudged Reimu, which sent shivers up the shrine maiden's back. _"Just so you know," _the Kirin said in a low voice, _"Miss Yakumo's saying that this wasn't part of the plan, whatever that is, and the fox is telling her to improvise."_

"Huh?" Reimu said, looking up from her inspection of the place where Rin had touched her. No sign of the taint, thank the gods. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Rin shrugged.

"Of…of course!" Yukari said suddenly. "That's…why I came, you know! We, er, found a way to, uh, make her normal again! That's…that's what she wants, right?"

Now it was Reimu's turn to stare in bemusement. The wheels started turning in her head, and she started putting pieces together.

"Hey Yukari?" she said at last.

"Ah, yes?"

Reimu's eyes narrowed. "A few weeks ago, right after you had that interview with Hatate Himekaidou, I showed up at your home to yell at you about something. What was it?"

"Yell?" Yukari repeated, looking ever the more confused. "At me?"

"Yes. And then you showed me something. What was it?"

"I…Is this really the time?"

Then Yukari and Ran both leapt back to avoid being hit by the explosive ofuda charms Reimu had hurled at them. Her right arm outstretched, Reimu rose into the air, her Ying-Yang Orbs circling her. An aura of red energy surrounded her, and her eyes glowed white.

She said, "You two have exactly three seconds to tell me who the hell you are before I introduce you to a world of pain. And if I don't like your answer, I might do it anyway."

…

"Well, full credit to the shrine maiden," Mima muttered as she peered through her opera glasses. "For all her shortcomings, she does possess a sharp mind. And I see she had improved her oratory skills. Though her speeches always did sound more convincing when she's been pissed off, but I suppose that's true of everyone. Still, she does need to learn self-control. Going all out like that on a couple of con artists is nothing but wasteful." She glanced up at Kanako. "Ah, may I ask that you stop doing that? It's very distracting."

Kanako was disinclined to listen. A barrier of pale green energy had sprung up along the cliff's edge, preventing her from rushing in and taking control of the situation. Kanako hurled her will at the barrier, trying to crack through. Though the goddess's strength was substantial, even moreso while she was on the Youkai Mountain, the barrier's substance shifted and moved in response to her attacks, reinforcing itself whenever she struck.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kanako demanded as she hurled another handful of energy. "This can't stop me, not here."

The next blow actually made Mima wince in pain. "Ouch. And I'm aware, I'm just making a point. Please don't interfere, or I'll be forced to…dissuade you."

"Let me go, Mima. I don't care how powerful you are, you do not want to get into a fight with me."

"No. I told you before, you rushing in will just make things worse. Let the girls handle this for now. This is their job, after all. And they are doing admirably thus far. I'll let you in if I feel you're needed."

"You can't-"

"Oh, calm down," Mima said, turning her attention back to the field. "I'm still acting as their guardian angel. And if it's your reputation that's nettling you, you can relax on that end as well. As far as your loyal subjects are concerned, they just see you standing on the cliff edge with your arms folded, overseeing the whole debacle."

Kanako glanced over her shoulder to see the tell-tale wavering of the air, like rising heat, signifying the backside of an illusion. "Since when do you care about my reputation?"

"I'm playing for the home team now, remember? And while I do admit that you're only moments away from breaking through that barrier, might I ask that you change your mind? Little Rin Satsuki looks skittish enough as it is. You don't want to spook the poor thing"

Kanako glared daggers at the spirit, but she backed down. "You may be playing for the home team, but you never said which home. Or whose."

"That does seem to be the question of the hour," Mima agreed. "Or it would be, if it weren't for the drama going on down below. In fact," she said, her eyes narrowing as she noticed three figures moving toward Reimu, Rin, and the two imposters, "I'd say things are about to get…explosive."

…

"How dare you!" cried the person wearing Yukari's face as she stumbled back. "I'll…I'll exile you to the Outside World! You'll never see Gensokyo again!"

"Drop the act," Reimu said. "Yukari's a lot of things, but unbearably cheesy isn't one of them. And she sure as hell isn't such a bad liar."

"_Wait, what's going on?" _Rin said, looking startled. _"That's not Yukari Yakumo?"_

"No, it's not," Reimu growled. "Yukari would never introduce herself with such a lame line. She would never get caught off guard for that long. And she sure as hell wouldn't be beaten back so easily by me." She pulled out a glowing spellcard. "Which means I need to exterminate a bitch."

She muttered a quick prayer and released the spellcard. It hovered in the air, ready to activate and clean house.

But alas, someone else sought to interfere. Again.

"_Look out!" _Rin cried as she suddenly grabbed Reimu and pulled her back. Taken by surprise, Reimu's concentration broke and the spellcard burst into sparks, unactivated.

Reimu was about to demand an explanation, but it was unneeded. A flying rocket shot right through the space she had just inhabited. It kept going until it hit the hunched body of Nitori's Hisoutensoku, where it burst into flashes of green and red.

"Fireworks?" Reimu said as she shoved Rin off her and scrambled to her feet. All around, more of the rockets were sailing by and bursting into color. "We're being attacked by _fireworks?_ Has the world gone completely insane?"

If for no other reason than to grant her an answer, a rocket exploded only a few meters away, showering her with white hot sparks.

…

Sunny grinned as her troops bombarded the competition with artillery. Sure, the other hunters had brought along all kinds of weapons: swords, spears, and giant robots. But they were all falling in the face of her gang's superior firepower.

Though Lunar's power prevented her from shouting her orders, they were not needed. Lunar and Star continued launch rocket after rocket. By now, their victory was assured.

Sunny couldn't help but jump up and down in delight. This was going to work! They were going to be the ones to collect the bounty, and become filthy stinking rich! And oh yeah, saving Rumia was great too. But all that money! It made her feel dizzy just thinking about it.

Then she felt someone tug on her arm. She looked to see Star grabbing at her in a state of distress.

Sunny frowned. _Why'd you stop? _she mouthed. _Keep firing!_

Either Star could not read lips or she couldn't be bothered to try. She just kept pulling on Sunny's sleeve and gesturing toward the competition.

_Stop it! _Sunny snapped, or at least tried to. She yanked her sleeve away. _Get back to-_

Star grabbed Sunny's head with her hands and forced it around.

Sunny might have fought back, but then she saw what Star was so upset about. Specifically, she started to recognize a few of the faces of those they were attacking. And, despite her natural fairy cockiness, she realized just how outclassed they were.

_Stop! _she cried without sound at Lunar, who had not noticed her companions' distress. Instead, she lit the fuse of another firework.

Panicked, Sunny tackled Lunar and tried to grab at the firework before it could off of. But all she managed to accomplish was knock it sideways and send it shooting off at a high-angle.

…

"Hmmm," Mima said. She motioned with her fingers and muttered a word.

…

"_What is this?" _Rin cried. She ducked as the fireworks and firecrackers exploded around them. _"Some kind of celebration?"_

"If it is, then they've picked a hell of a place to have a party," Reimu answered as she held up a shield charm. "Nah, more than likely it's just more idiots." She glanced at the Kirin. "You're, ah, not about to freak out and run away again, are you?"

"_Not immediately, no," _Rin said, her tone flat. _"But hey, the day is young."_

"I guess that'll have to do," Reimu muttered. She watched at the imposters ducked and dodged the sparkling ordinance. First order of business, take those two out. Then she was going to find the idiot with the colorful explosives and end their celebration.

She then noticed one rocket flying off into the sky, far above its fellows. Some kind of misfire, perhaps? Or a signal?

But as it turned it, it didn't matter. A flat, green disk appeared in the rocket's path. The rocket struck the disk and was knocked back to the ground.

At that moment, the faux Yukari was pulling herself to her feet. She looked around, presumably searching for any incoming rockets.

She should have looked up. The stray rocket struck her in the head and exploded. Awash in blue flame, the faux Yukari screamed and fell to her knees.

It was then that Reimu was treated to a bizarre spectacle. As the faux Yukari lurched forward, she left a series of afterimages in her wake, each one only lasting about a second, giving off the illusion that she was moving in slow motion. At the same time, her features seemed to literally boil and change, allowing another face to appear beneath the one she wore, one that looked like-

"YOU!" Reimu roared. She leapt into the air and shot off toward the imposter. Her Ying-Yang Orbs erupted with ordinance, showering the faux Yukari and the still recovering faux Ran with a curtain of bullets. They were driven back by the assault, their disguises crumbling in the wake of Reimu's fury.

As it was already falling to pieces, the faux Yukari's went first. Her features and costume melted and shifted, returning to their original shape. When they were done, they were no longer that of Yukari Yakumo. They weren't even the cloak-wearing, freckle-faced woman by the name of Hunter. Rather, they were that of a woman with short, raven hair wearing a black dress that ended just below her hips. Her eyes, however, were still the same dull maroon color of Hunter's.

And sprouting from her back were a truly bizarre set of wings, composed of curving blades and waving tentacles in blue and red.

"You _idiot!" _Reimu yelled as she continued to shower Nue Houjou with danmaku. "Do you have any idea what you could've done? Do you have any idea what's going on here?"

"Leave her alone, Missy," said that earthy voice from before. Reimu glanced over to see the faux Ran rising to her feet. "This here scrap don't concern the likes of-"

She might have said more, but that was when a blue beam of light struck where she was standing, sending up an explosion of dirt and scorched grass. When it was cleared, she was gone.

"Er, what?" Reimu said. That had been no firework. And it had come from above, rather than from the side.

She looked up to see the Hisoutensoku staring down at her. Though its master had long evacuated, its eyes were once again glowing bright. Though not with the pink of before, but sapphire blue.

It turned its head to focus on Nue, who was just starting to rise. Another blast shot from its eyes, and the shape-changing youkai disintegrated.

Reimu gaped as the Hisoutensoku slowly rose to its massive feet, sending its shadow to cover the valley. It released its hold on the Strutter, which likewise laboriously moved its gigantic body around until it supported itself on its legs once again. One of the rocket silos on its abdomen opened up and fired. Reimu flinched, certain that she was the target. However, the rocket sailed right past her, heading for a point several meters away.

…

Lunar gaped in confusion as Sunny shook her in desperation. _What? _she mouthed. _What's wrong with you?_

Sunny babbled wordlessly, but Lunar couldn't make out any of it. Of course, she herself was to blame for that. Realizing this, she released the blanket she had used to dampen all nearby sound.

Her tongue freed, Sunny cried, "Stop shooting! That's Reimu and Yukari Yakumo over there!"

"Whhaaaaat?" Lunar said, her eyes boggling.

"Yes! They'll blow us up if they-"

"Too late," Star deadpanned. The other two fairies turned to see something whistling their way.

…

"Oh," Reimu said as a spectacular display of red, blue, green, and white exploded where the rocket hit. "That's where it was going."

Its job done, the metallic spider lurched its way over her, blotting out the sun as it passed overhead. Despite all the trouble it and its creators had given her, she had to admit that she was impressed. It was quite the sight.

And she couldn't help but notice that its crushed eye, which had once glowed red, now shared the same brilliant blue as the Hisoutensoku.

"_What's going on?" _Rin said as she stumbled her way over to Reimu. _"What are they doing?"_

The giant spider stopped when it had passed fully overhead. The Hisoutensoku took position at the opposite end. Both of the robots had their backs at the two girls, and their weapons were primed and ready to destroy all intruders.

Pleased that Rin hadn't run away, Reimu said, "I think…they're on our side now."

…

"How did you do that?" Kanako whispered as she stared at the two behemoths. "To move something so huge…Not even you should have that much power!"

"I don't," Mima said. "And if I were relying on telekinesis alone, I couldn't move them like that for more than maybe about thirty seconds." She gestured toward the valley. "Fortunately, I don't have to. Everything needed to make them do what I want is already there. A few commands through their circuits and into their AI's, a few magical conduits to replace those ruined by the battle, smooth out the joints that had been damaged, and now we have ourselves a couple of ready-made guards to ensure that our girls remain undisturbed." She flashed a self-satisfied smile at the goddess. "Work smarter, not harder, that's my motto."

Kanako shook her head in amazement. "You know, I don't know you as well as the others do, but right now? I'm starting to see why everyone's so afraid of you."

…

"_Okay," _Rin said as she looked from one robot to the next. _"What just happened? Do you know what just happened? Because I'd really like to know what just happened."_

"Still trying to figure that out," Reimu muttered as she shaded her eyes and looked to the sky, as if the culprit might suddenly dive into their midst. "Someone's decided to give us a hand, but as to who…"

She heard the tramp of feet and looked down to see Marisa and Sanae heading their way. Marisa was trailing a couple of glowing yellow threads from her fingers, which in turn were wrapped around the wrists of the Asakura sisters, who were stumbling and cursing as they tried to keep up. Dressed in a rubbery, skintight outfit, Nitori Kawashiro jogged after Sanae, apparently of her free will.

Well, she had been right about who was responsible for the robots. And while the Asakuras looked like the impact had roughed them up, they seemed to be in good shape. Reimu allowed herself the smallest twinges of relief. Once again, they had managed to avoid any real casualties. Also, she wouldn't have the chance to chew the Asakuras out if they had died.

"Hey Reddie!" Marisa called as they approached. "We got your robo-warriors, ze! Did'ja find the blob girl?"

"_Yeah, she did," _Rin said, stepping into view. _"Let's see, you would be the witch who shot me with that giant laser, unloaded an entire _armory _of spells on me when I tried to get away, and then tried to incinerate me with that lightning fire."_

Marisa blinked. "So, I guess you remember me." She looked Rin Satsuki up and down. "Well, not gonna lie, Gooey. You've caused a hella lotta trouble, but that body you've got there? It's pretty badass."

Rin was taken back by the surprise compliment. _"Uh, thanks? I think."_

"Hey!" Rika Asakura snapped, drawing everyone's attention. "Play catch-up some other time!" She held up her wrist, still bound by Marisa's magical tether. "Like after you've let us go! What are we, your pet dogs?"

Marisa gave the thread a hard tug, making the Asakuras stumble. "Dunno about the pet part, but you're definitely a couple bitches. 'Sides, you sure you wanna call attention to yourself? I mean, considering the company."

Rika looked around at the faces staring at her. Then she noticed Rin and realized what Marisa meant.

"Oh," she said, the blood draining from her face. "Ah, Rin. Er, long time no see."

"_Longer for me than you, I think," _Rin responded. _"Still not long enough though."_

"Er, I guess you have a point." Rika swallowed and glanced to her sister. For her part, Rikako's knees were knocking against each other, and she looked like she was having trouble remaining upright. "And, uh, just for the record, you do realize we were barely involved in the, the experiment. The one that made you like that. Seriously, it wasn't our fault. You get that, right?"

"_Were you not?" _Rin said, scratching the bottom of her throat. _"I seem to remember it…differently."_

"I'm serious!" Rika said. "They just borrowed a bunch of equipment from us! Eirin Yagokoro and that pajama-wearing magician did most of it! We were just…kind of there!"

"_Oh? And what about the part where you wanted to stick me full of electrodes?"_

Rika frowned. "Wait, what? No we didn't."

"_Yes you did!" _Rin said, her ghastly voice rising to a near shriek. "_'To test my limits,' you said! Why are you lying?"_

The Asakura sisters exchanged a bewildered look. "No, no we never did anything like that."

"Okay, okay!" Reimu said, cutting in before the disagreement devolved into violence. "Not the time for this! Really! Marisa? Sanae? Good job. Now, can you take those three _morons _out of here before this turns into another free-for-all?"

"Hey den!" Nitori said indignantly, entering the conversation for the first time. "Not callings for! I is having a...IK?" She looked to Sanae.

"IQ," Sanae supplied for her.

"Right! I has IQ of three hunners an'-"

"What's wrong with a free-for-all?" Marisa said, cutting Nitori off. Then, when Reimu glared, she held up her free hand and grinned. "Kidding! Kidding!" She gave the thread another tug. "Come on, Frankenweenies. Let's go find someplace to sit tight until we can have you arrested properly, ze."

Marisa and Sanae left, taking their wards with them. Nitori followed willingly, if not a bit sulkily. The Asakuras, however, hung back to yell at Reimu.

"Yukari Yakumo will hear about this!" Rika threatened. "We were going to capture Satsuki for her, not the bounty! And we'll make sure she'll hear about how you got in the way!"

Reimu stared. "Are you even sane? Shouldn't you be locked up someplace with lots of padding?"

Marisa rolled her eyes and pulled Rika after her. "C'mon kids, enough of that. Play nice, and I'll give you some special tips about how to survive in prison! Lesson one: the soap, and why a steady grip is absolutely necessary."

Finally Reimu and Rin were alone. The shrine maiden eyed the Kirin nervously, wondering how she was supposed to proceed from here. But it was Rin who initiated the conversation.

"_You have some weird friends," _she said.

Reimu blinked. "Who, Rika? She's not my friend."

"_Actually, I meant the witch." _Rin glanced up at the robots, who still silently stood guard. _"And I suppose we have that one ghost, Mima, to thank for the twenty-foot bodyguards?"_

Reimu glanced up. "Probably. I mean, I can't say for sure, but it seems like something she'd do. Besides, their eyes are the same color as hers now, which I guess would be kind of like her signature."

"_I hear she has some others. Such as__ treachery, deceit, and violence, based on what Rumia's told me."_

"Well, yeah," Reimu said with a sigh. "But I don't think she'll-"

"_Miss Hakurei, can I ask you something?"_

"…uh, sure."

Rin's lavender eyes looked down at the ground. The robots' battle had reduced it into uneven mounds of dirt and uprooted grass. _"Did Reisen really go to you for help?"_

Well, that question was easy enough to answer. "Yes."

"_Why?"_

Reimu frowned. "Uh, 'scuse me?"

"_Why would she still care about? The last time I saw her, I almost killed her."_

Oh yeah. That. "I thought that was the Shadow Youkai."

"_So? I thought everything was assuming that we were one and the same, you know?"_

"Oh, get over yourself," Reimu said irritably. "She loves you, you jackass. Hell, she even freaking walked out on Eirin Yagokoro to go look for you."

Rin's eyes widened, but she regained her composure. _"I don't see her here."_

"That's because I don't let her out of the shrine! Eirin's looking for her too, so it's not safe! But believe me, she's done nothing but yammer at me to let her join in the search too. So please, please, _please, _do us both a favor and drop the super-cynicism. I. Am trying. To freaking _help _you!"

To Rin's credit, Reimu's words did make her wince. _"I…Sorry. I'm sorry. It's just…I don't know. I'm not real used to people actually going out of their way…"_

Reimu took a deep breath. "Okay, I get that. But seeing how I'm doing the best I can, and seeing how we really don't have a lot of time…"

"_All right, all right. You're right. But, you see, the thing is…" _Rin put her wickedly sharp hands on her hips and let out a bitter laugh. _"Even if you're being completely sincere, what…Uh, please don't take this the wrong way and think I'm ungrateful, but what can you do?"_

Reimu felt an involuntary twitch take control of her right eyebrow. "Whatever do you mean?" she said, hoping that her voice would remain under control.

"_Do you have a cure? For me, I mean. Can you make me normal again?"_

And there it was, the single biggest problem with this whole endeavor. Because all the good feelings, cooperation, and love didn't amount to anything if they couldn't find a way to return Rin to her former state. It didn't matter if Yukari herself were to declare Rin to be the blessed child of Gensokyo and swear that no one would ever harm her again. She was still going to have to give up those she had devoured, again dooming her to the hell of personal oblivion.

When Reimu didn't answer, Rin's stolen lips curled up. _"Thought so."_

"Hey, just because I'm not carrying one around in my freaking pocket doesn't mean we can't find one," Reimu said. While she couldn't exactly blame Rin for her passive-aggressive attitude, it was starting to get on her nerves. "I mean, I've got two supremely powerful sorceresses working with me, one who will move heaven, earth, and hell to find a way to turn you back to normal, and the other practically wrote the book on cheating with magic-"

"Practically?" Marisa's voice shouted from someplace out of sight. "Try literally! And it weren't just one, either! She's had _eight-seven _of those things published, ze!"

"Shut up, Marisa!" Reimu shouted back.

"Well, if you're going talk about how cool my mentor is, then get your godsdamned facts right!"

"Shut _up, _Marisa!"

Rin scratched her head. _"How have you two not killed each other by now?"_

"If I think of a good answer, I'll let you know," Reimu growled. "But _anyway, _yeah, we've got Mima and Byakuren Hijiri, who are some major A-listers in the magic field. We also got two big-time goddesses-"

"_Which ones? This place is crawling with them."_

In answer, Reimu stuck her thumb in the direction of the Youkai Mountain, behind the Hisoutensoku. "The ones that run _that." _

"_What, the robot?" _Rin said in bewilderment. _"I thought that belonged to that Kappa!"_

"Argh! No, you carnivorous copy-cat! I mean the Youkai freaking Mountain! I mean Kanako Yasaka and Suwako Moriya! You _do _know who they are, right?"

"She should!" Sanae shouted, from the same direction Marisa's voice had come from. "She only dug a flaming trench through their front yard this morning!"

Reimu's fingernails were starting to dig into her palms. "Shut. UP! Sanae!"

"Actually, I mean _our _front yard, and guess who's going to have to clean up that-"

"Okay, maybe we stop teasing the Armpit Queen now, ze," Marisa's voice cut in. "She's staring to use _that _voice."

"I cannot _believe _we were captured by these…these _children!" _Rikako put in.

"Just for that, I'm not telling you where Kotohime hides the smokes," Marisa said.

Rin buried her face in her hands. _"Miss Hakurei? You probably mean well, and if you really got all those people on your side, I really do appreciate it. But this really isn't filling me with confidence, you know?"_

Reimu found herself in complete agreement. "Marisa! Sanae! Please, take those three and get out of earshot! Trying to have a very important conversation here!"

"Fine, fine. Come on, Mossy. Let's go have picnic somewhere else."

Once she was sure that her companions had left, Reimu sighed and said, "Sorry about that. Please don't take those two as an example of the rest of us. The others are way more mature, promise." Then she frowned. "Well, except for Mima. But she at least knows when to take things seriously."

"_I guess. Though to be honest, they really remind me a lot of Tewi." _Rin walked over to a mound of dirt and sat down. She stared down at her talons. _"Okay, let's just assume what you told me is correct, that you managed to get all those powerful and influential people together. And let's assume I take you up on your offer. What would happen next?"_

"Next?" Reimu stared at her, not sure what the Kirin was getting at. "Well, we would take you some place safe, and then we would get to work fixing you."

Rin nodded. _"And I suppose I would have to let Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou go right away, right?"_

"Well, yeah. I mean, come on Rin. Even if you can use everyone trying to kill you as an excuse to keep them for now, holding onto them after is just…well, wrong."

"_No, I get that. But what about Rumia? Are you going to force her out of me too?"_

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia sucked in a sharp breath. The conversation Rin was having with Reimu, which was always worrisome enough as it was, had just taken a very uncomfortable turn. "Uh, Rin?" she said. "You did promise to let me go when things were safe for us, you remember saying that?"

"I do," Rin said. "I'm just…trying to straighten out a few details, 'kay?"

"Okay," Rumia said, still feeling uncertain. "Just so you know, we may be getting along better, but that doesn't mean I wanna stay in here forever, all right?"

"Yes, I get that."

…

Reimu frowned. "Uh, sorry. Did you say something?"

"_I said that out loud?" _Rin said, looking surprised.

"Well, you kinda mumbled."

"_Whoops. Sorry, I was talking to Rumia."_

"Ah." Reimu's eyes narrowed. "And what did she say?"

"_She just reminded me of some promises I made."_

"And…what promises would that be?"

"_To let her go, once it was safe to do so." _Rin cocked her head. _"And…seeing how you're staring at me all suspicious-like, you're still worried that I'm talking to the evil Rumia, aren't you?"_

Reimu sucked in air through her teeth. "Well…"

"_And that's the biggest problem we have. Even if you're really being sincere, you still can't guarantee that something horrible won't happen to Rumia once I let her go, and I promised her that I wouldn't let her go until it was safe."_

Which was a fair point, Reimu had to admit. While she had no problem believing that Rin hadn't jumped into the deep end of the evil pool, Rumia was a different matter entirely. Despite everything she had told Kanako and Byakuren, and been told in return, and despite everything she had promised Reisen, continuing the "Save Rin Satsuki" operation just wasn't worth it if it meant potentially freeing the Shadow Youkai.

Of course, if what Rin had said about there now being a separation between Rumia Past and Rumia Present was true, then maybe it wasn't a problem. They could just kill one and release the other. Unless, of course, the two were still connected somehow. Which, given their luck, was entirely possible. And Shinki had never said that drawing Azrael's essence back into its sword would leave the host unharmed.

Suddenly, Reimu found herself sympathizing with Yukari's way of thinking. If this was the sort of thing she had to deal with every time a problem like this arose, than it was no wonder that she so often took the simplest path.

_No, _she reprimanded herself. _I am not going to start thinking like that. I am not going become Yukari. _

"Okay, fine," she said, doing her best to keep her voice calm and steady. "But come on, Rin. If you want to prove that she's innocent, do you really think running around and getting into fights with everyone is going to help?"

Rin's lavender eyes flared up, and Reimu realized that she had made a mistake. _"I'm not picking fights with anyone! It's everyone that keeps picking fights with me!"_

…

The bounty hunter strode forward, legs moving briskly through the wild grass, sword unsheathed in her right hand. A razor-sharp ring of steel was clutched in the other, her fingers wrapped tightly to the leather grip. Her eyes, already weary from her long search, were now glowering with determination.

Based upon what she had heard, her destination was the valley right over the hills she was now approaching. Judging from the scarring the land had taken, she had arrived late to the party. Fortunately such things were easy to salvage. All she had to do was mop up the remaining party-goers, who would already have been weakened, and claim the prize for herself. That was, of course, assuming that the prize was still up for grabs. But even that would be a temporary inconvenience.

Unfortunately, doing so meant pushing her way past the small crowd of curious spectators that was now being herded away by several Tengu, all of whom were holding naked scimitars. From the look of things, entry to the valley was in the process of being denied.

Her lip curled. No. She had been searching the length and breadth of Gensokyo for weeks. She was not going to be stopped by these fools.

Deciding not to bother with the crowd at all, the bounty hunter leapt into the air and flew toward the hills. Predictably, this drew the attention of one of the Tengu, who was in the process of arguing with a stooped old woman whose head was covered by a shawl. The Tengu looked startled by the sudden display of boldness, but he recovered quickly and moved to intercept.

"Wait, stop!" the Tengu called. "You can't go in there!"

Of course, he was ignored. Who was he to tell her what to do?

She kept going, until the idiotic Tengu continued down his path of stupidity by zipping around and putting himself in her way.

"All right, stop right there," he said. "This valley has been quarantined by order of goddess Kanako Yasaka, may her miracles be praised! Entry is forbidden!"

The bounty hunter's response was a contemptuous scowl. "Insolent whelp," she snapped. "You dare tell me where to go? Do you have any idea who I am?"

Rather than cowing as he was supposed to, the Tengu simply scowled right back. "I don't care if you're Yukari Yakumo herself. No one goes in."

"Like I'd let someone like you stand between me and my bounty! Get out of my way, or I'll-"

"Ah, excuse me?"

The two of them turned to see the old woman approaching, hobbling on her copper cane. Despite her stoop, she was surprisingly tall. "Am I to understand that this young lady is one of those bounty hunters I've heard so much about?"

"What's it to you?" came the bounty hunter's reply.

"Well, it's just that, as I understand it, if you are seeking a bounty, and the bounty in question is within that valley, than there is little this fine young man can do to stop you." There was a small blue flower pinned to the old woman's blouse, right over the heart. "At least, not legally."

The Tengu's cheeks flushed. "It doesn't matter who's in there or why," he said. "This area is sealed off. No one goes in, and that's-"

"Ah, no."

There was a sudden flash of green light, and the bounty hunter flinched back in surprise. When she opened her eyes again, the Tengu was gone.

The old woman looked around. "Hmmm, doesn't look like any of the others noticed. All right, sweetie. Go right-"

A moment later the tip of the bounty hunter's burning sword was only a few inches away from the old woman's shrouded face. But rather than be perturbed by the threat, the old woman simply sighed and said, "Ah. Well, I guess this is happening now."

"What did you just do?" the bounty hunter demanded. "Answer quickly, or-"

"Oh, untwist your panties," the old woman said. And, to the bounty hunter's complete shock, she put her hand on the sword's tip and moved it away from her face. "I was just lending a friendly hand. No need to overreact."

The bounty hunter was unconvinced. "Who are you?" she demanded, snapping the sword back into place. "And be warned: I have no patience for people who waste my time."

The old woman cocked her head to one side. Within the shroud's folds, her face was hidden by shadows, but the bounty hunter could see that she had one eye the color of blood, while the other was covered by an eyepatch. "Oh, no one of importance, I assure you. I just saw the fun and figured I'd come take a closer look. Please, don't waste any more time with little old me. I'm sure you have more importance things to do."

Which was true enough. The bounty hunter withdrew her sword, but wasn't content to leave without giving one final warning. "Watch yourself, decrepit one. Do not get in my way."

"I wouldn't dream of it," the old woman said. She sat down on the side of the hill and made herself comfortable. "I'll just stay here, safely out of the way. Toodles. And good hunting."

Mumbling to herself, the bounty hunter turned away and continued into the valley, this time unchallenged.

She hesitated when she saw the two metal colossi standing with their backs to each other. While she had expected the competition to bring along their fair share of firepower, that was just a wee bit ridiculous, even by Gensokyo's standards.

However, they didn't seem to be doing anything threatening at the moment. They just stood there, almost as if they were guarding something.

She grinned. Well, at least she didn't have to search anymore. Now the only things she had to do was figure out how to make the grab.

…

"You know, I really don't see this going anywhere," Mima said. She sighed and turned her gaze toward Kanako, who was pacing back-and-forth behind the green barrier. "Feel like tagging yourself in?"

Kanako stopped her restless movement. "What?"

"You pride yourself on cutting through crap, getting to the bottom line, and seeing things the way they are, right? Miss Divine Realist and all that?"

There was a short pause, and then Kanako said in a guarded tone, "Yes."

"Good. Because I feel this conversation could use a little of that."

Mima held up her right hand, and her barrier was sucked into her palm in the form of a vortex. "Go and give the frustrated shrine maiden a hand, won't you? Just keep a hold on your temper, try not to scare Satsuki too badly, and put off disciplining your own girl until later."

Although she was visibly bristling at being treated like a subordinate, Kanako obeyed. She stepped off the ledge and flew down toward where Reimu and Satsuki were conversing.

Mima resumed her observations of the proceedings. While she didn't really expect Kanako Yasaka to be the one to talk sense into Satsuki, one really didn't know until it was tried. She just hoped that she wouldn't have to go back to the shrine and retrieve the rabbit. Having to fall back on last resort tactics had never sat well with her, and while bringing in Reisen was a shot in the dark. On the one hand, the Lunarian did actually stand the best chance of convincing Satsuki to cooperate. On the other, Satsuki's mental state was so fragmented that Mima had no real idea how she would react to having such a large piece from her past presented to her. While the spirit certainly enjoyed volatile situations, she preferred to be the one causing them to other people's inconvenience, rather than being the one inconvenienced.

And speaking of which…

Mima's attention momentarily diverted from the conversion attempt to a spot near the edge of the valley. There, she saw yet another person entering the scene, striding purposefully through the grass. Her mouth pressed itself into a straight line. Well, all things considered, the newcomer's appearance shouldn't come as that great of a surprise. After all, such complications seemed to be the rule rather than the exception these days. But even so, her presence was most unwelcome.

She glanced over to the Strutter and smiled.

…

_Deep Within_

"Why can't people just leave me alone?"Rin demanded. "I don't wanna hurt anyone, but everyone keeps trying to hurt me! If they won't shoot at me I won't shoot back!"

Rumia sat behind her, her legs crossed with her elbows resting on her thighs and her chin sitting in her hands. Now that the conversation was no longer about her, she felt no particular need to intervene. As far as she was concerned, they had reached game over. Now the only thing to do was wait until people stopped shouting and the inevitable end arrived.

On the screen, she saw that Reimu's hand had started to develop a noticeable twitch. The shrine maiden squeezed it into a tight fist and took a deep breath. _"Because,"_ she said. _"As far as everyone knows, you're a dangerous lunatic who'd just as soon eat somebody as look at them! And running around scaring the crap out of people isn't going to help that!"_

"But I'm not doing it on purpose, that's what I keep trying to tell you!"Rin said, throwing her hands into the air. Rumia idly wondered if her physical body had made the same motion. "Every time someone finds me, all I try to do is get away! But no, they won't let me, they just have to chase me in circles and call their friends to join in!" She turnedto Rumia. "Can you believe this? She's acting like it's all my fault!"

Rumia shrugged. "So do you, whenever you get mopey."

"Yeah, but I didn't meant, I mean I don't, not the shooting and…Shut up!"

"Whatever."

That set the Kirin girl off. "Don't you 'whatever' me!" she screamed. "I'm trying to _save _your whatevering butt here! You know, if it weren't for you, I would be out of this already!"

Rumia idly wondered what in the hell Rin was talking about, but decided that the answer was probably not worth the effort of asking. "Is that so." She shrugged. "Okay, that's cool."

The vein's in Rin's neck looked like they were about to explode, but once again, their conversation was cut short as other matters took precedence.

…

Reimu took a reflexive step backwards. "Uh, okay," she said as Kanako strode towards where she and Rin were talking. "Should have figured you were going to show up sooner or later." She swallowed. "Look, I don't do anything…angry right now. This wasn't-"

"I know very well what is going on here, Reimu," Kanako said heatedly. She swung her finger up at the Youkai Mountain. "I was up there, watching and listening to the whole thing."

"Oh," Reimu said. She glanced to Rin, who, thankfully, had still not fled. On the contrary, Rin was looking at Kanako with an expression of befuddled curiosity on her borrowed face. "Right, okay." She looked up at the two silent guardians, standing protectively over them. "Just for the record, the robots aren't our fault. And come to think of it, those fireworks weren't either."

"Yes, I know," Kanako said. "And rest assured, I'll take care of those responsible for this…mess…in due time. But for now, I think we can put off assigning blame and meriting out punishments until we've addressed a more important situation. Namely, you."

Reimu blinked in surprise and briefly wondered what she had done, but then saw that Kanako was addressing Rin. The elder goddess had turned to face the prodigal youkai, her arms folded over the reflective charm she always wore and with furious scowl on her face. Reimu winced. Wonderful, more angry people.

"Hey, take it easy on her," she said in a low voice. "I'm trying to work things out, and shouting isn't going to help."

"I am aware, thank you," Kanako replied. "That's why I'm here, to give you a much-needed hand."

Reimu frowned. "Really? You walked to the edge of your mountain, saw a giant metal man and a giant metal spider standing guard over me and one really scary looking character, and your first impulse was to fly down and join the conversation?"

"Actually, my first impulse was to call down thunder and lightning to shock everyone unconscious and let the Hatanka sort out the mess later, but Mima, ah," Kanako coughed into her fist, ''talked' me out of it."

Reimu's right eye twitched, but she kept her cool. So, Mima was present after all. That was no surprise. Despite her so-called 'retirement,' the spirit still adored violence and chaos, especially when she could manipulate it to her benefit from the sidelines. And taking control of the two monolithic combatants was certainly something she would do. While she appreciated the assistance, Reimu made a mental note to make sure that by the time this day was over, both of the robots had been rendered unusable by anyone. Mima was a fine person to have on your side, but you didn't want controlling anything of this caliber.

But that would have to wait until the current crisis had been dealt with. Reimu turned to Rin, who was watching Kanako with wary eyes, and said to her, "Hey Rin, you know who this person is, right?"

A few seconds passed in which Rin did not move, and Reimu wondered if she was conversing with Rumia, however that worked. But then the fugitive said, _"You're that lady whose house I landed in front of this morning."_

"Yes," Kanako said. "I am. My name is Kanako Yasaka. I understand that Reimu has already mentioned me."

There was another strange pause, and then Rin said, _"Yes. You're the goddess of the Youkai Mountain."_

"And much of the surrounding area," Kanako said. "And, as Reimu mentioned, one of her aforementioned allies, believe it or not." A small smile twisted her lips. "Yes, child, her campaign to save you rather than let Yukari Yakumo severely reduce your continued existence does exist."

…

_Deep Within_

Had Rumia not been in the state of mind she was now, Rin's demeanor might have scared her. The Kirin was staring at the newly-arrived goddess with a strange sort of intensity, but the look on her face was completely neutral. Any intentions were masked. She might have been about to attack Kanako Yasaka or kiss her for all Rumia could tell.

Rumia couldn't care which way it went, she just wished that Rin would make up her mind and choose. Attack, and it didn't matter how much resilience Rin's borrowed power gave her. It would be over in fairly short order, and the nightmare would end. Kiss, and…the exact same thing would happen, actually, though it would be a whole lot funnier.

But if Rin were to accept Reimu Hakurei's offer, then there were three things that would happen. The first was that it would turn out to be some sort of massive trick and she and Rin would be executed in short order. The second was that the offer of help turned out to be legitimate, and in time Rumia would walk away a free youkai. The third was that the offer was legitimate, but only insofar as Rin was concerned, and only Rumia would end up being executed. As all three paths also led to the end of the nightmare, Rumia had no objections.

Of course, there did exist the possibility that they would be captured and end up sealed away together instead of executed. Now _that _was a terrible thought to contemplate.

"Hey. Rumia," Rin said, not taking her eyes off the screen.

"Yo?"

"You live around here, right?"

Rumia shrugged. "Once upon a time."

"Is that really Kanako Yasaka?"

"Probably," Rumia said. "But then, we did have that faker pretending to be Miss Yukari. Still, I'd say that's probably her, yeah."

"Huh." Rin pondered this for a moment longer, and then she giggled. "Think I should ask her about that magazine article?"

It was such an unexpected question that Rumia wondered if she had heard Rin correctly. Then, speaking slowly, she asked, "What in the hell are you talking about?"

"You know! Back in Eirin's bamboo clinic? In the waiting room? There was that magazine, remember?" Rin giggled again. "About how she caught her shrine maiden in bed with that other goddess? I've been kind of curious about that, so do you think I should ask her?"

If Rumia had needed further proof that Rin had completely flipped her lid, she did no longer. She opened her mouth to tell her that no, asking the angry goddess about bullshit sex scandals from the tabloids was not a good idea, and if they wanted to get out of this alive than putting a lid on the crazy was within their best interests. But then she remembered how tired she was of the whole running thing.

"Sure," she said. "Go for it."

Rin glanced at her over her shoulder. "Wait, really?"

"Why the hell not?"

"You're not going to yell at me for having such a stupidly…uh, stupid idea?"

Rumia grinned. "No. I think it's a great idea. Ask if she'll act it out for us too."

Rin frowned. "Rumia, are you okay?"

Rumia's hands fell into her lap. They squeezed themselves into fists. "Oh, yes," she said. "I'm doing just dandy. How's your day been?"

"Horrible. Why?"

With a sigh, Rumia fell onto her back. "Rin. Please stop talking to me and go back to talking to the really powerful people outside, okay?"

…

"What is she doing?" Kanako whispered to Reimu. "When she goes blank like that. Why does she take so long to respond?"

"I think she's talking to Rumia," Reimu whispered back. "And before you freak out, which you are so don't try to deny it, I mean the little stupid one, not the Shadow Youkai. You know, the one you don't give an asp's tail about?"

"Interesting," Kanako mused. "To have a fully separate consciousness contained within your mind. You know, if it weren't for the disastrous sequence of events surrounding her, Rin Satsuki would make for a fascinating-"

"Shhh!" Reimu quickly stuck a finger in front of her lips. "Ix-nay on udying-stay er-hay! Or anything sciencey for that matter. She has really good hearing, and I don't want her to freak."

Kanako's eyes flitted to the dangerous-looking figure standing stock-still not five meters away. "Ah, point taken." She cleared her throat and spoke in a louder voice, "Miss Satsuki?"

Rin's head jerked up and her eyes refocused. It was kind of eerie, to be honest. There was little in the way of natural movement, almost as if she were the miniaturized cousin of the two robots.

"If you are willing to listen, there are a few things I need to tell you."

A slight frown passed over Rin's face, this time looking a bit more natural. _"Uh, sure."_

Kanako nodded. Whether she was conscious of it or not, she had situated herself in the center of the space between the two colossi. Which made a bit of sense. As a major deity, she would be used to being in the center of attention whenever she had something important to say.

"Now, it is true that the majority of Gensokyo has been turned against you," Kanako began. "Thanks to the fallout from the battle at Eientei to the panic over the unleashing of the Shadow Youkai to Yuuka Kazami's bounty, most everyone, from the lowliest fairy to the greatest divinities, such as myself, have been told by authority, press, and rumor alike to treat you as a highly dangerous and unstable individual, perhaps even outright evil, someone to be feared and destroyed with extreme haste."

Reimu felt a sarcastic remark try to force its way out of her mouth and had to bite it back. Fortunately, Rin didn't seem to have the same reflexive wit she did, and left the obvious responses of "Oh, really? I had not noticed" or "You know, I do believe you're right" unspoken.

"But even so," Kanako continued, "despite Yukari Yakumo's attempts to paint you as someone beyond saving, there are those, such as Reimu here, who do not believe that your current condition is curable only through death. As for myself, though I remain dubious of their chances of success, I must admit that the 'Attack, attack, attack' strategy currently being employed by your detractors is only making the situation worse. Furthermore, none of us are at all comfortable with 'Guilty until proven dead' mindset so many people seem to have. To that end-"

"_Ah, I really hate to interrupt, especially when you look like you're gathering steam, but things are about to get a little dicey," _Mima's voice said without warning. It seemed to come from everywhere, with no identifiable point of origin.

Kanako's head snapped up. "Dicey? How?"

"_Oh, nobody important. Just another annoying bounty hunter with absolutely no skills at stealth. Not to worry, I'll take care of her. Just giving you a bit of a head's up, so you don't panic."_

"_Is that Mima?" _Rin said, her burning eyes suspiciously searching the skies.

"_Indeed it is! Hello again, Rin. Don't mind me, I'm just keeping an eye on things."_

"Okay, but remember we're trying to keep things as non-violent as possible," Reimu said. "No fatalities!"

"_Not to worry, she's immortal anyway. I'll just chase her off. Carry on."_

With that, the giant spider's weight shifted, its legs groaning. It turned a bit to the left and fired a barrage of rockets.

…

His hands shoved into the pockets of his ragged trousers, his bowler pulled down low over his brow, and his trembling teeth bared in frustration, Tony marched away from the valley with no intention of stopping. Behind, Meira followed, trying to dissuade him.

"We can still win!" she said as she limped as quickly as she could. "Come on, don't give up now! It's just a setback!"

In response, Tony rolled his bulbous eyes to the heavens and stuck his grimy fingers in his ears.

The two of them were covered with minor burns, soot, and bits of charred plastic. Though the firework attack hadn't been especially dangerous, it had been painful and incredibly humiliating. After they had managed to flee out of range of their unseen attackers, Tony had decided right there and then that he had enough. To hell with the bounty. The job was cursed.

Unfortunately, Meira did not share his views. And though she had twisted her ankle dodging a spray of lime-green sparkles, she still hopped along, refusing to admit that they were ridiculously out of their league.

"So they got in a lucky shot! They're just a bunch of teenagers! We can take them!"

Tony glanced over his shoulder at the two giant robots and started laughing. He kept walking, laughing as he went.

That of course set the already unhinged Meira off even more. "Don't laugh at me!" she cried and she hopped her way after him. "Don't you dare laugh at me! I'm sick of people laughing at me! Everyone's always laughing and never taking me seriously just because I'm not a coward who-"

Tony's patience with his partner finally ran out. He turned around, ready to tell her what he thought of her self-esteem problems and where she could stick her stupidity.

He got as far as opening his mouth when he noticed that his chest now felt incredibly hot. In fact, it was almost burning, and hurt quite a lot. He glanced down and saw, to his surprise, that a six-inch burning rainbow was now protruding out of his breastbone. Huh. Now where had _that _come from?

He looked up to see Meira staring at him in shock. Or rather, at something behind him. He wanted to ask her what, but the rainbow suddenly retracted.

The next thing he knew, he was lying in the grass, staring at his own body, which was standing over him. But that didn't make a lick of sense. How could his own body be standing over him, when it was supposed to be attached to him? And why didn't it have a head? And who was that rather attractive looking young lady standing behind him, holding a colorful sword like she had just-

Oh.

Well, wasn't that just a bag of tits?

…

Meira stumbled back. Her injured foot twisted under her, and she fell onto her butt.

The blue-haired woman that had just decapitated Tony kicked his dissolving body aside and pointed her rainbow sword at the fallen samurai. "You there!" she said. "Peasant! I understand that the criminal Rin Satuki is near. Tell me where she is!"

Her voice was shrill and contemptuous, the voice of an aristocrat bloated on her own self-importance. Meira was not especially fond of aristocrats, but it was hard to criticize one that was pointing a flaming blade at your throat.

"Do not try my patience, you little dirt-licker," the woman said. "I asked you a question, and I demand an answer! Where is my quarry?"

Meira's brow furrowed in bewilderment. Did this woman truly not notice the two metal monsters standing in the center of the valley?

"I said answer me!" the woman shrieked, spittle flying everywhere. "Is she underground? Do those robots have her? Or did she-"

The rest of her words were swallowed up by a sudden burst of heat and force. Meira was sent tumbling several meters through the grass. Then she laid still, her eyes unfocused, her head ringing, and her ears near deafened.

That had been another explosive attack, that much was obvious. But that had been no firework. Rather, it had been something much, much stronger.

Meira waited until the disorientation cleared enough for her to start thinking about getting up. From there, she tried to sit up, but found that she had forgotten how. The ground just refused to stop moving, and the no matter where she looked, her eyes would start drifting to the left or the right.

Instead, she settled for rolling onto her stomach. Even with her mind in such a mess, she could make out the aristocrat, who was thrashing on her side not too far away, her hands clutching at her face and her legs kicking uncontrollably. Though Meira still couldn't hear worth a damn, she got the impression that the aristocrat was screaming.

Her face. That explosive had hit the blue-haired aristocrat right in the face.

Meira stared at her for a moment longer. Then she slowly flopped onto her back and watched at the clouds. They were very relaxing, so peaceful and calm. Nothing like the people beneath. Tony would call them a bunch of silly buggers. Where was he anyway? He would find this all to be hilarious. Meira started giggling. She could just see the look on his ugly face now.

…

Back at her place along the valley's edge, the old woman winced. "Hmmm, well. I'll have to grant full points for ingenuity I suppose," she mused to herself. "But that just isn't fair at all. They're not even giving the hunters a chance. No, we can't have that."

She glanced at the ground and started to move her hand in slow circles over the grass. "No, we cannot have that at all."

…

"…in short, this madness must stop. Every second it continues, things continue to spiral further out of control, and everyone is placed into jeopardy. It is a miracle that no permanent casualties have been directly resulted from your actions, and as an expert in the field of miracles, I can attest that this cannot be counted on to continue."

Reimu sat with her back against the one of the Stutter's legs, her own legs drawn up in front of her. She watched as Kanako laid her case out to Rin. Reimu had to admit that the serpent goddess was doing a much better job than she had, even if the speech was a bit on the wordy side. But Rin was listening, which was the important thing.

"_It's not my fault," _Rin growled. _"I don't want all this to happen. I don't want anyone to get hurt. I just want to be left alone. But no one will!"_

"I am not assigning blame," Kanako replied. "The truly guilty ones are obvious. But that does not change the fact that, intentional or no, destruction and chaos follow in your wake. And if allowed to continue unabated, it will only grow worse."

"_Tell _them _that! All those jerks who keep shooting me, or punching me, or stabbing me with stuff! I'm totally on board with the whole peace and love thing, but they just won't stop!"_

"Impossible," Kanako said. "This is Gensokyo, where rash impulsiveness is the common currency and good sense does not see equal exchange. The bounty alone has ensured that there will always be at least someone trying to hunt you down, and even if that fails, Yuuka Kazami is nothing but persistent. Furthermore, on the other side, Yukari Yakumo believes you a dangerous threat, which means she will never stop hunting you."

"_But I'm not! All those places that got trashed were because someone else just jumped me out of nowhere and I had to defend myself, you know?"_

"Then, for faith's sake, _stop _allowing yourself to be put in a position to be jumped! Your current status in the public's mind is that of a dangerous fugitive, and unless that is changed, you will continue to be pursued! And Gensokyo is not a large place. It is only so long before you run out of places to run!"

"_And how am I supposed to do that?" _Rin demanded. _"Take out an ad in the newspapers? Something like, 'Hey, I'm not so bad! Please stop attacking me, and we can all be friends'!"_

"By cooperating with us," Kanako said. "Do the math, girl. We have the reputation of Byakuren Hijiri, the influence and resources of my shrine, the extensive magical knowledge of Mima, and the sanctuary provided by Reimu's shrine. If we cannot dissuade the majority of your hunters and ward of the rest while actually, than whom else can? And with our combined power and knowledge, who else has a chance of restoring you to normal and giving you your life back?"

Reimu nodded and quietly applauded. That was pretty much most of her arguments, summed up much better than she ever could. Maybe this had a chance after all.

"Hey, Mima," she said in a low voice. "You still there?"

"_Mmmm-hmmm," _the spirit's voice buzzed in her ear. _"What's up?"_

"How are we looking?"

"_Oh, so far so good. No immediate threats."_

Reimu glanced at Rin. She hadn't answered Kanako, though she hadn't flipped out either. Rather, she seemed to be caught up in some kind of internal debate, likely a literal one. "That's good to hear. What about that rocket you just sent off? Did it do its job?"

"_Oh yes," _Mima said. There was a smugness to her voice that raised Reimu's suspicions. _"Very well."_

"Okay." Reimu frowned. "Ah, and who was it aimed at anyway? You said they were immortal. Anyone we know?"

"_Eh, I suppose you can say that. I wouldn't say you know know this person, not on a personal basis. But yes, you have met and are on a first name basis, as much as it must infuriate her."_

Now Reimu was growing very worried. "Mima, who did you just blow up?"

"_No one."_

"Oh, so they ran off?"

"_No. It hit them in the face, and they are now on the ground, writhing in pain. I can show you if you like. It's actually pretty funny."_

Reimu's stomach plunged into ice water. "Mima, who did you just hit with a rocket?"

"_Oh, no one of importance. Just Tenshi Hinanai."_

Reimu sat up straight. "Wait, _what?" _

"_Why, is this a problem?"_ Mima asked, sounding innocent.

"I think so, yes!" Reimu snapped. "I mean, it's freaking Tenshi! Her parents rule Heaven, and she has it in for me already! What was she even doing here? And what is it with you and hitting people in the face with missiles today?"

"_Based upon how thoroughly she had armed herself and the fact that she had just cut off the head of your tarantula friend, I'd say the same thing as everyone else," _Mima said. _"But if she cannot take a crippling explosion to the face, than she has no business playing the game. And I use the tools I have available to me. Tomorrow, I might be using flying daggers and spiked maces, depending on how the day goes."_

"That's not the point! She-" Reimu glanced to her left. Kanako and Rin were staring at her, probably wondering what all the commotion was about. She grimaced, quickly excused herself, and retreated further into the Strutter's shadow.

"Look, I told you, I don't want people getting hurt if we can help it," Reimu said once she was (hopefully) out of earshot. "We're supposed to be the good guys here. And before you start laughing, things are bad enough without Heaven's bratty princess making trouble for us. I don't like Tenshi at all, but that doesn't mean I think blowing her face off is a good idea!"

"_Oh, relax," _Mima said. _"She's a Celestial, however undeserving. And they're a hardy bunch. Nothing permanently harmed but her pride, which, as I'm sure you'll agree, could stand to have a few pounds shaved off."_

"I'm not talking about what she can take, I'm talking about her getting pissed off and running to whine to her parents! Who will, in turn, go whine to Yukari! Who will start wondering what the robots where doing here in the first place, and I don't want her to even know about any of this!"

Mima tsked. _"Reimu, please. Naiveté does not suit you. Do you think Yukari has not already been made aware of the marathon Rin has been running over Gensokyo? The girl already rampaged over one Gensokyian capital and bumped into another. Do you honestly believe that something of this magnitude has somehow escaped her attention, regardless of her condition? Just like you told the Kirin, you're working with borrowed time here."_

Reimu's stomach clenched up.

"_Oh, and by the way, it would be a good idea to hurry."_

Cursing herself for not having realized this earlier, Reimu turned and rushed back toward the clearing. She got halfway there when the ground shifted, tripping her and sending her sprawling onto her face. Gagging and spitting out dirt, Reimu tried to rise, only to get knocked down again. What in the world?

She turned her head to one side and immediately identified the problem. The Strutter's legs were moving, and the disturbances were close enough to put her off her balance.

"Mima!" she said as she stumbled her way to her feet. "Quit it with the spider! You keep knocking me over!"

Mima didn't answer.

"Mima?"

"Reimu, what is the matter?" Kanako called over to her. "Why is the spider moving? Are we under attack?"

Reimu managed to stumble her way out of the Strutter's shadow. "Hell if I know! It just started moving! And Mima won't answer when I-"

There was a sudden clunking noise.

"_Look out!" _Rin cried for the second time that day.

The next thing Reimu knew, Rin had slammed right into her with a flying tackle, knocking her over and driving the air from her lungs. Less than a second later, an explosion destroyed the place where she had been standing.

Gasping, Reimu tried to speak. "Wh-wha…"

Then Kanako's hands reached down to pull both her and Rin to their feet. "Move it, ladies! The spider's gone hostile."

If for no other reason than to punctuate her point, two more rockets sailed out of the Strutter's carapace and zeroed in on their location. Kanako threw both palms up, and both rockets exploded in the air.

"_I thought you said the ghost was on our side!" _Rin said as the three of them broke into a stumbling run and leapt into flight. _"Why is she attacking us?"_

Reimu shook her head. She had been thinking the same thing. "I don't know! But fly now, figure it out-"

A sudden shockwave cut her off, and the three of them were sent tumbling head-over-heels. Reimu flailed as her body skipped like a stone over water before slamming into a small bush. Fighting off the disorientation, she shoved her way out and stumbled to her feet, though a stitch in her side make it a difficult task.

Rin was already standing about nine meters away, looking none worse for the wear, if not a little bewildered. As for Kanako…

Reimu inhaled through her teeth. From the look of things, Kanako had been the Strutter's target, and had taken a rocket right to the back. She lay facedown in the grass, with a sizeable scorch mark between her shoulder blades. And directly above her, the Strutter was coming to a stop, its eye focusing on the fallen goddess.

"Rin!" Reimu screamed as she lurched forward, one hand holding her side, the other pulling out a spellcard.

The Kirin's head snapped up. _"Huh?"_

"Help her, before it-"

Her words came too late. The Strutter unleashed a barrage of rockets, all focused on Kanako's prone form.

"No!" Reimu cried as she tried to fire the spellcard off, but the area of impact had already been pulverized, and the Strutter was turning its attention to her.

…

"Reimu? Can you hear me?" Mima frowned and tried again. "Something's gone wrong with the Strutter. It's acting independently of my commands."

There was no indication that the shrine maiden had even heard her. Down in the valley, the Strutter was still moving. Slowly, but it was moving. In fact, it was laboriously turning around. Mima tried to send a command to the Hisoutensoku, only to find that her control of the Kappa machine was blocked as well.

"Oh, this isn't good," Mima muttered. She glanced up at the floating bubble, the one that had allowed Kanako to see what she saw. The image within was now blinking and falling apart into static. Mima watched as it struggled futilely to restore itself only to fail completely when the bubble winked out of existence.

No, not good at all.

"Marisa, how about you?" Mima muttered. "Hello, this is the Spirit in the Sky, calling anyone worth talking to. Buggy's misbehaving, and Tin Man's stopped listening. Plus, my eye's gone blind. Can you see the problem from your end? Over."

That was when the fireworks began again, only this time without her leave. She saw three tiny figures fly frantically through the clearing as the Strutter continued to fire. A moment later, things took a turn for the worse, and only two remained.

Mima's eyes narrowed. Well, that ruled out this being a glitch. And given the amount of interference her abilities were experiencing, it did not take a genius to figure out who was responsible. It was ironic, in a way. Here they had been worried that one incredibly powerful and ruthless woman would show up to cause problems that they had completely forgotten to watch out for her opposite number.

"Well, look who's crawled out of her hole," Mima said to herself as she slipped from the small ledge she had been sitting on. "Let's see about putting her back in it and filling it in."

…

Sanae sat on the rotting trunk of a fallen tree, her eyes gazing longingly at the two shining behemoths that acted as silent sentries. She had seen many strange things since coming to Gensokyo, many wonderful, many horrifying, many awe-inspiring, many terrible, and many just plain weird things. But she had never dreamed that Gensokyo would gift her with a close encounter with gigantic mecha, and this was a country that had given her the ability to fly almost immediately upon arrival! Sanae loved robots. Of course, who didn't? But even so, she had been entranced by the monsters ever since she had been a little girl. She had grown up watching them engage in magnificent battles. All of that power, and yet they were completely subservient to the tiny Humans that piloted them. How could you watch something like that and not want one of your own?

Which was the reason that having been sent away was so frustrating. The robots were _right there! _She wanted a closer look. Those scant few seconds inside the Hisoutensoku's cockpit had been a slice of paradise for her, as short as they had been. She wanted to get in closer, to inspect both robots up close. She wanted to touch their armor, climb around their joints, and inspect their weapon ports. But most of all, she wanted to get back into the Hisoutensoku's cockpit and strap herself into the apparatus that Nitori had been suspended in. Just one joyride, that was all she asked.

"_A pox! A pox, I say! A pox upon you and the bones of your unmourned ancestors!"_

Sanae glanced over her shoulder and sighed. Well, taking the Hisoutensoku for a spin wouldn't be happening any time soon, as in addition to being sent off by the eternally cranky Reimu, the suit that she needed to pilot the thing was currently being worn by a sulky Kappa, who was angrily shouting insults at the Asakura sisters in her native language while they waited to be formally arrested, or whatever it was that Kanako was going to do to them. And by then, the Hisoutensoku would be out of reach.

"_May your bones rot within your skin and your noses fall off to be gnawed upon by diseased vermin!"_

The Asakuras ignored her. In all likelihood they couldn't even understand what she was saying. Kappa was a difficult tongue to master.

Lying on her back in the grass near the mad scientists, Marisa hummed to herself as she painted fleeting images in the sky with one sparking finger. Sanae couldn't understand how she could be so calm. Just earlier she had been almost as excited about the robots as Sanae, but now she seemed to be perfectly content to just lie around and wait.

"_May your flesh fester with boils and your veins fill with maggots! May your eyeballs fall out and your ears bleed wax-"_

"_Will you shut up already?" _Sanae snapped at Nitori. _"You're starting to gross me out."_

"_My opus has been wrested from its rightful master and my plans lie in ruins! Allow me at least this small comfort!"_

"_Then be less disgusting about it!" _Sanae rolled her eyes and she turned back toward the robots. _"Jeez, thanks for making me regret learning your-"_

The Strutter was moving.

Sanae leapt to her feet. _"Hey!" _she shouted at the Asakuras. _"Your thingy is moving!"_

The Human sisters blinked at her. "Huh?" Rika said.

Whoops, wrong language. "Your thingy!" she said in Gensokyian Japanese. "Your robot, the Strutter! It's turning around. Is it supposed to be doing that?"

"How the bloody hell should we know?" Rika demanded. "Your sodding witch-ghost is the one pulling the strings now. Go ask her!"

Marisa glanced up. "Hey, is something happening?" she said as she sat up.

"I don't know yet," Sanae said. "Maybe it's just going to drive off another bounty hunter."

Then she got a look at the Strutter's eye. Mima's sapphire blue was gone, and it burned red once again.

"Uh, its eye is back to normal," Sanae said. "I don't think this is a good thing."

There was a short pause, and then everyone scampered over to where she was sitting.

"That's not normal," Rikako said, pushing her glasses up her nose. "The color is correct, certainly, but it was nowhere near that bright."

"So what, did it get hijacked again?" Marisa said. "Or did it suddenly become intelligent? Because that would be kinda cool, ze."

"_Typical Human engineering," _Nitori muttered. _"Always problems unforeseen. No foresight whatsoever."_

"The hell did you just squeak?" Marisa asked.

Before Nitori or Sanae could answer, they heard shouting. Sanae turned to see what the problem was, but then a pain like an icicle being jabbed through her eye drove her to her knees.

…

"Get back!" Reimu screamed as she flew toward her huddled allies and their prisoners. "Run! Fly! Get out of here!"

Rin was close behind, and the two of them were fleeing the robot as fast as they could. After nearly having her head taken off by a rocket and watching Kanako taken down, Reimu had come to two possible explanations: either Mima was now trying to murder her via oversized mechanized monster, or the Strutter had gone rogue. Instinct went with the latter, but cold logic warned her not to dismiss the former.

At any rate, she wasn't about to stick around to investigate, resulting in the three of them fleeing with the Strutter pursuing in its deceptively quick lumbering manner.

Marisa, Nitori, and the Asakuras looked dumbstruck when they saw what was happening. Sanae was doubled over and clutching at her face, no doubt suffering psychic aftershock from what had happened to Kanako. Reimu could tell in an instant that there was no way she would be able to recover in time.

"Rin!" she shouted over her shoulder. "Grab Sanae…the green-haired one and get her out of here!"

Rin glanced at the green-haired shrine maiden, saw the problem, and nodded. She swooped down toward the group. Misinterpreting her intentions, Rika, Rikako, and Nitori cried out and dove out of the way, but she ignored them and snatched Sanae up in her arms.

"I said fly!" Reimu said to the gawking others as they passed overhead. "Now! Go!"

She and Rin passed right over them. Reimu looked over her shoulder and saw, to her relief, that the other four were rushing to follow. Further behind, the Strutter continued strutting along, firing off rockets at the fleeing women.

Being the fastest, Marisa was the first to catch up to Reimu. "What the exploding hell is going on, ze?" she said as she crouched over her broomstick. "I thought it was our monstrosity now!"

"I don't know! It just started attacking, and Mima isn't answering my calls!"

"And this _surprises _you?" came Rika's screechy voice from near the near. "It's Madam bloody Mima! Of _course _she would-"

"HEADS UP!" Rikako cried.

Surprising no one, the source of her alarm was the Strutter, which had decided that continuing to rely on its rockets was a waste of time and it was now time to change strategies. Flame and smoke belched out of two ports, one attached to each of the places where the foremost legs attached to the body, and two jets of liquid fire spewed forward.

Reimu and party banked hard to avoid being roasted alive, but rather than aiming straight for them, the streams curved around the group on both sides to meet at a spot about ten meters ahead, cutting off their route. Reimu tried to shoot straight up, but an arcing stream of fire quickly discouraged her of that idea.

"Okay, not good," Reimu said as she landed. "Really not good."

"You think?" Rika gasped. The brown-haired mechanic was already sweating heavily. She fanned herself with both hands in a futile attempt to cool down.

Reimu found herself echoing Rika's sentiments. The heat was overwhelming. Already she was starting to feel dizzy.

"This is insane," Marisa said as she took off her hat and used it wipe her brow. "If this keeps up, we're gonna have to start stripping just to keep conscious. Reimu, you start."

"Erm, guys?" Nitori said in a weak voice. "I is not feelings all that…"

The Kappa slid to the ground and fell onto her side.

Rikako fell to her knees, though she at least retained consciousness. "Told you the flamethrowers were a bad idea," she growled at her sister. Rika, who was now sitting on her butt, didn't possess the energy to respond, though she did muster up an impressive glower.

Not surprisingly, the only one unaffected by the heat was Rin herself. _"Why did you even put them on?" _she said to the Asakuras. _"You know I'm fireproof, right?"_

Rikako muttered something. Marisa glowered at Rin and said, "Well…good for…you. I don't…suppose…you can…fireproof us…too?"

"_No, but I can do one better."_

And then the earth shook with tremors. The Strutter had arrived. Those still capable looked up to see it looming over the wall of fire, its single eye burning visible through the smoke.

Unconcerned, Rin gently placed Sanae down and strode forward. Red energy flickered over her forearms to collect around her hands. The Strutter noticed and focused its gaze on her. Though it had no visible mouth, it still roared, a deep, mechanical challenge.

In answer, Rin stuck her hands into the wall of flame. The instant she did so, the barrier opened to either side of the group, the flames retracting like two lit fuses. Reimu, who was dangerously close to unconsciousness herself, watched through half-lidded eyes as Rin gathered the fire and created something that looked like a miniature sun in her hands.

Then the Kirin returned the fire to its rightful owner. The Strutter was suddenly lit up as the flames hit it right in its cracked eyes and washed all over its body before snuffing out.

There was a short pause, and then Rin said, _"Uh, it's fireproof too, isn't it?"_

Reimu wanted to laugh, but though the sudden rush of cooler air revived her some, all she could manage was a weak cough. The irony of it was hilarious. There they were, so close to finally convincing Rin to cooperate, to finally pull of their miracle, only to be brought down by a deranged machine. If there was any consolation, at least she had one hell of a story to tell Yuyuko upon arrival at the Netherworld.

…

The spider loomed overhead. Even if it was a dumb machine, it looked hungry. Had it jaws, it would no doubt be opening them wide in anticipation.

Rin glanced around. Everyone else was either unconscious due to heat exhaustion or well on their way. She wondered exactly what kind of chemical mix the Asakuras had put into that liquid fire to make everyone pass out so quickly. Whatever it was, it probably made napalm look like a campfire.

And they had intended to use it on her. Even if her acquisition of Fujiwara no Mokou meant that it would be a futile gesture, they had still intended to use that stuff on her.

Rin's mouth tightened, but she pushed away the anger rising within her. There were more pressing concerns at the moment. She could worry about straightening out her issues with those two after the spider had been dealt with.

_Uh, you're not planning on tackling that thing by yourself, are you? _she heard Rumia say, from deep within that place they shared within her mind. _Because last time, that didn't go so well._

Rin ignored her. She took stock of the powers offensive powers she had available to her: Phoenix Fire, Super Death and Its Tentaclely Friends, and Whatever the Heck that Rainbow Stuff Princess Kaguya Used Was. All in all, nothing especially useful against a threat of this caliber. She still had her strength though. Maybe hitting it really hard would work.

The pupil of the spider's eye narrowed as it focused on her. All over its body, weapon ports were sliding open. Rin swallowed. It looked like she was about to find out.

And then the spider lurched to one side and screamed, a horrible sound like sheet metal being torn in half. At first Rin didn't understand why, but then a green thunderbolt slammed into the spider's side, knocking it further off balance, and she understood.

A third bolt followed, and then a fourth. Soon the spider was under attacked by an emerald lightning storm. Rin watched in horrified fascination as it slowly crumpled under the assault, its screaming becoming more and more faint. Finally the lightning stopped. The spider's eye gave one final twitch before dimming out completely.

_Oh, wow, _she heard Rumia say. _When did you learn how to do that?_

Rin didn't bother correcting her, as she was just as stunned as Rumia. Had she done that? It was true, she was learning new things about herself fairly frequently as of late, but this?

"To answer the question you are no doubt asking yourself, no, that was not you," said an annoyed voice from behind Rin.

Rin turned around and felt an icy flush of fear. Madam Mima floated behind her, amongst the slumping bodies. She had one hand resting on the crux of the opposite elbow, and the other hand was tapping against her chin.

"Yes, me, hello again," she said. "As you've no doubt noticed, I don't appreciate other people taking away my toys. Now, if you're done gawking, I could use your help moving these poor souls someplace safe. I'm afraid the situation is far more complicated than a simple rebellious clockwork arachnid."

…

Even after its murderers had departed, the Strutter remained motionless. Its circuits had fried, its joints were melted, and most of its internal workings had been reduced to scrap. Mima's attacks had thoroughly killed it.

However, it had died in a world where death did not exist as an absolute. And its benefactor was not known for her respect of death.

All around its massive, broken body, tiny shoots appeared out of the ground, little tendrils of green that pressed and wormed their way around the bronze hulk. Then, once they found the seams, they slithered right in.

In time they were joined by more, and soon the Strutter's corpse was being swarmed by thousands of green stalks that penetrated it from every point of entry. They wormed their way through its innards, tearing away the melted circuits and ruined gears, to be replaced by the tendrils themselves. And all over the Strutter's exoskeleton, a thick layer of moss and was growing. Buds formed and opened, covering its abdomen with flowers.

Then joints creaked as the now formerly deceased Strutter's legs reoriented themselves. Its foliage-covered body was once again heaved into the air, dropping pieces of dirt and moss. The green tendrils squirmed along its underside like a colony of maggots.

Once it was fully upright again, the cracked and blackened eye of the Sigma started flickering, once, twice, and then came alive. The fires once again burned, a perfect imitation of another eye of the same color, whose owner sat not two kilometers away, watching with gleeful amusement.

…

Nue Houjo sat on a mossy boulder. Unusual for her, she had not bothered to clothe herself with any sort of disguise, not even that of her most recent alias of Hunter. She didn't see any point.

After being blasted to scattered bits, she had taken care to stay a safe distance from the action. She was confident in her abilities, sometimes even reckless, but with the Hisoutensoku no longer on her side, even she saw the wisdom hanging back until the situation had changed.

And change it had. Apparently the Hisoutensoku wasn't the only robot with authority issues. Nue had watched as the Hisoutensoku's eight-legged opponent chased Reimu Hakurei and her friends off before cutting them off with a circle of fire.

And then things had gotten very interesting. Apparently Rin Satsuki could do some very interesting things with fire, even more than that extremely painful gout Nue had been sprayed with earlier. And then there had been green ghost with the lightning bolts. Nue didn't recognize her, but if she could take down that spider so easily, than she was a true force to be reckoned with.

Nue frowned as she leaned forward. The ghost and Rin were gathering up the fallen bodies of Reimu's allies and carrying them away. Why the ghost, who was obviously a sorceress of some kind, didn't simply magic them away was beyond her. And instead of leaving the valley, they were simply relocating to the other side. Another mystery.

But not as strange as the one taking place overhead. The weather was changing. Clouds were forming from nowhere, and were gathering over the valley. That couldn't be good.

She heard someone approach and turned to see another youkai join her, this one a brown-haired woman of shorter stature than Nue herself but with a fuller figure. She wore a pair of round spectacles, a brown skirt, and an open black vest over a white shirt. Most noticeable were the two raccoon-like ears that stuck out of her tangled hair and the large matching striped tail that bobbed behind her when she walked. Her name was Mamizou Futatsuiwa, and she and Nue had been friends for a long time.

As a Tanuki, Mamizou possessed the same shifting powers as Nue did, though she didn't use them as often. Still, they certainly came in handy she needed to act as Nue's backup. Most people didn't even notice her until it was too late.

"Well?" Nue said as Mamizou approached.

Mamizou shrugged. "Not looking good. Can't say for sure, but I would feel very foolish if those clouds don't mean that there's something very nasty surrounding the valley, keeping us in."

"Yeah? You wanna fly straight out and check?"

Mamizou grinned. "Don't need to. You remember all those fireworks and shit we got hit with earlier?"

"Yeah," Nue said, frowning. "So?"

"So I found the idiots that set them off." Mamizou laughed. "Turns out it was just a bunch of stupid fairies that got their asses blown up right after we did." She pointed her left index finger downward and twirled it around. "I found them running around in circles, going absolutely nuts with panic."

"Again I unto thee: so?"

"So I convinced them that they should cut their losses and run." Mamizou pointed toward the horizon. "And now we're going to find out if it's safe to leave or not."

Nue turned to see three tiny figures flying away. She watched as the fairy trio fled the valley as fast as their little wings could carry them. They passed over the hills that bordered the valley.

The next thing she knew, there was a blinding green flash. Nue winced back and shielded her eyes with her arm. When she looked again, the fairies were gone, and not in the manner of someone who had successfully gotten away. They were simply gone.

"Whelp, that clears _that _up," Mamizou said. "Someone don't much care for the idea of us leaving. Any idea who or why?"

Nue shook her head. "Nope. And between that, the spider, and that lightning-slinging ghost, I'm starting to think we may be a bit underinformed."

"Yah think?" Mamizou shook her head. "And I'd hate to say 'I told you so,' but-"

"Then don't," Nue said shortly. She looked back toward Reimu Hakurei's little gang. "But whatever the hell's going on, those guys are at the center of it."

Mamizou let out a dismissive snort. "Right. And exactly what do you suggest we be doing about that? I sure hope it don't involve tangling with 'em again, 'cause I'm thinking we might be just a little outclassed."

"It doesn't. We do what we do best. Get out of sight, keep an eye on things, learn more."

"And then?"

"That depends on what we learn," Nue said. She stood and picked up two small, silvery rectangles that had been sitting next to her. A quick flick of her wrist, and they snapped open, becoming a pair of sleek pistols. "But I for one don't fancy walking any further unprepared."

Mamizou might have had a response, but they were interrupted by the sound of roaring, from something very large.

…

_Get up._

Tenshi's body jerked, and lay still. Her mind was lost, wandering somewhere along the boundary of unconsciousness as she tried to find a way in. It would be a far preferable state to the blinding agony of wakefulness or the torturous hallucinations that had pursued her into the realm of pain-filled madness.

She could see them now, horrible phantasms that danced around her, wearing the faces of a dozen different people, all of which she hated: her parents, Yukari Yakumo, Reimu Hakurei, Suika Ibuki, even her on-again/off-again friend Iku Nagae. They laughed at her in their taunting voices, telling her that she'll never be able to amount to anything on her own, that she was doomed to always fail, always lose, to live forever in the shadow of her so-called betters.

_Get up, girl. I won't tell you again._

And with that, the hallucinations vanished, and Tenshi's mind emerged fully from the misty haze. She regretted it immediately, as the fiery anguish that consumed the ruin her face had become returned in full.

"AHHHHH!" she half moaned, half gurgled.

And then her face was sprayed with some kind of mist. Whatever it was, it did the trick. The pain cooled immediately, more effective than any healing salve. Tenshi stopped writhing and remained still, letting the sweet relief wash over her.

The mist stopped, and Tenshi sat up. She tried to open her eyes, but they didn't seem to be working right. Everything was all milky white and blurry, making it impossible to distinguish individual shapes.

"Wha…what?" she said, her voice a harsh croak. This wasn't right. She couldn't be blinded. Even if her Celestial body meant that they'll eventually grow back, she was helpless in the meantime.

_Hmmm, that's unfortunate. Please sit still for a moment, and keep your eyes open._

The mist returned, and Tenshi was only too glad to let it do its job. But then it hit her damaged eyes and stung furiously.

"Ow!" she rasped, slapping a hand over her face. "What do you think you're doing, you incompetent-"

Something wrapped around her waist and tightened. _Control yourself, girl. If you want your sight back, than hold your tongue and sit still._

Despite her ravaged condition, Tenshi found the lack of respect rankling. "Who do you think you are?" she said. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

_Shut your fucking mouth and do as I say, you delusional little worm, or I'll tear the rest of your face off and use it for a hanky!_

Shocked dumb by the voice's sudden savagery, Tenshi obeyed. What else could she do?

_That's much better. Now, this will sting a bit._

The mist sprayed Tenshi's eyes yet again, and though it felt like her cornea was being jabbed by a thousand tiny needles, she bit her tongue and did her best not to move. Over time, the stinging sensation decreased and her vision cleared up. The fog went away, and the colors and shapes of the valley sharpened into focus.

Finally the constant spray ceased, and Tenshi blinked and rubbed her eyes. She looked around for the person responsible, but there was no one there.

A shuffling sound came from down below. Tenshi looked down and, to her astonishment, caught a brief glance of a small plant covered with purple pods being drawn into the earth. But before she could question the oddness of it all, the voice returned, even if there was no body to accompany it.

_There now, isn't that better? Now, you'll find your equipment scattered about, but nothing outside of, oh, I'd say about a five meter radius. Please rearm yourself quickly. There are certain things that have been set in motion, and you need to be ready for them._

Though she was thankful for the return of her sight, Tenshi was still irritated that someone who didn't even have the nerve to reveal themselves was ordering her around like some common servant.

"Now look, I don't know who you are or where you got the idea that I am just going to march to your beat, but I am _not _someone to be ordered around and-"

The thing around her waist tightened again, this time painfully so. Tenshi looked down and stiffened when she saw that a filthy brown root had wrapped itself around her.

_You're not very quick on the uptake, are you? And in case it wasn't clear already, I'm not giving you a choice here. You committed yourself to taking part in this bounty hunt, so you are going to see it through. Do as I say, and you may very well walk away from this as the winner. But question me again, or indulge in another insufferable outburst of rudeness or ingratitude, and they won't find enough of you to fill a thimble. _The root squeezed tighter still, making Tenshi gasp. _Am I understood?_

…

"Wake up."

A blast of cold air hit Reimu in the face, reviving her. She yelled and scrambled into a sitting position.

She had woken up in a small copse of pine trees. Marisa and the Asakuras were sitting in a small circle, looking somewhat worse for the wear. Sanae huddled a bit further from the group, staring at the needle-covered ground, still in a state of shock. Rin was standing off by herself, near the group but not as part of it. And in the center of the circle…

"Mima?" Reimu said. She looked around as she tried to put the pieces together in her mind. "What the hell just happened? Your spider tried to barbeque us!"

"'Her' spider?" Rikako said snippily.

"Finders keepers, love," Mima said. She sighed. "Unfortunately, that rule seems to apply to everyone. In short, somebody decided to hijack the Strutter from my control and play merry havoc with the telepathy in this area, forcing me to directly intervene. Good thing I did, too. You all were well on your way to becoming this afternoon's lunch special." She smirked. "No, no need to thank me. I was glad to help."

"_I wasn't doing so bad," _Rin said.

"No, you were not. My compliments, that trick with the fire was resourceful and quite impressive." Mima shrugged. "Unfortunately, it was also useless, at least insofar as an offensive attack is concerned."

"_I wasn't done yet!"_

"Not to be contrary, but you were. That thing was designed specially to counter you." Mima indicated the five Humans. "And I couldn't risk letting these little darlings get caught in the crossfire, especially when they were so helpless to defend themselves." She glanced them over. "Well, three of them, at least. I doubt anyone would be especially devastated had Tweedledum and Tweedledee been lost."

Marisa, who was well versed in Outside World literature, started snickering. Even Sanae managed to crack a smile. The Asakura sisters, however, just looked confused.

"Huh?" Rikako said. "Tweedlewho? Who are you talking about?"

She was ignored. "But as you're no doubt about to tell me to get things back on track, I regret that I am obligated to tell you that we are in a world of trouble," Mima said. "And yes, I include myself in that assessment."

Reimu swallowed. "Well, crap. I'm guessing it has something to do with the person who hijacked the Strutter?"

"It has everything to do with her. To begin, look up.

Reimu did, and got a genuine shock. While the weather had been relatively clear not thirty minutes ago, the sky was now filled with clouds: long, thin ones that chased each other in a spiral and formed a cone over the valley. Flickers of blue light flashed from within the clouds.

"Impressive, is it not?" Mima said wryly. "And I need not tell you that it does not respond well to invaders. Some of Rin's prospective hunters tried to flee not too long ago. They were disintegrated as they tried to pass over the hills." She glanced at Reimu. "Not to worry, they were nonhuman. But it does tell us that trying to leave by sky is highly ill-advised."

Reimu couldn't think of a thing to say. Well, actually, she did, but couldn't decide which question to ask first, so she decided to remain silent and let Mima continue.

"No doubt you're still wondering as to who the culprit is." Mima sniffed. "I figured that out moments after realizing that the Strutter was no longer under my command, and our ability to communicate over long distances had been dampened. But even if those two unfortunate events hadn't tipped me off, recent developments certainly provided us with a signature."

"What, the clouds?" Reimu said.

"Those, and something else. Walk with me, please."

Mima floated to the edge of the copse. Reimu hesitated, and then stood up. But instead of following Mima, she went over to where Sanae was huddling.

"Hey," she said gently as she approached. "You okay?"

Sanae looked up. Her hair was still drenched with sweat, and her face was pale and haggard. "No, not really," she said.

Reimu winced and nodded. She searched her mind, trying to find a tactful way to word her next question. Finding none, she just came out and said it. "Uh, Kanako. Is she…"

"Shouldn't be," Sanae said, licking her cracked lips. "Can't just kill a goddess with that much faith, not so close to her shrine. Be like killing a fairy. She should be back by now, but…" Her voice trailed off and her eyes dipped downward again.

"Okay," Reimu said. "Do you know why?"

Sanae coughed into her fist but said nothing. It was Marisa who answered for her. "I think you'd better go talk to Mima, Reddie. Trust me, you're gonna wanna hear what she has to say, ze."

Reimu slowly nodded. Then she glanced at Rin. "Are you-"

Rin waved off her concerns. _"I'm not going anywhere. Go talk to the ghost."_

"Okay. Okay." Reimu glanced one more time at Sanae and quickly ran after Mima.

"It's hard, isn't it?" Mima said as Reimu caught up to her. "For a shrine maiden to lose her goddess so abruptly, and in such a violent manner, it's tough on her, given the empathetic connection they share, even if it is temporary." The right edge of her lip curled up. "Thankfully, that is a trauma you'll never have to risk experiencing."

Even though she was well-used to Mima's constant jabs, Reimu was in no mood to tolerate them today. "Mima," she said, warning in her voice.

Ignoring the shrine maiden's anger as she usually did, Mima looked up at the sky and said, "No doubt you're now wondering why Kanako has yet to grace us with her presence. After all, an attack like that, while debilitating, should have done nothing more than slow her down. Not to mention the Kappa engineer."

"Nitori?" Reimu thought back. Now that Mima mentioned it, Nitori had been absent from the gathering Reimu had just left.

"Indeed. Unfortunately for her, Kappa fare very poorly in intense heat, and she expired before I could reach you. Now, as with Kanako, this should only be a temporary determent, but unfortunately they both are being kept from resurrecting by the same force."

"It's the clouds, isn't it?" Reimu said. "They're keeping them from coming back."

Mima looked pleased. "Very close. Actually, it's not the clouds themselves, but what they're concealing. No doubt you've noticed those flashes of blue light."

Reimu nodded.

"This is not the first time I've encountered such a phenomenon. In short, freefloating magical energies have been disrupted. Long range communications are being blocked, shields and barriers are dampened, magical attacks that do not directly originate from their caster are blocked, and, though I had not noticed this the last time, any immortal unlucky enough to be reduced to life energies is stuck in limbo until the source of the disturbance is gone."

"What is it then?" Reimu asked. "Those blue lights? What are they?"

"A flower," came the prompt answer. "To be specific, a rather nasty one known as a Mykr's Siren. Several of them, to be exact."

This new information hit Reimu with the force of a thunderbolt. Dread welled up inside of her, and she took a step back. "You can't mean…"

"Furthermore, more has been accomplished than simply sealing us in and playing merry havoc with our abilities. You might want to take a look at the valley itself."

The unusual clouds aside, the valley looked much the same as it had before. Near the center, she could see the Hisoutensoku standing in place, guarding a conversation that was long over. Beyond that, there was no movement to be seen.

"Look to the right," Mima said, almost as if she had read Reimu's thoughts. "See there? In front of that hill, the one with all the wildflowers?"

Reimu squinted. Now that Mima had pointed it out, there did seem to be something moving, but as it was the same color as the hill, so it was difficult to make out.

Then it turned in her direction, allowing her to see its eye, and she understood.

"I thought you killed it!" Reimu said.

"Yes, well, the funny thing about dead machines is that they are extremely easy to revive," Mima said. She shook her head and sighed. "Especially when the one doing the reviving seems to have a shrub for every occasion. For one so dedicated to the rules, she really does prefer to ignore the ones she finds inconvenient. A trait I find admirable, actually, even if it is directed toward my humble self."

"You specifically?" Reimu said wryly. At any rate, she didn't need Mima to give her any more clues. It was now obvious who they were dealing with. "And I thought she had been taken out of the game. Didn't Yukari smack her down something awful?"

Mima kept watching the Strutter as it continued trekking its way along the valley's perimeter. The look on the spirit's face reminded Reimu of a hawk watching a rabbit from a far distance, measuring it for the kill. "That was weeks ago, Reimu. Her kind does not stay down for long. And I truly doubt she is here in person. If she were, she would likely have announced herself by now."

Reimu, who fell under no one's definition of a coward, felt fear stick its icy fingers into her spine. "Her control extends that far?"

"I have no idea how long her reach is, but if she is indeed able to exert her control over plant life from such a distance, than perhaps we'd be better just packing out things, leaving her with the keys, and see if our western counterparts has a lenient immigration policy."

"You're not serious, are you?" Reimu said.

"Well, no, not really. All accounts agree that their policy is a bit on the stringent side. Though we might try our luck with the northern European mythology's little hidey-hole. I hear my old buddy Loki is running a smuggling business that might get us in."

"Mima! Forget the stupid jokes! I think we have more important things to worry about!" Reimu stuck her thumb at the Strutter. "And shouldn't we be getting out of sight before that thing spots us?"

Mima laughed, a sound like wind-chimes. "Reimu, we are dealing with someone whose very gimmick consists of exercising complete control over plant life. With that in mind, I don't think taking cover in a tree grove within a grass-filled field is going to hide her from her sight."

It took Reimu a couple of seconds to fully realize the sheer enormity of what Mima was telling her. She had never been slow on the uptake, but this was so big that her brain needed that extra time to wrap itself around the concept.

Gensokyo was a heavily wooded country. Forests rubbed shoulders with meadows and the civilized areas had gardens aplenty. In fact, the only place more-or-less free of plant life was the Blasted Lands, and they had already been proven to be an ineffective sanctuary.

They could be reached anywhere, at any time. Vines reaching down from the trees to wrap around their necks. Poison thorns shooting from nearby shrubs. Roots disturbing heavy stones to cause avalanches. Wildflowers emitting toxic fumes. There was literally no place that was safe. Reimu shot a suspicious glance at a nearby tree and took a few steps back. Then she noted the grass under her feet and jumped into the air and stayed there.

"Oh, stop being melodramatic," Mima said. She grabbed Reimu by the shoulder and shoved her back down. "If she were really going to do something so blasé, you all would be dead already. Besides, I don't think that's her intention." The ghost turned and floated back into the copse.

Reimu followed. "Then what is?" she demanded, taking extra care not to crush anything leafy underfoot. "Why the hell is she even interfering? I thought her beef was with Yukari!"

"Her 'beef,' you say?" Mima shook her head. "Reimu, she does not have 'beef' with anyone, not even Yukari. She challenged Yakumo for the same reason she is causing problems for us now; it's the same reason she does anything."

Reimu danced her way around a dandelion patch. "Let me guess: shits and giggles?"

"Precisely. This is a game, a challenge, not a declaration of war. And I think the rules are clear: we are to fight this new and improved Strutter. If we win, we are free to go."

"And if we lose?"

"Duh," Marisa said, walking to meet them. "I guess Mima showed you Chia Spider? Nasty piece of work, ain't it?"

"We've fought worse," Reimu said with a shrug.

Marisa laughed. "Reddie, I promise you this: you are so gonna regret those words in a few minutes."

"What's the problem?" Reimu said, her pride slightly chafed by Marisa's derision. "We've all fought that maniac before and won. And it's not even her this time! Besides, we've gone Rin 'The Plant Killer' Satsuki backing us up now, right?"

"Perhaps," Mima said, not really confirming anything. "Though I think we should speak with the others before anything is decided."

Marisa aside, everyone else was right where Reimu had left them. The Asakuras still sat nervously together, though they were no longer whispering; Sanae sat with her back against the tree, now watching the flashing lights in the sky; and Rin was still by herself, looking as awkward as ever.

Mima called to them. "Well, now that we've all been brought up to speed, the only thing to do now is decide on our course of action."

Surprising everyone, it was Rin who asked the first question. _"Can't you just blast it like you did last time?" _she said. _"With the lightning bolts, I mean."_

"An excellent point," Mima said, nodding in approval. "And yes, I can. But given who it is pulling the strings, my chances of success are…doubtful."

"So, what's the plan then?" Marisa said. "Same as last time?"

"That is the question," Mima agreed. She looked around at those gathered. "So to figure that out…Marisa? Reimu? Sanae? Rin?" She held out her right hand. "Come here, and touch my hand, please. One finger each."

"Huh?" Reimu looked at Marisa, eyes asking for answers, but the blonde witch simply walked over to her former mentor and placed her hand on Mima's index finger.

"_What's going on?" _Rin demanded. _"What are you planning?"_

"And why are we excluded?" Rika said, looking angry. "You're trying to cut us out!"

"Uh, yes?" Mima said, giving Rika a condescending look. "Be serious. You're only here because there are those among us who would prefer that you stay alive. That does not mean your input is wanted, or needed." Dismissively, she turned away from the infuriated inventor. "Chop, chop, ladies. We don't have all day."

"Come on Reddie," Marisa said with a smile as she beckoned. "Trust me, you're gonna love this."

Reimu hesitated a moment further, but relented. It was possible that Mima might betray her, Marisa would never backstab her like this.

Before her mind could come up with the obvious rebuttal, Reimu walked over and touched Mima's middle finger. Seeing this, Sanae got up and joined them, laying her hand on the spirit's pinky.

That left just one more.

"Rin?" Mima said. "Won't you join us?"

…

_Deep Within_

Rin swallowed noisily. She looked over to Rumia, who was trying very hard not to burst into hysterics from the ridiculousness of it all.

Madam freaking Mima, someone who occupied Rumia's top ten list of people to be avoided, was inviting them to a war council, one that contained at least two other people on that list, to decide how to defeat a rogue robot being controlled by a fourth person on that list. And through it all, they had to keep watching over their shoulders in case the number one person on that list showed up, which, as Rumia, understood, she was long overdue. Even youkai had a crazy limit, and Rumia had hit hers hours ago and had kept right on going.

"Rumia?" Rin said in a small voice. "Ah, suggestions?"

Rumia, who was grinning like a loony and did not care one bit about how it made her look, said, "You know something, Rin? I'm gonna level with you here. I'm just a youkai girl from the Wilds. I am so out of my depth here that it's a miracle I haven't gone as crazy as you are." She threw her hands up and let the laughter flow. "Go for it! Let's see what happens!"

Looking not the slightest bit reassured, Rin looked back to the waiting spirit. After a moment of hesitation, she directed her physical body to walk forward and touch a single talon to Mima's thumb.

And then things got a little crazier.

…

Reimu cried out as she stumbled back, tried over a cushion, and went sprawling. She didn't bother to get up and instead frantically looked around, her eyes wild and her mouth hanging open as her breathing threatened to turn into hyperventilation.

"Wha-wha-wha," she gaped, her voice little more than a squeak. "How did we _get _here?"

She was home.

Somehow, the five of them were now in the common room of Hakurei Shrine, which looked exactly the way she had left in, only sans Reisen. Sanae was likewise taken by surprise and had backed against the wall. Mima was floating over the kotatsuin as she usually did, with Marisa still touching her hand. The two spellcasters were watching the startled shrine maidens with looks of glee on their faces.

"Now that," Mima murmured as she withdrew her hand, "never gets old."

Reimu's befuddlement gave way to anger. "Look, I have had it up to here with-"

"How many times do I have to tell you to chillax, Reddie?" Marisa laughed. "Calm down, she didn't do nothing wrong."

"I don't care if she didn't, she still should've told me she was about to…And what the hell did you just do? I thought you couldn't teleport other people!"

"You're right, I can't," Mima said. "However, I _can _create a mock-up illusion from pieces of my memories, and bring other people into them, provided we have physical contact. Apologies for startling you, but your reaction was just too priceless to pass up."

Reimu cautiously stood to her feet. "So, this isn't real? We're not really back at the shrine?"

"No. If you want to get technical about it, you're actually still standing back at the copse, touching my hand. And before you ask, no, no actual time is passing." When Reimu again looked startled, Mima smirked in her usual condescending manner and said, "One of the nifty things about constructing mental illusions is that you get to experience them at the speed of thought."

"I…"

"Reimu, I don't mean to be rude, but while we have all the time we need, I really rather we skipped the Q and A session and got straight down to business. Especially since there are some introductions that need to be made."

Introductions? Who needed to be introduced? Reimu looked around the room. Marisa was reclining with her feet on the kotatsuin, and Sanae was edging her way away from Mima. And behind Mima, cowering near the door, was…

Reimu blinked when she saw not one, but _two _little girls.

The first she recognized only from the images Yukari had produced during the Ringleader meaning and a photograph Reisen had brought with her: a girl with a round face; round, blue eyes on a likewise round face; and short hair the color of wheat. She was dressed in a pink-and-red dress, and wore a large red ribbon in her hair with large cherry-shaped beads. And next to her was another blonde girl, this one a bit shorter with slightly longer hair. She wore a black vest over a white shirt and a black skirt. Her terrified eyes were bright red.

"Rumia?" Reimu blurted in surprise. "No way. Rumia?"

Marisa fell back. She rose quickly, her eyes also wide with surprise. "Holy shitknockers, now _that's _a face I never expected to see again!"

For her part, Mima looked quite pleased with herself. "And with good reason. To be honest, I myself was uncertain if this would work. But here we are!"

This news stunned Reimu more than anything thus far. "Wait, you _didn't _know that…Holy wow, Mima! Are you insane? What if it had been the-" She caught herself just in time. Sparing a second glance at Rin, she lowered her voice and said, "Uh, You-Know-What?"

"Had it been, she would not have been invited," Mima said, also in a low voice. "Give me some credit, shrine maiden. I do have some control over who I let in."

"And if she sensed you and attacked you? What then?"

"Then I would have broken contact and kicked them out, and we would have known who was really pulling the girl's strings. But that did not happen. Now, again, would it be too much to ask that you put your no doubt hereditary distrust of me on hold until we've dealt with the situation on hand?" Mima tilted her head over to Rin and Rumia. "Besides, this is their first social gathering since the first day of spring. Let's not forget our manners."

While Reimu was fully prepared to continue to rake Mima over the coals for taking such an insane risk and mocking her for raising protest, but the spirit did have a point. With everything that was going on, this was not the time. The interrogation would have to wait until later.

But there would be a later, that Reimu promised herself.

"Now that we've got that out of the way…" Mima turned to the two fugitives. "Come on, girls. It's okay. Unlike you two, we don't bite."

Rin and Rumia exchanged a look, and then, Rumia first and then Rin, they cautiously approached the kotatsuin.

"That's better," Mima said, nodding in approval. "Well now, Rumia. I for one echo my prodigy's sentiments. I did not expect to enjoy your company again."

"The same," Rumia said as she and Rin sat down, both of them looking like they were ready to bolt at the slightest sign of hostility. "How the hell is this even possible? I mean, I was in Rin's freaking mind!"

"And now she is in mine, or close enough anyway, and you were brought along for the ride. Oh, don't worry," Mima said in response to Rin's look of alarm. "It's nowhere on the level of what you do. The trademark is safe, I assure you."

"Uh, okay," Rin said. She sounded completely bewildered. "Whatever you say."

It occurred to Reimu that this was the first time she was hearing Rin's real voice. In contrast to that horrible, voice of Death she used in the physical world, her real voice was remarkably unremarkable: small, scared, the voice of a little girl.

Seeing her like this, instead of the terrifying body Rin had mashed together from her victims, Reimu was starting to understand why Reisen risked so much to protect her. She was still dangerous, but it was hard to think of her as a monster.

But was ever more mind-numbing was the fact that Rumia, _her _Rumia, or at least the one she knew, was not only still alive, but sitting right there. The implications were staggering. Even if the Shadow Youkai was still alive, having Rumia working with them meant...

Well, actually Reimu had no idea what it meant. But it did change things, hopefully for the better. With any luck, she would be able to find out how. With any luck...

"Sanae, dear, please join us," Mima said. After the green-haired shrine maiden did so, Mima continued, "Now, ladies. I understand that we all have some very unfortunate and bizarre history, but given what, and who, has just shown up, I think we can all agree that our mistrust can be put aside in favor of some aggressive pest control."

Marisa once again lay on her back and held up both fists, thumbs sticking up. Reimu and Sanae glanced as each other, as did Rin and Rumia, and they all nodded.

"Good. Now, this time I should give you prior warning. The scene is about to change again, in favor for something more practical. Please brace yourselves."

Reimu had only a split second to ready herself before the shrine faded away from all around her. To Mima's credit, it was a gradual process, though it still gave Reimu the creeps.

As the image of Hakurei Shrine melted away, it was replaced by a static representation of the same valley they had just been in (and, if Mima's explanation was to be believed, still were). The six of them were high in the sky, looking down.

"Now, here is the situation as we know it," Mima said. She gestured, and the image swirled and focused on the still form of the Strutter, which had been captured in mid-stomp. "Gensokyo's top troublemaker, one Yuuka Kazami, has decided to come the fuck out of nowhere and interrupt us while we were in the middle of negotations. Extremely rude of her, if you ask me, especially for someone who puts so much stock into good manners. At any rate, she had seized control of the Asakuras' Strutter and loaded it down with one of her gardens." The Strutter came closer still, giving them a good view of the strange herbal life that was now infesting its metal framework. "As both Marisa and I can attest to, there is not a single plant on that thing that does not do something nasty. And while turning it into a heap of scrap metal and dead leaves would not normally be out of the range of our combined abilities, Yuuka does not like to play fair."

As Mima spoke, the image of the Strutter started to rotate. "During our encounter with her, Yuuka proved to be extremely hard to hurt. She was easy to hit, certainly, but any damage was not lasting, and healed up almost instantly. We are going to assume that her pet here has similar, perhaps even identical, regenerative abilities."

"Furthermore," Mima said as the view suddenly swung up and focused on the sky, "There is this little problem. As I told all of you earlier, those clouds are hiding a kind of special flower that is dampening any sort of magic that does not directly originate from us. So yes, that means I cannot remotely control the Hisoutensoku anymore, and we also cannot call for help. It is also the reason why Kanako and Nitori have both neglected to join us."

"So we burn the flowers, and she doesn't block them anymore," Reimu said. "Sounds simple. Except, it's not, is it?"

"I'm afraid not," Mima said. "The last time around, Yuuka had hybridized them with a parasitic plant called a Leech Seed. I would not be surprised if she had now added others into the mix. We know there is something there blasting anyone who tries to leave out of the sky. Furthermore, like Yuuka herself, they regenerate quite quickly."

"So, we're trapped here then?" Sanae said. Her face, already pale from her recent excursions, drained even further. "She's got us trapped here so the Strutter can kill us?"

"It certainly seems that way, but I don't think so," Mima told her. "Given her nature, and the fact that she hasn't had the trees themselves reach down and pop your heads off, I'd say she is simply bored and looking for some entertainment. This valley isn't so much a death trap as it is an arena, one that we have been prevented from leaving until our task is done. And the Strutter isn't so much our executioner as it is our opponent."

Reimu scowled. "So, despite everything else we've already gone through, she decided just to barge in and force us to play her game for her sick amusement. You know, I already didn't like this woman, but now I think I kinda hate her."

"She does have that effect on people," Mima agreed. "But unfortunately, to leave, we need to play her game, and we need to win. A daunting task, I know, especially considering that we don't know what sort of trump cards she has hidden. But like all endeavors of this caliber, the only thing to do is to begin with a workable plan and prepare to improvise when it fails."

"You mean 'if,' right?" Sanae said. "I mean, it sounds like you're already expecting whatever we plan to, like, not work."

"Of course I do," Mima said. "How do you think I've lasted so long? We start off with one idea, based upon the information we have at our disposal, and in the process of its failure we learn something new, and react accordingly. Relying on one single plan of attack is nothing short of suicide."

Sanae frowned, clearly troubled. "Okay…And if we can't react in time?"

"Hey. Mossy." Marisa snapped her fingers. "Shut up with all the negativity, ze. It ain't helping."

"But-"

"Save your worrying for when the fun starts. Because then I'll guarantee you'll be too busy to let it bother you." The blonde witch turned to her former mentor. "So, what's Plan A then?"

"I am,"Rin said, standing up and taking a step forward.

Everyone turned to stare at her. To be truthful, Rin and Rumia had been so quiet during the conversation that Reimu had almost forgotten that she was there, and it was clear that the others had felt the same. With made her feel a bit foolish. After all, this whole operation was centered on Rin; she was the reason they were here at all, going through all this trouble. But now that they had, at least for the time being, convinced her to cooperate, other things had taken precedence, even if they shouldn't have.

Especially since having her on board lent itself to certain possibilities, ones that were only start to realize themselves in Reimu's mind.

"Rin, the hell are you talking about?" Rumia said. "You can't…Oh."

"You?" Sanae said, also dubious of Rin's assertion, as she looked the Kirin up and down with a critical eye. "How can-"

She stopped talking and her eyes widened as she got it, roughly at the same time Rumia had. Reimu glanced over to Marisa, who had a broad grin on her face. No doubt she had gotten it from the get-go.

Rin looked around at everyone. She seemed almost embarrassed to be at the center of attention. "Well, yeah," she said. "Maybe I have trouble with robots, but plants? I'm real good with plants."

"Well, you have a point there," Rumia admitted. "But still…I mean, this…" Then she sighed and sat back down. "You know what? Forget it. Go do what you want."

"Oh, fuck yes," Marisa said. Her right hand had developed a worrying twitch. "This is gonna be-"

"But wait a minute!" Reimu said. "This is way too easy! Yuuka has to know what you're capable of! She has to know what you can do! I mean, near everyone does by now. So there's no way she would dangle something Rin can destroy so easily without having something extremely nasty planned!"

A slow smile spread over the spirit's lips, one that practically dripped with maliciousness. "Oh, of that I have no doubt," Mima said. "In fact, I'm counting on it. I do recall mentioning the need for her to reveal her trump cards?"

Reimu exchanged a quick glance with everyone else. Then, one by one, they nodded.

"Which is exactly why we'll have a few prepared ourselves. Rin here is just what will get things started. Once the ball is rolling, that is when we'll be able to do some real damage."

"If we don't get damaged first," Reimu muttered. "Or am I the only one who remembers what she did to Yukari's whole godsdamned strike team?"

"You mean besides us?" Marisa said.

"The witch has a point, shrine maiden," Mima said. "Consider: despite being separated in the early moments of the fight, Marisa, the ghosts, and I were able to regroup and launch a successful counterattack that destroyed the Yuuka we fought, whereas the other teams were wiped out. Why is that?"

Reimu shrugged.

"One word: cooperation. We were able to operate as a unit, and thus we prevailed. The others were not, and so they were picked apart and were destroyed." Mima shrugged. "Okay, granted, we did have significantly more firepower than the others, but the point remains. We all here have our unique gifts and talents. And so long as we're able to work to our strengths to cover each other's weaknesses, we stand a very strong chance at countering whatever she has for us."

Marisa reached up to flick the brim of her hat. "Whelp, gotta be honest, I never expected to work with Gooey here, but hey, why the hell not?" She turned her smirking face toward Rin. "You ready to unleash some real hell, Creepypants?"

Rin looked at her. Then she held up her right hand, squeezed it into a fist, and smiled.

"Aw, yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Marisa laughed as she slapped Rin on the back. "I think we're gonna get along just fine! Hey, once you're all un-creepified, you wanna come by my place for a few days? Because I've got a lot ofHOLY SHIT, DID I JUST KILL MY HAND?"

Marisa leapt back and stared at the palm of her hand with terrified eyes, as if she expected it to be on fire.

"Uh…what are you…oh." Rin let out a small laugh. "Don't worry. I got that thing under control."

Marisa turned her gaze from her hand to Rin. Her eyes said that she didn't believe the Kirin one bit. "You sure?" she said. "My hand's not going to turn black and fall off, right?"

"Yes, Miss Kirisame, I'm sure. Maybe you've noticed how the grass isn't dying everywhere I go? Besides, even if I hadn't, I don't think it works like that in this place."

"Oh. Okay then." Marisa put her hand down and shrugged. "Then it's all good then."

Then Sanae raised her hand.

"Yes, Mossy," Mima said.

"I…that's not really my name." Sanae shot quick glare at Marisa and then said, "You said we were going to have a couple trump cards of our own, right?"

"Correct."

"Okay. Do you, like, know what they are, or are we going to make them up now?"

Mima steepled her fingers. "Oh, I am so glad you asked. And yes, I am working on an idea or two. Certainly, Yuuka cutting me off from some of my more interesting tricks is a problem, but like all problems, it just means we'll have to get creative. For example…"

The illusion of the valley suddenly pitched and swerved. Reimu had to avert her eyes to keep from getting nauseous. Fortunately, it didn't last long, and she saw that Mima was focusing on a single object. Specifically, the still standing figure of the Hisoutensoku.

"I for one don't believe that thing had worn out its usefulness, do you?" Mima said.

…

"Don't do it."

Reisen sat on her haunches, her shaking hands gripping Rin's diary, her upper body hunched over its pages as she relived the last few years of Rin's life. Granted, the girl was technically still alive, but it still came out to the same thing. After all, who in their right mind would call what she was experiencing right now "living"? Or those years trapped in Patchouli Knowledge's box? That was, at all, a simple continuation of existence, not life.

_Tomorrow I'm beginning my nurse training. I mean the real stuff, not those tests. This is really going to happen! Oh my gods, I'm so excited! I can't wait! I mean, I'm actually going to be in there, working with Doctor Yagokoro and Reisen, helping people! This is what I was meant to do, I just know it!_

_Doctor Yagokoro is really excited too. I think this is the first time she's actually been interested in me. It's like, I'm that pile of rocks that she kept stubbing her toe on, when suddenly, she finds out that I'm really a gold mine! Okay, so that metaphor was really weird, but hey, if it means I don't have to do anymore self-defense training anymore, I'll take it!_

_Still, I am kinda nervous. We're also gonna start those tests she told me about. She said it wasn't going to be anything painful or scary, so that's okay. But what if it doesn't work like she thinks it does? What if I can't make this power do anything useful? Will she just kick me out? Fire me?_

_I won't let that happen! I swear, I'll do everything to make Doctor Yagokoro's experiment succeed!_

At the time, Reisen had been worried too. After all, despite her incredible genius, Eirin had a bad habit of losing sight of things such as principles and morality when pursuing her experiments. And with Rin on the operating table, Reisen had gone to bed every night with visions of gory explosions dancing in her head, mingled with the image of Rin's poisoned face, dead and bloated.

Of course, what had actually happened ended up being far worse than anything her imagination could conjure up. Reisen was starting to develop a theory that real life was not directed by random chance and coincidence, but by some sort of sentient consciousness, one with a truly sick sense of humor.

_I'm back from my first day!_

_Man, I'm just so wired right now! Okay, let's start with what I just finished. Doctor Yagokoro started testing me to see if I can really adapt and absorb energy. She had me sit still in this empty room and filled it with really, really, really low-level gamma rays. Okay, I admit, I was really scared, but I didn't feel a thing. _

_Anyway, Doctor Yagokoro says that she's pretty sure it was working, but I guess it takes awhile for it to really kick in. I guess that makes sense, and I'm glad that she's the one saying we should wait and be patient._

_But anyway! Enough about that. Before all that, Doctor Yagokoro also showed me around the clinic and told me where every is and all the procedures for handling the tools. I already knew most of the stuff already from my classes, but even so, to actually __be_ _there in uniform was really exciting. I mean, not a whole lot actually happened. There's not a whole of people getting injured anyway, and Reisen said they have a lot of downtime. But I don't mind. I'm happy that I'm finally there, working with Doctor Yagokoro. I figure if I do good, she'll let me stick around even if the superpower thing doesn't work out, and become kinda like my teacher! I mean, she's only the coolest and smartest and most beautiful person in like the history of ever! Can you imagine what it'll be like if she starts teaching me all the stuff she knows? Who know, maybe one day I'll become a super-important doctor too!_

_So I guess it's like the whole thing with my powers. It doesn't what it is now, but what it can turn into is going to be so awesome!_

"Don't do it," Reisen whispered again. She knew it was pointless, that the upcoming unfortunate events had already played out, but she couldn't help but try, as if the words could travel beyond the gap of time and change Rin's past.

_I got to fix my first broken bone today! Well, not by myself, but I still did most of it! Sudo from Lord Shinzu's village lost a danmaku fight and crashed real hard, and Doctor Yagokoro let me set it and everything! And when it was over, she said that I done it perfectly! Yay!_

_Oh yeah, and she says that she thinks my adaptation is kicking in! She said that the gamma rays are getting absorbed right into my skin as soon as they hit me without doing anything bad. I gotta admit, I do feel a little more, I dunno, energized afterward? Doctor Yagokoro said that it's probably just a placebo effect though, and I shouldn't pay too much attention to it._

"Don't do it."

_It's true! I can really adapt to energy! We've tried like a whole bunch of different kinds of light, and after a couple of days it's like my body just starts eating it. Doctor Yagokoro is really happy now, but she said that she doesn't want to move onto tougher stuff just yet, like danmaku, but I know I can do it! I don't care if it hurts, I need to do this!_

"Don't do it."

_Ladies and gentlemen, Doctor Yagokoro was right! I can even absorb danmaku now! But I think Doctor Yagokoro is getting worried, seeing how it does take me a couple days. She said she'll try to find a way to speed things up._

"Don't do it."

_Okay, wow. Today was weird. We tried to see if I can absorb physical objects, and now I got little pieces of paper stuck halfway in my skin. I'm trying to suck them all the way in, but it's taking way too long. And it really itches. Like, "Woke up covered with ants" itches. But does this mean that, when I finally get real good at this, will I be able to absorb big things? I just hope I don't start getting hungry!_

_But speaking of which, Doctor Yagokoro thinks she's been able speed things up. See, turns out she knows some people outside of the forest, and they're supposed to be really smart. Not as smart as her, of course, but she thinks that if they work together, they'll be able to make some sort of super potion thingy that'll…_

"Don't do it!"

This was torture, even worse than digging through Rin's thoughts when she had been a brat. Reisen had already lived through the experience once. She had already stood on the sidelines, fraught with worry, as Eirin had grown increasingly more impatient and escalated the experiment more and more. Reliving those same events through Rin's eyes, with full knowledge how they would turn out, was nearly unbearable.

She again took to giving the entries only the briefest of glances, flipping through page after page as the end came nearer. It felt wrong, in a way. After all, these had been Rin's final thoughts. She at least deserved to have them read in full. But Reisen just couldn't bring herself to slow down. It hurt too much.

And then she reached an entry headlined by a date she knew all too well. It read:

_Well, I don't usually do these things in the morning, but I think I need to, just this one time._

_Today's the big day. The elixir is ready to go. And if this works, Doctor Yagokoro's experiment will be a success. But if it doesn't…_

_I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me. __Of course__ it's going to work! She said it would, didn't she? And she's never wrong, so I have nothing to be worried about!_

_But I am worried. I'm kinda scared. No, way, forget that. I'm __terrified!__ Not because I think it won't work, but I don't know what things will be like for me afterward. I mean, I'll be able to adapt to things in seconds! I'll be able to absorb things right away, instead of waiting a couple days for my body to get used to them. I know, it sounds really cool, but what if I can't turn it off? What if I start, I don't know, eating my bed when I'm sleeping? Doctor Yagokoro says I don't have to worry about that, that I'll still have complete control over my powers, so I guess I'm getting worked up for nothing. But I couldn't sleep at all last night._

_Reisen couldn't sleep either. She kept getting up and walking around. I could hear her. I know she's never liked this experiment. I know she's just looking after me, and I hate making her worry, but I really hope she'll trust Doctor Yagokoro. I mean, she's only the person who created eternal life! She knows what she's doing!_

_Anyway, I'd better head over there. This is going to be strange. I hope I can write without accidentally eating you when it's over!_

And that was that. She had gone to the specially insulated room Eirin had prepared and was administered the elixir immediately after. She never had the chance to write in her diary again.

Seconds ticked by and turned into minutes, but Reisen didn't put the diary down. She just kept staring at that last entry, the final will and testament of Rin Satsuki, before she had been turned into a non-person. She had done it, she had made it through, but what had she accomplished beyond tearing scabbed wounds open? Nothing.

Why had Mima told her to do this? There was nothing here that suggested any sort of cure. But perhaps that had been the spirit's intentions all along. If the stories were to be believed, than she was something of a sadist, especially in the realm of mental and emotional torment. Had she suggested that Reisen read through the diary simply for her personal amusement?

Reisen's throat constricted. She let herself fall back onto her backside and slumped over her knees. The sobs started small, nothing more than whimpers, but they grew in strength as Reisen's feelings of guilt, of anger, of frustration and helplessness came pouring out all at once. She hated herself for falling apart like this, but what could she do? Somewhere out there, Reimu Hakurei was trying to reach Rin and turn her around, but everyone else was bound and determined to prevent that from happening. And Reisen was powerless to do anything about it.

Finally, Reisen calmed down and let her body relax. She stretched out her legs and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Then, with a sigh, she glanced back at the diary, which was still held in her right hand on the floor beside her.

Rin's final entry had flipped over during Reisen's emotional collapse, exposing the following page. Reisen blinked in surprise and brought it closer. Though there shouldn't have been anything further, there was still something written there

However, it had definitely not been put there by Rin. For one, the penmanship was different. Stronger, more precise. And for another, it wasn't even in the same language. Rin had made all of her entries in Gensokyian Japanese. This was Ancient Lunarian.

Her heart beating faster, Reisen quickly read the page. It wasn't much, just two lines. The first she recognized as a quote from Ehita no Verkahta, a philosopher who had enjoyed a minor but still fairly important position on the royal court during the Lunarian society's early days. It read:

"_It is the burden of all heroes to one day run out of monsters to vanquish, after which they are doomed to fill their roles in attempting their prevention. And it is the burden of all monsters to believe themselves to be heroes, with the whole world as their unanimous persecutors."_

The second line was not a quote, but a simple plea.

_Forgive me._

Eirin had read this diary. Eirin had sifted through Rin's thoughts, had witnessed the final days of the girl she was to destroy.

Had she, like Reisen, also been struck with the full realization of what she had done? That small plea for forgiveness seemed to indicate as such. But then, why did she work so hard toward Rin's destruction? Was it all just as she had claimed earlier, a desire to put Rin out of her misery? Or had this moment been nothing more than a moment of weakness, a crack in the façade, before she had hardened her heart and returned to business as usual?

Reisen didn't know. Eirin Yagokoro's mind had been near impossible for her to gauge even before all this had gone down, and she wasn't about to make the attempt now. There was no denying that Eirin felt a great deal of responsibility towards Rin, but whether it was driven from actual remorse or from a desire to correct what she saw as a breathtaking failure Reisen could not judge.

She flipped through the diary's remaining pages but found nothing more. Then, at last, she closed it.

"Forgive you?" Reisen muttered as she stood up. Her legs, still a bit cramped, protested, but she was able to ignore them. "Well, let's just leave that up to your monster."

...

_And...I'm back! Again. _

_Again, I'm really sorry about the wait, guys. The usual reasons apply: finals week hitting right after the update went up, and my computer going nuts about the same time and taking about two-and-a-half weeks to fix. Here is a request to the computer techs of the world: if you didn't actually fix the faulty part, don't send it back with a note claiming that you did.  
_

_But beyond that, this chapter's production was, as I'm sure many of you picked up on, rather troubled. In short, I hit major writer's block right around when Kanako joined Reimu and Rin's conversation. With this arc winding down, I knew how I wanted it to end, and I knew where it currently was, but I had one hell of a time trying to figure out how to connect the strands.  
_

_In the end, I use a technique that I learned from Stephen King: that is, if what you're writing isn't really going anywhere, have a man burst into the room and start shooting. In this case, Yuuka was my gunwoman. Unfortunately, this brought her off the bench a few chapters earlier than I would have liked. Personally, I would was preferred for her to stay back for a while longer, but I had hit the wall and she has a way of making things move, even if the result tends to be a bit cancerous. So yeah, I cheated. Apologies if it's obvious, but the chapter was late as it was, and I needed to do something to get the damned thing going. And now it's turning out to be kind of a mix between_ Sanctuary Denied _and _The Storm, _and I'm not really sure how I feel about that. Ah well, everyone makes mistakes; so I guess the only thing to do would be to learn from all this and keep on moving._Of_ course, now that I explained that, that's going to be the only thing anyone wants to comment on. :P_

_Anyway, the current plan is to wrap up the mecha madness with the next chapter and the arc in the one after that, after which things will change gears.  
_

_Until next time, everyone!  
_


	40. The Arena

The Arena

She sat alone on a gently sloping hill that descended into a shallow valley, a tall woman wearing a red plaid skirt and vest over a light pink shirt, her head covered by a linen shawl, her hands gripping the handle of a copper cane that was held upright between her knees. She was hunched over and seemed to sway with the wind. A brief glance might give the impression that she was a frail old woman, so withered by years that a strong breeze might knock her over. But while it was true that she was very, very old, it would be a mistake to believe her to be frail, a potentially fatal mistake. She was not in the best of health to be sure, but she was not frail.

At the moment, her attention was focused on a small copse of trees, about two-thirds of a kilometer from her position. Within, a number of people were plotting against her, and she was patiently waiting for them to finish. It wouldn't do to attack them before they had readied themselves for battle; that would just be rude, and she could not abide rudeness.

Finally they finished and dispersed, each of them leaving to take position. She didn't know exactly what their plan was, assuming that they had one at all, nor did she care. What mattered was that they were ready.

The woman allowed a slow smile to lift her lips, twisting them into a smirk of satisfaction. "Well now," she said, seemingly to herself, "the game is afoot. The combatants are moving, and we are ready to begin. Given how the last one went, one can't help but wonder what little surprises await our players."

She cast a glance upward. Overhead, the sky was blotted out by a domed canopy of swirling clouds, all glowing with an eerie blue luminescence. "And how fitting that we should have a proper arena this time." She frowned. "Though it does seem to be lacking something. A battle of this caliber deserves more than an audience of one, stadium seats full of bloodthirsty spectators and that sort of thing. It just isn't the same without the roar of the crowd."

The woman snickered. "Ah, but then, I am not the only one watching, am I? I never was. And you are watching, aren't you? Where else would you be? This is where the party is, after all."

She leaned back onto her elbow and stretched out her legs. "Though while it warms the very cockles of my heart to share this moment with you, I hope you are not annoyed if I take this opportunity to run some things by you. I've been doing some thinking since our last meeting, about our rather unique relationship, and have come up with some personal theories about all that. I know you really can't answer, but even so, would you mind terribly acting as a sounding board? Who know, maybe I'll introduce a change in perspective that you had not previously considered. If nothing else, it'll give you something to think about."

…

Reimu walked beside Rin through the trees, heading back toward the tall grass. She watched the mutated Kirin out of the corner of her eye, trying to read her expression. Unfortunately, Rin's strange but beautiful face betrayed nothing but determination.

The shrine maiden wished she had Rin's composure. The sheer absurdity of the situation was threatening to make her break down in hysterics. And if she was having trouble keeping her cool, she could only begin to imagine how Rin must be feeling behind her stolen features.

"_You don't have to worry about me."_

Reimu's head jerked up. "What?"

Rin was now looking at her, a small smile on her lips. _"You were staring at me."_

"No, I…Well, yeah, maybe a little," Reimu admitted. "It's just a little weird, that's all."

"_What we're about to do, or the fact that you're doing it with me?"_

Reimu managed a laugh. "A little bit of Column A, a little bit of Column B, to be honest."

"_Well, if you're worried that I'm going to bug out on your or switch sides or something, don't worry." _She winked in a reassuring manner._ "I'm not as crazy as everyone probably think. I can handle this."_

Reimu felt a grimace forming and tried to hide it. Despite Rin's assurances, she was worried. She was worried quite a bit.

…

_Then… _

"Reimu, a word, if you please."

Reimu frowned. The hallucinatory strategy session was over, and she, Mima, Marisa, Sanae, Rin, and Rumia were all back at Mima's mental representation of Hakurei Shrine, mentally readying themselves. Rin and Rumia were sitting huddled together in one corner, talking in low voices. Marisa had apparently engaged in a boxing match with an imaginary Yuuka, and was swinging at the air with her fists, punctuating each blow with a spoken sound-effect. Sanae was pacing back and forth, muttering to herself and anxiously wringing her hands. And as for Mima…

"What's up?" Reimu said to the spirit.

"I need to talk to you about those two," Mima said, inclining her head to Rin and Rumia. "There is something about them you should know."

Reimu frowned. "Er, yeah, sure. If you say so. You want to go outside or…"

"No need. One of the many perks of hosting a party inside my mind is that I get to dictate what my guests perceive. As far as everyone else is concerned, we're discussing what tricks Yuuka might have in store for us."

Once again Reimu was reminded why Mima was so scary. Added to the fact that she had installed spying spells into the Hakurei Shrine, evidence that some sort of forceful eviction will become necessary in the near future was starting to accumulate at an alarming rate.

However, that was neither here nor now. Keeping her face neutral and her thoughts under control, Reimu said, "Okay, I guess that works. What's the problem?"

Mima smiled, and Reimu had the unsettling suspicion that she knew exactly what Reimu had just been thinking. But instead of addressing the shrine maiden's distrust, Mima said, "If I were to be truthful, something I freely admit I'm not known for, I brought you all here for reasons beyond holding an impromptu war room. I also wanted to get a closer look at that _fascinating _creature." Once more she nodded towards Rin. "In this world of strange and wonderful lifeforms, she is truly unique. To let such an opportunity slip away would be nothing short of criminal. Besides, considering the sorts of things she's reported to be carrying, I thought it best to act on the side of prudence."

Glancing at the Kirin, Reimu asked, "Okay, fair enough. So, what'd you find out?"

"Oh, many things. Full credit must be given to Eirin Yagokoro, young Rin is quite the find." Mima's voice took on a note of wonder. "A pity the current situation is so pressing. I would give a great many things for the chance to study her more in depth, preferably with her in a glass jar."

"Are you being creepy on purpose?" Reimu demanded. "Knock it off, and get to the freaking point already."

"As you wish. And you're right, scientific progress can wait. No, I need to talk to you about her passengers."

"You mean Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou?" Reimu said, her interest rising. "Can you bring them out too?"

"Alas, no. Rin and Rumia I was able to invite due to their minds being so close to the surface. But she has our immortal friends buried deep inside their own minds."

"She does? Why?"

Mima shrugged. "I cannot say, nor do I care enough to ask. Though given how active their respective subconscious minds are, I'd say she got fed up with having them hanging around and decided to send them into a dream to keep them busy."

"Oh," Reimu said. "Well. That's…kind of terrifying, once you think about it."

Mima raised an eyebrow. _"You _call it terrifying. I call it potentially the most lucrative entertainment medium the market has ever seen. A pity she's a dangerous lunatic who's wanted by just about everyone. If this weren't so, people would be lining up to be eaten by her."

Reimu buried her face in her palm. "Mima, please, for the sake of my already tenuous sanity, quit it with the disturbing crap and _get _to the _freaking point!"_

"All right, all right," Mima said, holding her palms up. "As you wish. And the freaking point is that it seems my previous assessment about her was correct. Specifically, the one concerning her _other _passenger."

Reimu felt a sudden chill. She shot a glanced at Rumia. The little youkai girl was still talking to Rin, though by the looks of it their conversation was swiftly turning into an argument. Big surprise.

Even if it was unnecessary, Reimu lowered her voice. "You mean the Shadow Youkai? It's still around after all?"

"Of course. But it's in deep, even deeper than those two nincompoops. And very likely up to no good."

"Well, why don't you do something about it then?" Reimu demanded. "You're the big, bad evil sorceress. Go blow it up!"

Mima gave her an exasperated look. "Reimu, while it's true that I am an arrogant egoist who thinks quite highly of herself, that doesn't mean I'm stupid. Part of the reason I've lasted so long is that haven't deluded myself into believing that I have no limitations. I may be powerful, but I am not about to get into a slugging match with the avatar of Azrael."

"Yukari did," Reimu pointed out. "So did my mom. And they won."

"Good for them," Mima said as she sarcastically clapped her hands. "But with full respect to Yukari and your surly predecessor, a newly formed avatar of a Fallen Angel that has yet to come fully into its powers is not the same thing as one that has had six decades to scheme and allow its strength to germinate. And I for one would rather not fight such a creature within my own psyche. You've already seen what fighting that thing did to Rin. I'd rather not have the same happen to me."

"Rin?" Reimu frowned. "But she looks fine."

"Appearances can be deceiving, child. Her adaptation reaches beyond the physical, and the regeneration she stole from the Hourai immortals protects her as well. But trust me, I cannot recall the last time I have seen such a damaged creature. She has been wounded deeply, where it hurts the most." Mima tapped her left breast, where her heart would be if she had one. "Believe me, if it weren't for those factors, she would be quite the entertaining basket case right now."

"Oh."

"And all that to say this: with the Shadow Youkai digging around inside her, doing who-knows-what, we are all in incredible danger. As bad as things are, with that unbelievably annoying gardener mucking things up and the trouble Yukari might bring down on our heads, _none _of that compares to the catastrophe that will result if that monster gets loose."

"I know that already," Reimu snapped. "Good gods, you think I've been sleeping through all those lectures you people have been stuffing down my throat? Yuuka bad! Shadow Youkai bad! Rin dangerous! Yukari problematic! Doom, death, destruction, darkness, and despair! I freaking _get it _already!"

"Oh, so good to hear. Then you'll have no problems with keeping an eye on the girl."

"I was planning on doing that anyway, thanks. You think I haven't been thinking the same thing?"

Now Mima's smile was genuine. "No, I suppose not. My apologies."

"For how much _that's _worth," Reimu muttered. "And hey, if the Shadow Youkai is such a problem, shouldn't we, oh I don't know, _tell _Rin that it's still knocking about in her head?"

Mima shook her head. "I can see why you would think that course of action would make sense. However, the last time we so much as suggested the possibility, she threw a tornado of death at you and destroyed a large chunk of forest."

"Well, yeah," Reimu admitted, her spirits falling at the memory. "But we weren't on the same side then."

"True. And I have a feeling that if you bring that subject up, you won't be on the same side now. I told you that the Shadow Youkai had damaged her mind and soul. I have little doubt that her refusal to consider its survival is something of a coping mechanism. Try to claim otherwise, and you may trigger another panic attack."

Another obstacle. Fantastic. "All right, baby steps then," Reimu sighed. "And hey, what about Rumia? Can we trust her?"

"You mean the one we have with us?" Mima shrugged. "Well, there's no denying that a connection exists between her and the Shadow Youkai, but I could find no evidence that she's acting as the avatar's tool. Even so, it's best to get this over with quickly. Rin needs to be taken to Shinki ASAP. The sooner the Shadow Youkai ceases to be a problem, the easier it will be to restore Rin to something more…socially manageable." Mima's face fell. "Pity, though. Such a magnificent mutation. The possibilities…"

"Shut up, Mima," Reimu growled. "And what about Rumia? What are her chances of survival?"

"Hmmm, well." Mima rubbed her chin as she thought. "No idea," she said at last, shrugging.

"You don't know?" Reimu said in disbelief.

"Understand, the number of avatars of Fallen Angels that have come into existence can be numbered in the single-digits. And in each case, the Forces of the Silver City were quite thorough in their clean-up. Not a single avatar is known to have survived, though whether they were killed by the decontamination or executed immediately after is something only the Angels themselves know."

When Reimu didn't respond, Mima sighed and said, "Reimu, you probably already know this, but sometimes, you can't save everybody. Sometimes you have to content yourself with saving the ones you can and mourning the rest."

"I know, I know," Reimu groused. "It's just…Well, she's annoying and, hell, not really a good person, but she's still just a kid."

"Everyone is, to someone else," Mima said, her voice surprisingly soft. "You are one yourself, as is Marisa, and as is what's-her-face. In fact, there are many creatures to whom _I _would be considered a youngster. However, I regret to remind you that in situations such as these, children do not have a high survival rate."

…

Rin walked out of the copse and entered the wild grass. Overhead, the clouds had thickened and the blue glow had brightened. That scared her. It felt too much like a cage. While Rumia might disagree, she found the prospect of being trapped again to be far more terrifying than death.

Forcing herself to look away, she turned her attention to the grass that now came up to her knees. Despite the seriousness of the situation, she still felt a small measure of satisfaction in the fact that everything was not withering around her. Of course, the reason she had been so adamant about learning to control her powers to help her hide. It was just her luck that she would gain control right before hiding was no longer necessary.

The Strutter wasn't difficult to find. She could see it clomping away along the valley's perimeter. Despite her intentions to kill it, Rin felt an odd kinship toward the creature. Like herself, it had been created as a weapon by the Asakura sisters and things had gone horribly wrong (or right, depending on one's point of view). And like her, it had been encouraged toward a homicidal rampage by a sinister voice in its head. The only difference is that it was more of a listener than she was.

…

_Then… _

Rumia twiddled her thumbs and looked around. It was strange, just sitting inside of the Hakurei Shrine's living quarters and not being chased out. Of course, she wasn't at the actual shrine, but the replication was perfect. To be honest, it gave her the creeps. This was too much like that horrifying dream Rin had sent her through. Granted, it lacked the creepy imagery and irritatingly vague metaphors, but the parallels were there.

What was stranger was the company. Rumia was all too aware that she was the weakest person present, and that no one of those gathered liked her, save possibly for Rin, and hers was a complicated case. Granted, her former self was strong enough to make even Yukari sweat, but Rumia heavily disliked the association.

"Hey, uh, Rumia?" Rin said in a low voice.

Rumia looked at her. The little Kirin girl reminded her of…well, herself, when she was cornered by things stronger than her with little chance of escape. Rin's blue eyes darted Reimu to Mima to Marisa to Sanae and back again, though they lingered most often with those first two persons.

"You know Reimu, right?" Rin said. "I mean, as much as someone like you can."

Rumia arched an eyebrow. "Er, kinda, yeah. What of it?"

"Should I trust her?"

Rumia let out a bark of laughter, only to regret it when everyone turned to look at her. Smiling sheepishly, she waved them off. When their attention was elsewhere, she said, "You're picking a really lousy time to ask that question, Rin."

"I know, I know," Rin said apologetically. "But still, I wanna know. Do you think she's telling the truth?"

"About trying to fix you, you mean?"

Rin nodded.

"Hell if I know," Rumia shrugged. "I mean, if it as just her alone, then I'd say yeah, she's probably telling the truth. But it ain't just her. You've got those two," she nodded first toward Mima and Marisa, "and her goddess is in it too," she indicated Sanae, "and they're all known for being kinda…ruthless. Maybe one of them is really behind it, and this is all some kind of really, really sneaky trap."

"Maybe," Rin said. "But I don't think so."

Rumia scowled. "Well, then why the hell did you ask me for?"

"I just wanted your opinion. But okay, let's say this is some kind of set-up. What happens then?"

Rumia shrugged. "Then we're screwed, I guess. I don't know, you're supposed to be the smart one. What do you think?"

Rin pondered the question for a few moments before answering. "Well, I guess that depends on what they're planning to do. If they're just going to kill me…well, that's that, I guess."

"And…you're okay with this?"

"Aren't you?"

Rin's question hit Rumia a lot harder than might have been expected. She winced, and said, "Getting kinda personal there, Rin."

"Sorry," Rin said, sounding like she meant it. "It's just…" She leaned back and stared upward, searching for the right words. "If it turns out that they're going to kill me, then…I think I'm okay with that. I mean, don't get me wrong, a cure would be fantastic, but escape is escape, you know?"

"If you say so," Rumia muttered, trying not to show that she had much the same thought not too long ago. "So no matter what happens, it's a win-win for you, is that what you're saying?"

The answer took much longer to come than Rumia expected. "No," Rin said at last. "If this is just them working against me, then that's…that's okay. But if it turns out they're working for or being used by Yukari Yakumo…" She shook her head. "I'm not having any of that. I'm not letting her take me."

"Why not?" Rumia said, now honestly curious. She was scared of Yukari too, but couldn't fathom why having her involved would make things worse.

"Because…I just have this feeling, you know? That she's not going to settle for just killing me. That if she catches me, she's going to put me back…" Rin grimaced. "Back into that box, only this time forever. I'm not going to let that happen, Rumia. I'm not going back into that box. Even if…" She looked down at her tiny, normal hands. Rumia did too. And for just a moment, she saw them superimposed by black, metallic talons, stained with blood. "Even if I have to give in and go full bad guy, I will. I'm not going back into that box. Ever."

…

"So that's the infamous Rin Satsuki," Yuuka mused, rubbing her chin. "Well, I cannot speak to her character, never having met the girl in person, but I still must give credit where it's due: she does cut quite the imposing figure. That aura is quite the nice touch, and while the talons lack subtlety, when combined with the rest of her features they do have their own savage beauty. She is a most intriguing quarry. I am most interested in seeing what she can do."

She stared intently at the distant, glowing figure a moment longer, her single eye narrowed. Then she broke contact and relaxed. "But anyway, getting back to the subject at hand, ours is an interesting relationship, one that I feel is poorly defined. The reader, and the character. Reality and fiction. Seemingly two separate opposites, but woven together by subtle threads. The latter cannot exist without the former, to be true, but if you'll forgive me for waxing philosophical, does the world of tangible truth truly mean anything without the world of shadowed fantasies to define it?"

Yuuka chuckled. "And honestly, what is reality anyway? Is it limited to what we see, what we feel, what we hear and smell and taste? Are our oh-so-limited senses the final arbitrator of what _is _and what _isn't? _And understand, this is coming from someone well-used to possessing far beyond the standard set of mortal senses, to limit what _is _to what we can personally experience seems quite a bit on the presumptuous side."

"Take you, for instance," she continued with a vague wave of her hand. "Assuming you are not all figments of a foolish old woman's overactive imagination, you exist in a place unreachable and invisible to myself and all that inhabit my neck of the woods. Save for my own brief glimpse, you might as well not exist for all we're affected. But does that negate your existence? Certainly not."

"Now take us," she said, placing a hand at the base of her throat. "Myself, my friends, my wards, my neighbors, and my enemies. Now to _you, _we do enjoy some form of existence, but not through anything tangible. We exist through tales and stories; through words and pictures, crafted by your fellows. Cute, but troubling if you happen to live on this side. Because that suggests the possibility that all this," she waved a hand at the valley and the rising chaos it contained, "is nothing more than a stage-act, put on for your pleasure. All the lives at stake, all the grudges being nursed, all the vows of honor and so on and so forth, nothing more than shades of passing entertainment."

"Now, assuming that this is true, what then does that make me? Am I hero of legend, whose tales is being told for others to experience and remember? Am I a Ringmaster, putting on a show for my audience's benefit? Or am I puppet, dancing on the strings moved by another for the masses to look at? I look at these options and wonder, are they not equally terrible?"

…

Rin quickened her gait, closing the distance between her and the behemoth. She dug into the deep well of Rumia's power, and smoky black energy gathered around her hands. In response, the tips of the nearby grass shriveled and died.

_I sure hope you know what you're doing, _Rumia said from inside her head.

She didn't, actually. That was the problem. She was supposed to just start firing away and draw out whatever it was that Yuuka Kazami was planning and make things up from there. But she hated that plan. Granted, thinking on the fly had served her well in the past, but to wholly rely on intuition and improvision to see them through just seemed stupid to her. Especially when going up again an enemy who, by all accounts, was much better at it than she would ever…

Rin slowed down and stopped.

"What's wrong?" Reimu said. "You see something?"

"_This is stupid," _Rin said, mostly to herself.

_What? _Rumia said.

"What?" Reimu said, almost at the same time.

Raising her voice, Rin said, _"This is stupid. I'm just supposed to march up to that thing, hit it with something that everyone agrees probably won't work, and just hope I survive whatever nasty trap Yuuka has hidden?"_

Reimu looked troubled. "Okay, when you put it like that, it does sound pretty stupid. But-"

"_But what? So, just because I'm a near-indestructible powerhouse of destruction that means I have to be the one to spearhead this…" _Her voice trailed off, and then she admitted, _"Okay, so when I put it like _that, _it does make a lot of sense. But it's still stupid."_

"Rin?" Reimu said with a frown. Her dark eyes bore into Rin, as if she were trying to gauge the Kirin's thoughts. It made Rin feel even more uncomfortable. "Are you…feeling okay?"

"_Feeling okay?" _Rin repeated, confused. _"I feel fine. I just think we're going about all this all wrong."_

She pointed at the Stutter, the thing they had come to kill. _"See that thing? It's just a hunk of metal with a bunch of plants holding it together. It's just a tool. Why are we even fighting it?"_

_Hear, hear, _Rumia said, her tone dry.

Reimu's face twisted up. "Uh, because it's controlled by a super-powerful youkai who gets a kick out of playing dumb games like this and won't let us go unless we win?"

"_See, that's what I'm talking about. Who's to say she'll let us go? She never promised that. We just assumed that those were the rules. And even if they were, why do we have to follow them? Who is she to force us to play her game?"_

_Finally you're talking sense! _Rumia cheered.

As for the shrine maiden, she was starting to edge away from Rin. That was odd. It wasn't like Rin was going to attack her. She was just pointing out the obvious.

"Maybe you have a point," Reimu said, her voice slow and controlled. "But do you have a better idea?"

"_Sure. Forget the Strutter." _Rin's hand, still surrounded by the power of the Shadow Youkai, swung upward to point at the sky. _"We go after _them."

"The Sirens?" Reimu looked up. "But Mima said Yuuka's going to expect us to attack them and has some sort of crazy protection."

"_See, that's another problem. Everyone's so convinced that this lady is so insanely powerful that there's nothing we can do to beat her." _Rin suddenly leapt into the air. Phoenix fire sparked to life and surrounded her body. At the same time, a twisting aura of writhing darkness enveloped her, mixing with the fire, forming a barrier of heat and cold. _"But I've had to have killed an entire forest by now. You think I can't handle a bunch of flowers?"_

Reimu's eyes widened. "Wait, it's more than a just a bunch of flowers!" she cried. "She supercharges them with something!"

"_Big deal. You wanna know what I'm supercharged with? Because I think you already know."_

With that, Rin shot off, heading toward the canopy of clouds and blue lights, trailing a line of flame and darkness behind her.

"Rin, stop!" Reimu called after her. "You don't understand! Yuuka fought Yukari and _beat _her! She beat her! You're not strong enough…" The rest of her pleas faded as she left earshot.

Deep within her mind, Rumia cleared her throat. _Wait, Yuuka beat Yukari? Uh, come to think of it, Miss Reimu has a point. Maybe this isn't a good idea._

_I beat Yukari too, _Rin reminded her.

_She didn't know what you could do. Something tells me that Miss Yuuka's done her reading._

Rin declined to answer, though it was mostly due to her approaching firing distance. Gathering flame in one hand and concentrated decay in the other, she focused on one particularly thick bundle of glowing clouds and attacked.

…

"Admittedly, if I had to choose, I vastly prefer the middle option," Yuuka mused. "I've always considered myself to be something of a show-woman, and I certainly love what I do. With that in mind, what does it matter if there are others to enjoy it with me? I cannot see them, so it should make no difference."

She steepled her fingers thoughtfully. "The answer to that should be quite obvious: it makes no difference. By that, I mean that nothing I do makes a difference. I could surrender myself to Yukari and become her willing slave, and nothing meaningful will change. I could break this country to pieces and condemn all those who dwell here to die slowly and horribly as their bodies are digested and their fluids feed my babies. I could shave myself bald, dress in drag, and dance the hula from one end of Gensokyo to the other, and save for inducing some confused chuckles, nothing of any value will be gained or lost. Such is the burden of living in a fiction."

"Of course, there is another possibility, one that I mentioned during our last meeting. It is possible that I am as real as any of you, and my adventures are simply being leaked into your world. This is far preferable to the alternative, and it lends itself to any number of possibilities. After all, if word of my exploits can reach across the vast fissure that exists between worlds, who is to say that others things cannot come across as well." A rough chuckle bubbled out of her throat. "Like, just an example, my own self? Now, wouldn't that be grand? After all, who wouldn't jump at the chance to meet all of her adoring fans? Now that would be…"

Her voice trailed off as her eye, which had taken on a wistful look, refocused. "Ah, excuse me my dears, but I do believe little Rin is attempting to leave the stage." Smiling with amusement, she sat back and shook her head. "Well, while I suppose I can't fault them for constantly making escape attempts, you would think that they would learn by now. Ah well, everyone always had to learn for themselves. A pity they couldn't learn from the mistakes of others though. It would certainly save a great deal of time and-

A moment later, Yuuka found herself lying flat on her back, remaining eye wide and staring up at the sky she had created, heart pounding and muscles still twitching from the blow that had had come barreling out of the psychic link she shared with her babies and hit her with all the impact of a tsunami.

And it wasn't stopping. Though the initial shock had passed, the pain remained and was spreading. What in the world was _this? _Yuuka had taken some very heavy hits in her day, Yukari's worldview-changing soul mutilation being the most recent, but this was wholly new and unexpected.

Well, no, not new. Yuuka had once felt something similar, when that idiot ghost had wandered into the Garden and touched Yuuka on the cheek, letting her know what death felt like. But that had been a gentle caress. This was an iron-knuckle blow.

Digging her fingers into the ground, Yuuka pulled herself back into a sitting position. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and glowered out at the valley. Despite having destroyed enough flowers to create a hole, Rin Satsuki was still dousing the dome of Mykr's Sirens with flame and darkness, indicating her intentions to bring the whole thing down.

Frustrated and confused, Yuuka searched the valley for some way to stop her. She could always directly intervene, but to do so would be as good as admitting defeat. And unfortunately, the Strutter was too far away.

"Well, I suppose our conversation will have to wait," she muttered to herself. "Fine. Desperate measures it is."

…

"I don't believe it," Reimu said in wonderment. Overhead, Rin was continuing to annihilate Yuuka's flowers and doing a good job of it. "It's actually working."

Of course, that only made her all the more nervous. There was no chance that Yuuka hadn't noticed. Biting her lower lip, Reimu glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the team. They were nearly five kilometers away, gathering around the Hisoutensoku. When Yuuka made her move, she was going to be on her own. Fortunately, it didn't look like the Strutter had started towards them yet.

"_Not bad, huh?" _Rin called down to her, her still scary voice giddy with excitement. _"Just give me another minute or so, and we won't even have to fight the Strutter!"_

That did it. She had to go and say it. Now they were all doomed.

Careful to keep a good distance between herself and the torrent of destruction Rin was releasing, Reimu flew into the air and looked around. She squeezed her fists tightly as she fed energy into the spinning Ying-Yang Orbs that encircled her waist. Both Maris and Mima had emphasized how Yuuka could come out of seemingly nowhere, wielding any number of nasty tricks. As such, Reimu was going to be ready. If she saw so much as a dandelion fly past, then it was Fantasy Heaven time.

Then her ear twitched as she registered a sharp whistling sound, audible even over Rin's onslaught. Reimu spun to the side, neatly dodging a small object and letting it fly past. She whirled toward the attack's origin, glowing spellcard held in her hand, ready to be set off.

She had been expecting to see the Strutter lumbering toward them, or perhaps Yuuka herself, looking to get a piece of the action for herself. Or even her serving girl, Elly.

What she _hadn't _been expecting to see was the humanoid creature with the face that looked like it had been shaped from melted wax that was now hurtling toward her. And yet, despite its deformed features, she could still see two perfect eyes, glaring out from under its drooping brow.

Then she noticed the spare strands of blue hair that were still clinging to the thing's skull and the blazing sword clutched in its hand, and she understood.

"Tenshi?" Reimu said, her incredulity taking her off guard.

The Celestial respond by hurling two more objects at her. Instinct took over and Reimu spun around, blasting the objects with danmaku.

A moment later Reimu was doubling over and coughing violently as a thick black cloud enveloped her. Her watering eyes squeezed shut of their own accord. Smoke bombs. Now that was just cheating.

The Ying-Yang Orbs spun at an even greater rate and Reimu swung her arms out. There was a burst of light, and the cloud was banished. Reimu forced her stinging eyes to open. Tenshi could attack at any moment.

But as it turned out, the Celestial wasn't even interested in her, and had used Reimu momentary distraction to turn her attention on Rin. Reimu's vision cleared just in time to see Tenshi hurl something at the Kirin's back.

…

"_Do the words 'this is too easy' mean anything to you?" _Rumia asked.

Rin scowled. _Not helping, _she replied.

"_Actually, I am. Because you're doing it again."_

_It?_

"_Yes. That thing you do, when you start doing something really stupid and dangerous, and ignore anyone that tells you to-"_

A sharp but now discouragingly familiar pain stabbed into Rin's back, cutting off her assault on the flowers. Crying out, she lurched forward and craned her neck over her shoulder to see that she had been hit by some kind of blade attached to a long chain.

"_And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a visual aide," _Rumia remarked drolly. _"Congratulations, captain dumbass, you just got yourself harpooned for the third time. Tell me something Rin, are these stupid attacks part of you being crazy, or are you just an idiot?"_

Rin didn't respond. Her attention was focused on the seriously ugly thing holding onto the other end of the chain. It looked like a wax sculpture that had been left out on a hot day.

Even Rumia noticed. _"The hell is that?"_

_I have no idea. I've never seen anything that looks like that before._

"_Is that so." _Rin heard Rumia sigh._ "Rin, did anyone ever tell you that you attract the most interesting enemies? And by interesting I mean disgusting."_

Fortunately, this time Rin didn't have to waste time fighting this monster, as she had the oni. Reimu looked like she had been hit by something disorienting, but she had recovered enough to lash out at the melted monster with a storm of glowing danmaku, all the while yelling things that weren't so much coherent thoughts as they were a constant stream of violent profanity. The thing released the chain and flew backward several meters to avoid being hit.

"_Oh yeah, she is pissed," _Rumia noted. _"You know, having her on our side is turning out to be pretty useful after all. So, you gonna do something about that chain thingy, or are you going to pass it off as a piercing?"_

_I can't absorb it._

A few seconds ticked by, and then Rumia said, _"Oh, ha ha. Seriously Rin, just absorb the damned thing already and set that ugly creep on-"_

"_I can't absorb it!"_ Rin said again, this time out loud. She clawed at the where the spike had penetrated, trying to dig it out. But it wouldn't budge, it wouldn't dissolve, and, for some horrible reason, it burned.

…

"Well, that was predictable," Mima said as she watched Reimu fight off the smoke and Rin writhe in pain. She clicked her tongue in admonishment. "That's the problem with working with overpowered amateurs. Always so confident in their strength, and yet they always seem to be taken off guard with such ease." She shrugged. "Ah well, mission accomplished either way. We wanted her to draw out Yuuka's trump card, and she did."

Marisa pushed her hat back to scratch the top of her forehead. "Yeah, but Tenshi? Yuuka's using Tenshi? Why? I mean, I've fought the annoying twerp before, and sure, she can hold her own, but she's still a born loser, ze. Not exactly someone you want on your team."

"Hmmm, well, you find your tools where you can. And even a dull axe can fell a mighty oak when swung by the right woodsman." Mima gestured toward the ruckus. Tenshi had managed to spear Rin with a bladed chain and was now flying off at top speed with the Kirin in tow and Reimu in hot pursuit. "In this case, Yuuka doesn't need her to win, she just needs her to cause chaos. Which is, as I'm sure you know, well within Tenshi's capabilities."

"Can't argue with that," Maria admitted. "But how do you know she's even working for Yuuka? I mean, she was already here to catch Rin. And hell, she don't exactly need Yuuka to make her cause trouble."

"A valid possibility, but when dealing with creatures such as Yuuka, it's always best to assume they're behind everything, even if it's just to give a rambunctious brat a nudge in the right direction. Besides, I can't help but notice that her face has been miraculously healed of certain horrific burns while still retaining heavy disfigurement. Right off the top of my head I can think of at least fifteen different plants that can-"

"Hey."

Mima and Marisa turned to Sanae, who had grown quite fed up with the two spellcasters' academic observations of Tenshi's appearances. "Hey," she said again. "Hey, hey, hey! Why are we talking about the stupid Celestial when we should be talking about _that?" _Her arm swung up, index finger extended and pointing at the hulking figure of the Hisoutensoku. "Because I think we really should be talking about that!"

Marisa glanced her over. "Whoa, Mossy. Looking kinda deranged there. Might be time to think about cutting back on the caffeine, ze."

The witch had a point, Sanae had to admit. Adrenaline flooded her system, giving her a bad case of the shakes and covering her body with a cold sweat. Her eyes were wide and her voice was reaching speeds and octaves usually reserve for animated rodents. However, she really could not care less. There were robots to be discussed, and damned if she were to tell anything distract from that.

"Shut up, Marisa. Just shut up. Both of you, shut up, and let's get back to the important things, okay? That okay with you two? Great. Now, Hisoutensoku? Please?"

Marisa laughed. "On second thought, maybe caffeine's innocent, ze. Fangirlism is a way more dangerous drug."

"Yes, I suppose you would be our expert on intoxicants," Mima said. "And you're probably right. Did you know that the word 'fan' is derived from the work 'fanatic,' which in turn means-"

"HISOUTENSOKU!" Sanae shrieked so loud that she almost damaged her throat. "NOW!"

"And the prosecution rests," Mima said, snickering. "Though she does have a point, unhinged as its delivery might be. Our metal friend here certainly bears discussion."

"Yeah about that," Marisa said as she stepped back to take in the whole of the Hisoutensoku. "What we gonna do with it, anyway? I mean, its controls are pretty much all shot, right? And you can't remotely control it anymore."

"A problem, to be sure," Mima agreed. She floated over to the Hisoutensoku and rapped her knuckles against its foot. "Though not an insurmountable one. It just means I'll have to employ a more direct form of control." She tapped her lower lip and nodded. "Yes, a good old-fashioned possession should do the trick."

"Possession?" Sanae said, feeling the bottom fall out of her stomach. "You mean run it by yourself?"

Marisa's face bunched up. "Yeah, is that even possible? Possessing a machine, I mean."

"It's easier than possessing something with a soul, and comes with none of the head-spinning side-effects. In this case I'll be substituting the electronic data that would normally be surging through this big guy with my own essence and using its body as a shield from the Mykr's Sirens' effects." Mima smiled. "I've yet to merge with something of this size, so it should be quite the fascinating experience, even with the drawbacks."

"Drawbacks?" Marisa said.

"Indeed. Unfortunately, most of my concentration will be taken up with just getting the damned thing to move and keep moving, so I'll have very little mental capacity left to devote to any actual fighting. As such, I'll need one of you girls ride along in the cockpit and act as pilot. Now, I know spending the fight stuck inside an oversized suit of armor instead of participating directly isn't the most glamorous job in the world, but I'm sure one of you-"

"ME!" Sanae screeched. She jumped up and down, waving her hands in the air. "Pick ME!"

Marisa shoved her aside, her own hand in the air. "Ah, hell no, like I'd let a chance like this pass by? Come on, Mima, you know you love me best."

"No!" Sanae grabbed Marisa by the collar and stared at her with mad eyes. "I've been waiting for this moment my whole life! And I am _not _going to-"

"That's enough, ladies," Mima said. "Your enthusiasm, while appreciated, is unnecessary. And I'm afraid Mossy here is correct, Marisa. She is the most suited for the job."

"What?" Marisa said in indignation as Sanae screamed in delight. "Why you gotta be picking her over me? I thought we were buds!"

"Oh, come off it," Mima said. "It's quite simple: I need whoever isn't doing pilot duty to fly support, and let's be honest, your skills in that area far exceed hers. I'd really rather have our biggest gun where it can do the most good."

"Exactly!" Sanae said, not caring one whit that her own skills were being verbally diminished. "So, we're decided, right? That's how we're going to do things, right? Great! So let's go do it already!"

…

"Absorb the chain!" Reimu yelled as she hurtled after Tenshi and her involuntarily attached captive. "Absorb the godsdamned chain!"

"_I'm _trying!" Rin screamed back. She was trying to yank the chain out of her back, but to no avail. _"It isn't working! It's made out of something weird, something that burns like crazy!"_

"Seriously?" Reimu gaped.

Rin let out a wordless cry of frustration in response. Reimu had heard demons make less frightening sounds. Oh yeah, Rin was serious.

Fantastic. The one time they needed Rin's freaky-ass powers to work, and they started glitching up. Reimu supposed that there was some magical/scientific/spiritual/whatever reason, but at the moment she wasn't especially interested in experimenting.

"Fine!" she called back. "Then brace yourself!"

"_Why, what are-"_

Mentally praying that Rin would forgive her, Reimu opened fire, each of her Ying-Yang Orbs spewing forth danmaku. She relied primarily on her homing spells and made sure they were targeted at Tenshi, but with Rin trailing behind the deranged Celestial like a fish on a hook the Kirin still took some of the bullets.

"_Hey!" _she cried, trying to slap away Reimu's bullets. _"Quit it!"_

Reimu ignored her, her attention being focused on Tenshi. The Celestial had turned around and was blasting Reimu's projectiles out of the sky with one hand while slashing the ones she missed with her sword with the other, all the while continuing to accelerate away from Reimu. What was more, she was doing so successfully. The shrine maiden had to give Tenshi credit: personality problems or not, the Celestial was good. That, or just completely off her rocker. Crazy people always seemed to have a surprising amount of success accomplishing the batshit insane.

Rin, however, was not so impressed. Quite the contrary, she was entirely fed up with being dragged around at one end and shot at from the other. _"Al right, that's enough!" _she yelled as she grabbed onto the chain with both hands. But instead of trying to yank it free, she jerked it back. Hard.

Celestials are very strong, but Rin was stronger. Tenshi's momentum was arrested with bone-rattling force.

Holding tightly to the chain, Rin started spinning around and around, swinging the dazed Celestial in a wide loop. Tenshi's fingers slipped and she tumbled to the ground.

Panting, Reimu came to a stop at Rin's side. "Why didn't you do that to begin with?" she asked.

"_It's kind of hard to think with this thing sticking out of my back," _Rin said testily as she tugged on the chain in hopes of dislodging it. _"What is this anyway? I can't absorb it, it's stuck, and it burns like-"_

"YAAAAHHH!" Tenshi screamed as she shot up toward Reimu and Rin, swinging her sword in front of her face.

Acting instinctively, Reimu snapped her hands up and rained storm of ofuda charms down on the Celestial, slowing her down. Reimu pulled out a Fantasy Seal spellcard, intending to take Tenshi out of the game completely.

And then a ball of fire splashed into Tenshi's shoulder, setting the rest of her alight. Screaming, the deranged Celestial was sent spiraling back down to earth.

Reimu blinked in surprise. Then she shot a glare at Rin.

"_What?" _Rin said. _"Oh, don't give me that look. She stabbed me in the back! And I'm pretty sure she was trying to kill you just now."_

"I had it handled," Reimu hissed.

"_People don't try to hurt me, and I don't set them on fire. Simple as that. Besides, she's a Celestial. She'll be fine!" _Then uncertainty washed over Rin's face. _"Uh, right? I mean, she _is _immortal, right?"_

"Actually, Celestials aren't so much immortal as they just have the power to fight back when the Shinigami comes for them," Reimu said, her voice cold. "If they win, they get a longer lifespan. If they lose, they're gone." Which was probably something she should remind Mima about, though she doubted that the spirit would care. She looked down at Tenshi, who had managed to smother the flame and was now not doing much beyond breathing hard. "And I'm pretty sure she's not in any condition to win that sort of contest."

A moment passed, and then Rin said, _"Oh. Uh, oops?"_

"Yes. Oops. Look, just because _you're _indestructible doesn't mean everyone is. So let's try not to kill people unless you're sure they can take it." Reimu quickly reconsidered that statement. "No, check that. No trying to kill people. Period. Got it?"

"_Yes," _Rin muttered.

"Good," Reimu said. She pointed at the chain. "And about that thing? I thought you could absorb anything."

"_So did I, up until a minute ago. It's made out of something weird, and it burns. A lot." _Rin grimaced. _"Okay then. One, two, thrAGH!"_

On three, she pulled with all her strength. This time, the blade came loose, but it took a piece of her with it. Some kind of black goop coated the blade, which sizzled and crackled like a frying egg.

"_Ow, ow, ow," _Rin moaned, clutching at where it had come out. _"The heck is this thing?"_

Taking the weapon from Rin, Reimu held it up and squinted. Beneath the layer of goop, she could see that the blade was partially dissolved and warped. "Looks like you managed to absorb part of it."

"_Really?" _Rin said, her head perking up. _"Well, that explains why it was so hard to pull it out, but not why it was resisting me so much."_

Reimu shrugged. "Well, the Celestials have a bunch of weird magical weapons. I guess they got one that doesn't agree with you." Which was spectacularly bad news, the implications of which she did not want to contemplate. Unfortunately, she did not have that luxury. The only thing she could do was put it off until the current crisis was dealt with.

Sticking her thumb over her shoulder, Reimu said, "So, uh, you wanna take another whack at that thing, or…"

Rin looked. Behind Reimu, the large chunk of dead flowers she had created had already been cleared away, and new flowers were swiftly growing to replace them.

Shuddering, she said, _"No, I think I'm gonna to play by the rules this time. I do it again, and she'll probably send _two _crazy ladies to stab me."_

"Which would be bad." Reimu shielded her eyes and focused on the Hisoutensoku, which was starting to move. "Looks like they managed to get that thing working after all," she remarked. "So, back to Plan A then?"

"_Looks like," _Rin said glumly. _"Fine. Let's go squish that bug."_

…

Upon seeing the jumble of hanging wires that made up the system that Nitori used to capture her movements and thus control the Hisoutensoku, Mima had declared the whole thing to be a hideous rat's nest and, over Sanae's protests, torn the whole thing out.

"Don't worry," Mima said as she hurled the wires and cables out of the Hisoutensoku's cockpit. "You need that Kappa's silly cellophane outfit to use this mess anyway, and that simply would not do. For one, it wouldn't fit you. For another, it was an atrocity of fashion. I simply refuse to allow my pilot to go into battle dressed up as a Milky Way bar."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Sanae asked as she gazed forlornly at the damaged cockpit. "Stand there and think really, really hard?"

A smile began to form on Mima's face. It started small, little more than a smirk, before becoming wider and wider until it had evolved into the wide grin that had terrified thousands of her enemies over dozens of generations. "Something like that," she purred.

Moments later, Sanae had renounced any misgiving she had ever held toward Mima and was wondering if Kanako and Suwako would allow her to become a tri-theist.

A round, green bubble now floated in the center of the room, its top and bottom tapering off and extending into the cockpit's ceiling and floor through the holes where the wires had gone. In the bubble's center floated (or rather, _hovered_) Sanae. Insulated away from the Mykr's Sirens, Mima's magic held her in place. It didn't matter how much the Hisoutensoku was knocked around, how fast it was going, or if it were bounced up-and-down like a yo-yo, Sanae would remain firmly in place.

According to the spirit, the bubble was a field that operated much like Nitori's network of wires. Every move Sanae made would be copied by the Hisoutensoku, only with a much quicker response time. Furthermore, anything the Hisoutensoku experienced would be experienced by Sanae in turn, though obviously instead of pain she would receive a much less unpleasant sensation. The point was to make her aware of damage, not cripple her with agony.

The shrine maiden's face was split by a wide grin of pure exhilaration. She lifted her arm and squeezed her hand into a fist. Outside, the Hisoutensoku mirrored the movement. The feeling of power rushing through her was incredible. She had been called a near-goddess in the past, but now she felt like an actual deity, of the old school variety. And now it was time to unleash some divine fury.

"_Everything working correctly, I hope?" _said Mima's voice, coming out of the air. The spirit had infused herself throughout the Hisoutensoku's body, filling its circuits with her essence. For all intents and purposes, she _was _the Hisoutensoku. Or rather, she was the fuel on which it ran. Sanae was to act as the brain, directing its movements.

"Perfect!" Sanae laughed. "This…this is fantastic! You're amazing!"

"_Was there ever any doubt?" _Mima said smugly. _"Now, brace yourself. I'm about to hook your brain up to the Hisoutensoku's eyes."_

Pins and needles broke out on Sanae's forehead. There was a moment of disorientation as Sanae's vision blurred, and the cockpit faded away. When her eyes cleared, she was suddenly thankful for being kept out of gravity's influence, because otherwise she would have fallen right onto her butt.

She was now more than fifty meters high, looking down on the valley. Granted, as someone with the ability to fly, she was not unused to seeing the world from such a height or greater, but in this case she was not hovering over the valley, but _standing_ in it. Before she had felt like a goddess. Now she felt like a titan. Within the bubble, she took a step and felt a surge of thrill when the Hisoutensoku copied the movement.

"Excellent," she whispered.

Then her vision came alive with a flurry of data. A series of tiny screens appeared along the edges, displaying the area around, above, and below her, giving her a three-hundred and sixty degrees worth of vision. At the same time, a targeting grid superimposed itself over the valley, with tiny targets pointing out any object of worth. What was more, Sanae not only saw all this but understood it as well. At any other time, her mind would have collapsed under the crushing avalanche of information, but for some reason she was now able to process it.

Mima. Of course.

"_All is well, I hope?"_

"Yeah," Sanae said in wonder. "I'm good."

"_Very good. You're adapting well. Now, if you'll recall, the nitwits that created the Strutter managed to sever one of this magnificent creature's hands during their initial bout. Look down. Can you see it?"_

It took a little searching, but Sanae was able to spot the limb in question, lying in the grass.

"Yeah, it's right there," she said, pointing with the Hisoutensoku's remaining hand.

"_Yes, I see it. Excellent. Now, pick it up and put it back in place."_

Sanae did so, and felt a tingle of thrill as she easily lifted the detatched hand. The Kappa were known for using lightweight materials, but even so, the thing must have at least weighed a ton. Oh yes, this was going to be fun.

She held up the stump of her other arm and put the hand back in place. Green electricity crackled along the seam. When it faded, it had fused the two parts back together, making the limb whole again.

"_And that takes care of that," _Mima said in satisfaction. "_Ah, there's Marisa!"_

On one of the smaller screens, Sanae saw the witch flying up on her broom. She turned her head to look at her directly.

"_Not bad, Mossy!" _Marisa called to her, her voice tiny. _"Just don't get any ideas. You swat at me, and I blow your head clean off, ze!"_

Sanae laughed. "Just try it, punk!"

To her surprise, her voice boomed out over the Hisoutensoku's speaker. Marisa jerked back, her eyes widening. _"Holy crap, what'cha trying to do, deafen me?" _she demanded.

"_Now, now, girls," _Mima said. _"Let's not argue. We're all friends here. Save it for the spider."_

Apparently Marisa could still hear Mima as well, as she started grumbling, _"Fine, fine. Where is the ugly thing anyway?"_

Sanae searched her all-encompassing vision until she spotted the Strutter. "There," she said, pointing the Hisoutensoku's giant finger. "And I think it's spotted us."

Sure enough, the flower-covered spider was now staring at the Hisoutensoku. Though it didn't have a Human face, Sanae was fairly certain that it wasn't thrilled to see its nemesis up and moving again.

"_Righty-ho, then," _Mima said. _"Now, as I said, I'm going to have to devote most of my concentration to holding this thing together and providing the raw firepower. I trust you can handle the actual combat aspect?"_

"Yeah," Sanae said, nodding. The view bobbed up-and-down in response. "I can handle it." Then she was struck with an idea, one that was too good to pass up. "Hey, hold up a second! You're connected to my brain, yeah? Can you read my mind and see my memories?"

There was a short pause, and when Mima responded her voice was slow and mired with suspicion. _"Shrine maiden, I truly hope this isn't going to be another distrustful questioning of my motives, because as amusing as it is when Reimu does it, this is neither the time nor the place."_

"No, no! Nothing like that," Sanae said quickly. "It's just…Well, there's this song I know, and it would be really awesome to have it playing during the fight…"

…

"So, how quickly can you kill that thing?" Reimu called to Rin as they raced toward the Strutter.

Rin shook her head. _"No idea. If this was just your regular, run-of-the-mill plant monster, then like five seconds, tops. But if this lady is really as unpredictable as you say, I really have no way to tell, you know?"_

"Of course," Reimu whispered. To Rin, she said, "And, uh, just for the record, you _can _kill this thing, right? I mean for sure?"

Rin looked at her. She shrugged and smiled sheepishly. _"I guess we're gonna find out, huh?"_

"You're not filling me with optimism here."

"_Optimism?" _Rin laughed, a huffing _chug-chug-chug _sound that sent shivers down Reimu's back. _"What is this 'optimism' you speak of? Because I….wait. Reimu, is that you making that sound?"_

Puzzled, Reimu tilted her head to one side. "What sound?"

"_That would be a 'no' then. That…whistling? No, it's more like…"_

Rin fell silent. Reimu frowned and listened. Now she could hear it too. It was faint, but high-pitched and growing in volume. Come to think of it, it sounded a lot like…

"…aaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Rin and Reimu turned to see Tenshi Hinanai charging them once again, screaming the whole way. This time the Celestial wasn't even bothering with strategy. She was just coming straight at them, blazing sword in one hand and some kind of double-bladed knife in the other, wildly swinging them both.

Diving out of the way just in time to avoid being fileted, Reimu cried, "Seriously, what is _wrong _with you, you moron? Leave us alone!"

"_She's insane, that's what it is!" _Rin said as she flew in the opposite direction. _"She's completely bonkers! She…Oh, _shut up! _It's not the same thing, and you know it!"_

"What?" Reimu said.

"_Not you! Rumia just thinks she's funny. Knock it off, no it wasn't!"_

Life in Gensokyo was strange, but Reimu was starting to believe that her life was becoming strange even for a native Gensokyian.

Realizing that she had missed her targets entirely, Tenshi came to an abrupt stop and whirled around. Now that she could get a good look at the Celestial, Reimu cringed at what she saw. Most of Tenshi's clothing was burned away, and now more than sixty percent of her upper body was as melted as her face, further adding to her resemblance to a wax sculpture on a hot day.

"_Okay, gross," _Rin said, her strange features twisting up in disgust.

"Your fault," Reimu pointed out.

"_No, I'm gonna go with her fault."_

Reimu decided not to argue the point, because Tenshi was attacking once again. Fortunately, her madness had apparently caused her to forget that long-range attacks such as danmaku were a thing. She slashed again and again with her blades, and though a single hit would probably maim Reimu horribly at best, it was fairly easy to remain out of disemboweling range.

Deciding that the Celestial was beyond being able to be reasoned with (if she ever had been), Reimu put some distance between them and began hurling a spinning cyclone of bullets her way, forcing Tenshi to stop and use her sword to shield herself.

Drawing close to watch, Rin observed, _"Well, okay. For a half-cooked lunatic, she is pretty good with that thing."_

Reimu allowed herself a grim smile. "Yeah, but even when she was sane, Tenshi was never very bright."

"_How do you mean?"_

Rather than answer, Reimu simply nodded in Tenshi's direction. The maddened princess was so focused on the danmaku flying directly toward her that she completely failed to guard her back, allowing the four homing charms Reimu had shot off to hit her right in the spine. Startled, she pitched forward, which allowed all the bullets coming directly toward her to slam into her front.

"_Oh," _Rin said as Tenshi was sent sprawling. _"Well, okay then. Cool."_

"Yeah." Reimu flipped out a Fantasy Seal. By now she was quite sick of Tenshi, something that never took long whenever that brat was around. Now Reimu wanted to see if she would be able to cut her way out of a first-rate shrine maiden sealing spell.

…

"_Do the impossible, see the invisible. Row, row…"_

"Fight the POWAH!" Sanae half sang, half yelled as her arms and legs pumped forward in a running motion, moving the Hisoutensoku forward.

If she had been feeling giddy before, Sanae was now downright nuts. She was using her thoughts and motions to control a super robot powered by the essence of a several-century old spirit sorceress and directing to attack a giant half-plant, half-robot spider cyborg at full speed, all to the accompaniment of quite possibly the most appropriate soundtrack imaginable. Not for the first time, she blessed her goddess Kanako Yasaka, whose return was now good as assured, for bringing her to this land of miracles. Even in her wildest of dreams, which she had to admit could get pretty wild, she never imagined that something like this would actually happen. And yet, here she was.

"_Touch the untouchable, break the unbreakable. Row, row…"_

"Fight the POWAH!" Sanae shouted again, only to be surprised when a second voice joined in. She checked the tiny screens that bordered her vision and saw Marisa riding her broom next to the Hisoutensoku's head. The witch grinned at her.

"_What?" _Marisa said. _"I like this song."_

"You've heard it before?" Sanae said dubiously.

"_Nah, but it's pretty easy to pick up," _Marisa said with a laugh. _"I think I found a new theme song." _

"No!" Sanae said, laughing in turn. "My theme song! Go find your own!"

"_Since when has that ever stopped me, ze? Oh hey, Spiderfreak's decided to do something about us. Game time."_

She was right. The Strutter was rearing up, no doubt preparing to attack. There was the sharp whining sound of something charging up.

"Yeah!" Sanae shouted. "Bring it on, you ugly piece of-"

The next thing she knew, she was blinking the spots out of her eyes and trying to make her brain stop quivering. The data she was receiving told her that the Hisoutensoku was now lying flat on its back, almost a full kilometer from where she had been.

"What the…" she mumbled. "What happened?"

"_What do you think?" _Mima's voice said in her mind. The spirit sounded slightly miffed. _"The Strutter answered your challenge and, as you put it, 'brought it.' To be specific, it brought a large energy blast. If I hadn't been able to deflect most of the impact, you would have joined your goddess as a cloud of free-floating atoms."_

"Oh," Sanae said.

"_Yes. 'Oh.' I seem to recall you claiming that if you were in possession of a large mechanical suit of armor, you would be able to fight that thing. Tell me, is providing the Strutter with a bit of low-stress target practice part of some unexpectedly clever strategy. Because if so, I must extend my compliments, as even with my highly advanced mind I cannot figure it out."_

"Sorry," Sanae said. The dazed feeling was starting to recede. "Wasn't ready."

"_No? Then why were you charging?"_

"Didn't know it could do that." Sanae checked herself over and was pleased to find that Mima's bubble had protected her perfectly. "I mean, I was expecting some sort of flowery attack. Like vines or exploding seeds or something. Who knew it could shoot lasers?"

"_Most everyone, actually. Yuuka is quite fond of them."_

"Oh," Sanae said again. She frowned. "Hey, wait. What can _I _do?"

"_Now she chooses to ask," _Mima lamented. _"Girl, my magic is powering this thing. Thus, my magic is arming this thing. And my range of offensive spells is so vast that it might as well be infinite. Be creative."_

"Oh," Sanae said for the third time. She made the Hisoutensoku sit up. Fortunately, the Strutter wasn't pressing its advantage. Unfortunately, that was because it was focused on Marisa, who was now focused on Marisa. Though Sanae had to admit, the witch was doing better than she had. Marisa was darting in and out around the Strutter like a fly, though the comparison ended when it came to the trail of liquid fire she was leaving behind. It fell upon the hideous garden the Strutter carried on its back, setting the various shrubs and flowers alight.

Still, it wasn't enough. Any fire she started was quenched within seconds, and any plants she burned were quickly replaced. Any second now the Strutter would start taking her seriously and blast her away just as easily as it had Sanae, only Marisa didn't have a shield of metal and magic to protect her.

"Creative, huh?" Sanae muttered. "Okay, fine. How's this?"

She thought of what she wanted to do. She held onto the image of her idea, crystalized it in her mind, and directed it down the bond she shared with the Hisoutensoku. And then she lifted its left hand up, extended the index finger, and touched it to the ground.

Immediately a shockwave of force shot out and headed straight for the Strutter, cracking the earth and kicking up clouds of dust as it went. The Strutter's eight legs were swept out from under it and it was sent crashing down.

"Better?" Sanae said.

"_Better," _Mima said. _"There may be hope for you after all. Now, pick yourself up before it does and do your job."_

"Aye, aye," Sanae said as she braced the Hisoutensoku's hands against the ground and shoved up. "All right, cue my music again. It's time for the next round."

…

Yuuka's face was already bunched up in a frown of displeasure, which only deepened as the arrogant Celestial was broken down even further. Ignoring the battle of the metal titans completely, she watched as once again Tenshi charged Reimu and Rin Satsuki in a manner that could only be described as deranged, if not completely suicidal.

"Well, she has enthusiasm at least," Yuuka muttered with a disappointed shake of her head. "But at this rate, the most she can hope for is to soften them up for someone else. A pity. And she was so sure of herself too."

She sighed, and glanced around the valley. "Well, I guess it's time to start waking the rest of the gang up. Here's hoping at least one of them has at least a basic level of predatory cunning."

…

"We're doomed," Rikako moaned. She sat with her head between her knees, her hands grabbing at her temples. "We're doomed, we're doomed, we're doomed."

"Shut up, Rikako," Rika hissed. To be truthful, her own feelings about their current situation were more-or-less the same, but her sister's repetitive whining was grinding her last nerve.

"We're doomed, we're doomed, we're doomed."

"Shut _up, _Rikako!"

The two of them were still in the copse of trees that the others had left them in, which was just fine by them. The farther they were away from Madam Mima, AKA the Boogeywoman as far as anyone who had grown up in the Human Village was concerned, and Rin Satsuki, who was making no secret that she still harbored quite the grudge, the better. With their Strutter gone and the canopy of weird-ass flowers cutting off their escape route, the current plan was to hide and wait until some way to leave presented itself.

Of course, that plan unfortunately included a lot of waiting around while beings of near-divine power engaged in a landscape changing war all around them, a scenario that meant that they were stuck with being both utterly bored and completely terrified.

"We're doomed, we're doomed, we're doomed…"

Rika opened her mouth to yell at her whimpering sister again, but before she could, an unexpected third person entered the conversation.

"_Well, I have to say," _said voice smooth as silk and as odd as an out-of-tune radio, _"this is not at all encouraging. I had expected better from that magnificent creature's creators, but I guess that's the problem with people who rely entirely too much on their toys. Why, if it weren't for the fact that I am not exactly spoiled for options, I'd be tempted to pass you two over completely."_

The noise Rikako made was almost a perfect imitation of the sound mice make upon having their tails caught in a mousetrap. She scooted back against a tree and frantically looked around, her large eyes widening even further behind her glasses. As for Rika, she just sat very still and said nothing at all.

The voice, its owner unseen, tsked reprovingly. _"Ladies, I know the situation is dire, but is that really reason to give up? Buck up now, and show some backbone!"_

"We…can't," Rika said. She didn't bother asking who was talking to them. Whoever it was, it had to be bad news. "We lost the Strutter."

"_See above comment about overreliance on artificial power. Besides, conquering your weaknesses and prevailing despite such setbacks is the stuff that legends are made of! And be honest, you don't want this trip to be for nothing, do you?" _The voice laughed, a high-pitched grating sound that set Rika's teeth on edge. _"I don't dare guess how much losing that big galoof will cost you, but with the bounty you might at least recuperate your losses."_

"The bounty?" Rikako said in surprise, her surprise overriding her fear. "But, we weren't after the bounty."

"Rikako," Rika said. "Now would be a great time to shut up."

However, it was the voice that fell silent. While it didn't have a face that Rika could see, she was still getting the impression that Rikako's comment had surprised its owner.

"_You're…not after the bounty?" _the voice said at last. _"Then why oh why are you even here, driving a heavily armed mechanical monstrosity and picking fights with other heavily armed mechanical monstrosities if not because you're hunting Rin Satsuki?"_

"We are!" Rikako said. "Just not for the bounty. We were going to give to Yukari Yakumo, and then everything would be better!"

"Rikako. Shut. UP!"

"_Oh, were you?" _the voice said. It sounded amused. _"So then, you're Yukari's agents then. You know, I once told her that should I come across any of her little puppets, I would break them. And I always keep my word."_

Before either of the Asakuras could voice a protest, the trees themselves moved to intervene. The one Rikako was pressed up against swooped down with its branches and snatched her up, wrapping its now flexible twigs around her neck and binding her arms to her torso. As for Rika, so soon found herself under attack by the roots themselves, which heaved up out of the ground to seize her in a crushing embrace. In addition to terrifying the two of them beyond belief, it eradicated any doubt as to identity of the voice's owner.

"_Now granted, the letter of the law hasn't been violated, seeing how she hasn't sent you two after me specifically, but I do like to be thorough." _The trees tightened their grip as the voice spoke. _"And an example or two has always had its use."_

Rika tried to speak, but the air was being crushed out of her. Rikako, however, still had breath enough to scream, "NO! _Not _working for Yukari! She didn't send us, she didn't send us!"

The trees paused in their homicidal squeezing long enough for the voice to say, _"Dear heart, I appreciate the gravity of the situation, but you just got done telling me differently. Come now, let's try not to insult my intelligence."_

"Am not! Hunting Rin for her, but not sent by her!"

"_Is that right? And that makes sense, how exactly?"_

The tree must have loosened its grip on Rikako's throat, as she started babbling at a quick rate. "Got into trouble with her, was afraid she would come after us after everything else was over, thought if we got Rin _for _her she would forgive us, she doesn't even know we're here, oh gods please don't kill us first!"

"_Oh," _the voice said, sounding disappointed. _"Is that it? What a letdown."_

Immediately the roots pulled back, freeing Rika. She coughed and hacked and, once she was able, gasped in lungful after lungful of air. Nearby, Rikako was dropped to the ground, where she did the same.

Ignoring their distress, the voice said, _"Well, that's just annoying. Ah well, I guess I have no real reason to continue this conversation. Best of luck ladies. Do try to keep your noses out of my business in the future."_

Despite the voice's farewells, Rika didn't dare move for at least a full minute. Then, slowly and painfully, she pushed herself up.

Once she was sitting up, she locked eyes with her sister, coughed, and said, "Okay, so you were right earlier. We are so fucked."

…

Overhead two hawks circled the valley, careful to keep out of range of the deadly clouds but still high enough to see the scope of the two battles. After a while, they swooped down to the relative shelter of a small, stony alcove in the side of a hill.

"Well, this went FUBAR in record breaking time," Nue said as she regained her natural form.

"Got that right," Mamizou agreed. She folded her arms over her breast and smirked. "Told'ja so."

Nue glowered. "Yes, you did. You were right, I was wrong, good freaking job. Now shut up."

"Glad'ta hear it. 'cept that won't get us out of this here mess."

"Working on it," Nue groused as she ran the problem over and over in her head.

Mamizou tilted her head to one side. "So, that's it, right? We're forgetting this stupid bounty and hauling tail outta here, right?"

Nue sighed. Even after things had started to go horribly wrong, she had been prepared to stay and wait for the right opportunity to come their way. But now, after seeing what Satstuki had done to their competition…Well, having been barbequed by that little freak of nature once already, Nue wasn't anxious for a repeated performance. And she sure as hell didn't want to go anywhere near that crazy girl with the sword.

"Yeah, okay," she muttered. "Fine. You win. As soon as there's an opening, we split and head towards-"

"_Ah, I'm afraid that is unacceptable."_

Nue and Mamizou leapt in surprise, which turned out to be a bad idea given how low the alcove's ceiling was.

"The hell?" Nue said, rubbing the top of her head. "What was that?"

"_Sorry for surprising you," _said the strange voice. _"But I couldn't help but overhear your plans to abandon the contract."_

Nue exchanged a glance with Mamizou. The Tanuki shook her head and shrugged helplessly. Nue knew how good Mamizou's sense of smell was. If she said that she couldn't sense anyone nearby, than there was no one nearby.

"Yeah?" Nue said. "What's it to you? And who are you, anyway?"

"_Oh, just someone representing the interests of my client, who so happens to be your employer."_

"My what?" Nue asked, baffled.

"_The ice fairy Cirno, whose contract you accepted. I am here to ensure that you do not violate the terms of your agreement."_

Nue stiffened. While Cirno was in fact the one who had posted the bounty, everyone knew the real personality behind it. "Yuuka Kazami?" she said cautiously.

Mamizou's eyes went wide. She opened her mouth to speak, only for Nue to immediately shush her.

The voice laughed. _"I'd be careful about speaking that name out loud. Certain superstitious folk believe that its careless usage can summon its owner."_

Nue declined to mention that it was a little late for that. "What do you want?" she asked.

"_What do I want? Dear child, did I not already make that clear? You agreed to hunt the person Rin Satsuki in exchange for a substantial amount of money. To back out now, while so close to your quarry, would violate your given word. And I for one simply cannot allow this to happen. I abhor dishonesty, especially when it comes to such weighty matters."_

"It's an open bounty, not a contracted hit!" Nue protested. "That whoever gets Satsuki first gets the prize! No one's under any obligation to-"

"'_Very well, little fairy. I'll take your bounty,'" _said Nue's voice._ "'Provided, of course, that you have the money to pay.'" _There was a short pause, and then the first voice returned. _"Do you remember saying that?"_

"But that was-"

"_You told Cirno that you would hunt her mark, with no conditions attached. You then openly expressed doubt that she would live up to her end of the bargain. And yet, here you are, about to abandon your own." _The voice tsked. _"How disappointing. You're just as bad as those whimpering scientists."_

"Nobody said anything about giant mechanical monsters, killer clouds of death, insane sword-wielding lunatics, or Reimu Hakurei getting involved!" Nue shouted. "The full details were _not _made clear!"

"_What part of 'no conditions attached' did you not understand? And every such undertaking comes with unexpected dangers. That's part of the fun. Besides, isn't that why you decided to join the hunt in the first place? Because you were bored?"_

"Well, yeah," Nue admitted. "But-"

"Nue," Mamizou said, touching her shoulder. "Shut up and look."

All along the alcove's curving wall and ceiling grass roots were sticking out. And while they had been as still and unthreatening as such things were expected to be when Nue and Mamizou had taken shelter, they were now growing long and thickening. What was more, they were slithering through the dirt like maggots through a corpse's flesh and extending out to tangle together, forming a thick mass. Nue and Mamizou quickly backpedaled out of the alcove and watched as the small space was consumed by the thicket of dirty roots.

"_But nothing," _Yuuka's voice admonished._ "You gave your word, and you will see it through. I do not take kindly to those who betray the rules. So saddle up girls, you have a great deal of work to do."_

…

"No," Meira whimpered. "Leave me alone."

"_Leave you alone?" _purred the soft voice of Yuuka Kazami. _"My dear, your work remains unfinished. The bounty is unclaimed, and I have it on good authority that you entered this valley with the expressed intent of claiming it. You're not going to back out now, are you? Come now, there are so few of you left."_

Meira shook her head miserable. "No," she repeated. "Too much. This is too much. I quit."

She had come to her senses not too long ago, lying in the same place. The mad aristocrat had gone, and Tony hadn't returned. While she had tried to figure that out in her head, the ground had started talking to her.

"_You quit," _the voice echoed. _"Well, this is getting pathetic. Are able hunters really in such short supply? Is this really how you react to a few obstacles? Come on girl, your quarry is right there!"_

"No," Meira moaned. She grabbed her head and started rocking back and forth. "No, no, no. Go away. Leave me alone. I quit."

"_I…see." _The voice sighed. _"Well, there truly is no point to continuing, is there? I know a lack of potential when I see it. A pity, really."_

Meira felt something squirming beneath her behind. She squeezed her eyes shut and mentally begged it to go away.

"_You know," _the voice said conversationally, _"this would normally be the part where I slip you down the gullet of a Dragon Snapper and let you be digested alive, or toss you into the grip of a Devil's Snare or something. But you know what? I think leaving you alive would be a greater punishment. Cowardice is a terrible fate, Human; one that you honestly have no chance of escaping. But then, you already knew that, didn't you?"_

The movements stopped and the voice fell silent, leaving Meira sitting alone and wretched.

…

What felt like an invisible wall slammed into Reimu and bowled her over, interrupting the sealing spell she had been charging and causing the spellcard to explode into sparks. She regained her senses just in time to arrest her backward momentum before hitting the ground, only to be knocked the rest of the way when a second wave of force hit her.

Trying to fight her way through the dazedness, Reimu staggered to her feet. "Rin!" she called as her eyes searched the surrounding area for her unlikely ally and her unseen attacker.

"_Here," _Rin said as she stumbled into view. _"What happened?"_

"I don't know, another one of Yuuka's surprises probably." Reimu shook her head as she tried to clear away the cobwebs. "I'm starting to see why…" Then she noticed something unfortunate. "Uh, Rin? You're doing that thing again."

"_Huh?" _Rin looked down to see that the grass surrounding her was starting to wither. Her eyes went wide with horror. _"Oh crap! Uh, uh, how'd I stop it again? I think it was like this…" _Mercifully, whatever she did was apparently did the trick, as her aura of death immediately ceased.

Reimu breathed a sigh of relief. The whole operation was dependent on being able to prove that Rin wasn't an out-of-control monster. Unfortunately, that meant that the longer this fight continued, the more control slipped away.

And then a third wave hit them and knocked them over. Now thoroughly irritated, Reimu spat out grass and decided to wait until this persistent problem was dealt with before worrying about Rin.

"Do you know where they're coming from?" she said to Rin. "I mean, can you sense the energy or whatever.

"_Uh, no. But I don't think that's going to be a problem."_

"Why?"

"_Because I'm pretty sure those blasts are coming from over there."_

Reimu looked in the direction Rin was indicating and groaned out loud. Once again, it was Tenshi. And once again, she was proving herself to be the biggest nuisances in Reimu's nuisance-filled life.

The Celestial was now hovering in the air above them. Her arms were outstretched, what was left of her face pointed skyward, and circling her were three grey boulders. Reimu, whose memory of her last encounter with Tenshi was still very fresh, figured that each of the shockwaves had been the result of one of the stones activating. She had no idea how Tenshi had managed to bring those things out without her noticing, but

"_Reimu?" _Rin said nervously. _"What are those?"_

"Keystones," Reimu answered.

"_Oh. Okay. What's a keystone?"_

That was actually a very good question, one that Reimu wasn't too sure of the answer, so she just said, "Magical earthquake thingies."

"_Oh. Sounds bad."_

"They are," Reimu assured her, not taking her eyes off Tenshi. Right now the aura of energy was too volatile to risk assaulting Tenshi directly, what with there being three keystones. Doing so would risk blowing both of their heads off. And disrupting things from afar was potentially fatal for Tenshi. Admittedly, Reimu wasn't quite sure just how much punishment a Celestial could take before finally keeling over, but she wasn't about to risk murdering the daughter of their king and queen.

"'_kay," _Rin said. And then, _"So, what good is an earthquake? I mean, seeing how we're flying and-"_

All three keystones dropped like the rocks they were carved out of and thumped into the soft ground. There was a sound like a giant's heartbeat, and Reimu's teeth rattled. She could literally _feel _the tremendous energy being emptied into the ground.

A moment later, the valley collapsed.

…

Marisa felt uneasy. This was odd, given the circumstances. She was fighting a giant plant spider thingamajig side-by-side with an oversize robot piloted by her friend and powered by her mentor. At that moment, she shouldn't be feeling anything but "BURN BABY BURN, ZE!" But even so, the longer the battle went on, the less her heart was in it. And she was starting to understand why.

The last time Marisa had fought Yuuka, it had been hands-down the greatest experience of her life. Defying ever her own bloated expectations, Yuuka had turned out to be a monster of ridiculous caliber: malicious, highly aggressive, overpowered to an insane degree, and so infuriatingly smug that she practically begged to have her smirking face blasted away. As such, any misgivings Marisa might have felt about trying to end Yuuka's miserable life had quickly crumbled away. Granted, all the enhancement potions she had drank might also have had a part to play, but even after they had worn off, she hadn't regretted blowing Yuuka to bits, and would gladly do it again if provided the opportunity.

But this fight was different. While the Strutter was certainly imbued with Yuuka's power and directed by her will, the fact remained that it _wasn't _Yuuka. It was simply a pawn, a puppet, much as Marisa had once been on Yukari's behalf. Only the Strutter wasn't participating of its free will. Yuuka had, for all intents and purposes, conscripted it for kicks, and was now forcing it to fight to the death for her amusement.

Okay, granted, Mima might have done that exact same thing before Yuuka had. And okay, the Strutter was just a machine, with no free will or sentience to speak of. And maybe Marisa was no one to throw stones when it came to taking other people's weapons and using them for her own purposes. But still…

Maybe it was the knowledge that she wasn't actually fighting Yuuka. Sure, the Strutter was an extension of the nutcase's will, but it wasn't actually her. Marisa knew that she herself was no saint and frankly didn't want to be one, but she at least handled her problems in person. If she felt like killing ants or something, she didn't fry them with a magnifying glass, she shrunk herself down and kicked their asses personally! Well, okay, so maybe she had never actually done that, but now that she thought of it, it did sound like an awesome idea.

"_Hey, Marisa!" _came Sanae's booming voice.

Marisa's head jerked up. "Uh, yo?"

"_You wanna wake up and give me a hand here?"_

Right, right, now wasn't the time for questions of morality. She had to save it for another time, by which time it would have been forgotten entirely.

At the moment, Sanae had the upper hand. Which was to say that she was holding tight to the Strutter's foremost legs and was shoving its head into the ground with the Hisoutensoku's foot. Twin beams of intense heat were shooting out of the Hisoutensoku's eyes to burn away large chunks of the garden on the Strutter's back. Unfortunately, surprising Marisa not the slightest, any damage was only temporary.

"Hurting it doesn't do shit, ze!" Marisa called to the Hisoutensoku. "You gotta go for the kill, not the wound!"

"_Yes, I'm getting that!" _Sanae snapped, cutting off the optical blasts. _"Which is why I'm holding it down so you can drop one of your big explosion things! Come on, some teamwork please?"_

"Right, okay." Marisa fished around her apron for something that would do the trick. That was another difference between her last encounter with Yuuka and now. Back then, she had gone into battle armed to the teeth. Now, all she had was what she usually had on her. Which was actually quite a lot, come to think of it.

Her fingers touched plastic, and she pulled out a tiny blue capsule. She frowned at it. "The hell was this thing again?" she wondered out loud. Then she shrugged and dropped it.

For a few seconds, it looked like nothing had happened, leaving Marisa to wonder if she had just tried to bomb the Strutter with a vitamin pill. And then she noticed the tiny blue cloud starting to form around the area of impact, jogging her memory.

Oh yeah. That's what it did.

"_What are you waiting for?" _Sanae snarled, giving the Strutter's head another kick. _"I can't hold this thing forever!"_

"…eighteen…nineteen…twenty," Marisa counted as she watched the cloud grow. "Okay, that's big enough. Hey, Mossy?"

"_WHAT!"_

"You see that pretty blue cloud right there?" Marisa said, pointing.

"_What about it?"_

"You wanna set that area on fire for me?"

If it were possible for the Hisoutensoku to give her an odd look, Marisa had no doubt that it would be giving her one now. But Sanae obeyed, turning her heat beams back on.

Moments later, the Hisoutensoku was almost tripping over its oversized feet in hasty retreat as a blazing blue inferno erupted on the Strutter's back. _"Hey, warn me next time!" _

Laughing, Marisa said, "It was one of my tricks! What'd you think was gonna happen?" She had to admit, she was starting to feel a little better. Internal turmoil or no, blowing stuff up was good for the soul.

"_How can I tell with you? How can _anyone _tell with you?" _Sanae gave the writhing Strutter a kick of pure frustration. _"And what the hell was that anyway?"_

"Flammable gas," Marisa answered. "Duh."

"_You carry around things that can make flammable gas?"_

"I like fire," Marisa said simply.

The Hisoutensoku gave her another one of those not-quite-an-odd-look-but-might-as-well-be things. Then Marisa heard Sanae sigh loudly over the loudspeaker before attacking the burning Strutter with glowing fists.

And then Marisa frowned. Maybe it was the fact that explosions were now on her mind that brought it to her notice, but there was a tingle on the back of her neck that could not be ignored, the kind that sometimes went off when things blew up without her direct involvement. She turned her broom around, searching for the source. It didn't take long.

Not too far from the valley's border the earth was upheaving itself. Dirt-covered pillars of stone erupted skyward as the ground fell to pieces. And flitting in and out of the chaos where two figures that Marisa knew well.

Marisa wasn't exactly the most logical thinker, but that didn't mean she was an idiot. And now the pieces were coming together in her head, forming a conclusion that she didn't like one bit. All this time, they had been operating under the assumption that Yuuka was here just to stir things up for her own amusement. To force them to put on a show for her. To present them with a deadly opponent and make them believe that all she wanted was an arena match.

But while doing so was certainly in line with the sort of person she was, they had forgotten completely about Yuuka's other personality traits, such as her sense of honor. As twisted as her heart was, Yuuka was a woman of her word. She kept her promises, and expected others to do the same.

And in all the chaos that they had been dealing with, with Yuuka's clashes with Yukari and the ever-present threat of the Shadow Youkai's reemergence, they had forgotten something very important. Yuuka had allied herself with Cirno's gang, taking them under her protection and vowing to support their bounty.

Of course, once that announcement had gone out, everyone had assumed that her support would consist of what she had claimed it would: additional money for the victor and messy deaths for anyone who would try to impede it. But accepting her words at face value failed to take into account the kind of person she was. She wasn't just going to make sure that no one tried to stop the bounty from happening, she was going to ensure that someone claimed the prize.

It wasn't about them. It had never been about them. It was about Rin, and the people who hunted her. As far as Yuuka was concerned, Marisa, Sanae, Reimu, and Mima were just obstacles.

"Mossy!" she screamed over her shoulder. "We've got a problem!"

The Hisoutensoku paused in its endeavors to pound the Strutter into scrap metal._ "Uh, what?" _Sanae said. _"Another one?"_

"Remember what Mima said earlier?" Marisa pressed. "About how Yuuka likes to use distractions and sneaky surprise attacks?" She pointed. "Well, who's to say the Strutter isn't just a trick to keep us from seeing _that!"_

"_The Strutter? A _distraction?"Sanae shot back. _"That's just insulting!" _But she looked. She saw. She understood. And within moments, the Hisoutensoku had abandoned the downed Strutter to go stomping toward where Rin and Reimu were doing battle.

And then Marisa realized her mistake. "No, wait!" she screamed. "Don't turn your back on-"

Too late. Despite its damaged state, the Strutter still managed to lurch back onto its bent legs and hurl itself at the Hisoutensoku's back. Several tons of metal and burning foliage slammed into the giant robot and knocked it down.

Cursing Sanae for being so foolish and herself for forgetting how quickly Yuuka's pets recovered, Marisa swooped toward the Strutter, all the while charging up a force spell. Hopefully, it would be enough to get the Strutter's attention before it started tearing into the Hisoutensoku.

She needn't have bothered. The Strutter wasn't pressing its advantage. In fact, now that it had forced the Hisoutensoku down, it seemed to forget about the enormous metal humanoid and turned its attention on Marisa, who cried out in surprise and yanked her broom sharply to the side to avoid being perforated by a barrage of thorns that came spewing out of the Strutter's back.

Moments later, Marisa was flying at top speed, zigzagging back and forth as the Strutter scurried after her. While zipping through the air mere millimeters away from a very messy death was common territory for Marisa, the sheer ferocity of the Strutter's attack surprised Marisa. Granted, Yuuka hadn't held back either, but there had been an almost playful quality to her actions, as if unrestrained violence was simply how the game was played. And okay, Marisa held a lot of empathy for that viewpoint, but that just meant that as a connoisseur of violence, she was able to tell the difference between Yuuka's attempts to kill her and the Strutter's. Yuuka had been having fun. The Strutter just wanted her dead, to the point that it was willing to ignore the Hisoutensoku in order to carry out the deed.

"You know," Marisa marveled out loud as she avoided yet another whiplike vine, "I think that thing has it in for me, ze."

…

"_Why are we hiding?" _Rin demanded.

"Quiet," Reimu hissed. She strained her ears, trying to hear for any signs of Tenshi's approach.

Thanks to Tenshi's keystones, the earth had more-or-less vomited up the underground, turning what was once a relatively flat land into a metropolis of stone and dirt. She and Rin were hovering in the shadow of a tilting pillar, their backs pressed against its side. Somewhere out in the maze she had created, Tenshi was lurking, searching for them. And apparently Rin had a problem with that.

"_I can hear her just fine," _Rin said. _"She's nowhere near us. And you still haven't answered my question. She's not in our league, so why are we hiding from her?"_

Reimu scowled. "Because some of us don't have super adapting powers. She gets in one lucky hit, and I end up in itsy bitsy pieces. I kinda want to make sure that doesn't happen, so please humor my poor mortal cautiousness and not do something stupid, all right?"

"_Then let me handle it," _Rin said. _"She may be tough, but I spent most of yesterday fighting a bunch of oni barehanded, you know? I'm pretty sure I can take her."_

"Don't remind me," Reimu muttered, her mind going back to the condition Suika had been after the brawl at Eientei. "And I told you, I don't want any killing."

Rin's talons dug into the pillar's side, gouging the stone. _"You're still afraid I'm gonna wig out and slaughter everyone, aren't you?" _she asked, her voice thick with frustration. _"You think I don't know where the line is."_

Reimu opted not to remind her of that tornado she had used to devastate the forest near Hakurei Shrine. "Not the time, Rin."

"_I'll take that as a 'yes' then," _Rin said with a bitter laugh. _"Besides, I'm not talking about killing anyone. I was going to try hitting her."_

"Hitting her?" Reimu repeated in puzzlement.

"_Yeah. If we just knocked her out, would _that _be okay?"_

"I suppose…"

"_Good."_

Suddenly Rin pushed off from the pillar's side. She let herself fall about ten meters before swooping up and around so that she was facing the pillar. Her aura starting writhing, the black, red, and lavender tendrils twisting around each other with greater intensity. Reimu had a sudden sinking feeling, like she had just made a colossal mistake.

But before she could say anything, Rin shot forward. She hit the pillar and kept right on going, digging through the solid rock like it was water. Reimu was so surprised that she almost let herself fall. She quickly regained control and flew up to see that Rin had dug a perfectly round tunnel right through the pillar, and she had done so in less than a second.

Such was Reimu's shock that the only thought her brain was able to conjure up was, _Oh, so that's how she's stayed hidden all this time._

Then the rest of her mind caught up when she saw Rin on the far side of the tunnel, already engaged in battle. Shaking off her stupor, Reimu swooped around the pillar.

It was just as she had feared. Rin, apparently having heard Tenshi moving on the other side of the pillar, had tackled the Celestial head on. For one terrible moment, Reimu was certain that Rin had cut Tenshi in half, digging through her body as easily as she had the pillar.

But no, Tenshi was still alive. Rin had turned that power off just in time. Which wasn't to say what she was now doing wasn't worryingly violent. In a reversal of their previous encounter, Rin was now clinging to Tenshi's elbow, dragging the Celestial behind much as Tenshi had dragged her. Only this time, there was an abundance of pillars and other rock formations with which she could use to play crack-the-whip.

It was then that Reimu realized her mistake. Shadow Youkai or no, Rin had spent the better part of the last two months on the run. She was terrified, angry, and frustrated beyond belief, something that the frequent attacks had done nothing to alleviate. And she had the mind and self-control of a child and the powers of a god. She craved some sort of release, something she could vent her anger on. No doubt the maddened Tenshi provided a very tempting target.

And Reimu had just given her permission.

"_So, you wanna stab me again?" _she heard Rin demand of her helpless prisoner. There was the fleshy sound of a soft body smacking against hard stone, and Tenshi cried out in pain. _"You wanna hurt me, like everyone else does? Is that it, huh? Well, let's see how _you _like it!"_

"Rin, stop!" Reimu screamed as she shot after Rin. "That's enough! You beat her, it's over!"

Rin came to a sudden stop. She whirled around to glare at Reimu with furious eyes, Tenshi dangling lifelessly in her grip. _"Over?" _she snapped. _"This creep jumps me out nowhere, stabs me and hauls me around like a piece of meat, and I'm just supposed to let it go?"_

"You've already gotten your revenge! You don't have to keep hurting her!" Reimu pointed to the ruined Celestial, or what was left of her. "I mean, just look at her!"

Rin did so. In addition to the horrific melted stated her body was in, Tenshi now looked wholly broken. Reimu wondered if there was an intact bone left in her body.

Rin stared. To Reimu, she looked completely dumbstruck, as if she were unable to comprehend that the wreck she now held was of her doing. As Reimu watched, the hate left her eyes, to be replaced by horror.

"_Oh gods!" _she cried, instinctively released Tenshi's arm. The Celestial crumpled onto an outcropping of stone.

"Rin?" Reimu said as she cautiously approached.

"_I…I…" _Rin turned to stare at Reimu, her eyes wide. _"I did that, didn't I?"_

Reimu winced. "Well, kinda, yeah."

"_I did that. I hurt her. I wanted to hurt her, so I did. And there wasn't anything she could do to…" _Rin brought her trembling hands up to clutch her forehead.

For a moment, no one spoke. And then Rin slowly lowered her hands.

"_Reimu?" _she said in a slow voice.

"Yes?" Reimu said.

"_I think…I think I might need help."_

Reimu almost burst out laughing. There was nothing at all funny about the situation, but the sheer redundancy of Rin's statement nearly made her laugh anyway.

"Yeah, you do," she said. "Don't worry, that's what we're here for. So let's just finish up with this mess and-"

Tenshi sat up.

And then, before Reimu could shout a warning, the Celestial had lifted her sword and plunged it through Rin's back and out through her stomach.

…

Rin was no stranger to pain. She had been stabbed, smashed, impaled, burned, blown apart, electrocuted, had her mind ripped apart from the inside, poisoned, crushed, and been punched in the nose by Rumia. And as much as the thought bugged her, she was starting to grow used to it. She didn't enjoy it of course, but it didn't affect her as it once had. Maybe it was her stolen regenerative capabilities, maybe it was the fact that most pain was only fresh for a few seconds before her body adapted and it no longer hurt, but whatever the reason, being skewered on that Celestial's sword shouldn't have done much more than slow her down.

However, there was something wrong. Whatever the sword was made out of, it had that same burning quality as that bladed chain she had been unable to absorb. It hurt. It burned. And it kept on burning.

"_AAAHHHHH!" _Rin screamed as she doubled over. She clutched at the flaming tip extruding from her stomach, only to sear her hands in the process. Why wasn't the pain dulling? By now she should be absorbing the sword into her body, making it a part of her. Why wasn't it working?

And suddenly, the pain vanished. Gasping, Rin looked numbly down at herself. Had her power finally kicked in?

No, the sword wasn't being absorbed. It was simply gone.

Then there was the sound of an impact. Rin looked over her shoulder to see the Celestial with her back against the wall and sliding limply to the ground. Reimu hovered over her, massaging her foot and wincing. The Celestial's sword was in her hand.

"Maybe you have a point about this idiot," Reimu said flatly. She jammed the sword into the pillar's side. It stuck. "You okay?"

Rin considered saying something down the lines of "I told you so" but, as tempting as it might be, this was not the time. There were other pressing matters. _"I couldn't adapt," _she said.

Reimu frowned. "You mean like before?"

"_Yeah," _Rin said, nodding. _"It felt just like before. There's…something in her weapons, something that my body, I don't know, rejects." _She rubbed the closing wound in her stomach and winced. _"And it burns like you wouldn't believe."_

"Maybe something's gone wrong with your powers?" Reimu suggested, looking concerned.

Rin considered this, but shook her head. _"I don't think so. I was able to absorb those cables they skewered me with without a problem. I think it has something to do with her."_

They looked at the downed Celestial, who, despite everything she had taken, was still moving, albeit weakly.

"What's she made out of?" Reimu wondered. "Solid iron?"

"_No idea. Maybe I should try to absorb her and find out."_

Reimu rolled her eyes, but when she realized that the suggestion wasn't dark humor on Rin's part she fixated the Kirin with a cold stare. "Yeah, how about no?"

Rin had been expecting this. _"Reimu, I set her on fire, Phoenix Fire no less, and slammed her around this place like I was using her to pound mochi. And I'm pretty sure I overheard that ghost of yours bragging about hitting her in the face with a high-velocity explosive."_

A guilty look passed over Reimu's face.

Sighing, Rin continued. _"Look, I'm not trying to pick a fight about what tactics are acceptable. If you don't want me killing, fine. I get it. I don't want to kill anyone either. But it's obvious that this person is not going to stay down. We need her out of the way."_

Frowning, Reimu cocked her head to one side. "Huh. Hey, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you again?"

The question took Rin by surprise. What difference did her age make? _"Uh, I'm not sure. Eighteen, nineteen I guess. Around that."_

"And what does that figure into Kirin years?"

"_How should I know?" _Rin demanded. _"I never lived with them, I don't know a thing about them. Why?"_

"Nothing," Reimu said with a shrug. "It's just…you're really not sounding like a kid right now."

That made Rin laugh. _"A kid? Shrine maiden Hakurei, I'm not sure if I have a _species _anymore. I don't think concepts like 'kid' or 'adult' meant a whole lot anymore."_

And then another voice cut in. _Er, she actually has a point, _Rumia said.

Rin frowned. _"Hold that thought for a moment, 'kay?" _she said to Reimu.

…

_Deep Within_

"Say what again?" Rin asked, turning away from the screen to face Rumia.

Rumia took a deep breath. "Well, look. I've been hanging around you for a while now, and I've seen pretty much all your moods. And I gotta agree with Miss Reimu, you're not really…acting like you right now."

A strange twitch developed in Rin's right fingers. They started tapping rapidly against her thigh in rhythm: pinky to ring to middle to index and back to pinky again, in a smooth, repeating wave. But if she noticed her new tic she made no sign. "Whatever do you mean?" Rin asked, staring Rumia right in the eyes. A stiff smile was on her face, one that never passed her cheeks to reach her eyes.

Rumia swallowed. Rin had been creepy before, but now she was getting scary. "I'm just saying, ever since we got chased out of the Ancient City, sometimes you're, uh, normal, and sometimes you're going pretty crazy, which is _perfectly _all right, by the way! I mean, I would too! But other times, you get kinda…I dunno, cold."

"Cold?" Rin's smile expanded, her teeth baring. It was hands-down one of the ghastliest things Rumia had ever seen, and there was some serious competition for that title.

"Yeah, I mean, I don't have a _problem_ with it," Rumia said quickly. "Hell, I totally agree with you! We should definitely kill that bitch! But, uh, it's just weird, hearing it from you. I mean, you don't really sound like you. And it's not just what you want to do, it's how you talk and..." Offering a brief prayer to the gods, Rumia continued. "Uh, don't take this the wrong way, but you kinda sound more like me."

Rin's hand stopped twitching.

For a few terrifying moments, Rumia had no idea what Rin was going to do. Was she going to seal up her mouth again as punishment? Banish her back to the world of nightmares?

But to her surprise, Rin started laughing. "Is that so," she said in a passable imitation of Rumia's voice. "Well, what can I say? Maybe I've been hanging out with you too long. Maybe you really are a bad influence."

"Maybe that's it," Rumia said cautiously. "Or maybe-"

"Or what?" Rin said sharply. "What? Or what? What is it, Rumia? What are you about to suggest?"

"Nothing," Rumia said hastily, holding up her hands. "Forget it."

Rin's hands clenched into fists and her eyes squeezed shut as her face twisted into a grimace. "Look, Rumia," she said in a low voice. "I'm hanging on by a thread here. A thread. Even the people trying to help me keep expecting me to turn into the bad guy, and I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't really tempting to do just that. I don't wanna be the monster they think I am, but it's getting really, really difficult."

"Okay, cool," Rumia said. "But-"

"And who's the real monster, anyway!" Rin suddenly shouted, making her jump. "You heard what Reimu said to Mima, right? How that Celestial's parents were really important and she didn't want to risk making them mad, right?" She swung her finger up to the screen. On it, the partially melted Celestial was still squirming.

"You saw what she did to me, right?" Rin demanded.

"Rin, I am literally a part of your body now. My mind is all gunked up in yours. I _felt _what she did to you."

"Exactly!" Now Rin's voice was rising to a shriek. "You were here, you've _been _here, you've seen, felt, experienced everything they did to us! I try to hide in the bottom of the sea and they come for us! I _bury _myself a hundred meters underground and they still come for us! I join up with some of the most powerful people Gensokyo has ever seen, and they _still _keep coming for us! It just. Doesn't. Stop!"

"Preaching to the choir, Rin. Preaching to the choir."

Rin turn to glare hatefully at the downed Celestial. "I never did anything to her, and she attacked me anyway. Same with those shapeshifters. Same with that Kappa. And don't get me started on the Asakuras. I'm sick of it, Rumia. You remember when you called me a death-seeker? Said I was suicidal? Maybe I was, kinda. But now I'm just angry."

Rumia opened her mouth to respond, but Rin wasn't done ranting yet. "I mean, what's the freaking point? It's like, even if they do find a way to make me normal and let us both go, I'm still gonna have to deal with people trying to kill me every day! It won't matter that I'm not a threat anymore, they'll come after me anyway, I know they will!"

She sank to her knees as angry tears formed along the edges of her eyes. "What's the point?" she muttered. "What's the freaking point?"

Folding her arms, Rumia looked down at her captor/companion and wondered if she was at all moved by Rin's breakdown and found, to her complete lack of surprise, that she was not. Whether this was due to a lack of sympathy or her having long become desensitized to Rin's emotional problems was up for debate. Maybe if Rin had absorbed Daiyousei or Mystia or maybe even Wriggle she might be traveling with someone willing to take on the role of comforter, but she had chosen Rumia, who had never been known for being especially sentimental.

"So, you think you should just say 'Screw it!' and go full bad guy?" Rumia asked. "Is that what you're saying?"

Rin looked up at her. "Do you think I should?" she asked, sounding confused.

Rumia opened her mouth to say something sarcastic, but another thought struck her. Rin was asking her for direction. That in itself wasn't out of the ordinary, but the full implications were finally making themselves realized in her mind. Rin wanted her to tell her what to do. Rin, the sometimes nutty, sometimes annoying, always weird girl that could drive Rumia up a wall like no one else could. Rin, who was (mostly, if her recent cold-blooded mindset was any indication) a spineless wuss who folded with a single punch, except for the time when she snapped and went into raging fury that always ended with her making things even worse.

Rin, who was so powerful that she made Yukari Yakumo declare a state of country-wide emergency. Rin, who was the single most destructive force in a country populated with destructive forces. Rin, who could not be killed, could not be stopped, who could lay waste all of Gensokyo and reduce it to a pile of smoking ashes without becoming so much as winded and was held back by nothing more than a childish mind and a set of morals that were quickly becoming eroded.

And she was asking Rumia what to do. All of that power, and Rumia controlled it. Not perfectly, of course, given how many times Rin had stopped listening to her in favor of doing something stupid. But she was listening to her now.

One word, and Rumia could unleash the Apocalypse with a capital A. Of course, everyone would try to stop them. The whole of Gensokyo would come down on them. And even if Rin were to win, there was the Outside World waiting for them, with an endless array of enemies to come after them. Rumia had only the vaguest idea of what was out there, but of one thing she was certain: Rin would lose. Sooner or later, should she berserk, she was going to lose. And then it would finally be over.

Rumia was sick of it. She was sick of being stuck in a world of nothing with no one but Rin for company. She was sick of the mind-numbingly long periods of boredom that were only broken up by sheer terror and pain. At this point, oblivion was a welcome alternative.

She almost did it. She almost gave the word and told Rin to just cut loose, just to bring an end to the madness. But before she did, she was hit with another realization: she did not want to die. Death might be preferable to her current situation, but it still wasn't an option she was enthusiastic about, especially considering what she and Rin would have to do to achieve it. Rumia was not one of the good guys, she had no illusions about that. She was a youkai through and through, and youkai were not known for their sense of morality. And she had killed before and not lost sleep over it. But even she had a hard time stomaching the idea of kicking off a genocidal rampage.

Besides, as much as she wanted to be free, she also wanted to live. She wanted to see her friends again. She wanted to go home.

"Rumia?" Rin said.

Rumia shivered, as if to shake off what she had been about to do. "Rin, we are now closer than we've ever been to escaping from this nightmare. You wanna just throw it away now because you're pissed off?"

Rin flinched. "But…"

"You've held on this long. You think you can hold on for a few more minutes?"

"Hold on for what?" Rin said, her tone bitter. "What is there left for me?"

Rumia thought about that. "You ever wanna see Reisen again? Because cutting loose and killing everyone is a good way to make that not happen. You know, except for the few seconds before she burns with everyone else."

The name of her adopted parent seemed to ignite something within Rin. Suddenly she was up on her feet again, holding onto Rumia by the throat. She wasn't squeezing hard enough to choke Rumia, but the threat was there.

"Don't speak her name!" Rin cried. "You do not get to speak her name!"

Rumia placed her hands on Rin's shoulders and shoved. Miraculously enough, it worked. "Why not? I'm right, ain't I? Burn Gensokyo down, and she'll burn with it. Is that what you want, Rin? Or are you gonna suck it up and take the chance that Miss Reimu might be telling the truth?"

Rin stumbled back and regained her footing. She glared at Rumia with murderous eyes. Rumia readied herself should Rin go for her throat again. There was no way she would win. After all, in this world, Rin might as well be a goddess. No, scratch that, _the _Goddess. But even so, Rumia was determined to at least squish her nose if it came to it.

But the attack never came. Rin's face twitched and her hands shook, but she closed her eyes and took in deep, slow breaths. In time, the hate and anger slipped out of her face, back into the bottle they had escaped from.

When she had regained enough control, Rin opened her eyes. She was still angry, Rumia could tell, but she wasn't on the verge of breaking anymore.

"You know, I kind of hate you sometimes," Rin said.

"Really?" Rumia responded, giving her a look. "Aw, that's too bad. And were getting along so well until now."

"Thanks though. That was mean, but it worked." Rin took in one last deep breath, held it in, and slowly let it out. "Okay. Now that _that's _out of my system, what were we-"

"_Uh, excuse me?"_

Rin and Rumia turned to see Reimu's enormous face on the screen. The shrine maiden was staring at Rin with impatience.

"_You guys done with your staff meeting or whatever?" _she demanded. _"Because we really need to get back to the others."_

"Right, sorry," Rin said hastily. She jogged back toward the screen, Rumia following behind. "Just had a minor morality crisis, but it's…"

Her voice trailed off as her attention was grabbed by something in the screen's corner. The view refocused to show the defeated Celestial, now lying motionless. But what was new was the pulsing aura, white even through the screen's lavender tint, that surrounded her body. Rumia recognized it immediately: a shrine maiden's sealing spell, and a strong one at that.

"What in the world?" Rin wondered out loud.

"_What?" _Reimu said, sounding offended. _"Hey, I'm a shrine maiden, remember? Sealing up supernatural threats is my job!"_

"Yeah, but I didn't think they would work on a Celestial! Aren't they kind of too strong for that?"

"_Not when they've been beaten unconscious and partially melted," _Reimu said. _"Now, can we _please _get moving before someone else shows up?"_

Rin and Rumia exchanged a glance. Rumia nodded.

"Yeah, sorry," Rin said, turning back to the screen. "Let's go-"

She stopped and stiffened. "Wait, do you hear…" Then she shoulder slumped. "Oh no, not again."

Rumia wanted to ask her what was wrong, but before she could form the words the world exploded.

Someone else had just shown up.

…

"Nice shot," Mamizou said as Nue lowered her arm. "What'd you say that thingie's called again?"

"Nitori called it a Mama-In-Law," Nue said as she examined the metal gauntlet that now encased her right arm. Steam rose from the round port that sat over the wrist, from which the tiny missile had just been discharged. "Weird name if you ask me."

"Not me," Mamizou said. "I never did tell you how my second marriage ended up, did I? Trust me, that baby be named right."

They looked at the aftermath of Nue's surprise attack. Rin Satuski had been blown clear through the wall of the fissure created by that crazy Celestial, leaving a sizeable hole behind her. As for Reimu Hakurei, she was lying on the side of a slanting pillar, trying to regain her senses.

"Well, that worked out pretty well," Mamizou observed. "What now?"

Nue unstrapped the gauntlet from her arm and tossed it to Mamizou. "Now? Now you go after Rin Satsuki and finish her off. As for me…" She pulled out her pair of specially-made Kappa pistols. "I'll handle the shrine maiden."

…

Thanks to Tenshi Hinanai's keystones, the flat land that had been the Hisoutensoku and the Strutter's battlefield had collapsed in onto itself only to be vomited back up, forming a labyrinth of pillars, spires, slabs, and other jutting rock formations. And given the Hisoutensoku's sheer size and weight, navigating such a metropolis was a lesson in futility. Fortunately, it compensated for such drawbacks by being extremely strong, strong enough to smash down the new obstacles and stomp the rubble into something easier to walk on.

Unfortunately that still left Sanae with the problem of the Strutter, which, despite being more awkwardly shaped, was moving through the hazardous environment quite well. Having eight flexible legs helped, and whatever opening weren't wide enough for it to squeeze its fat body through were quickly expanded, courtesy of the disturbingly tentacle-like vines that writhed on its back.

The new terrain definitely did not favor the Hisoutensoku. However, the Strutter did not seem to notice its advantage. In fact, to Sanae's surprise, it was scuttling away from the Hisoutensoku as fast as its legs would take it.

"Hey!" Sanae shouted, her voice carried to the outside by the loudspeakers. She started to climb after it. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"_Ain't it obvious?" _Marisa's voice grumbled. _"It's still after me, ze!"_

"It is?" Sanae focused on the area in front of the Strutter's path. Sensing what she wanted to do, her vision magnified, and the Hisoutensoku's targeting system quickly picked up a tiny dot flying away at a very high speed.

"_Yeah, it fucking is! I told you this thing has it in for me! Stupid bug, go fight your nemesis! What'd I ever do to you?"_

"Well, golly Marisa," Sanae said sarcastically. "You were in the last fight with its master. Is it possible that you might have done something to really, really piss Yuuka Kazami off? Something she might still be mad at you for?"

There was a short pause, and then Marisa said, _"Uh, maybe?"_

"Yeah, I thought so." Sanae tried to close the distance between her and the Strutter, but the Hisoutensoku just wasn't suited for that kind of travel. "Damn it. Hey, can you swing around and bring it back here?"

"_Hell to the no. Grab it yourself!"_

"I can't, you idiot!" Sanae yelled in frustration. "It's too far away!"

Marisa's voice exploded over the loudspeakers, loud and angry. _"You _unbelievable_ fucknut! Use the fucking harpoons!"_

Sanae was about to shout back, but then she realized that Marisa was right. She was being kind of an idiot.

Feeling rather foolish for not thinking of it first, Sanae pointed both of the Hisoutensoku's fists at the Strutter's bloated abdomen and focused on her wrists. At that moment, the Strutter was scurrying up a pile of rubble, leaving its whole back exposed. She recalled the bladed cables that Nitori had fired off to spear Rin Satsuki with, held the image of them shooting out, and gave the command for it to happen again, all the while praying to a goddess that was kind of vaporized at the moment that the cables had not been one-use weapons and if they were, that there were more of them.

Fortunately, either Kanako's miracles did not seem to be impeded by her gaseous state or Nitori just really like harpooning things, because the Hisoutensoku still had more of the cables sheathed inside its wrists. Eight of them, to be precise.

The Strutter lurched when it found its movement impeded. It started forward, straining against the cables. The Hisoutensoku was nearly yanked off its feet, but kept its balance. Grimacing, Sanae held her ground and yanked back. The Strutter was strong to be sure, but the Hisoutensoku was stronger. Slowly but gradually, the Strutter was pulled back off the rock pile.

Then it finally seemed to realize what Sanae was doing and lashed out with its vines, seizing onto its surroundings and tethering it in place. Sanae grunted and strained, but the Strutter wasn't budging. A problem.

Sanae almost called Marisa to start firing, but then she realized that she didn't need to. She had the Strutter right where she wanted it. Of course, it was only a matter of time before it freed itself, which meant that it was now time to do what Mima had demanded and get creative.

One thought, and suddenly all eight cables erupted in blazing green light as power shot through them and into the Strutter, creating a deadly circuit. Sanae had no idea what she was pumping into her opponent, only that she wanted to fill it with whatever would do the most damage. And thanks to Mima's power, the Hisoutensoku was complying.

And it was working. The garden on its back was going from green to brown to black, and small electrical fires were springing to life all along its body. What metal that was still visible crumpled and deformed under the intense heat. The Strutter threw its head back and lead out a strangled, mechanized roar. Even though Sanae knew that it was impossible, it honestly sounded like it was in pain.

And then Sanae realized that she was running out of juice. She didn't know what would happen should she exhaust Mima's power, and she wasn't especially eager to find out.

"Marisa!" she seethed. "Any year now!"

"_Yeah, yeah. Keep your shirt on."_

There was a flash of white light, and one of the vines holding the Strutter in place was cut in half. More flashes followed, and soon the Strutter no longer had any support. It toppled backward and slid all the way to the bottom of the rock pile.

Panting, Sanae slumped and turned off the juice entirely and retracted the harpoons. "So, is it done?" she gasped. "We won?"

"_Hey, remember what I said earlier: it ain't over until it explodes. And Yuuka shrugged off way worse than that last time. You just knocked over, that's all."_

"Right, right, okay." Sanae frowned as she studied the thrashing beast. It was acting like most spiders do when flipped over: all legs grasping at the sky while it rocked its body back and forth, though that plan wasn't seeing much in the way of success. Which meant that its underbelly lay vulnerable. She marched over to the Strutter and raised both arms over her head.

"_Mossy, look out!" _

Marisa's warning came too later. The next thing Sanae knew, thick vines had coiled around both of the Hisoutensoku's wrists. Taken off guard, she instinctively tried to bring them down anyway, but they moved first, yanking back and pulling the Hisoutensoku down.

More vines sprouted into existence. They attached themselves to multiple points in the surrounding terrain. Some pushed, others pulled, and the Strutter was lifted up and over so that its tremendous bulk fell full onto the Hisoutensoku's chest. Of course, it could have landed on its legs, allowing it to hover over the Hisoutensoku without crushing it, but it didn't.

Sanae gasped as she felt its weight press down on her chest. The thing had been playing possum, and she had fallen completely for its trap. More vines lashed out, pinning all of the Hisoutensoku's limbs to the ground.

"Mima?" she said. "Mima!"

There was a short pause, and then Mima's voice said, _"Er, ah, it seems that I may have made a slight oversight."_

"WHAT!"

"_It would seem…it would seem that using my body's essence to animate forty-seven tons of steel and let you play with moderately advanced offensive spells within a Mykr's Siren-rich environment was…less than prudent."_

Sanae's jaw dropped. "Are you saying you're out of-"

A massive vine chose that moment to lift high into the air and come slamming down on the Hisoutensoku's face. It hit hard; not hard enough to pierce the armor, but hard enough so that the whole cockpit jerked violently. The green bubble that held Sanae aloft flickered in and out of existence. It wasn't gone for long; it returned in less than a second. But it was still long enough for Sanae's body to pitch along with the cockpit and for her head to slam into the now-vertical cockpit ceiling. The bubble reappeared, and she slumped limply in its grasp.

It should have ended then. The Strutter held its enemy helpless in its grasp. It could had ripped it apart, limb from limb.

Instead, it contented itself to hold the Hisoutensoku immobile while returning its attention to the skies. It didn't take long for it to find the tiny dot of a humanoid zipping frantically back-and-forth, desperately trying to seek a way past the vines that defended the Strutter. Once it held its target in sight, the Strutter renewed it attack, sending its vines skyward again to catch and crush the pesky witch. Marisa immediately shot off, staying just ahead of the Strutter's grasp, all the while screaming, "I KNEW it! You have it in for me, ze!"

…

Strictly speaking, it was impossible to knock Rin out. Her physiology simply didn't allow it. She had no solid organs, no brain, nothing that could be damaged in such a way to induce unconsciousness. She could be dazed, perhaps rendered senseless for a time, but not knocked out.

But whatever it was that had just hit her came closer than anything else had.

When she came to her senses, she was lying at the dead end of a long, dark tunnel, her body awkwardly splayed over a pile of smashed stone. Everything hurt, but the worst of it was her head. It throbbed so hard that it was almost impossible to think.

Which was fine, as far as she was concerned. Thinking sounded exhausting, and she felt tired. So very time. She was content to lay there and do nothing.

But of course, her regenerative abilities would not let her. The pain ebbed away and her head cleared. A pity.

She stirred, moving rock chips off of her. _Rumia? _she thought.

"_Here," _Rumia said weakly. _"The hell just happened?"_

Rin sighed. _Something hit us. Again._

"_Is that so." _Rumia let out a laugh, one that didn't sound exactly sane._ "Rin, tell me honestly: is there like a big red bull's-eye painted on you? A Kick Me sign? Has beating you up suddenly become the nation sport and everyone just forgot to tell us?"_

Rin laughed as well. What else could she do? _Haven't you heard? _she responded. _The universe hates me, you know? I thought it was obvious._

"_Oh, completely," _Rumia agreed. _"So, what asshole needs to be taught a lesson this time?"_

Rin actually didn't care, but she supposed that she might as well find out. She focused on the light of the tunnel's outlet and kept her ears open for any sign of this new attacker.

Thought her night-vision was impeccable, she saw nothing, no sign of movement. However, there was a sound, one almost too faint to be picked up: a tiny scratching, as if an insect were scurrying its way toward her.

Rumia must have heard it too. _"The hell is that?" _she demanded. _"A bug? Are we being attacked by bugs? Is Wriggle after us or something?"_

_Shush._

Rin stared at where she thought the sound was coming from. Now that she was looking for it, she thought that she could see _something _moving, but it might have been her imagination. For all she knew, she have finally gone completely mad and was now hallucinating. Not a pleasant thought, but still a possibility.

"_Soooo…." _Rumia said. _"You gonna let loose with the fireworks now? Come on, it doesn't matter if you can't see it. Melt the tunnel, and you're sure to get it anyway."_

Rin held up a hand, ready to do just that, but managed to stop herself in time. _No, _she thought firmly. _We're trying to be good guys, remember?_

"_Sure, sure," _Rumia grumbled. _"Too bad no one else is."_

_Rumia…_

"_Fine, whatever. But I gotta tell you now, being the good guys sucks a big fat one."_

Rin was puzzled. _A big fat what? _sheasked.

"_A…never mind. Look, whatever you're gonna do, just do it already. Before that thing reaches us."_

'_kay, _Rin muttered as she straightened. She looked up. Well, okay. She needed some room to move around anyway.

Rin shot up, digging her way through the earth as she always did, only this time she didn't bother to collapse the tunnel behind her. Her new friend would follow, and she would be waiting.

It took less than two seconds to reach surface. To her surprise, the first thing she noticed was a huge glowing blue dome. The blast had thrown her outside of the valley's borders and, as a result, the arena.

Rin hesitated. She could just leave now. Run, as she had been doing. With everyone busy with Yuuka, no one would notice until she was long gone.

The temptation passed quickly. She was through with running. And this might very well be her last chance.

She crouched near the edge of the hole, waiting for her attacker to reveal itself. Unfortunately, the hum of the flowers made it impossible to pick up the minute scratchings.

Rin started to feel uneasy. If she couldn't see the thing or hear it, that meant it could sneak up on her again. Which put her at something of a disadvantage.

Rumia said, _"I have a bad feeling about-"_

A moment later, Rin was once again nearly a kilometer away from where she had been, trying to fight through the pain and the dazedness.

"_We got hit again," _she mumbled out loud.

"_Yup," _Rumia said. _"Must've got past us somehow. You know, I really don't like this person."_

"_Better than the Celestial."_

Rin staggered to her feet. What kept hitting her, and where was it coming from? She looked up, and was surprised to see a youkai woman with a very large tail running toward her with her arm point straight out at Rin. Though it was difficult to tell, there seemed to be something metal around her outstretched arm.

Then there was a flash and a _whoosh, _and Rin suddenly knew she was being shot at again.

That should have been that. The projectile was too fast, faster than the Strutter's rockets even. By rights, Rin should have taken a third hit and resigned herself to a fourth.

But she had the experience and reflexes of Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou to work with, sharply honed to inhuman levels over a millennium of use. And she had all of the unearthly speed of Rumia's evil half, this "Shadow Youkai." Taken together, Rin was capable of things that would normally be considered impossible, even by Gensokyian standards.

As the projectile sped towards her, she threw herself into her captives' stolen attributes and let them guide her movements. Her body twisted with more grace than a master gymnast and the projectile passed harmlessly under her arm.

The woman with the large tail skidded to a stop, her eyes wide with shock. Clearly, she had not expected to miss.

Nor had she been expecting Rin to thrust her hand forward and blast her with a colorful but still painful blast of rainbow energy. As far as Rin was concerned, the woman should just be thankful that she had used Kaguya's power instead of her other two options.

"_Hey, I recognize that tail now," _Rumia said. _"I think that's a Tanuki."_

Rin frowned. _Tanuki?_

"_Yeah. Never met one, so I don't know too much about them, but I do know one thing: they can change their shape, turn into other things."_

_Is that right?_ Rin's eyes narrowed.

"_Uh-huh. And…" _Rumia's voice suddenly cut off.

Rin frowned. _Rumia? Is everything-_

"_Holy crap, she's a shapeshifter!" _Rumia blurted suddenly.

Now Rin was confused. _Uh, yeah. I thought we'd established-_

"_No, you idiot! She's a _shapeshifter! _She can disguise herself as whatever she wants! You can steal people's powers! Do I need to draw you a freaking map?"_

Rin got it then. One severe drawback of her morphing ability is that she had very limited control over what form her body took whenever she absorbed someone, limited to regaining her gelatinous state for short periods of time. As such, while she had learned enough to keep from leaving that trail of death everywhere she went, she still had a body that stood out in a crowd. And by now, near everyone knew her face.

Of course, she could always absorb someone else and change her appearance, but while she was now more open to aggressive survival tactics, she had not sunk that far yet. But to be able to change shape and look like anything anytime she wanted? Such an ability would be…invaluable, to say the least. And given how resistant she was to spells, she would be untraceable. There was still the problem of needing to absorb the Tanuki and possibly her partner in order to gain that power, but Rin was more open to the idea of lesser evils these days, especially when people who had gone out of their way to attack and hurt her were concerned.

But there was one other problem with Rumia's idea. _I thought I didn't have to hide anymore, _Rin thought to her mental passenger.

"_We don't know that yet. Wouldn't you rather have some insurance, in case things go rotten? You know, like they _always _do?"_

_Maybe, _Rin admitted. _But still…_

"_Oh, come on! Look, if it turns out that Miss Reimu's plan is legit, you can just her go with the other two."_

Rumia had a point, Rin had to admit. In the long run, a little extra insurance would be smart. And she had absorbed two people already. Another one or two wouldn't damn her any more than her previous actions had.

That didn't change the fact that the very idea turned her stomach.

Rin felt strange, almost as if her mind were rebelling against itself, one part pushing her toward Rumia's ruthless way of thinking and the other recoiling with revulsion at the kind of monster that would cause her to become. It wasn't like when the Dark Voice had been whispering to her, but it was more than a simple moral struggle. This was something else, something that came from…well, deep within. When she had fought the Celestial, slipping into that dangerous mindset had been so easy that she had hardly noticed it happening until Reimu had snapped her out of it. And now that she was under attack again, she was sorely tempted to go all out again. It was almost as if her mind were being pulled into something darker.

Now _that _was terrifying. It should be the other way around.

But even so, she felt that she was entitled to a little rage at this point. Maybe a few hours of riding along in Rin's mind would change the Tanuki's views on certain things.

_Maybe, _Rin thought, careful not to let Rumia pick up on the doubts she was having. _But worry about that after we've had a little talk with her._

"_Agreed. Oh, this should be interesting."_

Rin strode toward the Tanuki as the latter tried to recover from the blast she had taken, though she seemed to be having a hard time of it. Princess Kaguya might not have the sheer destructive power of Fujiwara no Mokou or Evil Rumia, but she still had plenty of mojo of her own.

The Tanuki managed to get her feet under her. She started to straighten but froze when she realized that there was someone standing directly in front of her. Slowly she looked up to see Rin standing over her, arms folded, right-hand talons tapping impatiently against her shoulder, and lavender eyes glaring down at her.

For a moment, no one moved. And then the Tanuki started to raise her gauntleted arm, presumably to try to shoot Rin at point-blank range.

"_No," _Rin said.

The Tanuki swallowed. She nodded and lowered her arm.

"_Very good," _Rin said. _"Now, guess what I want you to do next."_

Moving with slow deliberation, the Tanuki unstrapped the gauntlet from her arm and slid it off. She laid it on the ground. Rin glanced at it with disgust and crushed it under her foot.

"_All right," _Rin said. _"Now, let's talk about-"_

Suddenly the Tanuki lashed out, thrusting her fist at Rin, probably hoping to catch her with a lucky sucker-punch. Rin's hand came up, and the Tanuki's fist smacked into her palm.

"_Stop that," _Rin said as she closed her fingers around the fist, holding it in place.

"Let go!" the Tanuki snarled as she tried to pull free. She had a very thick accent, Rin observed, one that she had never heard before. Though given how little contact she had had with the rest of Gensokyo this was to be expected.

"_No, I don't think so," _Rin said. A single thought, and a wall of fire sprung to life around them. It wasn't close or hot enough to be dangerous, but it was still a wall of fire. They had their own strength.

"_Try to escape, attack, or change shape, and this cage gets a whole lot smaller," _Rin warned. _"Got it?"_

The Tanuki nodded.

"_Good. So, now that we know where we stand, let's start off with the introductions: my name is Rin Satsuki. Do you know who I am?"_

"Yeah," the Tanuki said, her voice hoarse.

"_Good. Who are you?"_

"Mamizou Futatsuiwa."

"_Mamizou Futatsuiwa,"_ Rin repeated. She nodded. "_'kay, nice to meet you Mamizou. Why are you and your friend here?"_

Mamizou scowled. Her face was already slick with sweat. "She wanted to claim the bounty, I went along to watch her back. Things just rolled outta control."

Rin sighed. That freaking bounty. _"And you never thought that maybe you two should forget that stupid bounty when the robots showed up? Or that flower dome went up? Or the earth started collapsing, or when Reimu Hakurei and I beat the crap out of that Celestial?"_

"Wanted to," Mamizou grunted. Her hand, the one Rin was holding prisoner, was starting to shake. "She wouldn't let us."

Rin tilted her head to one side. _"She?"_

"Yeah. Yuuka Kazami." Mamizou spat the name out like a curse. "She contacted us and made damned sure that we wouldn't back out, the creepy bitch."

Hmmm, now that was interesting, if not at all surprising. That Celestial had probably gotten a similar call, which explained why she had never stopped attacking.

"_When did this happen?" _Rin asked. _"When did she contact you?"_

Mamizou shrugged and grimaced. "Eh, a little bit before that damned Celestial blew up the ground, I guess."

"_So, it was after that dome of flowers went up?"_

Mamizou nodded.

Rin hissed as the rage ignited again within her. Still maintaining her hold on the Tanuki's fist, she knelt down so that they were looking at each other eye-to-eye. _"And what about when you two came to me when I was impaled and helpless and started shooting me in the head?" _she demanded. _"Or when you tried to disguise yourselves as Yukari Yakumo to get Reimu Hakurei to abandon me? Did she make you do that too?"_

Mamizou's eyes went wide with fear. She didn't say anything, but she didn't need to. Rin had her answer.

"_Uh, Rin?" _Rumia said. _"You're starting to scare me here."_

Rin ignored her. _"You know, I am just so sick of you people," _she said. _"I never even met any of you, and the first thing you do when you see me is try to hurt me until I can't take it anymore, all so you can hand me over to the lunatic responsible for this mess." _She shook her head. _"Gods, what the heck is _wrong _with you people?"_

"Wait!" Mamizou said, trying to yank her hand away. "No! I'm sorry! Don't kill me!"

"_Kill you? I'm not going to kill you. I'm not a monster like you. Instead, I think I'll just let you see things from my point of view for a while."_

And then the talon holding into Mamizou's fist lost color and became transparent.

...

_Hooray, I live! _

_Anyway, there's a crapton of stuff I need to talk about, some good and some bad, but since this was a double-update I'll wait until the end of the other chapter to go into it._


	41. Ashes to Dust

Ashes to Dust

The day following her meeting with Qilin, Yukari's second meeting was scheduled to take place. However, unlike the last time, the other party would not be coming to her. Fortunately, that did not mean she had to leave her house to go meet with them. She didn't even have to leave her bed.

She lay with the curtains drawn and the covers pulled up to her neck, staring at the satin canopy. She would have preferred to have gotten this out of the way the night before, but unfortunately the persons she was to meet with had insisted on a daytime meeting, citing having too many responsibilities to see to while the sun was down.

Sighing, Yukari closed her eyes and concentrated. Given how easily she tired out these days, she supposed that sleep would come to her without help sooner or later, but she wasn't interested in waiting. As such, she found the border between sleep and wakefulness and gave it a nudge.

The physical world melted away, followed by Yukari's weakened body. There was a brief sensation of vertigo, and she found herself standing in a pleasant garden, filled with colorful flowers and bushes cut into the shapes of people and animals. The afternoon sun was shining warmly overhead, and she could hear the sounds of chirping birds and buzzing insects as they went about their business.

Yukari's mouth set in a thin line. Dream or not, she was not overly fond of flowers these days. And the fact that the bush directly in front of her was cut into the form of the Shadow Youkai was not improving her mood.

There was a path of white pebbles at her feet. Moving warily around the bush, Yukari followed the path until it took her to a small, circular clearing, ringed by glowing blue flowers. A round white table sat in the center of the clearing, overshadowed by a pink umbrella. And there, sitting at the table sipping a cup of tea, was Yuuka Kazami.

Yukari was hardly surprised at all.

Sensing her approach, Yuuka turned in her seat. "Yukari!" she said, rising from her seat. "So good to see you! There is something important I must tell you!"

Shaking her head, Yukari said, "I _really_ don't have time for this."

"You can't brush this off, Yukari," Yuuka said. She stepped fully out of the umbrella's shade. Yukari scowled when she saw that her adversary was heavy with child.

Cradling her pregnant stomach, Yuuka said, "Won't you at least take responsibility for your actions?"

Instead of addressing Yuuka's accusations, Yukari instead rolled her eyes skyward. "Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?" she demanded of the air. "Because I don't find it at all humorous."

"A joke?" Yuuka said, taking a waddling step closer. "How could just dismiss something like this as a-"

"STOP!" a new voice cut in. "Stop, stop, stop, stop!"

Yuuka obeyed, stopping in mid-motion, with one foot in front of the other and her mouth open, the remainder of her sentence left unfinished.

A door opened on a nearby tree, out rushed a harried looking woman with long, golden hair and a red gown. From her back sprouted a pair of gossamer wings.

"Gengetsu," Yukari said icily. "Good to see you. I assume this display serves some _other _purpose than to anger me? Some sort of new greeting service, perhaps? To lighten the mood? Or did you forget that I was coming?"

Distressed, Gensetsu babbled apologies as she rushed toward her guest. "Lady Yakumo, I am so, so, _so _sorry! I don't know how it happened, but your personal dreamspace was left active. I only just noticed myself and…I assure you, the person responsible will be _harshly _disciplined!" She snapped her fingers, and Yuuka quite literally popped, vanishing with an explosion of green sparks and a puff of smoke.

Oddly enough, that only annoyed Yukari further, as it made her all the more aware that the real Yuuka couldn't be banished with such ease. "Disciplined?" Yukari repeated, taking care to fill the word with acid. "Well, I am just thrilled to hear that. Pity it had to be necessary to begin with, wouldn't you say?"

Gensetsu ran her fingers through her hair as she frantically tried to think of a way to salvage the situation. "I…I am so sorry. I have _no_ idea how it happened, and I offer you my _sincerest-"_

Despite her anger toward the dream goddess, Yukari was starting to find her panic amusing, but she was not about to let her know that. "Forget it," she said, brusquely pushing past Gensetsu to head towards the tree trunk door. "I plan to. Deal with it however you see fit, but for now, we have other things to discuss."

"Of…of course!" Gensetsu ran to catch up. "Whatever you say."

It was difficult to precisely define the role Gensetsu and her younger twin Mugetsu played in Gensokyo's affairs. On the surface it seemed simple enough: they were the twin goddesses of the Dream World. Every Gensokyian had a small dreamspace within the Dream World, and whenever they slept, their subconscious minds would connect to their private dreamspaces and, using their thoughts, memories, and feelings as raw material, construct dreams for them to enter.

That in itself was uncomplicated, but the Dream World was not exclusive to Gensokyo. Yukari was aware of at least two other demesnes that Gensetsu and Mugetsu catered to, and even their Dream World was part of a vast whole known as the Dreaming, in which was contained the dreams of all creation. To that end, Gensetsu and Mugetsu were not listed among Gensokyo's Ringleaders, as their roles were not of community leaders but more of hired consultants and suppliers of a needed resource. As such, Yukari was not so much as an authority figure to them as she was a client. A very, very powerful and influential client, one that they could not afford to offend, which Yukari took great pleasure in exploiting.

The door led to a huge, circular room that was half throne room and half amphitheater. The floor was sunken, encircled by a ring of tiered steps that led up to a line of columns, each one made of a different material: gold, silver, diamond, and stardust stood alongside coal, grass, hair, and watermelon. The floor itself was made of water, the surface of which had been hardened enough to walk on but still allowing a view of the strangely shaped sea creatures that swam within. Above the room spun a shimmering galaxy, a perfect replica of the Milky Way, if the Milky Way happened to be pink.

On a plat at the top of the steps at one end of the room were two thrones made of spun sugar. Seated in one throne was another young woman, this one a fair-skinned blonde, though it was impossible to tell under the dark hair dye and white face-paint. And given the extravagant robe she was wearing, Yukari found herself both anticipating and dreading the explanation behind her new choice in fashion.

Seeing Yukari enter, the girl's painted face lit up. "Ah, Lady Yakumo!" she said, rising from her chair. She quickly descended the steps and bowed low. "Welcome! Your magnificent presence brings honor to our humble household."

"Mugetsu," Yukari said with a cordial incline of her head. "Assuming that is you, of course. I had not been made aware that you had added 'geisha' to your résumé."

Mugetsu laughed with delight. "I know, isn't it great?" she said, twirling in place and letting her robe swish around. "I feel so elegant!"

"And well you should." Yukari glanced at Gensetsu, who was just now walking past her, and raised a questioning eyebrow. Gensetsu just sighed and shook her head. "It's a phase she's going through, please ignore it," she said in a low voice.

The two sisters ascended the steps and sat down on their respective thrones. Never the one to be looked down on, Yukari opened a thin, horizontal gap in the air behind her and sat upon it like a swing. It rose into the air, elevating to a height just above the sisters' foreheads.

"Well ladies, let's cut to the chase and keep this short. I recently have had nothing but of problems. Everything from monsters to riots to flagrant insubordination." She crossed her legs and clasped her hands over her knees. "Currently, one of my largest problems goes by the name of Yuuka Kazami, whom we have discussed in the past, as she dwelt within your world for some years before coming to mine."

The sisters winced. Gensetsu said, "Lady Yakumo, while we are nothing but remorseful that this creature entered your land by way of our domain, Yuuka Kazami is not our creation. She came to the Dream World from another part of the Dreaming, and her history before that is mostly unknown to us. Furthermore, her actions now fall outside of our-"

Yukari raised a hand. "No, no, you misunderstand me. I am not here to hand out accusations. I know you don't know where she came from. But I am hoping you can point me in the direction of someone who does."

"But that's part of the problem," Mugetsu said as she wrung her hands. In contrast to her earlier carefree manner, the wannabe geisha was now as worried as her sister. Discussing Yuuka tended to have that effect on people. "After you asked us the last time, we talked to our neighbors in Nighthelm, where she entered our world from, and they pointed us to the Burial Dance, who in turn pointed us to the Featheratopolis, who in turn pointed us to the Sideways Mountain, and so on. After a certain point, the trail just dried up." She shrugged. "I'm sorry, but we can't help you find her origin. No one knows it."

"Is that right?" Yukari said. "Well, while I am grateful for the lengths you two went to in order to retrieve this information for me, it seems that backtracking the trail of someone so notoriously unpredictable as Yuuka through a place so notoriously unpredictable as the Dreaming is a rather inefficient way to gather information."

Gensetsu spread her hands helplessly. "We work with what we have."

"Understandable. You are incapable of drawing me a map yourself, and it would be a tremendous waste of my time to try to pick up where you left off. Fortunately, my reasons for meeting with you have less to do with your own efforts to trace Yuuka's path and more of your connections to someone who can perhaps provide me with the help I need."

"Really?" Gensetsu said in confusion. "Who?"

Yukari smiled. "Isn't obvious by now? Who better to paint an accurate path through the Dreaming than the one who holds it in the palm of his hand?"

Mugetsu stiffened.

"I don't under-" Gensetsu's eyes went wide. "Oh."

"Yes," Yukari said.

"No!" Mugetsu shouted, perhaps a bit louder than she had intended.

"Why not?"

"Because…because…" The two sisters looked at each other, their eyes mutual pleas for the other to provide a satisfactory answer.

"Because ours is a small and relatively unimportant piece of the Dreaming!" Gensetsu said at last. "We can't just go up to _him _and ask him to do the searching for us!"

"I would never suggest such a thing," Yukari said, her demeanor unruffled by her hostess' distress. "I only ask that you arrange for me to speak with him. You can do that at least."

"But…we can't just…"

"Why not?" Yukari shrugged. "As I understand it, he's recently undergone a bit of a metamorphosis. And all reports indicate that the current incarnation is much more reasonable than the previous one. Even then, he was not averse to negotiating with foreign dignitaries. Surely he would at least hear my request."

Truthfully, Yukari understood her hostesses' fear very well. Unlike Yukari herself, Gensetsu and Mugetsu were not the ultimate authorities of their domain. They ran the local district, yes, but someone else still ran the overall franchise. And while it was true that he was not known for being a bloodthirsty despot, he was also not known for suffering foolishness, and the punishments incurred by those who have upset him were legendary.

But it was also true that the Lord of the Dreaming had undergone a drastic change recently, one that Yukari (or anyone else for that matter) did not fully understand, but if it had made him more amiable, then Yukari really didn't care how it had happened.

"Ladies, I am in a terrible bind right now," Yukari said as she spread her hands. "Yuuka has turned out to be far worse than anyone could have imagined, and she is bound and determined to destroy me and all I've created. Now, I realize that her passage through your realm is not your fault, as Gensokyo shelters a number of beings that have come to us through many realms, and it isn't reasonable to expect anyone to keep track of them. But the fact remains: a most terrible monster, one that had already garnered a reputation for extreme mischief while she was in your domain, entered my world through yours, and is currently wreaking havoc. Once word gets out that you allow such nightmares to invade your clients' territories, it would do severe damage to your reputation, perhaps to an irreparable level. Especially when it is learned that you refused to do everything in your power to assist a high-level client every way you could. You'll lose your contracts, in which case word of my situation will reach the ear of the Dream King anyway. Would you prefer it to do so on your terms, while the situation can still be salvaged?"

That did it. While being residents of the Dreaming meant that Gensetsu and Mugetsu had some uncommon peculiarities, they were still businesswomen. And no businesswoman wants to be the one to appear incompetent in front of the boss.

"I…" Gensetsu bowed her head. "You're right, of course. I'll contact him, and make the necessary arrangements."

"That's all I ask. Thank you." Yukari nodded to each of the sisters in turn. "Well then. Gensetsu. Mugetsu. Thank you for your time. I'm sure you have much work to do, and so do I."

That done, she let her dream body drift away. The throne room faded away, and her consciousness rose to rejoin the world of the waking.

However, instead of the expected soft sheets, blankets, and pillows, Yukari found herself awakening in a rather awkward position: namely, slung over Ran's shoulder and carried, still in her nightgown, down the hallway away from her room and toward the kitchen.

Yukari watched her Shikigami in bemusement. She wondered if she was still dreaming, and if she was, what excuse Gensetsu would have for this one. Curious and still partially asleep, Yukari remained still and allowed Ran to take her all the way to the kitchen. Once they were there, Ran walked over to a large, wooden tub filled with cold water and tossed Yukari right in.

The shock of the cold and indignation yanked Yukari to full wakefulness. She yelped in surprise and sat up, sputtering. "Ah-ah-are you out of your _mind?" _she demanded.

"Oh, thank the gods, it worked!" was Ran's response. She held a hand over her heart and slumped against the counter with relief.

"What in the name of every Hell that has ever existed are you babbling about?" Yukari said, her voice rising to a near-shriek. She tried to stand. "I should pull out those tails of yours and use them as-"

Before she could fully announce her intent to help Ran's tails find a new life as featherdusters, her foot slipped. Fortunately, Ran was quick to seize her by the arm, preventing her from falling over.

"I'm so sorry, Master," Ran said, her voice urgent. "But I've been trying for nearly half-an-hour to wake you. This was a last resort, I swear!"

Yukari's heart fell as rationality returned. Ran wouldn't do something this disrespectful unless she had very good cause.

"I was in a meeting," she said gruffly, allowing herself to be helped out of the tub. "And I didn't wish to be interrupted. But I take it from the fact that you just threw me into a washbin that one or more of our persistent problems has just wandered into sunlight?"

"Yes, Master," Ran said. She grabbed a towel and started wiping Yukari down. "All of them, to be specific."

Yukari didn't say anything. She just turned her head to look at Ran with resigned eyes. After nearly a minute, she mumbled, "I shouldn't be surprised. All of them, eh? At the same time?"

"Yes," Ran said.

"And the current situation is…"

"Hot."

"Right." Yukari took a deep breath. "Maybe you'd better start at the beginning. Use short sentences."

…

"Get up, shrine maiden."

Reimu felt something prod her side. "G'way," she muttered, wishing Genji would just leave her alone. Or was it Reisen? The voice did sound feminine. "Lemme sleep."

"I said get up. Or would you like me to push you over the edge instead?"

Cranking one eye open, Reimu glowered up at the source of the voice and wondered what exactly Reisen had done with her hair. Or ears, for that matter. And why was she wearing that ridiculous looking arrangement on her back? And come to think of it, what had they been doing the previous night to make Reimu's body ache so much? And did she want to know the answer?

Reisen pointed two weird silver instruments down at her. "Last chance, shrine maiden. These things were made special for your cannibalistic friend, so I have no idea what they'll do to a Human. Don't make me curious."

That wasn't Reisen.

Reimu sat straight up and regretted it when her stiff body screamed in protest. "Ah!" she cried and she doubled over, grabbing at the back of her neck.

"Glad to see you awake," said the not-Reisen. "Now, hands behind your head. I see your fingers so much as touch a piece of paper, and you're going to end up with some very painful holes."

Reimu squinted at the silver instruments. They were obviously weapons of some kind. Still groggy and pain-wracked, Reimu grimaced but forced her hands to lace together behind her head. "The hell are you even doing here, Nue?" she growled. "Have you gone completely insane? Do you even have the slightest clue what's going on?"

Nue licked her lips. Her eyes darted back and forth. "No talking," she said.

Guns, Reimu realized. Nue was pointing guns at her. Reimu's personal experience with guns was very limited, especially ones that small. She didn't approve of their use as a rule, and having two of them pointed at her head didn't do much to improve her opinion. Quite the opposite, actually.

"Get those things out of my face," she said.

"Shut up," Nue snapped.

"Seriously, answer my question already: what the hell are you doing here?"

Nue laughed, a strange hissing sound that raised the hairs on Reimu's neck. "Doesn't matter anymore, does it?"

"I'm thinking it does, yeah. Don't tell me you're just after that stupid bounty. Because that would just be too pathetic for words."

Nue's laughter turned into a low, guttural growl. "I said shut up!"

Something told Reimu that she probably should listen to the probably unstable youkai pointing two guns at her face, but Reimu had lived her whole life being unafraid of guns and she really didn't feel like starting to fear them now. "It is, isn't it?" she continued. "You're here because you want to be the first to take Rin Satsuki down and claim the money!" She eyed the weapons pointed at her face. "And I may not know a whole lot about technology, but I recognize Nitori's work when I see it. Did you team up with her or something?"

"So?" Nue demanded. "We decided to split the bounty. What's wrong with that?"

Now it was Reimu's turn to laugh. "Weren't you paying attention? Didn't you see what happened to Nitori? Don't you see what's happening _now? _And you're _still _going after Rin?"

Nue's fingers tightened, and Reimu stopped talking. "It doesn't matter," Nue said, glancing over her shoulder. "It's almost over anyway. Mamizou's gonna take your pet monster out, and this shitfest will be over."

Reimu gaped at her, the shock of disbelief driving away the remaining grogginess. "Wait, are you serious? You think your Tanuki friend is going to take Rin down? _Seriously?"_

"Yes, seriously!" Nue nearly screamed. "What, you think she can't do it? I gave her the biggest gun we have, specially made to take the freak down! Satsuki doesn't stand a chance!"

"Who are you trying to convince?" Reimu asked. "Me or yourself? And hey, you want to know what happened to the last person who thought they could take Rin down?" She inclined her head toward a jutting platform on another pillar. "She's right over there."

Tenshi Hinanai still lay bound by Reimu's seal. She was breathing, though with great difficulty. The results of her run-in with Rin were plain to see on her ravaged flesh.

"Yeah, Rin did that, and that was with me keeping her from going too far," Reimu said as Nue recoiled in disgust. "Oh, and that's Tenshi Hinanai by the way. You've heard of her, right? Princess of Heaven, daughter of its King and Queen? Kind of a big deal, and she brought along a lot of magic firepower. Look where it got her."

Visibly shaken, Nue forced herself to look away from Tenshi and back to Reimu. "Shut up already."

"And don't think she was the first. You want me to start naming off everyone Rin's roughed up? Hell, you probably read those Tengu articles. You think Mamizou can succeed where Suika Ibuki failed? Or Eirin Yagokoro? Madam Mima? Yukari _freaking_ Yakumo? And oh yeah, Rin really wasn't in a good mood when you guys decided to jump us. What do you think's gonna happen to Mamizou when Rin _really_ gets pissed off and no one's there to stop her?"

There was a small green flash, and Reimu was hit with a small shower of stone chips. This was followed by a yellow flash, a red one, a blue one, and so on as Nue kept discharging her guns at the wall over Reimu's head, showering her with the debris.

"Piss me off again, and I do that to your head!" Nue shouted, redirecting her aim back at Reimu. "So shut up!"

This time, Reimu obeyed. Nue was nervous. Though most of her attention was on her hostage, she kept glancing around and twitching at the slightest sound. Naturally, given the guns pointed at her, this wasn't making Reimu feel any better about the situation. However, she couldn't help but wonder why Nue was so scared to begin with. Granted, this was a dangerous situation, but she didn't look so much like a warrior in a hostile environment as someone with a knife to their back, with full knowledge that the slightest misstep would result in a severed spinal cord.

In a flash of intuition, Reimu finally put the pieces together. Tenshi's madness, Nue's terrified persistence, they all sprung from a common source.

"She's forcing you, isn't she?" Reimu said. "Yuuka Kazami."

Nue stiffened. She opened her mouth to yell. "I told you to-"

"That's why Tenshi wouldn't stop coming, even after Rin almost killed her! That's why you and Mamizou are still going after us! Yuuka won't let you back out!" Reimu started laughing. "Oh my gods, you're all her trump cards!"

Bright red anger burned on Nue's face, but her lips twisted into a ghastly smile. "That's right," she rasped. "She sent us a message right after those clouds showed up. Turns out taking the bounty comes with a contract, one with a strict Termination Clause. Try to back out, and you get terminated."

Reimu shrugged. "Well, hey, that sucks and all, but honestly, what the hell were you expecting to happen?"

The smile disappeared. "I already told you to shut up a dozen times," Nue said, her voice almost a snarl. "I have enough problems without adding a mouthy shrine maiden to the mix. So please, before I _pop an artery, _just shut that yapping mouth of yours and-WAH!"

While Nue had been ranting, Reimu had been carefully moving one leg so that it hovered right next to Nue's, on level with the youkai's shins. Then, when Nue's rant became more of a rave, she lashed out with her other leg, hitting Nue's knees and sending her tumbling over Reimu's first leg.

Of course, if she had been just a bit savvier about how firearms worked, Reimu might have realized just how stupid that move had been. Nue had been aiming two pistols at her head and was clearly not in a sound mental state. The surprise could have easily caused Nue to perforate her out of reflex. And she nearly did just that, as Nue starting firing wildly, blowing up small chunks of stone.

Reimu moved quickly, grabbing Nue by the wrists and forcing her arms over her head. Nue tried to push back, but though she was stronger, the leverage was against her. And while Reimu didn't know much about guns, she did know a thing or two about self-defense. Her thumbs dug into the sensitive nerves of Nue's wrists until she forced the youkai's fingers to loosen enough for Reimu to snatch up the guns and toss them away.

"No!" Nue cried as she grasped at the tumbling silver pistols, but by then Reimu had already grabbed her by the waist and pulled her away.

"Not happening!" Reimu said as struggled with the frenzied youkai. "Tell Yuuka that she can go boil her-"

Nue managed to free one hand and punched Reimu in the gut. The wind was driven from her lungs and she fell back, gasping. Nue squirmed free and threw herself over the edge, her bizarre wings spreading wide.

_Move it! _Reimu commanded her. She snatched up a handful of her charms as she forced herself to stand. She had to find and neutralize Nue before she got her guns back.

But then she looked over the edge and realized that Nue wasn't going after her guns. Instead, she had looped up and around, changing her shape as she went. Reimu had just enough time to register the screeching golden eagle heading straight for her before it raked its talons across her face.

…

"_Huh. You actually went through with it. Interesting."_

Rin felt exhausted. Not physically. Through processes that she did not fully understand, her body never needed fuel, nor did it deplete its energy. But even so, she felt tired, drained. She felt like she had just been in a battle, one other than the physical one taking place, and didn't know if she had won or lost.

With a groan, she sat down on a nearby rock and slumped forward, her head between her hands. She felt like vomiting. She no longer had a stomach nor consumed food, but she still felt nauseous on some level, even if it was just on a metaphorical level.

The Tanuki was gone, sent to a dream world of its own. She made certain that it was separate from the one that Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou were in. She wasn't sure why. She just felt that mixing their subconscious minds would be a bad idea. Either way, it meant one less voice in her head. The one she had already was making enough noise as it was.

"_So, uh, what exactly do you look like now? I mean, do you have a great big stripy tail? If so, you might wanna get rid of that."_

A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that, yes, she had grown a great big stripy tail. Rin wasn't sure what the rest of her body looked like, as there was no reflective surface at hand, but she was sure that it was even more bizarre than her previous forms had been. There were only so many people one could toss into the mix before the combination of different features stopped being fashionable.

She touched the Tanuki's power, gave it a specific command, and the tail withered away. She felt the rest of her body changing as well, reforming itself to the shape she had before, the one made up from Rumia, Kaguya, and Mokou. It was probably best not to advertise what she had just done.

"_So," _Rumia said, _"you wanna go get the other one too? Two shapeshifters for the price of…two. Whatever. Maybe she can do something that the Tanuki can't. You wanna cover your bases, don't you?"_

Rin sighed. _Hey, Rumia?_

"_Yo?"_

_Please stop talking._

Rumia snickered but she obeyed, at least for the time being. Rin sat still for a few moments longer, trying to gather her thoughts. Then she stood up and directed her attention back to the makeshift arena.

The dome of Murky Sirens, or whatever they were called, still glowed menacingly. Even from outside of its immediate influence, Rin could still feel their presence, a kind of uncomfortable humming in her teeth, a buzzing in the back of her eyes.

"_You're not planning on going back in that thing, are you?" _Rumia asked.

_Hey, I told you to stop talking, didn't I?_

"_Since when were you the boss of me? Answer the question, Gooey."_

_Oh, don't you start calling me that too, _Rin thought, exasperated. _And no, I don't think I wanna go back in there._

"_But you're not planning on bolting either," _Rumia said. There was a distinct lack of a question mark in that statement.

_No. I'm thinking of going back to Plan A._

In her mind's eye, she could see Rumia's face twist with confusion. _"What, kill the Strutter? Isn't it kinda inside of that mess? Doesn't going after it kinda contradict the whole 'not going back in' idea?"_

Oh right. That had been Plan A. _No, I mean I'm gonna…_

Then she saw something. She stopped talking. And she stared.

After about half-a-minute, Rumia started asking, _"Yo, Rin? Going kinda blank on me. You're gonna do _what _now?"_

_Oh, what? _Rin jerked out of her stupor. _Sorry, but…_

She pointed to an area just above and to the side of the dome. _Have I finally gone completely insane, or is there a flying boat over there?_

"_I, er, WHAT!"_

There was a brief pause, and then Rumia started laughing. _"Well, to answer your question, yes and yes. Yes, you are completely, full-on balls-to-the-wall insane, and yes, there is a flying boat over there. What's more, I think I've heard of that boat."_

_Really? _Rin asked as she watched as an honest-to-goodness flying ship made a slow circle around the dome, as if seeking a way inside. _From where?_

"_I think it belongs to Byakuren Hijiri. You know, that Buddhist lady that's been getting real popular? Has a temple near the Human Village and keeps talking about peace and friendship between Humans and everyone who wants to eat them?"_

Rin started. She was in fact familiar with that name. _Wait, hold up! Didn't Reimu say that this Byakuren person was working with her?_

"_Yup," _Rumia said. Even without looking at her, Rin could tell that she was smiling. _"If so, then I'd say we have some reinforcements. Awesome."_

_Or not, _Rin reminded her. _They're not much use from the outside. Fortunately for them…_

"_Huh?" _Rumia said. _"What?"_

Rin grinned, baring her sharp teeth. _"I was gonna take care of that problem anyway,"_ she said, speaking out loud. _"Let's see Yuuka try to stop me this time."_

…

Captain Minamitsu Murasa was well accustomed to encountering things both strange and mysterious. After all, as a disembodied spirit captaining a flying vessel, she was something of a strange mystery herself. As such, upon coming across a huge glowing dome of blue energy where none had been the day before, she was hardly surprised.

That still didn't change the fact that she had no idea what to make of it. But as she wasn't one to charge blindly into potentially dangerous situations, she contented herself with waiting patiently while those more scientifically minded among her crew investigated this strange new puzzle.

In time, her scouts returned. Murasa raised an eyebrow as their leader, a woman of indeterminable age and species wearing a white hooded robe, floated down to the deck. Behind her was the sentient pink cloud that served as the _Palaquin's _primary source of automation, now in the form of a massive bearded man's face.

"Well?" Murasa said.

Ichirin Kumoi shrugged. "Well, the best we can figure, it's made out of flowers."

Murasa took the pipe out of her mouth. "Flowers?" she repeated. "Flowers?"

"Flowers." Ichirin glanced over the railing. "I'm not sure exactly what kind, but they seem to be emitting a kind of…disruptive energy."

"Explain."

"Again, we don't recognize the species, so we can't say for sure, but there seems to be a kind of…interference coming from the flowers, one that affects nearby magical energies."

Well, that explained why she now felt so itchy. "Are they dangerous?"

"Considering the situation? Probably."

"Of course," Murasa said, nodding. "Any suggestions on how to crack this probably dangerous nut?"

Ichirin wrinkled her nose. She glanced to Unzan, scratched her head, and shrugged. "Got me. I've never seen anything like them before."

"I see," Murasa said. She nodded to a point past Ichirin. "Well, maybe they can help then."

"Huh?" Ichirin blinked in confusion. "Who?"

Murasa pointed. "The person doing that."

Someone was writing them a message, using the sky as parchment and fire as ink. Huge flaming words were appearing in the air before them.

They read: _TO THE FLYING BOAT: GET FAR AWAY FROM THE BIG BLUE THING! I'LL TAKE CARE OF IT!_

"Wha…wha…wha…" Ichirin stuttered.

"Yeah," Murasa said, puffing her pipe contemplatively. "Not exactly subtle, ain't it?"

She glanced over to Unzan, who was likewise stupefied by the sight. "Well?" she said. "You heard the fire. Get us away from the big blue thing!"

Unzan blinked. He glanced uncertainly at Ichirin, who, after a moment of hesitation, nodded.

As the cloud pressed against the sails and moved the _Palaquin _away, Ichirin took the moment to sidle up to Murasa and ask, "So we're just going to do what it says, no questions asked?"

Murasa sighed. "Kumoi, if there's one thing I've learned in all my years of sailing the seas and the skies in _highly _flammable vessels, it's that when giant fiery words tell you to get the hell out of the way, you get the hell out of the way."

"That's…an awfully specific lesson to have learned."

Murasa favored the monk with one of her rare smiles. "Ain't it? Life, what'cha gonna do?" She waited until they had traveled more than a kilometer before saying, "All right, that should be far enough. Now, let's see what our new friend is planning."

…

"_I hope you know what you're doing," _Rumia said nervously.

Rin didn't, actually. However, she rarely did, and she was still alive, though Rumia would probably have a few choice things to say about that argument.

Still, there was no backing out now. Rin focused on the area above the dome and concentrated. As she did so, she reached into the well she had filled with the power of three different people and drew from the deepest, darkest, coldest part.

When she had been under the flowers' canopy, Rin had been unable to fully exert her full power. Even now, the flowers' combined influence made it difficult. But without their pressing weight smothering her, their power was no longer a match for her own. Or rather, they were no longer a match for Rumia's.

A bitter wind started to blow, rustling the grass and swaying the trees. The air grew cold and dry, as if all moisture were being drained out, taking the heat with it. Overhead, black clouds started to form, blotting out the sun. They swirled in a slow vortex, its apex directly over the dome of blue flowers. Lightning flashed within the clouds, but no thunder boomed in response.

Now it was time for the tricky part. Rin was uncomfortable enough with calling upon the powers of Rumia's darker half, even if she was now deceased. But she now had to carefully wield those powers in such a way that the flowers and the flowers alone would be destroyed, while harming none of the people contained inside. To that end, creating another tornado like the one she had used at Hakurei Shrine was straight out. And enveloping the thing with a huge blast of life-destroying energy was probably not a great idea either.

To that end, she took a more concentrated approach. The silent lightning flashed down, striking at the dome's exterior. Everywhere it hit, the flowers shriveled and died. Knowing that she had to do this before Yuuka could replace them, Rin hit the dome again and again, all the while praying that none of the lightning was accidentally breaking through to strike anyone inside.

Finally, when the entire dome had been reduced to a blackened wreck, Rin turned up the winds, directing them up to the eye of the vortex. It wasn't the irresistible suction of the tornado, but it was still strong enough to rip apart the now severely weakened network of stalks and roots and tear it apart. The dome broke apart, its pieces flying up to be consumed by the clouds.

Finally, when the last of the flowers had disappeared, Rin allowed herself to relax. The winds died down, the temperature rose by a few degrees, and the clouds simply melted away, allowing the sunlight to shine again.

"_Well, okay," _Rumia said. _"That worked. Oh, and congratulations: you are now officially the scariest person I know."_

Rin allowed herself a nervous laugh. Though the effort hadn't tired her physically, her nerves were certainly now even more frayed than they had been before. _You're the one to talk, _she thought. _I mean, where do you think I got all that mojo?_

"_Don't remind me," _Rumia muttered. _"So, all right then. The flowers are gone, we've got some serious help now, and as far as we know, Yuuka's backup is now all kinds of beaten up. So can we kill that stupid bug already?"_

Rin nodded. Yeah, that idea sounded just fine to her.

…

"Augh!" Reimu cried as she threw herself away from the edge. She just managed to keep from losing an eye, but wasn't fast enough to avoid the eagle's talons entirely. Hot lances of pain raked across her face.

Reimu screamed as she clutched at her face. She fumbled around, trying to find a shielding charm, but with the burning agony taking up her attention it was almost impossible to direct her hand to the right place.

_Forget the pain, _she ordered herself. _You've been hurt before. Deal with it. Put it behind you. Nue's going to come at you again, and you don't want to lose to her, do you? _

Strengthened by her refusal to die such an embarrassing death, her fingers finally found a shielding charm. Rolling onto her back, Reimu squinted through her good eye, frantically trying to spot the eagle Nue had become before she was attacked again.

A bone-rattling roar told her that she was looking for the wrong animal.

A shadow leapt at her from an overhead ledge. It was fast, so fast, and moved with such deadly grace that it was almost fluid. Reimu thrust the shield charm in front of her, praying that it activated in time.

The next thing she knew, Reimu was shoved onto her back by a crushing weight. For a split-second, she was certain that she was about to have her throat ripped out, but then she saw the glowing shield separating her from Nue's new form.

The relief didn't last long, as Reimu found herself staring into the snarling jaws of a tiger, the pattern of its stripes mimicking the shape of Nue's unusual wings. Reimu hadn't known that Nue's shapeshifting abilities went that far, but she supposed that you learn something new every day, especially when that something is bearing down on you and trying to eat your face.

Nue clawed at the shield, trying to dig her way through to reach the soft Human on the other side. She roared in frustration when this produced no success. Reimu stared up at her in wonder. It wasn't as if she were covered by one of Yukari's dome barriers. Why didn't Nue just jump off and turn into something that could go around the shield, like a snake?

The answer came to her a moment later: much as Tenshi had pursued Rin to near-suicidal levels, Nue was also partially driven mad by desperation. She was terrified of what Yuuka would do to her, and thus wasn't thinking clearly. In fact, Reimu wouldn't be surprised if Yuuka was using some other means to influence the bounty hunters. Those stupid plants of hers seemed to be capable of just about anything.

But if that were the case, then Yuuka had shot herself in the foot. Crazed soldiers were difficult to stop, yes, but they were very easy to outsmart.

Keeping her eyes focused on the tiger, Reimu reestablished her connection to her Ying Yang Orbs. They rose into the air and started spinning around Nue, who was so intent on shredding her way through Reimu's shield that she didn't notice.

"Hey," Reimu said as the Ying Yang Orbs started to glow. "Nue."

Nue paused in her snarling to glare at her through slitted feline eyes.

"Riddle me this: what's black and orange and bruised all over?"

It was almost funny, watching that dangerous, predatory face twist itself in puzzlement. Reimu could almost hear Nue wondering what in the hell she was going on about.

And then Nue looked up and saw the ring of orbs spinning around her. Confusion gave way to fear as she realized just how screwed she was. Letting out a yelp, she leapt off of Reimu, trying frantically to get out of the way.

Tigers are very, very fast. Danmaku is faster.

Letting out a shaky breath, Reimu banished the shield. She stood up and brushed herself off. Then she looked around.

Nue had fallen against the side of a mound of dirt and as now lying in weakly moving heap. She had regained her natural form, which meant that the orange part of Reimu's joke was now inaccurate. But given the color of her dress and hair, the black part still applied. As did the bruises.

Reimu gingerly touched the cuts on her face and winced as the burning flared up. It wasn't deep, but it certainly stung. And, if she didn't have it treated, she might be stuck with a scar. Suddenly she was struck with a wave of empathy for Rin's earlier cold-mindedness. If this was the sort of thing she had been dealing with, then it was astounding that she hadn't completely lost her mind already.

Which still could happen, Reimu reminded herself. The longer this nonsense continued, the more likely that became. She stepped off the ledge and floated down to Nue.

"Hey," she said as she approached. "Ready to give up?"

Nue managed to flip onto her back. She glowered at Reimu, but unlike Tenshi, she didn't look like she was going to fanatically continue the attack. The fight had been taken out of her.

"Go ahead," she said, her voice almost a sob. "Take that freak back to Byakuren. Let her burn down the temple! I just hope she eats you first."

Reimu gaped at her. "Is this what this was all about?" she demanded. "Trying to protect Byakuren from Rin?"

"You know I'm right! I took Eirin Yagokoro's notes! I read that interview with Yukari Yakumo! She's a monster! They locked her up to keep her from hurting people! You think they wouldn't have done that if she wasn't beyond help?"

"Because she was locked up…You idiot!" Reimu yelled. "So was Byakuren! Doesn't that mean that _she's _a dangerous monster that can't be trusted?"

The look of shock on Nue's face told Reimu that the youkai girl had honestly never even considered this point. Reimu shook her head in disgust. Freaking youkai. She was fine with them for the most part, but sometimes they could be so unbelievably stupid that they could be mistaken for Human.

Either way, Reimu had wasted enough time as it was. A moment later, Nue had joined Tenshi in unconsciousness and lay sealed by one of Reimu's spells.

That done, Reimu tried to recollect her thoughts. By her count, that should be the last of the bounty hunters, at least the ones they knew about. So now she had to find Rin, hopefully before that Tanuki got cut into mincemeat. Then Rin could kill the Strutter, thereby ending this stupid game.

Of course, finding Rin was the chief problem. Reimu had no idea what Nue had hit her with or where she was now. And with the maze the valley had become, it could be a long time before she found-

Wait, something was changing. Reimu looked up at the canopy of clouds. During her fight with Nue, Yuuka's flowers had continued to glow, blanketing the majority of the magic in the area.

But now that glow was starting to fade, though not all at once. It was happening in bits and pieces, almost as if the canopy were formed by a million light bulbs that were randomly blinking out. At the same time, the clouds were disappearing, revealing the thick mass of flowers they concealed.

Stupefied, Reimu could only stand and stare with one eye as Yuuka's arena dome, treated as a significant obstacle by even Mima, simply withered and died. Soon all of the blue glow was gone. Then the dome itself was torn apart and sucked up into the sky, to be consumed by another canopy of clouds, one that was much darker and colder than Yuuka's.

Rin. She had tried attacking the dome directly before, only to be interrupted by Tenshi. Now she was trying again and succeeding. Reimu didn't know if she should be amazed at the power that was being demonstrated, relieved that those damned flowers were finally gone, or terrified by the implications. It didn't take long for her to decide to go with all three.

…

"Murasa," Ichirin said in a small voice. "What's going on?"

Murasa didn't provide an answer, as she didn't have one. She simply watched as the bizarre blue dome was torn apart by a power unlike any she had ever seen.

"Heya, cap'n?" said another voice. Murasa looked down to see that Nazrin had joined them.

"Yeah?"

Looking up at her, Nazrin flipped off a shaking salute. "Permission to crap myself?"

"Denied," Murasa said.

"Uh, what if I already did?"

"Clean it up, then."

Ichirin suddenly grabbed her by the arm. "Murasa," she said, pointing. "Look at that!"

Murasa did just that. Then she closed her eyes, counted to five, and looked again. No, it was still the same.

"So," she said as she took the pipe out of her mouth and tapped it over the side of the _Palaquin. _"Someone want to tell me why there's a giant plant spider sitting on an even bigger metal guy over there?"

Unsurprisingly, neither Ichirin nor Nazrin had an explanation. However, someone else did, albeit a simple one. Another flaming message appeared in front of the ship's prow, this time accompanied by an arrow pointing to the spider monster. This one read: THE BAD GUY.

Normally Murasa would regard such directions from an anonymous source with suspicion, but in this instance, she had no problem believing what she was told.

"All right, looks like we've got our orders," she said as she stuffed a fresh wad of tobacco into her pipe and lit it. She walked to the helm and grasped the wooden handles. "Nazrin, get changed and get everyone organized and at battle stations. Ichirin, you're with Unzan, like usual. Make sure he doesn't freak out. If that thing isn't dead in the next fifteen minutes, you're all taking a pay cut."

…

"And the shrine maiden picks up the win!" Yuuka said, shaking her head. "Well, this isn't looking good for our team, I'm afraid. Too bad. I kind of liked that girl, I must admit. She had a taste for theatrics, which I've always appreciated." She shrugged. "Ah well, maybe my motivational speech wasn't such a good idea after all. Gets their heart into the game, to be sure, but it does make them a bit too nervous. A pity, really. I have to admit, the home team does seem to be better at performing under pressure. Let's see, with the goddess still down, the Kappa out of the game, the spider a victim of friendly fire, the Celestial both unconscious and melted, and those three fairies disqualified, that leaves the current score being…" She sighed. "Well, seven-to-one, in their favor. How discouraging. Granted, the hunters are technically competing against each other as well, but I had hoped that they might have presented us with a better showing. That just leaves us with the Tanuki and the samurai, and let's be honest, they're not exactly the MVP's here."

"But then, perhaps I'm being too harsh on them," she continued. She tapped her lower lip as she wondered out loud. "The samurai is a useless coward, there is no doubt, but the ring-tail does seem to have a good head on her shoulders and a tough spine. And underdogs make for fantastic protagonists. Who knows? Maybe this will be her day to shine. Wouldn't that be wonderful, if she managed to win the day against such astronomical odds and claim the prize? I really must throw in a nice bonus, if she does. Maybe a free use of the Tulip Room? She'd probably appreciate that."

Yuuka shrugged. "Well, it's something to consider, at least. It would probably be best to check up on her. I don't know if you've been following her, but I'm afraid I am not blessed with the same seats as you. So let's take a quick peek."

She fell silent for several moments, her single eye staring forward. Then she blinked and her face fell. "Well, never mind then!" she said, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "The Tanuki ended up beaten and eaten! Good job girls, so nice to know I could rely on you. And we are at eight-to-one now, with no one but the samurai left. And…" Her shoulders slumped. "Oh joy, it looks like now there is a fully armed airship of all things knocking at my door! Fantastic. I really should just pack it up now and call it a day."

"But that wouldn't be right," she sighed. "I should at _least _give her a chance. Maybe she'll surprise us, who knows? Unlikely, but…"

Yuuka's voice trailed off as her eye narrowed. "Wait, what is that little sponge doing?" she muttered, this time to herself. "Is she going to try to open a hole for the boat?" Letting out a dismissive snort, she said, "Well, good luck with _that. _I've seen what she can do, and I for one am not about to allow her to…"

The sky beyond the dome grew dark.

"…uh…"

And then Yuuka was confronted with the possibility that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't the toughest kid in the yard.

Now contrary to popular belief, Yuuka was just as capable of being surprised as anyone else. This was deliberate on her part, as she preferred to live in the moment, to enjoy the here and now to its fullest. Cynicism spoiled that enjoyment, and as a creature known for her unpredictably, she preferred to not try to predict the actions of others, except when making sport of them.

However, it was exceedingly difficult to shock her. Anger, yes. Disgust, yes. But not shock. She had been alive for a long, long time, and had seen both the best and worst people were capable of. She had _done _the best and worst herself, and had enjoyed both in equal measures. As such, there was very little out there capable of truly stunning her. However, there were exceptions.

When Yukari had forcibly combined their souls and showed Yuuka the other side of the curtain, it had been a shock like none other. And now, as she stood stupefied, watching as her botanical chimera was torn apart from the outside, she was receiving another. Perhaps not on the level of Yukari's, but a powerful one nonetheless.

There was no question as to who was responsible. Satsuki, having disposed of the Tanuki, was once again breaking the rules and going for Yuuka's makeshift arena. What was more, she was doing an admirable job of it as well. If her previous attempt had been an iron-knuckle blow, this was a skewering thrust with a white-hot lance.

This was impossible. Nothing on this plane of existence should have that much power. It exceeded anything Yuuka had encountered since taking her present form. Rin Satsuki, the little troublemaker, was easily stronger than any of the puppets Yukari had brought along to the duel. In fact, Yuuka was willing to bet that Rin was stronger than Yukari herself.

And, as the last of the dome was devoured by the swirling clouds overhead, Yuuka was struck with a very troubling realization: Rin Satsuki was more powerful than even herself. Perhaps not as versatile, to be sure. Yuuka's skills were many and varied, whereas this was one singular talent with but one purpose. But in terms of sheer supernatural muscle, Yuuka had just met her superior.

No, wait. That wasn't right. Not Rin Satsuki. The Shadow Youkai was the true possessor of that power. Rin was just borrowing it. However, that didn't make her any less of a danger. She was the ultimate scavenger, who had come across the ultimate weapon. And all accounts seemed to agree: if she had once held reservations over using it, she was losing them.

Yuuka bit her lower lip as she considered this new development. While she had been enjoying this little diversion, she was now wondering if it had been wise to venture out of her sanctuary. Perhaps, for the first time in a long, long while, she was in over her head. And if the powers this Rin Satsuki possessed came from where Yuuka now suspected they did, perhaps fear was not an inappropriate reaction.

…

"Rin!" Reimu called as she circled around for a third time. "Can you hear me? Rin!"

She was starting to grow frantic. While the defeat of the last (or so she hoped) of the bounty hunters and the removal of the Mykr's Sirens were cause for encouragement, they meant nothing if she lost Rin again. Unfortunately, the mutated Kirin had yet to turn up. Reimu knew that she was around here somewhere. The means of the Sirens' destruction was proof of that. But that only made Reimu all the more desperate to find her, before she descended too far into the Shadow Youkai's habits.

A fresh flare of pain made her stop and clutch at her face until it ebbed into something more tolerable. The cuts across her face were not making things easier. Oh yeah, Byakuren was getting an earful about not keeping track of her groupies.

"Rin!" she called yet again when she was able. "Come on! I know you can hear me, so come on out already!"

"_Here!" _came Rin's ghastly voice. Reimu looked up and felt a surge of relief. Rin was flying toward her. _"Sorry, I got distracted."_

"Yeah, I figured! Had my own idiot to deal with. These guys just won't quit, will they?" Then her brow furrowed. "And speaking of which, where's Mamizou anyway? You didn't go monkeyshit again, did you?"

Was that a moment of hesitation on Rin's part? _"I beat her up a little, and she bolted. I guess she's smarter than the others were. Anyway, she's gone, probably not planning on coming back."_

Reimu felt her stomach clench up. Given the sort of company she kept, she had a good nose for when she was being lied to. And Rin wasn't anywhere near Mima's level. Rin had done something to Mamizou, something she didn't want Reimu to find out about. In Reimu's mind, there were two very bad possibilities about what that might be. She deeply hoped it was the one that didn't leave a corpse. That at least was fixable. Still a problem, but fixable.

"Well, good then," she said, careful to mask her suspicions. "And, uh, thanks for getting rid of the flowers?"

"_No problem. And don't worry, I was extra careful not to hurt anyone. See? Like I said, it's all under control." _Rin cocked her head to one side. _"Hey, wait a minute. What happened to your face?"_

Reimu sighed. "Look, my dance partner was kind of rough, and I can't heal like you can, okay?"

"_Ouch. You gonna be okay?"_

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get Mima to fix it later," Reimu grumbled. "In the meantime, we still haven't taken care of that Strutter."

"_Right, right, that thing." _Rin glanced over her shoulder. _"And hey, guess what? We got reinforcements!"_

Reimu stared. "We got what now?"

Almost as if in answer, a shadow passed over them. Reimu looked up to see a long, vaguely oval shape moving between them and the sun.

"_It's Byakuren Hijiri's flying boat thing!" _Rin said. She sounded proud of herself. _"They were trying to get in, so after I took care of the flowers, I pointed them toward the Strutter!"_

Reimu slowly lowered her head to look at Rin. "You did what?" she said, her voice a low monotone.

"_Yeah! Now it's the one outnumbered!"_

_Steady Reimu, _the shrine maiden told herself. _Yelling at her will only make things worse. _Taking great care not to lose what little control over her temper she had left, Reimu said, "Ah, Rin? Just so we're clear, you're strong enough to take out that monster by yourself, right?"

Rin blinked. _"Uh, yeah, I think so."_

"Right." Reimu took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "So, what. Exactly. Was the point. Of throwing someone who. Probably _can't _take on the Strutter into the fight. Where they'll probably be hurt. And just get in the way?"

"_I…Oh." _Rin wilted. _"I, uh, guess I didn't think of it like that." _She looked up at the _Palaquin, _which was now accelerating. _"Maybe we'd better go stop them?"_

Reimu let out a hoarse laugh. "Yeah, like she'd listen!" she said. She swooped around and shoot out in the same direction as the _Palaquin. _"Here's what we'll do instead: kill that thing before it can kill them!"

…

Nearby in an alcove formed by two rough pillars that had fallen across each other, forgotten by everyone and thankful for the lack of attention, another person was watching. Meira crouched alone, shaking hands gripping the handle of her katana in a death-grip, eyes wide as she watched her enemies desperately try to regroup and fight off the beast made of plants and metal. She had been hiding there ever since the valley had collapsed, too scared to move, too scared to try to escape, too scared to do anything but tremble in place and pray that everyone remained focused on killing each other and left her alone. Even when the strange blue clouds had disappeared, she hadn't dared move, for fear of a trap.

_Cowardice is a terrible fate, Human._

Licking her dry lips, she watched as the monster hurled the other robot and the Buddhists' airship aside. Either one of them was a fearful opponent in their own right, but it was tossing them around with such ease. How was anyone to stop it?

_There truly is no point to continuing, is there? I know a lack of potential when I see it._

And if the situation was bad enough, Yuuka Kazami's scornful words kept replaying in her head, over and over. Granted, she had been criticized for her tendency of running away from battles when things got too hot before. Tony mocked her for it all the time. But that was Tony. This time, it had come from an authority figure.

_Cowardice is a terrible fate, Human; one that you honestly have no chance of escaping._

Meira squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block out the words. but it was impossible to ignore accusations of being a coward when you were hiding in a hole while everyone else, even those you had hoped to gain honor from by defeating, were out and actively risking their lives.

_But then, you already knew that, didn't you?_

…

"It can't be," Yuuka whispered to herself. She sat with her knees drawn up, her hands clutching at her hand. "One of the Fallen? Here? Shinki, perhaps? Or Sariel? No, wait, no. It can't be them. The Shadow Youkai's been loose before and had nothing to do with them. A third? But which one?"

She nodded to herself as she tried to make sense of this new development. "No, no, no that one. Not that one either. They're both in the Abyss. But what of their weapons? Might this be an avatar? Maybe. But which one? Which one indeed."

Her single eye narrowed. "Too many. Too many to count. Have to narrow the list down somehow. But does that girl know what she carries? Does she understand the power she wields?" She chuckled. "Heh, no wonder Yukari has been so upset. I almost feel sorry for her, having to deal with…"

Then the present caught back up with her. She looked up and checked her connection with the Strutter.

What she saw was not encouraging. In addition to the large metal man still held helpless under the Strutter's bulk and Marisa Kirisame (whom she really should have a little chat with, once the current situation was resolved), there were now several figures rushing to join in. Reimu Hakurei, which was to be expected. The flying ship was new though. Yuuka had heard that that the Buddhist had sent her oversized bathtub to patrol the area, but she hadn't been expecting it to show up at the party. But then, there were a lot of things she hadn't expected. And speaking of which…

Yuuka focused on the glowing figure flying at Reimu's side. Now, that was one individual whom she had fully expected. After all, Rin Satsuki was practically this party's guest of honor.

But given the wholly _unexpected _things Yuuka had just found out about her, Yuuka was now certain of one thing: she didn't want Rin Satsuki anywhere _near _her.

"No," she growled, her voice low and guttural. For the briefest of moments, she lost herself in the connection between her and the Strutter, forgetting that they were two separate beings. "No, get away!"

…

"Now?" Reimu demanded. "Are we in range now?"

Rin eyed the Strutter. _"Close enough." _Dark power swirled around her hands. _"Just try to keep everyone out of my way, and we should be-"_

Whatever strange stupor had been holding the Strutter immobile vanished. It suddenly reared up, its massive body turning towards the approaching figures.

"Careful!" Reimu cried, swooping away so as to provide a more difficult target. "It's gonna-"

It did. There was a sharp whining noise, and a flash of brilliant green light. Reimu's eyes shut involuntarily as spots consumed her vision.

When she opened them again, Rin was gone.

…

A split-second warning that the spider was going to attack was all Murasa had, but that was all she needed. She spun the helm hard and fast, swinging the _Palaquin _to the port, hopefully safely out of the way.

A tremendous blast of some kind of green energy passed by, so intense that the ectoplasm that formed Murasa's body tingled. A clean miss.

At her side, Ichirin was clutching to the rail. The monk's face was pale, but she didn't look like her nerve was about to fail. "I don't think it was aiming for us!" she yelled unnecessarily loud.

"Not us? Then who?" Murasa demanded.

Ichirin shrugged.

"Did it get them?"

Another shrug, though this one was accompanied by a, "I think so! It's hard to tell."

Murasa wondered who exactly was so threatening that it would cause the spider to favor attacking them instead of the obviously hostile ship charging directly toward it. She decided to make it regret that mistake. "All right, all starboard guns get ready!" she called as she brought the _Palaquin _around in a wide arc, looking for a clear shot through all that rubble.

She found it. "Fire!"

The starboard cannons belched light and energy, and a hailstorm of purple spheres shot out to pound the spider's hideously overgrown body.

Of course, though she had managed to obtain permission to arm the _Palaquin _after weeks and weeks of cajoling, Byakuren had never allowed any ammunition beyond danmaku. And like all danmaku, the ones they were firing now operated under spellcard rules. Yes, they were blasts of magical energy. And yes, they were shooting out at high velocities. But they were not dangerous, strictly speaking. Certainly, they were capable of temporarily disintegrating fairies and low-level youkai, but most things were. And even if they were to score multiple direct hits against a mortal being such as a Human, their target would emerge with nothing worse than a few bruises, a stung pride, and perhaps a need for a seamstress.

However, as spellcard rules were intended to protect the lives of mortals, this protection did not extend to inanimate objects or lower lifeforms, such as plants and hunks of metal. Against those, Murasa's "cannonballs" operated as any spherical projectile fired at high velocity would.

Tree, flower, and mold exploded under the _Palaquin's _onslaught. The metal beneath crumpled and folded.

And still the spider did not defend itself. It continued to sit on its entangled prisoner, its single eye searching the sky. But for what? Its original target, the one it had ignored the _Palaquin _in favor of?

Murasa's mouth tightened around her pipe's stem. Contrary to what her crew might think, she was not unemotional. She had just learned the value of self-control. Byakuren had taught her that much, as had spending several years as a malevolent ship-sinking terror. But there were still a few things that really pissed her off, that made that control slip. Not being taken seriously was quite high on the list.

She spun the helm back the other way, looping the _Palaquin _around. Fine. If this strange walking jungle didn't want to pay attention to her, then she would just have to show it the error of its ways.

"Port cannons!" she barked, her voice carrying to the whole of the ship. "Prepare to fire!"

…

"Where are you?" Yuuka murmured, swinging the Strutter's eye back and forth. "Come now, a little love tap like that shouldn't have put you down." When simple sight failed to produce results, she tapped into the nearby network of plantlife, the connection of roots that bound the grass to the trees to the flowers to the shrubs and so on.

This time, she got her answer. Rin Satsuki was lying dazed in the grass outside of the crater, not too far from where she had battled the Tanuki. Yuuka frowned. Perhaps she was being too hard on the girl. Dangerous as she and her dark passenger were, she was but a child. Perhaps Yuuka was overreacting here.

Then, with her panic cooling and her rational mind reasserting control, she noticed that her pet was again under attack and taking a great deal of damage. Well now, that had been careless of her. Now she would have to take care of these annoyances before returning to the more pressing business of Rin Satsuki.

…

"RIN!" Reimu screamed as she flew high. Dear gods, why did this keep happening?

"Yo, Reddie!" she heard an exhausted voice call at her. Reimu looked down to see Marisa flying up toward her. Judging by the amount of sweat soaking Marisa's thick outfit and the way her hands were trembling, she had to be close to draining her final reserves of energy. But her cocky grin didn't waver, nor did the determination in eyes.

"What took you so long?" Marisa demanded when she drew level to the agitated shrine maiden. "Strutter's been kicking our asses here! I mean, it's cool that you brought back a warship as an apology, but-"

"Marisa, shut up," Reimu said tersely. "We need to find Rin. Now."

Marisa scowled. "Aw, Baby Jebus Christo, Armpits! Did'ja lose her _again?"_

"No! I mean, yes, she was the one that just got hit by that giant green flash thing!"

"Oh," Marisa said, blinking. "Well, that sucks. It didn't kill her, did it?"

"If it did, I wouldn't be looking for her!" Reimu barked. "And we need to find her before Yuuka crushes the _Palaquin _and everyone aboard!"

No sooner did she finish that sentence that a chorus of blasts and bangs rose up, courtesy of the _Palaquin's _cannons. The Strutter, which seemed to have forgotten how to move after it had blasted Rin out of the sky, just stood there and took it. Which was to say it didn't defend itself, not that it didn't take damage. Which it did.

Marisa looked down at the immobile automaton and then back up at Reimu. "I dunno," she drawled, removing her hat and using it to wipe her glistening forehead. "They look like they're doing okay, ze."

…

"HaHA!" Murasa crowed as the spider shuddered. One of its legs snapped under the assault, causing its body to slump to one side. "Did you notice that, insect? Well, did you?"

"Captain, with all due respect, you are starting to scare me more than that thing is," Ichirin called. She was now sitting with her back wedged into a corner of the deck, hands clutching the rail for dear life. Murasa wondered why. If she fell off she could just fly back on.

"Come on, learn to enjoy yourself!" Murasa called over her shoulder. "When was the last time we got to have a little fun?"

"Do you even know what 'fun' is?" Ichirin shot back. She was starting to look a little green. "I didn't know that word was even in your vocabulary!"

It was true, Murasa wasn't known for her sense of humor. But even the most stiff-spined person in the world had something they enjoyed. And at that moment, Murasa was very much enjoying herself.

"It is now!" she said as she swung the _Palaquin _around for another go. "Come on, a couple more passes should do it!" Then, without really knowing why, she began to sing.

"I'm Murasa the sailor ghost!

I reigned from deep to coast!

Now I captain the skies!

On a ship that flies!

I'm Murasa the sailor ghost!"

"Okay, stop the boat, I want to get off!" Ichirin cried. "My captain's been possessed by a madwoman! She's a _ghost, _and she somehow got possessed!"

Murasa just laughed from the exhilaration of it all. By the gods, she had missed this! A pity the spider wasn't putting up more of a fight though. Cathartic as blowing that ugly thing to pieces might be, it still amounted to glorified target practice.

And the _Palaquin _lurched to one side without Murasa's intent. The helm tore out of her grasp and spun around. "What?" she demanded as she reestablished her grip. "What was…"

Then she saw it. They had not been hit, as she had feared. Instead Unzan, loyal, mighty, not-especially-bright-and-so-shy-he-couldn't-even-make-eye-contact-with-strangers Unzan, had swooped down from his position behind the sails and shoved the _Palaquin _off course.

Shocked and infuriated by the sudden mutiny, Murasa snapped, "Unzan! Explain your actions!" She turned to Ichirin. "Ichirin! Explain his actions!"

Another jolt, and then the commanded explanation became unnecessary. The spider had finally taken notice of them. Long, sinuous green vines had extended from its back and were now grasping for the _Palaquin. _Had Unzan not acted when he had, they would have been caught for certain.

"Never mind, good job!" Murasa said as she hastily spun the helm to coincide with Unzan's pushing. "All cannons! Target the vines and-"

She needn't have bothered. Her crew had taken the initiative and were enthusiastically firing away. But for every vine they destroyed, three more sprung up to replace it. And they were destroying quite a few.

"Ah," Murasa said as a mass of vines thick enough to cast a shadow over the deck descended upon them. "Well. This is a problem."

…

Dying was painful. Dying was unpleasant. But returning to life? Having your scattered atoms slowly gather together in clumps, forming first cells, then molecules, then lumps of tissue, then organ, and then a functional body? That was nearly unbearable, especially to one unused to death and found the entire concept to be personally degrading.

As such, when Kanako Yasaka finally opened her renewed eyes, she was in a rather disagreeable mood.

It didn't take long to piece together what had happened. Those last few moments still burned brightly in her memory. Why the valley was now the wreck it had become, she could only imagine, though she already knew that the answer was going to make her even angrier than she already was.

Shaking her head, she straightened up and reestablished her connection with the local web of energy, looking for any interesting anomalies. Her murderer, the rebellious machine known as the Strutter, was easy to find, and it unfortunately seemed to have upgraded itself in the meantime. It didn't take long to pinpoint Reimu Hakurei and Rin Satsuki as well, though the fact that the latter was outside of the valley's borders and not moving was worrisome. Sanae, however, wasn't showing up. An icy spike of fear plunged through her heart. She wasn't one to jump to assumptions, but it was hard not to. If anything had happened to Sanae…

But then her attention was attracted by another blip, this one nearly as large as the one Rin was making. She had missed it earlier, due to being distracted by other matters, but now that she was actively looking, it was hard to miss. And given the nature of the energies it was emitting, it didn't take long for her to give it a face.

Well now, that both complicated and explained things.

Kanako set her mouth in a straight line. She flew over to the source of the blip. There, a tall woman stood with the support of a cane and talked loudly to the air.

"Nasty piece of flying driftwood! Who invited you anyway? I should march straight to your master's temple and scold her for interfering! We'll see if she still sticks her nose in places it doesn't belong after I've _torn it off _and used it in pasta sauce!"

Though Kanako had never actually met the woman in question and thus didn't really know her on sight, there was no doubt as to who she was. Fortunately, upon learning that this person was to become heavily involved in the ongoing situation in an antagonistic role, Kanako had made to read up on habits and behavioral patterns. And while they did seem to be terrifyingly erratic, there was a certain pattern that Kanako had spotted, one that she believed she could use to her advantage.

Kanako cleared her throat. "Ah, Yuuka Kazami I presume? A word, if you please?"

Yuuka whirled around, though the sudden motion caused her to wince and clutch at her side, which at least confirmed the news of her recent ailments. But the smile on her face was anything but deterred. "Ah, and the local tribal goddess graces me with her presence!" she exclaimed. "Excellent! It is not every day I get to converse with divinity. And my congratulations on your speedy recovery! In fact, insofar as divine resurrections are concerned, I do believe you've broken the previous record by two days and a number of hours!"

Actually, the real record was much, much shorter, but Kanako figured Yuuka was just trying to get under her skin. Well, further. Making sure the pleasant smile on her face never wavered, Kanako bowed her head cordially and said, "Lady Kazami, I bid you greetings. I assume the recent series of events are of your doing?"

"Ah, well, not all of course," Yuuka said. The pain seemed to pass, allowing herself to straighten to her full height. "But I may have influenced things here and there."

"I see," Kanako said, nodding gravely. "You do understand that I must ask you to cease your actions and leave immediately, of course."

This was the dangerous part. If Yuuka took offense and attacked, then Kanako risked a second demise. As strong as she was, she was not eager for a straight-up battle, even when within her place of power. But she had a feeling that Yuuka's reaction was not going to be hostile.

She was right. "Leave?" Yuuka said. She sounded amused. "Why would I do that? My dear deliciously deluded deity, can't you see that the current situation requires my utmost attention? The Strutter is an excellent toy, there is no doubt, but I'm afraid that it is severely lacking when it comes to thinking for itself. And I simply cannot abandon it now!"

"Nevertheless, you must leave," Kanako said, her voice polite but firm. "There are certain things taking place, incredibly important things, that your interference threatens to send into jeopardy."

Yuuka raised an eyebrow. It was then that Kanako saw clearly into the shawl Yuuka was wearing to see that she had but one visible eye, the other being covered by a black patch. Interesting.

"Must?" Yuuka repeated with a click of her tongue. "I 'must' leave? Oh no, I think not. And while your bravery really must be saluted, surely you are not so ignorant that you are unaware of the sort of things that tend to happen to those who try to dictate my comings and goings."

"I insist."

"Oh, do you?" Yuuka lifted her cane off the ground and brought the tip up. It started to glow green. "I'm afraid I must offer a dissenting opinion."

Kanako steadied herself. "Lady Kazami, while I respect your power and influence, you do realize that I am the monarch of this territory, correct? The goddess of the Youkai Mountain and the surrounding area."

Yuuka laughed. "And you believe that alone will grant you power enough to stand against me? Sweet thing, you are just so precious!"

"No, I do not. I simply bring this up to remind you that it is my responsibility to look after this land and its people. And I take my job very seriously." When Yuuka didn't immediately disintegrate her, Kanako pressed on. "In fact, I do believe that you yourself are the ruler of your own territory. The Garden of the Sun, correct? Do you not also do your duty as a responsible sovereign?"

There was a pregnant pause, and then Yuuka lowered her cane. "I do," she said.

"Then I know that you surely do not tolerate trespassers who would seek to threaten your land and its inhabitants. After all, you are responsible for its wellbeing, just as I am responsible for that of this land."

Yuuka said nothing.

"Furthermore," Kanako continued, "your presence here has disrupted a critical phase of a highly significant operation."

"You mean that little rapscallion, Rin Satsuki," Yuuka said.

Kanako nodded. "Yes. The shrine maiden, Reimu Hakurei, has enlisted my help in turning her and reducing her as a threat. And while I harbor many doubts about our future success, I do not deny that the cause is a noble one, and have pledged myself to its service. I know you to be a woman of your word, who values the important of keeping your vows. Would you prevent another from keeping hers? From one monarch to another, I ask that you try to see things from my point of view, and understand why I need you to leave."

There was another long pause, during which Yuuka did not move. She just stared unblinking at Kanako. Kanako stared back, without challenge but also without surrender.

Then, to Kanako's surprise, when Yuuka spoke again, her voice was…sheepish. "I, ah, suppose you have a point there. I really didn't think of it like that," she admitted. She looked out toward the battle, where the Strutter still had the _Palaquin _in its grasp. "Maybe I did get a little carried away there."

"It happens," Kanako said.

"But even so, I really should have held greater control over myself. This is quite regrettable." Holding her cane to one side, Yuuka crossed the other hand across her stomach and bowed at the waist. "Lady Yasaka, my actions today are, as you have pointed out, most unmannerly. I pray that you accept my apology, and do not allow this debacle to negatively color your opinion of my humble self."

"Accepted," Kanako said with an incline of her head. "I thank you for your understanding."

"But of course. Here."

Yuuka suddenly took Kanako by the hand. The elder goddess stiffened. She tried to pull away, but Yuuka had already released her.

Kanako looked down. She expected some sort of hideous trap, but instead, Yuuka had passed a small but heavy oilskin bag into her palm. The strings were undrawn, and inside she could see the glint of a great many precious stones.

"I brought it along should the need to pay off the bounty arise, but _that _doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon. However, it should cover the damages and pay for the restoration efforts," Yuuka said. "And I must say, I am pleased to have met a woman of such upstanding character. A pity that so many of your colleagues do not possess your moral fiber. Had Yukari been of your temperament, our previous encounter might have gone much differently!"

Still mesmerized by the small fortune she held, Kanako had to shake herself back to the situation at hand. "Huh? Oh, well, this is Gensokyo. One can only expect so much."

Yuuka laughed merrily. "Truer words, Kanako Yasaka! Truer words!" She nodded at Kanako. "Farewell, goddess of the Youkai Mountain. My your name be praised and your miracles be celebrated. Oh, and do extend my compliments to your shrine maiden. She is quite the feisty fighter, and rather ingenious at that!"

"Sanae?" Kanako said, startled. "Wait, what do-"

Yuuka was gone.

Kanako shuddered. She was all too aware of how close of a call that had been. Had not Yuuka's personal sense of honor not come into play, Kanako might have once again been reduced to a mist of atoms. Also, just talking to that…_thing _made her crave a long, hot shower.

She glanced down to the bag of gems in her hand. As tempting as they might be, she probably should get rid of them, or at least have them checked out. Gifts from such creatures often came with hidden surprises, and not the fun kind, unless you happened to be the gift giver. Then it tended to be a blast.

Enough. She could investigate Yuuka's gift later. For now, it was time to end this madness. "Momiji!" she called. She mixed in her power and authority into the name, ensuring that her call would be heard and obeyed regardless of distance and noise levels. "Here! Now!"

As expected from a professional of Momiji's experience, Kanako's Call was answered swiftly. Before a minute had gone by, the silver-haired leader of the Hakurou came rushing toward her, accompanied by four of her warriors.

"My lady!" Momiji exclaimed, visibly overjoyed. In perfect formation, all five wolf Tengu landed with bent knees in front of their goddess. "May your name be praised, and celebrate-"

"Yes, yes, all of the above," Kanako said tersely. "I'm sorry, but time is short, and lives are on the line. Are all your people here?"

"Yes, my lady! We've been held back by that foul barrier, but now nothing shall restrain us now!"

Barrier? What barrier? Clearly, she had missed some important events. "Great! Get your people ready then. Yuuka Kazami just left, so this nonsense should be wrapping up. So we have one hell of a cleanup in front of us."

"Preparations have already started!" Momiji said as she straightened. "In fact, I was just contacted by Captain Kotohime Sonozika of the Gensokyo Peacekeeping Front. She and her people have pledged their assistance."

Kotohime? Kanako wasn't sure how she felt about that. On one hand, the GPF's help would be invaluable. On the other, having them involved would likely lead to Yukari making an actual appearance, this time for real. That couldn't lead to anything good.

Kanako banished that line of thought from her mind. Her foremost duty was toward her home and her people. "Excellent. Let her know that we would appreciate any help they can give us."

"Of course!" Momiji bowed low in reverence, with her men doing the same. "Right away!"

After they had left, Kanako allowed herself the smallest bit of relief. This had not been a good day, but at least things were starting to return to normal.

That was when a far off roar tugged her attention back to the situation at hand. Her jaw dropped when she saw that the Strutter was not only more active, but was now even more violent than ever. It shook the helpless ship in its grasp, waving it back and forth. For one horrible moment, Kanako was afraid that it would crush the _Palaquin, _but instead it simply hurled it aside. Then its vines came down and dragged the lifeless bulk of the Hisoutensoku out from under it.

With a flash of intuition, Kanako understood what Yuuka had meant about her shrine maiden. She also knew why she had been unable to sense Sanae earlier. She watched in abject terror as the Strutter hoisted the Hisoutensoku into the air, swung it around with far more ease than anything of that mass should be swung around, and hurled it the opposite direction of the _Palaquin._

Why was this happening? Yuuka had kept her word and left. Why was the Strutter still fighting?

Then intuition flashed again and Kanako realized her mistake. She had asked Yuuka to leave and Yuuka had graciously complied. Nothing had been said about turning the Strutter off, or removing the plants that now infested it. And without Yuuka to direct its movements, it was now running wild.

Without a second thought, Kanako leapt up and took off, pouring all available energy into her speed, even though she knew that she was much too late.

…

"Full stop!" Murasa yelled at the top of the lungs she no longer possessed. "FULL STOP!"

Unzan strained with all his considerable might, though given the force with which they had been flung, they had gone nearly past the valley's borders before he was able to bring the _Palaquin _to a halt.

"Damage report!" Murasa barked.

There was the sound of skittering, and Nazrin staggered back and forth up to the main deck. "Uh, we be okay, cap'n," she said, snapping off a dizzy salute. "The mast is looking kinda crooked, and the hull splintered a bit from all that squeezing, but we're not about to fall apart."

"Why didn't it crush us?" Ichirin wondered as she floated to Murasa's side, Unzan following close behind. "It could have snapped us in half. Why didn't it?"

Murasa had been wondering the same thing. However, the only answer she had was, "Question not the actions of berserking beasts. It wastes time that could be spent killing them."

"Wait, we're still going after that thing?" Ichirin gaped. "Why?"

"Because that thing hurt my boat, that's why," Murasa responded. "That just don't fly. So the two of you get back up there and fill our sails."

Nazrin cleared her throat. "Uh, cap'n? Won't that just put the _Palaquin _in position to get hurt more?"

Murasa focused her gaze on the grey-haired mouse youkai. She said nothing, made no movement other than the constant puffing of her pipe. She just stared.

Nazrin winced. "All right, I'm going, I'm going," she said as she scampered back down the deck. "Sheesh."

…

"Ugh," Sanae moaned. She shook her head, trying to clear away the dancing stars. "What?"

"_Glad to have you back with us," _said Mima's voice. _"Suspending the unconscious body of a teenaged girl inside my head is not how I wish to spend my afternoon."_

Sanae jolted back to full wakefulness. "Mima, you're back!"

"_Yes. The sudden removal of the Sirens has allowed me to recharge somewhat. I really must thank Rin for that."_

Sanae frowned. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but Mima cut her off. _"Now, here's the long and short of things: the best I can figure, Yuuka has decided that she's had enough fun for one day, and has gone home."_

"She's gone?" Sanae said, hardly able to believe it. "Really?"

"_Yes. Unfortunately, she neglected to take her ball with her. The Strutter is still active, and is now acting independently. And it has decided to celebrate its independence by attacking everything in sight."_

"Oh."

"_Precisely. And I regret to inform you that the Hisoutensoku is not in the best of shape right now. I doubt that it will survive another round. Honestly, at this point the smartest thing would be for me to abandon this tin can and deal with the situation in person."_

"But aren't you kind…drained right now?" Sanae asked.

"_Yes, considerably. And in interest of being economical with what I have left, _not _controlling a large metal man is in my best interests."_

"Maybe," Sanae admitted. "But before you do that…"

"_Yes?"_

Sanae took a deep breath. As foolish as it might be, this was still the first and likely only time she would be able to pilot a giant robot. She was not going to have it end in defeat. "Is there any chance you might have enough juice for one more big attack?"

…

Still in her hiding place, Meira gaped as Reimu Hakurei and Rin Satsuki, the two people she wanted most to defeat, charged the berserking beast, for all the good it did them. Satsuki was shot right out of the sky, and Reimu Hakurei, now joined by the witch, found herself under fierce attack. But she didn't retreat. Despite being little more than a girl, she didn't retreat. Didn't she understand that her life was in terrible danger?

Meira looked down at her sword, which had been passed down to her from her father, who had inherited from his mother, and so on and so forth, back through over twelve generations. Her family had once been a highly-regarded samurai clan that had served under the Sonozika family, the same that led the Human Village and the GPF today. But when her ancestor had fled in fear and abandoned his master to be burned alive by a vengeful enemy, the shame had haunted his descendants, all the way down to Meira. She had tried many times to erase the disgrace, convinced that if she could defeat a worthy enough opponent, it would return honor to her family's name. But it would seem that her ancestor's pusillanimous ways were hereditary, and she had ended up fleeing for her life time and time again, just as he had.

_Cowardice is a terrible fate._

But here were two girls little more than half her age, refusing to back down despite being heavily outmatched, despite almost certainly doomed to fall within moments. Her partner, Tony, was nothing more than a common thug, but she wouldn't be able to look even him in the eyes if she were to let this continue.

Though her body was still shaking with fear, she drew her blade from its sheath. Yuuka Kazami had been absolutely correct. Cowardice is a terrible fate, one that she no longer wanted to have any part of.

…

"Okay, we have got to get out of here!" Reimu shouted as she dodged yet another whiplike vine. "It is going to kill us. It is seriously going to kill us!"

"Then kill it first!" Marisa shouted back. She was some meters below Reimu, likewise trying to keep from getting hit while returning fire, not an easy task considering the sudden savagery of the Strutter's attacks. "Pull a Fantasy Heaven outta your ass or something!"

"I'm _trying, _but I can't concentrate long enough to-"

Then she was hit. It wasn't a direct blow, which was fortunate, because she would have broken in half. But it still sent her spinning back to Earth.

"Reimu!" Marisa screamed. She swooped down to her friend's assistance, darting in and out of the Strutter's vines, until she reached Reimu's side.

"Come on Reddie, talk to me!" she said, shaking Reimu's shoulder. "You can't die now!"

"Stop it, I'm not dead," Reimu said, slapping Marisa's hand away. Which was true, though she had hit her head hard enough to make the world spin and, judging by the splitting pain that sent her gasping every time she moved her torso, she had cracked her ribs as well.

A shadow fell over the two of them. Reimu and Marisa looked up to see the cracked crimson Strutter glaring down. As chaotic as its previous swipes had been, Reimu had a feeling that its next attack was gonna be much more direct, and nothing but final.

"Oh, okay," Marisa said, staring. "Death by chia pet. Yeah, that's totally how I wanted to go."

"My ancestors are never going to let me hear the end of this," Reimu agreed. Despite their approaching demise, she felt a certain peace about it, though that might be due to her cracked skull. She glanced over to the witch kneeling next to her. "Marisa, I-"

Marisa patted her on the shoulder. "I know, Reddie. I know."

The Strutter reared up, all of its vines rising like snakes about to strike. Reimu closed her eyes.

Then a hideous squeal of pain assaulted her eardrums. Reimu's eyes snapped back open. The Strutter was lurching back, all of its vines flailing wildly. At first Reimu had not the foggiest clue what was happening. Then she saw the dark silhouette on the Strutter's eye, outlined by red light.

"Hey!" Marisa said, pointing. "Ain't that the lady that tried to cut off your head?"

Reimu's jaw dropped. Marisa was right. The samurai woman that Marisa and Sanae was there. She had managed to wedge her sword into one of the cracks and was trying to tear it fully open.

"Get out of there!" Reimu screamed, raising herself up her elbows. "Do you _wanna _die?"

Marisa tapped her throat, magically amplifying her voice. "HEY! SWORD LADY! BEAT IT! THAT THING IS GONNA-"

The cracked opened, and a sizeable chunk of the Strutter's eye fell off. Its screamed increased as a torrent of scarlet energy burst out of what was once Rika Asakura's Sigma Evil Eye. It washed over the samurai. Reimu's breath caught in her throat as she watched the woman's body burn. Oh, no. No, no, no.

Then the samurai simply fell to disappear into one of the many crevices. Reimu watched her go. It was then that she realized that she still didn't know the woman's name.

Reimu was no stranger to death. Her father had disappeared under mysterious circumstances before she was born, and her mother had died when she was eight, leaving no one but Genji to raise her. And while the spellcard rules meant that there was a lack of fatalities where there normally would be, she still occasionally came across the corpses of those unlucky enough to cross paths with some of the more rebellious youkai or wild animals. But no one had ever, ever, _ever _died on her watch before, especially not while saving her life.

Marisa grabbed her shoulder. It was then that Reimu realized that she had unconsciously started to crawl toward where the samurai fell.

"NOT NOW, RE-" Marisa cut herself off. She rolled her eyes, flicked her throat, and said, "Not now Reddie. She's gone, and we've got other things to worry about."

Feeling like she was in a trance, Reimu stared at her. "She's gone because of me."

"When you'd get so self-centered? Could be she didn't even know we're here. Don't turn into one of those people who think everything's their fault."

"But-"

Marisa nodded toward the Strutter, which had now gone completely haywire. It had backed up far enough so that the two of them weren't likely to be accidentally squashed, but the way it was stumbling back and forth, vines jerking with convulsions, meant that the increased distance could easily change.

"Maybe we can save the breakdowns until we're actually done here, ze," Marisa said.

Reimu jaw clenched, but she nodded. Marisa was right. They had to deal with the problem at hand.

The problem was that Reimu wasn't sure if they could. She didn't know if she could stand, much less fly and fight. Every moment sent lances of pain shooting through her side, and it was hard to breathe. And while Marisa wasn't injured, she was nearly spent.

Then things started to look good. "Reimu!" a familiar voice cried. "Marisa! By _faith, _are you all right?"

Reimu felt her heart rise with hope. She turned to see Kanako flying towards them.

"Snake Eyes!" Marisa called joyfully. "Hey, you're back!"

"So it would seem," Kanako panted as she touched down next to them. "What of you two?"

Marisa shrugged. "I'm okay, but my juju's almost gone, ze. And Reddie here took one hell of a hit."

"Think I broke some ribs," Reimu said, rubbing her side. "There's no way we can fight that thing."

"Well, what about them?" Marisa asked.

Reimu and Kanako looked at her. "Huh?" Reimu said. "Who?" Kanako said at the same time.

Marisa pointed. Reimu looked, and only the pain kept her from cheering out loud. The _Palaquin _was coming back. It had taken a beating, but was in fairly good shape, all things considered. It approached the Strutter, careful to stay out of range of the thrashing of the vines. And then, when it was in position, it opened fire.

Once again, the mobile jungle was blown to pieces by Murasa's cannons, and this time Yuuka wasn't around to bring it back. They shot off the vines before reducing the remaining flowers and shrubs to mulch. The Strutter's mechanical screams took on a whole new level of urgency. It tried to turn toward the _Palaquin, _but the glowing cannonballs beat it down.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" roared another amplified voice, this one not belonging to Marisa. The _Palaquin _must have seen something Reimu could not, because it wasted no time putting distance between itself and the wounded Strutter.

Then the Hisoutensoku came bounding back into the fray, once again accompanied by that silly "Fight the Power" song. Like everything and everyone else, it was in bad shape, likely only being held together by Mima's ironclad will. But that didn't stop it from leaping up and coming down onto the Strutter's back.

It lifted its remaining hand into the sky. White energy surrounded it, forming the shape of a sharp tipped cone. With a sharp whining the cone started spinning. "GIGA! DRILL!" Sanae cried as she drove the cone straight through the Evil Eye Sigma. "BREAAAAAKER!"

At last, that did the trick. There was a puff of scarlet energy, and Evil Eye Sigma was shredded. Now headless, the Strutter's legs collapsed out from under it. It massive body fell to the ground and lay still.

…

Murasa watched silently as the spider died. She had to admit, she was somewhat miffed about that Tin Man rushing in and stealing her kill, but upon reflection she supposed that since it had been in the fight longer, it had a greater claim to the final blow than she did. Besides, she had still managed to give the spider one hell of a thrashing, which was what mattered.

She puffed her pipe twice, took it out of her mouth, and said, "Toot-toot, motherfucker."

…

"I…I did it!" Sanae said, staring. "I did it!"

"_Yes, you did. Congratulations. Not an especially pragmatic idea, but it was showy, impressive, and it worked, which is the important thing. Now, I really must suggest that you put the victory celebrations on hold, because quite frankly, this thing is about to fall apart, and I feel no inclination to prevent this."_

Without further warning, the link between Sanae and the Hisoutensoku vanished. She reeled in disorientation as the view of the valley was replaced by that of the cockpit. A moment later, the bubble that held her aloft disappeared as well.

"_Chop-chop, shrine maiden," _Mima said as Sanae stumbled against the wall. The door at the back of the cockpit slid open. _"You do not want to still be in here when I vacate the premises. Besides, there's someone outside that wishes to speak to you."_

Confused, Sanae was about to ask her what she meant, but then she felt it. It was as if an infected wound had been cleaned and healed, as if she were taking her first breath after being held underwater for so long. It was as if sunshine were shining on her soul, warming it, soothing it, and making it whole again.

"Kanako!" Sanae cried with joy as she ran towards the exit. Sure enough, her goddess was floating just outside. Judging by how she had one had raised over her head, Kanako had been banging on the hatch when it had opened, which spoke volumes of how loopy Sanae was at the moment, seeing how she hadn't heard a thing.

Kanako's eyes widened when her shrine maiden came rushing out the Hisoutensoku's cockpit. "Sanae! You…you…"

Tears streaking down her smudged face, Sanae smiled up at her goddess. "You're back. I knew you'd-"

Suddenly Kanako snatched her up by the shoulders and slammed her back against the Hisoutensoku's head. "What in the _hell _do you think you were doing?" she practically screamed into Sanae's face. "I told you to stay away from this mess! I gave you a direct order! And now, here you are, stomping around that _idiot _Kappa's machine, throwing yourself upon that…that _monstrosity! _You could have been killed! You _should _have been killed! By rights you should be dead right now, you…you stupid, disobedient fool! You're grounded, for…for…no, that's not enough! I'm going to…" She growled and clutched at her face. "Wait until my rational mind has returned before I think of a punishment. But rest assured, when I do, whatever Yuuka Kazami had thrown at you will seem tame in comparison!"

All through Kanako's ranting, Sanae's happy smile never left her face. When it looked like Kanako was winding down, she said, "I missed you."

Kanako stared at her, her cheeks hot with anger. Suddenly she pulled Sanae close and embraced her.

"Don't you ever, _ever _scare me like that again," Kanako whispered. "Sweet faith, what were you thinking?"

The two of them were so caught up in their reunion that they failed to notice the Hisoutensoku start to pitch forward. Gravity slowly strengthened its hold until it fell over the Strutter's body to land facefirst in the dirt.

Green mist seeped out of the fallen robot's body and gathered together into a mostly humanoid form, albeit one with a transparent tail. Though given the amount of power she had spent, most of Mima was close to transparent as well. Though she had lost the need for sleep ages ago, she now found herself wishing that she still had that ability. A long nap would serve her well.

Glancing up at Kanako and Sanae, who were still hovering where she had left them and holding each other tightly, Mima rolled her eyes. The sentimental types always annoyed her, with their strong emotional overreactions and-

"Hey. You made it."

Mima turned to see Marisa floating down toward her. Like herself, the girl looked like she was on her last legs, but Mima knew she wasn't going to fall over any time soon.

"So did you," Mima said, looking her former apprentice up and down. "Though from the look of things, it is fortunate things ended when they did, lest you became drained of power entirely."

Marisa scowled. "Hey now, you ain't looking so hot yourself. I mean, I can see right through you!"

"Were you using your essence to animate a fifty meter metal giant and throw around fifth level offensive spells? Were you? No, I think not." Then Mima let out a weary laugh. "Though it occurs to me that perhaps attempting such an ambitious endeavor in a Mykr's Siren rich environment was not at all prudent."

"Couldn't top off the tank, eh? Yeah, neither could I."

"Indeed," Mima said. "Admittedly, this was something I should have foreseen, and…Wait a minute, how do you know what 'top off the tank' even _means? _Have you even seen an automobile?_"_

"I read."

"Right, right," Mima said. "Even so, victory or no, that could have gone much better."

Marisa stuck her hands in her pockets. "Tell me about it. Nothing blew up. I though at least _one _of these things was supposed to blow up." Then her face brightened. "Hey, maybe we can-"

"No," Mima said. "We are not going to expend what little energy we have left just to fulfill your pyromaniac impulses. There will be plenty of explosions in the future."

"Spoilsport," Marisa grumbled, giving a nearby stone a kick. "If I had all my toys, I could probably rig a real pretty bang right now. At least the last time she gave us enough time to prepare. This time, all I had was what I usually carry with me." Her shoulders slumped. "So, I guess I'm gonna get a lecture about always being prepared for anything, huh?"

Mima looked at her surprise. "Good heavens, no. What would be the point of that? Trying to prepare for all possible scenarios is, well, impossible. It's far better to teach yourself to make use of the tools you have at hand and still achieve victory. Preparation is important, but adaptability is far for useful. And I'd say you did quite well in that regard."

Marisa smiled. Far from her usual cocky smirk, this was a genuine smile of gratitude. "Thanks." She held up her fist, and Mima bumped it with her own.

Then, looking up at Kanako and Sanae, Marisa said, "Though be honest with me, ze. Did you _really _need someone to ride along as pilot?"

"Marisa, are you suggesting that I fabricated that part so as to give the girl her longed for chance to pilot a giant robot and therefore take her mind off of her deceased goddess?" Mima said, sounding both shocked and offended. "Need I remind you that while I may not be playing for Team Evil anymore, and while I do occasionally perform what some might call a 'Good Deed,' I am not and never will be altruistic? I mean, really now."

Laughing, Marisa elbowed her in the side. "Sure, just keep saying that, you big softie."

"Humph." Mima folded her arms. "I thought you knew me better than that."

"Though speaking of altruism and good deeds and all that silly shit," Marisa said, looking around, "you have any idea what happened to Rin?"

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia lay flat on her back, staring up at the world of nothing that now acted as her home and prison. She had been laying there for some minutes now, ever since Rin had gotten hit with that green flash. It occurred to her that she might want to think about getting up sometime in the future, but for now she just couldn't be bothered. Maybe, if she lay still for long enough, she might be able to sleep. That would be nice. It had been a long time since she had last slept.

Except…

With a weary groan, Rumia sat up. Now was not the time to lie around. They had to get moving.

Rin was easy to find. She was lying on her side, looking as resistant to getting up as Rumia had been. With a sigh, Rumia walked over to her and gently nudged the Kirin's back with her toe.

"Rin?" she said. She pushed harder. "Yo, Satsuki! Let's go."

"Mmmmph," Rin said. "Don't wanna. Go 'way."

"Yeah, screw that." She stopped nudging and progressed up to kicking, though softly. "Get up already. We're not done."

"I am. Every time I get up, someone shoots me back down. So I quit. Yuuka Kazami wins."

Then she yelped when Rumia's foot slammed into her kidney area. "No! You dragged me into this hell, you promised to get me out of this, so you are not going to just give up when we're so close. Get up, or…or…" Rumia wracked her brain for anything she could use as a threat. "Or I'll bite you," she finally decided on.

A moment passed. Then Rin turned around to look at her, a perplexed frown on her face. "Bite me?" she said.

"Yeah." Rumia pulled up her lip, displaying her sharklike teeth. "Right in the throat. See how well you whine after I've done that."

Rin rolled her eyes, but she stood up. "Oh no, anything but that. Please, scary youkai girl, don't hurt me." Her shoulders lifted as she took in a deep, slow breath, held it in, and then let it out. Then she walked back over to the screen and sat down.

Coming up behind her, Rumia cleared her throat and said, "So, the plan is…"

Rin's face twitched, but her voice remained calm. "Well, taking recent events into account, I'm starting to think that headlong attacks have a consistent tendency to drive our opponents to designate me as their primary target and respond accordingly, so I am starting to believe that relying solely upon the overwhelming destructive forces at my disposal is not enough, and for this attempt I should seek a more subtle approach."

Rumia let out a low growl. Now she was doing it on purpose. "Rin, I love that you're taking this seriously, I really do, but knock it out with the big-talk. It doesn't impress. If you're gonna try sneaking up on it, then just say so."

Rin muttered her apologies, and soon they were moving again. Rumia stood with her arms folded, silently watching as Rin reentered the valley. But instead of heading back to where the Strutter was, she hung to the perimeter, slowly moving along the piles of stone. To Rumia, she seemed to be searching for something.

After a few moments of this, Rumia cleared her throat. "So…"

"The Nue. You know, the fake Yukari?" Rin said, not looking at her. "Reimu left her around here somewhere."

Rumia frowned. "What'd'ya want with her?"

"The Tanuki can shapeshift, sure," Rin said by way of explanation, "but the Nue can do more than that. She can hide herself from tracking spells, energy readings, that sort of thing. I don't really know what kind of senses the Strutter has, but better be prepared, you know?"

"How do you know all that?"

"The Tanuki," Rin said, shrugging. She tapped her head. "Memories, remember?"

"Oh yeah." Rumia nodded. "Okay. So, I guess we're over the whole 'feeling bad about eating people we don't like if it can help us' thing?"

A long silence passed between them. Then Rin said, "Well, you know. What's one more, right?"

"Right," Rumia said. "Sure."

Rin resumed her searching. Before too long, she came across the place. There, the Celestial and the Nue were still lying unconscious, bound by Reimu's seals. Rin flew over to where the Nue was being held and hovered over her.

After about twenty seconds had gone by without anything happening, Rumia coughed and said, "Well, are you gonna do this?"

"I guess."

Rumia watched as Rin's arms lost color and shape and covered the Nue's body. The sealing spell starting flashing frantically beneath the layer of goo, but it soon stopped and broke apart. The Nue's body quickly followed suit.

It didn't take long for the Nue's mind to take shape and appear in their midst. She twitched, muttered something incomprehensible, blinked her eyes and looked up.

"Wait a minute," she said, staring at Rin and Rumia. "Where…"

She never got the chance to finish her thought. Rin snapped her fingers, and the Nue's body vanished like smoke.

Rumia shuddered. It wasn't just the creepiness of what she just saw. Everything just felt wrong, like she had swallowed something cold and slimy. She freely admitted that she wasn't exactly a moral person, but as much sense as it made to do so, for Rin to just absorb someone cold like that, without anger or desperation, just because it was convenient…a line had been crossed. There was no other way to describe it.

Then the emptiness that surrounded them seemed to shiver, and everything on the screen grew just a little bit lighter. "Okay, we are off the grid," Rin said as she directed her physical body back toward the battle. "Let's get this…"

Then she stiffened. "Wait," she said, gaping at the screen. She stood to her feet and moved in closer, disbelief all over her face. "Is this for real? _Really?"_

The Strutter was more-or-less where they had last seen it. However, it had been violently dismantled, with its abdomen crushed and gutted, its legs broken and scattered, and its head reduced to scrap metal. The plants that had animated and powered its rampage were likewise torn apart. The Hisoutensoku lay over its nemesis's remains, in better shape but obviously in bad shape. Overhead, the _Palaquin _hovered with its anchors holding it in place, almost smug in its status as the last one standing.

Rumia found herself in complete agreement with Rin's reaction. "They already killed it without us?" she said. "That's…that's not fair! We weren't down that long, were we?"

"I wasn't keeping track, I have no idea!" Shaking her head, Rin stepped away from the screen. "So, all of that was for nothing?"

"I…I _guess. _B-but that's good, right?" Rumia forced a cheery smile. "I mean, game over, we win! Go team us, yeah?"

Rin finally turned to look at her. Judging from the expression she was wearing, she didn't share Rumia's views. Her face was bright red with rage and frustration, and she was making small squeaking noises that could not be accurately described as speech. At her sides, her shaking fingers were slowly curling into claws.

Wincing, Rumia braced herself, but the expected outburst never came. Instead, Rin just closed her eyes; let out a long, hissing breath; and let her body relax. "Right," she said, opening her eyes and lifting her mouth in a weak smile. "Go team us, all the way."

Another long silence followed. Then Rumia said, "Well, now that that's over with, guess we better find Miss Reimu and company, yeah? Call it a day."

Rin's shoulders moved in an action that wasn't quite a shrug, but was close enough. She slowly circled around the scene, searching for movement.

"I don't see them," Rin said, squinting.

"Maybe they moved?" Rumia suggested. "Hell, I would. They probably went to the boat. I mean, give me a choice between hanging around on a big rock or a sweet flying boat, I know which one I would choose."

"It's possible," Rin agreed. "Or they went over there."

She pointed at a relatively flat slab, located a fair distance away from the two fallen behemoths. There, Rumia could just barely make out several tiny figures standing together.

"Or they did that," Rumia said, nodding. "Don't know why. I mean, the boat's right there." She scratched the back of her neck. "Though, uh, is it just me, or is there…more of them than there used to be?"

There did seem to be an unusually large number of figures moving around. Near the center, Rumia was certain that she recognized Reimu's group, or at least most of them. Kanako Yasaka was among them, which was definitely an encouraging sign. However, they had been joined by a large number of wolf Tengu, all of them carrying bladed poles. Rumia knew them well. One didn't live in the general vicinity of the Youkai Mountain and not be aware of the Hakurou.

Well, that only stood to reason. Given everything that had happened, it only made sense that Kanako would bring in the mountain's defensive force to help clean up the mess. But what Rumia found disturbing was that there was a second group joining them, this one mostly composed of Humans, though there was a scattering of youkai and fairies among them. The two groups didn't seem to mind each other and were even working in concert as they took control of the area.

However, Rumia was not at all enthused by the second group's presence, as each and every one of them was wearing a black uniform.

"No," Rin said in a small voice. She fell to her knees and leaned forward so that her forehead was touching the screen. "No, no, no."

Rumia was fairly certain she knew what Rin was so upset about, as she had been thinking something similar. However…

Clearing her throat, she said, "Uh, you know that just because the GPF's here, it doesn't mean Miss Reimu was working for Miss Yukari, right? I mean, it's their job to show up as these kinds of disasters, so…"

"So?" Rin said. "They still work for Yukari Yakumo. They'll report to her the second they see me."

Rumia nodded, slowly. "So, uh, what do we do?"

"Do?" Rin giggled. "We do what do we do what do we do. We do, and they find us. We don't, and they find us. So we do nothing." She straightened and stiffly stood up. "But not anymore, right? You were right, they can't find us now if we don't want them to. So we wait. We wait until they're all gone and meet up with Reimu then." She giggled. "Hey, good thing I ate those guys after all, huh? We can just sit around and wait, with no one being the wiser."

…

"Hmmm, well, it could be worse," Mima said as she closely examined the slashes Nue's talons had cut across Reimu's eye. "Fairly shallow for the most part, and it missed the eye itself, which is the important thing. It's pretty much guaranteed to scar, though."

"I know that," Reimu growled. "Can you fix it or not?"

Mima shrugged. "Easily enough. Though, are you certain you want me to? Such a scar, especially one earned on the field of battle, might be to your advantage. Certainly it would discourage people from picking fights, and I hear that they're quite fashionable in many circles. It'll make you a hit with the ladies, that much is certain."

"Mima," Reimu said through clenched teeth. "I'm a girl, remember?"

"So? That's never stopped Marisa."

"That's her! I'm not into girls, okay?"

"Or boys, for that matter," Mima observed. "Or most anyone. Goodness, child. No wonder you're always so crabby. The sexual frustration must be-"

"Shut up already and fix my godsdamned face, all right?"

"Tch," Mima said. She raised a glowing hand and pressed it over Reimu's eye. Immediately the burning cooled, to be replaced with blessed numbness. "You know, you might want to reconsider that tone. Rudeness toward your physician is generally a bad idea."

Anger welled up within Reimu. She was about to start yelling again, but better sense took precedence. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I just…never had anyone die on me before."

"The samurai?" Mima removed her hand and moved away. "Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later."

"Yeah, but…" Reimu took a shuddering breath as she tried to figure out how to explain herself. "I mean, she saved my life. And she really wanted me to remember her. But I don't even know her name."

"Tsukito no Meira," Mima answered without hesitation.

Reimu stared. "How…"

Mima nodded toward where the GPF had set up white pavilion to act as a temporary headquarters for the recovery effort. There, the grizzled tarantula youkai that had accompanied the samurai was sitting by himself with a dazed look on his stubble-covered face. "I overhead him talking to Kotohime Sonozika's sycophants. Apparently you two really did fight once, a long time ago. Well, by your standards anyway. Back around the time when you first met Marisa, unless I miss my guess."

"I wish I could remember," Reimu said, frowning.

Mima shrugged. "Don't let it get to you, or at least too much. Because honestly, I'd say you have more than enough problems to burden your shoulders without adding undeserved guilt to the load."

Mima couldn't be more right. Once it had been confirmed that Yuuka and her flowers were gone for good and that the Strutter wasn't getting back up, Kanako had quickly retaken charge. Momiji Inubashiri's Hakurou Tengu had descended upon the shattered valley en masse. They were soon joined by the GPF, who had gained word of Rin's rampage earlier that morning and had likewise arrived after Yuuka's flower dome had gone up but had been held back by the chaos. The two groups had quickly joined forces and set to work rounding up the remaining bounty hunters and providing aide for Reimu's group. Reimu supposed that this could be considered a victory for all that race-to-race cooperation that Byakuren kept going on about, but she was finding enthusiasm difficult at the moment.

Still, there were small sources of satisfaction. As it turned out, the persons responsible for that sudden firework display earlier had been none other than the Three Fairies of Light: Sunny Milk, Lunar Child, and Star Sapphire. Apparently they had yet another burst of their customary stupidity and decided to go after Rin themselves, only to change their minds and turn tail once Yuuka started to play her game. This had earned them an instantaneous disintegration, and they had resurrected just in time for the Hakurou to snatch them up. While it was true that those fireworks had been useful in blowing Nue's cover, Reimu couldn't help but feel a small amount of sadistic pleasure at their incarceration. In fact, an eviction was probably in order as well.

Nitori Kawashiro had also returned to life around the same time, and had also been taken into custody. She didn't seem all that concerned about that however, but learning how much damage the Hisoutensoku had taken made her strangely quiet. She wouldn't even respond to direct questions, preferring to sit still and stare at the ground. That is, until the GPF caught the Asakura sisters trying to sneak out of the valley. Rika and Rikako had been handcuffed and taken back to where they were keeping Nitori. Upon seeing them, the sulky Kappa had suddenly become animated and continued spewing wave after wave of verbal abuse at them ever since. Reimu wondered if the Asakuras had any idea what she was saying to them. Her own grasp of the Kappa tongue was admittedly shoddy, but Sanae assured her that Nitori's words were creative, graphic, and extremely profane.

Unfortunately, the conditions of the other hunters were less entertaining. The tarantula had been arrested like the others and, upon being informed of his partner's recent death, had become extremely confused. Reimu wasn't surprised. The youkai concept of death was different to that of a Human, and some were simply incapable of understanding it at all. Tenshi Hinanai's condition was best described as "horrific." Though she was somehow still alive, Kanako didn't dare turn her over to Heaven just yet for fear of risking a diplomatic incident, especially since Mima refused to treat the Celestial, claiming that, "She got what she deserved. No one can say otherwise."

Maybe that was true, but Reimu was willing to bet that Tenshi's parents would have a contradictory viewpoint. She for one was more than happy to let someone else handle the Celestial problem. She had already dealt with more Tenshi for one day.

But the true problem lay with Nitori Kawashiro's partners, Nue Houjo and Mamizou Futatsuiwa. When last Reimu had seen Nue, she had been unconscious and safely tucked away under her sealing spells. But upon returning to the area, both youkai and spells were gone. That left Reimu with two possibilities: either she had managed to escape, or someone else had gotten her. And seeing how Rin had been noticeably evasive about Mamizou's fate earlier and was still missing, she had a feeling she knew which one it was.

Finding Rin was currently the Hakurou and the GPF's top priority; Kanako had made sure of that. Reimu wanted to be part of the search, but her injuries were making that impossible. And so she was forced to sit in place and listen to the incoming reports, all of them exactly the same: Rin Satsuki had vanished. Nothing was working: spells, technology, and yelling her name very loudly. Kanako claimed to have been able to sense the energy Rin was emitting earlier that day, but now there was nothing.

According to Mima, this wasn't at all surprising. If Rin had absorbed Nue and Mamizou, then any attempts to find her were hopeless. "We are talking of more than just shapeshifting here," she had said. "The Nue especially. Their ability to hide their form means just that: hide it from _everything. _If Rin does not want to be found, then you are not going to find her."

Which was nothing but bad news. Their operation hinged upon Rin's cooperation. And if she was eating people again and hiding from them, then everything could fall apart.

"There's got to be something you can do," Reimu said as Mima finished tending to the gash. "A spell, a tracker, something?"

"If there was, I'd have done it already," Mima said. There was a hint of impatience in her voice. "Besides, I'm exhausted. What I'm doing now is the magical equivalent of applying a Band-Aid and it's still something of a strain."

"Well, we've got to do something!" Reimu yelled. She reflexively started to her feet, only to wince and sit back down when her ribs screamed at her. Mima had tended to that as well, but they still hurt like mad. But that didn't keep her from continuing her protest. "I'm not going to let this whole disaster be for nothing!"

"Uh, Reimu?" Sanae said. The green-haired shrine maiden was sitting close by, a blanket around her shoulders and a mostly untouched cup of cocoa in her hands. "Sorry if this is a stupid question, but what if we can't find her? How are we supposed to help her then?"

Reimu was about to say something biting and sarcastic, but another voice spoke before she could. "You know, that is an _excellent _question, Sanae Kochiya. And I for one am extremely interested in hearing the answer myself."

The breath caught in Reimu's throat. Sanae froze in place, her eyes widening with fear. Even Mima backed up a bit.

Yukari was now approaching. Or rather, she was being pushed towards them by Ran, courtesy of the ornate wheelchair she was now sitting in. Reimu was suddenly aware of the fact that this was the first time she had seen Yukari in the flesh since being taken to meet with Shinki and Sariel. And apparently, the reports of the elder youkai's condition were not exaggerated. Yukari looked positively shriveled, with ugly looking clusters of tiny blisters popping up here and there along her tight skin. But despite her weakness, the look of anger and determination in her golden eyes was still the same.

Unlike the last time, Reimu had no problem believing that this was the real Yukari Yakumo, just like she had no problem believing that she and her friends were now in a great amount of trouble.

"Well, well, well, isn't this an interesting sight," Yukari said as Ran brought the wheelchair to the stop. "Just this morning I entered the Dream World for a diplomatic meeting with its sovereigns, only to be awakened suddenly by my Shikigami here," she titled her head toward Ran, "who told me that not only had Rin Satsuki resurfaced, but was involved with quite a spectacular mess taking place at the foot of the Youkai Mountain. And not only that, but Yuuka Kazami has also slithered out bed to wreak havoc once again. Unfortunately, I arrived too late to gain control over the situation, but according to all accounts things could have gone worse." Her red tongue snaked out to lick her lips. "But then I overhear a number of conversations, concerning the actions of the Hakurei shrine maiden and how she is pursuing a shockingly foolish endeavor. 'But no,' said I. 'Surely this cannot be. My Reimu is much too smart to get involved in anything like _that.'" _Yukari tilted her head to one side, her eyes burrowing into Reimu's. "But I couldn't help to overhead the tail-end of your conversation, which really has got me wondering: what exactly have you been doing these past few weeks, Reimu?"

Reimu tried not to flinch. Well, here went nothing. "Uh, Yukari? We really need to talk."

There was a lengthy pause, and then Yukari said, "Yes, yes I agree." She sighed. "Unfortunately, if what I have been hearing is true, then I suspect that this is the last thing we're going to agree on today."

...

_Yukari, you ruin everything._

_=sigh=  
_

_Anyway, I promised to give explanations for...a great many things, so let's start off with the business part. Obviously, this update is breaking one of the longest hiatuses yet, and there is a number of reasons for that. There were the usual writing problems, which I'll go into later, and there's also the fact that I'm now writing for two fandoms, which is what it is. However, the main reason for this update taking so long is that not long after the last chapter went up, I started working two jobs. As a result, I was working seven-day weeks and anywhere from six-to-nine hours a day. Naturally, this left me with very little free time, and though things are more-or-less settling down now, it got pretty nuts for a while. And since I'm sure you're all as tired of me disappearing and returning full of apologies every few months as I am of doing it, here's what I've worked out as a way to at least keep you in the loop. There's been two new additions to my profile: the first is an update schedule, which lists the next five planned updates and what story they go to. The general idea is to alternate between three chapters of Resonance Days and three chapters of Imperfect Metamorphosis, with a RoSD chapter counting for one of the IM chapters until it wraps up. Also, there is also a progress recorder thingamajig, which will keep track of how many pages of the next chapter are done, to be update every time I finish a decent amount of writing. Generally chapters tend to be anywhere from forty to sixty pages, so when it hits that, it's getting close to being done. And when the rough draft is done, it'll read "Being Edited" until the actual update is made. Unfortunately, I can't predict exactly when said update is going to happen until it actually happens, but at least it'll keep everyone somewhat in the loop should another hiatus happen.  
_

_Also from the business front, I did manage to get all of Imperfect Metamorphosis and it's side-stories uploaded to the Touhou Wiki. Sort of. Unfortunately, doing so cancelled out any font and alignment changes and I haven't had time to fix it, so it's kind of rough right now. What does that mean for you guys? Absolutely nothing, but I just thought I'd mention it. :P  
_

_And, uh, time for the big one.  
_

_=takes a deep breath=  
_

_Okay, here we go.  
_

_If there's one thing I've learned, it's that if I start complaining about my own work in the author's notes, that seems to be the only thing anyone comments on, usually to the tune of "You're right, this chapter is pretty meh." Still, these last few chapters do have quite the rant attached, which I'll be posting in full on the Spacebattles thread, as it's easier to reply to comments there. So if you're interested in seeing a great deal of creator backlash and a full explanation for many of the problems that have been popping up lately, that's the place to go. But the gist of it is something like this:  
_

_There were a lot of people complaining about Yuuka's sudden appearance and her reanimation of the Strutter back in chapter 39, and a general consensus that the story was starting to go downhill.  
_

_I full agree with everything that was said and wasn't happy about it myself, but did it to prevent an even greater long-term narrative problem.  
_

_Still, there is probably a lot of people who aren't exactly happy with the quality of these two new chapters. Again, I don't blame you, because I'm not exactly thrilled with them myself, but I did the best I could and consider the final results to be the lesser evil.  
_

_And despite my dissatisfaction, the desired result was achieved and the plot knocked back on course. So that coupled with my job situation now looking to be more manageable, we should start to see things improve soon.  
_

_Still, I'm really sorry about the mess things have been lately. The last three months have been one hell of a headache. But at least it's finally over with and things can return to normal. So I say it's time to go see what our favorite dream-hopping immortals are up to.  
_

_Until next time, everyone!  
_


	42. The Methods and Motives of Monsters

The Methods and Motives of Monsters

Pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear, Kotohime Sonozika headed toward the raised pavilion that was now serving as the dual headquarters for the GPF and the Hakurou's current recovery efforts. Even though the disaster was already over by the time her people had been allowed to move in, the cleanup was already proving to be quite the trial.

An entire valley had been demolished. While no one had lived there, it still represented a significant percentage of the landscape between the Youkai Mountain and the nearby forest area. Though they had only spoken briefly, Kanako Yasaka had made it clear that she was not happy about this, and intended to do something about it. And while that anger had not been directed at Kotohime herself, being the leader of a neutral third party with connections to most of Gensokyo's major societies meant that some of the fallout was going to land in her lap _somehow. _The fact that the primary culprits consisted of two known residents of the Human Village and the daughter of the King and Queen of Heaven themselves gave Kotohime a headache just by thinking of the ensuing shitstorm.

At the moment, with Yuuka Kazami now confirmed as having left the area, something that Kotohime was having a hard time feeling disappointed about, the majority of their efforts were going into finding Rin Satsuki, whom Kanako had confirmed as having been in the area not too long ago. However, true to form, their search had turned up nothing.

Kotohime shook her head. Rin Satsuki was by far the most troublesome fugitive ever to be at large. Perhaps there were others that had evaded being caught for longer periods of time, but none had caused nearly as much damage along the way. The reports coming in from the Ancient City alone had made her secretly relieved that the GPF didn't have a branch in the Underworld.

Standing hunched over a portable table under the shelter of the pavilion was Momiji Inubashiri, the leader of the Hakurou. Scattered on the table was a variety of different reports and forms, and judging by the way the white-wolf Tengu was looking at them, the urge to tear them to shreds was strong. Kotohime felt a twinge of empathy, as she soon would have her own pile of paperwork to deal with.

Sensing the Human's approach, Momiji looked up and nodded in greeting. "Lady Sonozika," she said. "Any luck?"

Kotohime wearily shook her head. "You know there isn't any. We're gone over this disaster area with a fine-toothed comb, so either she's long gone or…"

"Or what the ghost said about her acquiring the shapeshifters is true," Momiji finished for her. Kotohime shuddered and nodded. She was acutely aware that Madam Mima was hanging about the area.

Momiji shook her head. "Well, if that's the case, we're wasting our time." She angrily swiped at the papers, scattering many. "Someone with the combined power of a Tanuki and a Nue. Might as well be looking for a single raindrop in a lake."

Kotohime again nodded in agreement. She had long formed the same opinion. "We'll officially declare her as having left the area in a couple hours and expand our search until evening. From there, we'll just merge back to what we were doing up until yesterday."

Momiji straightened up to look her Human associate in the eye. "And you think this will work?" she said. Kotohime noted plenty of incredulity in the question, but no irony. The wolf did have a habit of taking things at face-value.

Chuckling bitterly, Kotohime said, "What? Of course not! We're not going to find her. Someone will, sooner or later, but it sure won't be us." She nodded over to where the winners of this latest scuffle were sitting together. "More than likely it'll be one of them, or another one of the A-listers. The best we can hope for is to be in a position to help out and reduce the collateral damage."

"Plus the cleanup," Momiji said.

"Plus the cleanup," Kotohime agreed. "And honestly, maybe it's better that way."

Momiji frowned but said nothing, indicating that she didn't agree but wasn't going to make an issue of it. "Anyway, so long as you're here, we still need to discuss _them." _She nodded over her should to where the losers were gathered: specifically, the failed bounty hunters.

Kotohime grunted. What was supposed to be the simplest bit of the whole disaster was proving to be increasingly complicated, as each of them had different circumstances that affected what they could do with them. The case of the Three Fairies of Light, who had long been a minor but recurring headache for the GPF, was more-or-less cut and dried. Reimu Hakurei had confirmed being attacked unprovoked by those three, and made note of the fact that they had also attacked someone who had at the time been believed to be Yukari Yakumo. Granted, she had turned out to be anything but, but it was the intent that mattered. Kotohime would have no problem bringing charges against them.

However, the others' cases were far more problematic. The Celestial's situation was frankly terrifying. Though she was currently receiving treatment from Kanako's people, Kotohime had seen sides of beef hanging from butchers' hooks that were in better shape than her. And while she had more than ample reason to form a case against her, given who she was and what had been done to her Kotohime didn't want to touch that situation with a long-range spellcard. Fortunately, it was clear that the higher-uppers would be handling that diplomatic catastrophe, so at least it was out of her hands. She just felt sorry for whoever would have to tell the King and Queen of Heaven, "Hey, bad news. Your daughter got mixed up with the wrong crowd and, uh, this kind of happened to her. Pretty nasty looking, right?"

"I suppose you're right," Kotohime said. She nodded to where Tenshi was lying. "Any word when she's getting moved to your hospice?"

"Within the hour," Momiji answered. "Lady Kanako, may her name be praised, wishes her to be in presentable condition before she is returned to her family."

Kotohime shrugged. "Well, you certainly have your work cut out for you."

"Don't I know it," Momiji sighed. "But actually, she's not the one we need to talk about. I was specifically referring to the ones responsible for the metal monster debacle."

Kotohime glanced over to the corner of the pavilion where incensed Nitori Kawashiro was still jabbering away at the unusually stoic Asakura sisters. She didn't understand a lick of it, but given the context, she didn't need to. "The Kappa's part of lady Kanako's territory, so she's all yours. Though you might have trouble making anything stick."

"Really?" Momiji said, surprised. "Why?"

"She only deliberately attacked the Asakuras, and that was in self-defense. And I don't think there's any rule against taking your pet giant for a walk or fighting back when attacked. And when the, ahem, _hero crew _showed up, she gave herself up without resistance."

Momiji still looked perplexed. "I don't understand. Why would this be a problem?"

Kotohime resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She sometimes forgot that, despite acting in a very Human-like manner, the Tengu were still youkai, and thus had a different perception of law and justice than what Kotohime was used to. Perhaps Nitori Kawashiro had not actually broken any rules or laws, but there was little doubt that Kanako Yasaka would find _something._

"Fine, whatever, she's all yours, is what I'm saying." She looked over to the Asakuras. "Those two, on the other hand, aren't going to be difficult. All witnesses agree that they threw the first punch, and did so completely unprovoked."

"Plus they trampled all over a quarantined zone and shot at my men," Momiji said with no small amount of resentment. "No, I agree, their guilt is unquestioned. But, ah, there is a problem concerning them we need to discuss."

Feeling her heart sink, Kotohime waited.

Leaning forward and lowering her voice, Momiji said, "The goddess wants them released into our custody."

"Oh," Kotohime said, sighing. "Damn."

"I understand that this…complicates things…"

"It is an extremely awkward request to make," Kotohime agreed. "I mean, I don't _blame _you, seeing how it's your territory they trashed. And if it weren't up to me, I would be happy to hand them over and hope to never see them again. But…"

"It's not up to you, I know," Momiji said. "They are residents of the Human Village, and you don't directly represent the Human Village."

Spreading her hands, Kotohime managed a weak smile. "Exactly. Neutral third party, remember?"

"I know. But based upon what I know of the Human Village's Leader, he would not be overenthusiastic to release two of his people into youkai hands."

Kotohime snorted. _"That's _putting mildly. He'd throw a temper tantrum just over hearing the idea."

"Which is why she wants you to talk to him for us," Momiji said. "Perhaps you might be successful in persuading him."

"Me?" Kotohime said, blinking. "Why?"

Momiji frowned. "Well, I'm sorry, but are you not his niece? We had thought, given your close relationship-"

Letting out a surprised bark of laughter, Kotohime said, "Close relationship? Momiji, he _despises _me and my whole organization! Thinks us a bunch of traitors. And trust me, the sentiment is very much mutual. Honestly, I have as much chance as you!"

"Oh," Momiji said, looking somewhat beside herself. "I did not know that."

Kotohime shrugged helplessly.

A few terse moments passed, and then Momiji said, "Well. We'll, ah, have to deal with that later." She nodded toward the final person they had in custody. "What of him?"

The craggy tarantula youkai that went by the name of Tony was sitting alone, with his arms on his knees and his bulbous eyes staring at the ground. Apparently he had been partnered with another hunter, one that had not survived the battle, and hearing the news had made him essentially shut down.

"Him?" Kotohime's mouth set in a straight line. "I'm not sure. Reimu Hakurei won't tell me much about anything he did. But from what I've been told, he spent most of the fight dead and tried to leave before any of the others. Honestly, I'm tempted to just let him go. It's probably not even worth the paperwork to hold him."

Momiji blinked. "And let him get away with-"

"Away with _what? _We don't have anything solid on him, save that he's here and wanted the bounty."

"Is that not enough? He also entered the quarantine, and no doubt assaulted s_omebody-"_

"Hey," said a rough voice. "Human."

The two of them stopped talking. Tony had raised his head and was now looking at them, empty-eyed.

"Yes?" Kotohime said warily, wondering how much of their conversation he had heard.

"When…" Tony frowned. He appeared to be struggling around his own words. "When you says Meira ain't comin' back, that she's done gone for good, you means never ever? Like, she gets her ass killed once, and that's it?"

Kotohime and Momiji exchanged a brief glance. "Yes," she said. "That's what I meant."

"Oh." His frown deepened, and he shook his head. "Why?"

Kotohime opened her mouth to answer, but he wasn't done yet. "I mean, it just don't makes none sense. Hell, _I _gets my ass killed earlier, and I'm still here, still the same old chap. But she dies once, and now she's just meat."

His head lowered again as he drifted back into his private thoughts, still mumbling to himself. "It don't makes none sense. It don't makes none sense at all."

Momiji watched him for a good long while. Then she turned back to Kotohime. "Well, maybe you have a point," she admitted.

Then Kotohime felt someone approaching, someone who would require her full attention. She turned to see Yukari Yakumo being wheeled toward her by her Shikigami, the shrine maiden Reimu Hakurei following close behind. All three of them wore a different expression. Yukari's was calm and collected, but her eyes were dark with boiling rage. Ran, the Shikigami, also wore a mask of indifference, though hers wasn't as good as Yukari's, with the worry she was feeling plain to see. As for Reimu, she wasn't even trying to hide behind a poker face. Quite the contrary, she looked downright miserable.

"Captain," Yukari said as the trio neared.

Kotohime saluted. "Founder."

"From the look of things, your people and the Tengu have things well in hand here." Yukari cast a backward glance over her shoulder. "And it seems that the shrine maiden and I need to have a private chat. So I'll leave the rest to you. I'll expect an updated report upon my return."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Very good." She nodded toward Ran, who turned the wheelchair around and starting pushing it away.

Once the three of them were sufficiently out of earshot, Momiji said in a low voice, "My friend, I do not envy you."

"What, because of her?" Kotohime shrugged. "Well, at least she's not mad at me. Besides, it could be much, much worse."

"Oh?" Momiji arched one bushy white eyebrow.

Kotohime nodded at the three receding figures: specifically, the one bringing up the rear. "Because I know that look Yukari Yakumo was wearing. And I for one don't envy the shrine maiden."

…

_Deep Within_

In the time Rumia had known her, she had seen Rin cycle through a large number of moods, emotions, and reactions. She had seen her be happy, upset, angry, scared, silly, scary, cold, and just plain strange. She had watched her snap, crack, endure, erupt, hurt, and be hurt.

But this was the first time she truly saw Rin break.

It wasn't a big, dramatic thing. Rin didn't scream, shout, or turn red. She didn't flip out and start attacking whoever happened to be nearby. She just sat there, hunched over her folded legs, arms resting on her knees and eyes staring unblinking at the screen as Reimu Hakurei was led away by Yukari Yakumo. There was a toothy grin on her face, one that was sharing space with an enraged grimace. She didn't move, though the muscles in her arms and upper back were steadily contracting tighter and tighter.

Then her muscles relaxed and she slumped forward. A soft sigh escaped her lips, a sound not unlike dead leaves being stirred by the wind.

"Well," she said. "I guess that's that."

With that, the view suddenly receded and spun around as Rin's physical body, still wearing whatever disguise had been shielding her presence, moved away.

Rumia blinked. "So we're leaving?"

Rin took in a deep breath through her nose and slowly breathed it out. "Yeah."

"But…" Rumia ran her fingers through her hair. "Just because Miss Reimu's with Miss Yukari, that doesn't really mean she was working for her all along, does it?"

There was a long pause, and then Rin said, "No, it doesn't."

"Then-"

"It doesn't matter."

"Huh?"

They passed over the border of the valley. "It doesn't matter if she was telling the truth or not," Rin said. "In fact, I'm sure she was. But she got caught. Yukari Yakumo caught her, and now she'll learn everything. It's over."

Rumia stared at her. "So, that's it? You're just gonna up and leave? Just ditch Miss Reimu and keep running?"

A dark look passed over Rin's face. "No," she said. "I'm not. I'm through with running."

"Then-"

"I'll be back." Rin's voice was calm, eerily so. "There's just something I gotta take care of first."

Well, that certainly couldn't be good. Rumia pondered on what Rin's new mission could possibly be. Visions of burning villages, screaming people with melting skin, and evaporating lakes came to mind. She shrugged and settled down to wait. Hell, it could be fun.

Then Rin spoke. "It's too bad, really."

"What is?"

Rin turned to look at her, her face blank and expressionless. "I had hoped…" Her voice cracked, and she tried again. "I was…really starting to think…that we might have a…"

Unable to finish, she turned away, hiding her face from Rumia. Rumia watched her for a few moments longer before looking away.

"Yeah," she said softly. "Me too."

…

As Reimu followed Yukari and Ran away from the GPF's pavilion, she had a fairly good idea how it must feel to be marched toward your execution.

Yukari was angry. Yukari was _very _angry. Though Reimu had only known her for a miniscule fraction of the elder youkai's extraordinarily long life, she knew her well enough to get a reading on her moods. When she was annoyed, she was sarcastic and overused big words. When she was pissed off, she spoke harshly and either pulled rank or used her power over boundaries to humiliate or destroy. And when she was incensed, she smiled a lot, spoke kindly, and mentally composed a scathing obituary for the target of her wrath.

And right now, Yukari was incensed.

Reimu wasn't scared of Yukari, not normally. Though she knew that the elder youkai could probably tear her apart molecule by molecule and then erase those molecules from existence, there was still plenty of space between being able to do something and actually going through with it. Yukari seemed to consider the Hakurei family essential to Gensokyo's continued existence, and as Reimu was the only surviving Hakurei, she was at least safe from being disintegrated by Yukari in a fit of anger. Besides, Reimu just didn't intimidate easily, not by authority or by raw power. And Yukari was no exception.

However, if put on the spot, Reimu would have to admit that having to plead Rin's case to an exceedingly angry Yukari after Rin had just gone on a devastating rampage across Gensokyo, one that had even coaxed Yukari's hated rival Yuuka Kazami out of seclusion, was making her a great deal more nervous than she was used to.

After imparting her orders to Kotohime, Yukari neither spoke to nor looked at Reimu as Ran wheeled her away from the others. However, once they had gone far enough to be out of range of any snooping ears, she signaled for Ran to bring the wheelchair to a stop near the edge of the platform. Once there, she spent several moments looking out at the devastation.

"Quite the spectacular catastrophe," she said at last. Her voice was calm and level. "It doesn't quite meet the same standards set by that brawl over at the Blasted Lands, but impressive nevertheless. And in the long run, far more problematic. After all, there is a sizeable difference between an empty wasteland that nobody cares about and what amounts to the front lawn of one of Gensokyo's most heavily populated areas." She shook her head and chuckled. "Of course, knowing Kanako, she'll still find a way to profit from this. Probably have the Kappa convert this whole area into a shopping center or a waterpark. Even so, I really need to have a word with King and Queen Hinanai about keeping a tighter control over their keystones. Those things are really just too dangerous to allow their idiot daughter access to. Of course, that conversation will have to happen before said idiot daughter is returned to them, as I seriously doubt they'll be in much of a listening mood after they've seen her condition." She leaned over the wheelchair's right armrest to look at Reimu. "What in the world happened to that girl, anyway? I know that everyone was playing a bit rough today, but my goodness! You know what she reminds me of? About ten years ago, around Christmastime, Chen decided that she not only wanted to make gingerbread fairies, she wanted to do so with minimal assistance from Ran and me. The results were…quite hilarious, actually." She glanced up at her Shikigami. "You remember that, don't you Ran? We were trying so hard not to laugh because we didn't want to hurt her feelings, but it was just so hard."

Ran, who was clearly wishing to be left out of this conversation entirely, managed to suppress the reflexive grimace and gave a quick nod.

"Now, how could Tenshi have ended up in such a state?" Yukari said, exaggeratedly rubbing her chin. "Because even with her burns miraculously…Well, I wouldn't say _healed, _per se. I don't think anyone with half a brain would use the word healed to describe her condition. But even so, even with the burns themselves mysteriously disappeared, the sulfur and brimstone smell was still quite distinctive. Why, if I didn't know better, I'd say she was on the unlucky end of a gush of Phoenix Fire." She looked back to Reimu. "But that doesn't make any sense. There haven't been any Phoenixes in Gensokyo for at least one-hundred forty-eight years. Well, of course, there's always Fujiwara no Mokou. But that still wouldn't make sense, seeing how the girl herself was recently devoured by a certain troublemaker. Now what was that naughty girl's name again?"

"Yukari," Reimu said. "I know you're probably-"

"Rin Satsuki, that's right!" Yukari said, snapping her fingers. "You know, with all the trouble Yuuka's been giving me as of late, I had almost forgotten about her." Her eyes narrowed. "Especially since she somehow managed to find one humdinger of a hiding place. Honestly, I was wondering if we'd ever be able to find her. But I guess she wasn't content to just lay low forever, eh? Maybe she got hungry. One can't help but wonder why the Celestial remains uneaten though. But I suppose it's no big mystery. I myself find Tenshi unappetizing even at the best of times. And perhaps Rin simply doesn't enjoy her meals overcooked. So I really can't fault her for sending Tenshi back to the kitchen."

Reimu took a deep breath to steady herself and tried again. "Look, I know you're probably pretty upset-"

"Upset?" Yukari raised an eyebrow. "Oh, Reimu, Reimu, Reimu. Understatements really do not become you. My dear friend, I am quite a bit _beyond_ being upset right. In fact, by this point, I've progressed beyond Hellish Anger Alley and Blind Fury Boulevard and am now working my way into I Cannot Be Held Responsible for My Actions Avenue. I mean, honestly. Added to the omnicidal monsters that seek to burn Gensokyo to the ground, the uncooperativeness of the people who are supposed to be my allies, and my own debilitating injuries, I just found out that one of the few people whose discretion I actually trusted has been actively working against my efforts to save this damned country by hiding one…No, wait, check that, Rin Satsuki is still carrying around the Shadow Youkai, isn't she? That would mean you've been hiding _two _of those monsters from me." Yukari's fingers tightened over her armrests, making the plastic and metal crumple. "So yes, 'pretty upset' really doesn't do what I'm feeling right now any justice."

Reimu sucked in a sharp breath. "Wait, you think the reason you haven't been able to find Rin is because _I've_ been _hiding_ her?"

Yukari twirled her finger in the air, indicating that she wished for the wheelchair to be turned around. When she and Reimu were properly facing each other, she said, "I heard what your business competitor said, Reimu. 'How are we supposed to help her then?' Did I misinterpret her words? Are you suggesting that, in my absence, some new definition for the word 'help' has sprung up?"

"Oh, _gods!" _Reimu smacked a palm across her forehead. "I…no, that's not what she meant! I haven't been hiding Rin from you! Hell, I have no idea where she's been this whole time! I only just found her zipping around her a couple hours ago, being chased by what had to have been a third of Gensokyo!"

"Is that right?" Yukari rested her chin on one hand and tapped an armrest with the other. "Then by all means, Reimu Hakurei, shrine maiden of Hakurei Shrine. Enlighten me as to what Sanae really meant."

Well, here went everything. Reimu steadied herself the best she could and said, "Look, we haven't been working against you or anything like that. No…no big conspiracies or evil schemes or anything like to that. Sanae meant help help! Like, actually help Rin!"

"Oh, that clears things up so much."

"I mean we were going to help make her normal again!" Reimu shouted. "That's what this was all about! Get her to actually cooperate with us, get rid of the Shadow Youkai, have her release all her prisoners, and then make her, uh, not a monster anymore! You know, cure her. Solve this problem without, without killing anyone. That's it."

Yukari's finger stopped tapping and one of her eyebrows arched up. "Oh, is that right?" She let out a slow sigh, which turned into a short coughing fit. When it ended, she seemed to relax a bit. "Well, while still very much a problem, that explanation is considerably preferable to my original conclusion."

Reimu felt a flurry of hope. "Oh?"

"Indeed. Had I been correct, I would be forced to have Kotohime clamp you in irons and escort you to Marisa's old cell."

"What?" Reimu's head jerked back.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I like you, I really do, but while I am willing to tolerate and forgive insults and being openly challenged, treachery something else entirely." Yukari carefully shifted into a more comfortable position and folded her hands over her lap. "And while I'll admit to having played favorites in the past, I'm afraid I do not currently have that luxury."

Reimu swallowed.

"But since that isn't the case, there is now less of a chance of this day ending with you behind bars. So that's a step in a positive direction."

Perhaps, but it certainly didn't feel that way. Any sort of debate in which you had to work your way up from almost being arrested was already off to a bad start.

Reimu closed her eyes and took a few moments to center herself. Granted, that fight had already shaken her up, and Yukari suddenly appearing and putting her on the spot was not helping in the slightest. But she had disagreed with, argued with, and yelled at the elder youkai on multiple occasions. Openly opposing Yukari was nothing she was unaccustomed to. It was just that this time she had to do something new: she had to change Yukari's mind.

"Okay," she said once she was sure her voice would remain steady. "Just so we're clear: you _are _going to hear me out on this and not shoot me down right off the bat, right?"

Yukari clicked her tongue, but she nodded. "Yes, you deserve that much, at the very least. Just be warned: we've already established that I am in an incredibly foul mood. So please, for both of our sakes, don't do anything that might aggravate that."

She gestured out with one hand, and one of her gaps opened up, this one between them and a few meters to Reimu's left. "But given the sensitive nature of this conversation, I suggest we relocate to somewhere private." She allowed herself a small smile. "Won't you step into my parlor?"

_Said the spider to the fly, _Reimu thought. She eyed the gap suspiciously. "Sure. And this isn't going to end up dumping me in that cell anyway, right?"

As soon as the words had left her mouth, Reimu realized that she had made a mistake, as Yukari's smile quickly vanished. "Reimu, while I do commend you for your wary mind, if such were my intentions, I would hardly need to deceive to get you to go anywhere. All I would have to do is this."

There was a sudden rushing of vertigo, and the next thing Reimu knew she was standing in a tiny concrete room that was even smaller than her shrine, with featureless walls, ceiling, and floor, an uncomfortable looking cot at one end, and crisscrossing steel bars at the other. Beyond the bars, she could see a male youkai, presumably a ferret, wearing a GPF uniform and working at a small desk.

Her balance thrown off from the sudden transition, Reimu stumbled forward and grabbed the bars for support. This drew the youkai's attention, and when he saw that the previously unoccupied cell now held the Hakurei shrine maiden, he very nearly leapt out of his seat.

"Screw my ancestors sideways!" he shouted. "Where the hell did-"

And then Reimu was back where she had started. The bars gone, she came uncomfortably close to faceplanting in the dirt but managed to orient herself just in time.

"I trust we understand each other?" Yukari said. "And don't get me wrong. I still like you, and respect your opinion a great deal more than that of most of the buffoons I've got running this place. But please, don't insult my intelligence, and I'll return the courtesy."

Ran looked troubled. "Master, are you sure this is-"

"Ran, not the time," Yukari said, holding up a hand.

"Yes, but-"

"No, it's okay," Reimu said as she made sure her feet would remain steady. "I can handle myself. And fine. Message received."

"Good to hear," Yukari said. She nodded toward the gap. "Now, shall we?"

This time, Reimu obliged. She wasn't fooled. That little trip to Marisa's now-empty cell had been more than Yukari making a point. She had intended to shake Reimu up in order to put her even more off her game.

But in that, Yukari had made a mistake as well, as being jerked around like that hadn't scared Reimu. Instead, it had just reignited her familiar anger, which was certainly in her favor. She didn't do well arguing from a defensive standpoint. But she was well used to using her anger to focus herself. It went a long way to quelling her nervousness and feeding her determination.

She stepped through the gap and was sucked through the fabric of reality.

…

_Deep Within_

At that moment, Rin was soaring high over the forest. She had disguised herself as a nondescript youkai and was using the Nue's power to divert attention from herself.

At another time, Rumia might have been worried about where Rin was taking them. At another time, she might have been concerned about what Rin intended. But now, she was a bit beyond such apprehensions, and now only felt the heavy numbness of resignation. It was oddly comforting, in a way.

But even so, she was still a little curious. So she said, "So, where is this promised last stand of yours gonna be?"

Rin, who had returned to her customary position in front of the screen, didn't even glance at her. But she said, "Well, it's not exactly gonna be my _last _stand, but anyway, think of it like this: whose fault is it that I ended up like this?"

"You mean half-baked and ready to explode?" Rumia asked. "Or you mean as a weird-ass, hungry, people-munching, blobby thingamajiggy?"

Rin considered the question. "I think both apply, actually."

Rumia shrugged. "Well, let's see. There's Miss Eirin…"

"Beat her nearly to death, smashed up her clinic and her house, and ate her princess," Rin said, her expression and tone remaining unchanged. "Who else?"

Starting to get an inkling of what Rin was getting at, Reimu said, "Well, there're those crazy scientist sisters…"

"'kay, them I didn't actually get to do anything to," Rin said with a shrug. "But they still came here looking for me, and the Strutter got destroyed, which had to be really, really expensive." She giggled. "Then they got arrested at everyone's mad at them. They're through. So, who's left?"

Understanding dawned, lifting Rumia out of her lethargy. "No way."

"Yes way." And with that, Rin started slanting downward. It was then that Rumia took notice of where they were and which direction they were heading. They were over the Forest of Magic, making a beeline for the Misty Lake. And beyond that, the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

The stone of Rin's face was starting to crack as crooked smile wormed its way up her cheeks. "I think it's time to pay your old bosses a visit, yeah?"

…

As soon as Reimu stepped into Yukari's home, she immediately noticed a number of changes. For one, the air was heavy with the stench of sterilization, chemicals, and rot, making her nose wrinkle in disgust. For another, she distinctly recalled there being a number of potted plants arranged tastefully in various places. Now, not even the pots remained. And as all the shades were drawn and the lights kept low, there was a feeling of oppressiveness that hadn't been there before. The place had never been especially cheery, but now just being here made her skin crawl.

"I'm afraid I don't entertain much these days, so forgive me if you find the place less comfortable than you remember," Yukari said as she and Ran materialized behind Reimu. "But it is the place where we are least likely to be interrupted."

"No problems here," Reimu said as she stepped to the side, allowing Ran to help Yukari of the wheelchair and to her favorite armchair. Ran folded up the wheelchair, set it next to the umbrella stand, and excused herself from the room.

Yukari motioned toward the other chair, which Reimu took without complaint. Then the elder youkai glanced at the cold ashes of the fireplace, which recollected themselves into serviceable firewood and burst into flame. The improvement to the room's atmosphere was marginal.

"Well Reimu, let's cut right to the chase," Yukari said, steepling her fingers in front of her nose. "As well-meaning as your current endeavor might be, it is still foolish and incredibly short-sighted. However, I did agree to hear you out. So by all means, proceed."

Reimu nodded. She opened her mouth to speak, but Yukari wasn't done. "Oh, and just to let you know, should your position hinge upon Satsuki's victimhood, her supposed innocence, her tender young age, and any other appeals to emotion, know that all of the above factors have already been taken into account and are not going to win me over. In fact, relying on them will cause me to terminate this conversation and reconsider not putting you under arrest. Are we clear?"

Again Reimu nodded. Then she said, "Rin saved my life."

A lengthy silence followed, during which Yukari stared unmoving at the shrine maiden. Then she turned her joined fingers downward and said, "Well, credit where it's due: that is not how I expected you to open this discussion. Now, by that, do you mean she did so intentionally?"

"Yeah. You know about the Strutter, right?"

Yukari nodded. "Yes, Kotohime did give me a brief rundown of the situation. That would be Rika and Rikako's creation, yes? Which Yuuka decided to hijack and send off on a rampage."

"Right. I was talking to Rin when it happened. Me and Kanako were talking to Rin when it happened. You know, trying to convince her to, uh, cooperate? And I was its first target. Rin saw its attack first and pulled me out of the way."

"Fascinating," Yukari said. She had yet to blink. "As is your confirmation that you managed to entangle Kanako Yasaka in this affair, something I had already gleaned from your discussion with her shrine maiden, as Sanae Kochiya is highly unlikely to be involved in something of this caliber without her goddess's consent."

Reimu winced. Whoops.

"It is surprising though, that Kanako would agree to such a thing," Yukari continued. "As recent as her addition to the Ringleaders' ranks might be, she always struck me as the most practical of the bunch. Granted, her ambitions can cause problems, such as that debacle with the Hell-Raven. But overall, she does have a good head on her shoulders, and looks at the big picture. Which must have made converting her quite the challenge."

"It was," Reimu confirmed. "But getting back to Rin…"

Yukari held up a palm. "We'll return to the poor sweet child of mass destruction in a moment. For now, I'm curious as to exactly how many people you've managed to rope into your altruistic disaster in the making. We've already gone over Kanako and her shrine maiden, but what of her people? The Tengu, for example. Is Boss Tenma likewise involved? What of Lord Zora and the Kappa?"

"No," Reimu said quickly. It was bad enough that Kanako was now in Yukari's crosshairs as well. There was no point in adding her worshippers to the collateral damage. "None of the Tengu are. And neither are the Kappa. Kanako just agreed to lend her resources and helped try to convince Rin to stop running and cooperate. That's all."

"Ah. So it's just her and her household, correct? Would that include Suwako Moriya as well?"

Reimu's hands were starting to dig into her armrests. "Look, if you want someone's head to roll for this, then just stick with mine. This was my idea. I brought them into this."

"Oh my, do my ears deceive me?" Yukari said, her eyes widening in mock surprise. She clasped her hands over her heart. "Reimu Hakurei, acting…selfless? Taking the full blame so that her associates might walk free? I never thought I'd see the day." Before Reimu could start yelling, Yukari said, "But no, you misunderstand me. This isn't about assigning blame and dolling out punishment. I merely wish to see the full picture so as to accurately gauge the damage."

"Damage?" Reimu said, her face scrunching up. "You mean the fight? Because that wasn't our fault. Yuuka-"

"Not that kind of damage. I'm referring to lasting damage to Gensokyo's already fragile political climate."

Reimu snorted. "Right. Because it's always politics with you."

Yukari glowered. "Don't test me, Reimu. You know I abhor political game as much as you do. The difference is that I don't have the luxury of ignoring it whenever convenient."

"Yeah, you do! You do it all the freaking time!"

"Under normal circumstances, certainly," Yukari said. "I'm content to remain hands-off and let everyone govern their own affairs. That is how I prefer it." As if to reflect its creator's mood, the fire dimmed, making the lights of Yukari's eyes stand out all the brighter in the shadows. "Unfortunately, these are _not _normal circumstances, and simply can't turn a blind eye to the lasting damage that these sorts of actions can inflict, however well-meaning they might be."

"Yeah?" Reimu said. "Like what?"

Yukari scratched her nose. "Oh, for example, let's say the most probable outcome happens and this all ends up blowing up in your face, and Satsuki ends up cutting a bloody swath across Gensokyo, whether under the Shadow Youkai's direction or of her own accord. Now, assuming that Kanako survives and the Kappa and the Tengu still _have _anything resembling a civilization afterward, there is every likelihood that Kanako's involvement will come to light. Now granted, she is well liked by her people and highly respected, despite not having been here long. Still, were it to be discovered that she was part of an operation that attempted to help the person responsible for so much destruction instead of ending the threat when she had the chance, well, let's just say there will be a number of people who will be most unhappy."

As she spoke, something strange started to happen inside the fireplace. At first Reimu thought that she was seeing things. As it turned out, she was, but her imagination wasn't to blame.

The fire was moving, taking shape. As Yukari spoke, it formed itself into an animate diorama, with tiny fiery people moving through a tiny fiery landscape, acting out the scenario as Yukari described it. Representations of Kanako, Suwako, and Sanae appeared. They were standing before a crowd of Tengu and Kappa, which wasn't anything unusual. What was unusual was that the crowd looked angry, with a great deal of muttering amongst themselves and accusatory finger-pointing in Kanako's direction. Kanako looked like she was imploring with them.

"She will retain many supporters, true, and perhaps there will be those willing to argue in her favor," Yukari said, providing the narration. "But the backlash will still be severe, creating a division among the people she represents and eroding her support base. The seeds of distrust will spread and grow, eventually calling for her expulsion. Much of the ire will likewise be directed toward Boss Tenma and Lord Zora, given how strongly they supported her rise to power. It wouldn't surprise me if they try to save face by turning on her, further widening the internal rift. And given the way the Tengu media works, their various tabloid outlets will love nothing more to encourage civil unrest so as to increase circulation." Yukari exhaled slowly. "Tell me Reimu, I know you're one to avoid crowds, but you do know the meaning of the phrase 'lynch mob,' don't you? How about 'civil war'?"

Reimu didn't look at her. Now the residents of Moriya Shrine were fearfully backing against a wall as the crowd advance with weapons drawn. Kanako clutched Sanae protectively, while Suwako pressed her back to the wall as she tried to search for some means of escape.

"And that's just touching on the internal strife," Yukari continued. "Relations between the Humans and the Youkai Mountain are exceptionally cordial, all things considered, but you know as well as I do that Master Sonozika will use any excuse to eliminate any good feelings between his people and Kanako's. The Shadow Youkai specifically targeted Human settlements the last time around, and it won't take much for Sonozika to stir up the belief that Kanako Yasaka was deliberately encouraging Rin Satsuki's breakdown. In fact, that would probably happen anyway, with or without his involvement. Fear, grief, and anger have been known to drive people to seek out whatever scapegoats they can find, and finger-pointing is all too common during a time of heavy tragedy. I know that Gensokyo is far from united, but should all this go down, it will become downright isolationist, with the survivors gathering into their little groups and actively hating everyone else." Yukari closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. She started coughing again, but was able to control it this time. _"That's _why I need to know how many people you've brought into this. It has nothing to do with blame, and everything to do with minimizing the collateral damage when things finally erupt! The Underworld is ready to dissolve into chaos because of what Satsuki did, and I am going to have my hands full keeping that from happening. I _will not _and _cannot _allow Gensokyo's other major communities to fall apart as well."

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia swallowed. She looked at the screen. In the distance, the Scarlet Devil Mansion was just appearing on the horizon. She looked to Rin, who was staring at the approaching mansion with unsettling intensity.

"The way I see it, I could just keep running and hiding, but what good will that do?" Rin was saying. Her speech was starting to get very odd, with the pitch rising and falling every syllable and the speed of her words steadily increasing. "Sure, I might as well be invisible now, but so what? What am I supposed to do? Change my shape and take up a new identity? Pretend to be a Human or something? Live out the rest of eternity as a fairy, or a random youkai, or something like that? Turn myself into a rock and never move for the rest of eternity?" She shook her head. "No way. I'm not spending forever as a freaking parasite. It's back to the way I was or nothing, you know?"

"And…you think getting payback is gonna make you normal again?" Rumia said. "Because I'm really not seeing how that's going to work."

They reached the shore. Rin didn't answer Rumia's question until she had slowed to a stop and dropped down to the border of the thin forested area that sat between Remilia Scarlet's property and the lake. Then she said, "No, Rumia, I don't. I'm just taking care of unfinished business before they take me down."

"Is that so," Rumia muttered. She nervously rubbed the back of her neck. "Say, uh, before you do that and go off to have your big, final stand, can you like throw me up first? You did promise, remember?"

Rin gave her the briefest of glances. "Yes, I do. And yes, I will." She smiled and reached up to pat Rumia's arm. "Don't worry. You'll be free soon. I just need your strength for a little longer, 'kay?"

Rumia flinched back from the touch. "Rin…"

"I know, I know, 'don't touch me.'" Rin turned back to the screen and started moving her physical body through the trees. "But yeah, settling a few scores is _part _of the reason I'm going here, but there's something else I gotta do."

Again, the world of emptiness shivered, just it had when Rin first disguised herself. The view on the screen suddenly dropped by a couple meters, meaning that her new form was significantly shorter than her previous body.

"Fairy," Rin said, answering Rumia's unspoken question. "With a maid uniform." She giggled. "Guess your 'internship' came in handy after all. Otherwise, I wouldn't know what they look like. But anyway, this trip is more than just revenge. I mean, it's like I told you earlier: I don't…" Her voice thickened. She swallowed and tried again. "I don't…mind if they kill me. But I'm not going back…in that box. Never again."

Rumia stared. "So, you're so scared of being put in one of those boxes that you're gonna head straight for the place where they keep all those boxes? That makes sense on what world?"

"The one that made me realize that with everyone still looking for me back at the Youkai Mountain, no one's gonna be thinking about the Scarlet Devil Mansion," Rin answered. She giggled again. "So, that should give us enough time to make sure they don't have a box to put me in."

And then Rumia got it. Her eyes popped open wide and she gawked openly at her captor.

"Yeah," Rin said, nodding. She turned her head around to grin up at the staring youkai. "According to your memories, they've got a whole bunch of those boxes, all locked away somewhere. So I think a little intentional property damage is in order."

Rumia ran her finger through her hair as she tried to process what Rin was telling her. "So, the plan is to rampage through the mansion, find the boxes and smash them, then kill Miss Patchouli and Miss Sakuya-"

"What? No!" Rin scowled in disgust. "Just the middle part! Sure, okay, I might be a freak of science, but just because I'm a monster doesn't make me a murderer." She looked back to the screen. "And I don't see why another rampage should be necessary. I don't wanna have them send Flandre Scarlet at me again, you know? That's why I disguised as part of the help. No, what I'm gonna do is sneak in, find those two…" Her face flushed with anger and words failed her. "Well, those two. Then I'm gonna swallow them whole, pull the location of the other boxes out of _Miss _Patchouli's brain, and then send them both into a dream. Only this time, I think I should have some creative input, you know?" Her broken smile returned, wider this time. "You know how I can mess with people's perception of time in here? I'm thinking I treat them to a few years of the same never-ending nothing that they damned me to. And when I do finally have to cough them up, I'll just make sure your librarian friend leaves how those boxes are made behind."

There was a long pause, and then Rumia let her arms fall to her side. "Wow," she said. "That's actually kinda worse. You're really giving the whole bad guy thing your all, ain't you?"

"I DON'T CARE!" Rin suddenly yelled, making Rumia jump. "They made me take that potion, they made me turn into this thing, they ruined my life! But what happened to them? Did anyone punish them for what they did to me?"

And then the Kirin was on her feet and screaming into Rumia's face. "No! They just decided to write me off as a screw-up and never speak of me again, like it never happened! Meanwhile, I spent nine freaking years in the darkness, with nothing to hold onto, no one to talk to, nothing to hope for! For the gods' sakes, at least prisoners can _sleep!" _She jabbed a finger against Rumia's sternum. "I didn't even have that! And I thought it was going to go on forever! I know that's what they intended! For me to just be their little mistake, hidden away in a box where no one could see. This is all their fault, and it's time they learned that!"

"Okay, okay!" Rumia said, quickly putting distance between them. "I get it! You're right, that sucked!"

Though Rumia had moved, Rin remained standing in the same position, her finger still poking the place Rumia's chest had been. "You were literally the first bit of hope I had had in years," she said, staring. "I thought I was going to be alone forever."

Rumia had no idea how she was supposed to respond to something like that, so she said nothing. As for Rin, she simply let her hand fall and turned to walk back to the screen, her eye to the outside. "I was never meant to see the sun again," she said, reaching up to lay a hand against the screen's surface. "Never to feel the warmth of a fire, or hear the sound of cicadas in the summer. Never have anyone touch me again. Eternal nothingness, just because they didn't want anyone finding out about their embarrassing mistake."

Actually, Rumia was fairly certain that her being locked up had more to do with her having lost her mind, destroyed Eientei, devoured several people, and was actively seeking to eat the rest, but prudence suggested that correcting the crazy Kirin with supernatural powers while she was waxing poetical was probably not a good idea.

"So hey, if that makes me a bad guy, just because I'm not gonna let them do that to me without anything happening to them, fine, call me a bad guy! I don't c-c-care." That last word broke down into another fit of giggles, this one crazier than the other two, almost sounding like a witch's cackle. "Because…even if they end me, I'm gonna make sure they feel it. I'm not just let them forget me again. They can erase me, but by the gods, this time they'll remember me!"

As Rin made her speech, goosebumps rose on Rumia's arm. Something weird was happening. The darkness was being weird again, like it did whenever Rin took an especially big hit. She could swear that it was moving, like the surface of tempestuous waters. There were whispers too, so quiet that Rumia wasn't sure if she were imagining them, or if they were part of Rin's voice, as they seemed to rise and fall in tempo with her own.

Rumia swallowed and hunkered down into a defensive crouch, but nothing jumped out to attack her. As for Rin, she didn't seem to notice that anything was different. She just sighed and let leaned forward to rest her forehead against the screen. "Well," she said, calmer this time, "that's the idea at least. Who knows if anyone still remembers me after a century or two?"

She moved away from the screen to sit back down. As she did so, the whispers faded away and the darkness settled down. Rumia glanced around, waiting to see if things would get weird again. When they didn't, she relaxed her guard and walked over to sit near Rin.

"Okay," she said. "Just for the record, what you did just now? That was really freaking creepy."

Sniffling, Rin gave her a sidelong look and smirked. "Was it? Sorry. Guess I got a little carried away."

"Yup, you did." Rumia fell silent for a few seconds and then shrugged. "Well, hey, what the hell. I'd want payback too. And there were plenty of times when I wanted to punch Miss Patchouli in her smug, fat face."

"Is that right?" Rin said with a small laugh. "Well, I'll be sure to put one in for you."

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Rumia patted Rin on the shoulder. "Oh hey, for what it's worth, I've got no problem with monsters, so if you're gonna do this, feel free to go for broke, okay?"

Rin didn't say anything. Instead, she just slowly turned her head to stare at the hand on her shoulder with a very surprised expression.

"What?" Rumia said. Then she became aware of the contact and quickly withdrew her hand.

"Well," she said, scooting a few centimeters away. "Okay, let's not just sit around talking while there's stuff to break and people to smack, so let's go do this, yeah?"

Rin grinned. She didn't move.

"Stop looking at me like that," Rumia said. "Seriously."

…

Reimu was speechless. While had long feared the trouble her allies might get into should things go wrong, she had been counting on it coming from Yukari herself. The idea that she might be endangering the foundations of their respective communities was…troubling, to say the least.

Yukari, however, still retained full use of her voice. "Now, I know I'm not assuming much by adding Mima and her desctructophile of a prodigy to the list, seeing how they were both present during that conversation and their close relationship with yourself. Plus, we all know that Mima will jump at any chance to irritate me." She shrugged. "No direct problems there, save for adding more fuel to the fire when Sonozika makes his move, as he will probably use them as an excuse to break off relations with your shrine entirely and therefore eliminating what little support you receive from the village, if not calling for the whole thing to be burned to the ground. And, of course, there are the inherent dangers of including either of them in _any _sort of delicate operation, but that's a different can of worms altogether." She scratched lightly at a small cluster of blister that stuck out from her chin like warts. "Hmmm, who else, who else…" Then she blinked, frowned, and rolled her eyes. "Oh, of course. I should have thought of her first. The _Palaquin _was a tip-off, after all. Byakuren is in on this as well, isn't she?"

Reimu did her best not to look too dismayed, but was sure that she failed.

"Thought so," Yukari said, her lips twisting into a triumphant smirk. "As positive of a force as she's been, she is sentimental to a fault. No doubt she was one of the first people you approached, yes?" Yukari blinked. "In fact, that would go a long way to explain Kanako's involvement. This is the sort of thing Byakuren would enter into without question, and she is nothing but persuasive when she has a cause. But then, you had already figured that out."

"Okay, okay, you're right!" Reimu said, swiping her hands to both sides in front of her. "I went to Byakuren because I thought she could win Kanako over. And hey, her resources and magic didn't hurt either. You got me. Now, getting back to Rin-"

"We'll return to her in due time," Yukari murmured. "Let's talk about Byakuren for a moment. Now, I do not blame you for turning to her for help. After all, given her various charitable crusades and increasing influence, she is a logical choice, from both a practical and sentimental stance." She coughed into her fist. "And we've all seen how useful that boat of hers can be in a pinch."

"Yeah, I know. Look, do we really have to do this?"

"Yes, we do." Yukari adjusted her position and crossed her legs, entwining her hands in front of her knee. "I already told you that I need to all the information you can give so as to offset the calamity you've set off. Now, how much of Myouren Temple is involved? Is it just Byakuren herself, or is her entourage also in the know?" When Reimu declined to answer, Yukari said, "Reimu, I will have an answer to that question before this hour is out. You can give it to me now, or I go talk to Byakuren personally. Your choice."

Her shoulders slumping in defeat, Reimu said, "Yeah, they know. At least, Murasa and her crew do. Shou Toramaru too, probably. Beyond them, I don't know."

"Ah. Well, that much is to be expected. And what of Kotohime Sonozika? Would the GPF's presence at the disaster area be attributed to her own involvement?"

"What? Kotohime?" Reimu blinked in surprise. "The hell? Why would I go to her? We don't even like each other! Besides, she works for you!"

"Oh, that hurt," Yukari drawled.

"Hey, knock that the hell off! And no, Kotohime doesn't have a clue what we were doing! She was just at the crater because it's her freaking job!"

"Is that right?" Yukari's shoulders lifted in a brief shrug. "Well, that's very encouraging. In fact, I should probably give that girl a raise."

"For what?" Reimu said. "Refusing? I didn't even approach her, I already told you that!"

"No, but she's openly demonstrated her loyalty to the point where you did not even consider it. That's a rare quality in these times, and should be rewarded."

"Okay, fine!" Reimu said, throwing her hands into the air. "Give her a nice fat Christmas bonus, I don't care! Why'd you even suspect her anyway?"

Yukari shook her head. "Oh Reimu, that should be obvious enough. Myouren Temple and the GPF enjoy a very comfortable relationship, almost symbiotic. It was Kotohime's campaigning that cemented Byakuren's foothold in the Human Village, despite her uncle's wishes. And it's because of Byakuren that the GPF has any nonhuman members at all. Say what you want about me and the people in my employ; but you do have to admit that those two organizations are the most successful examples of interspecies cooperation Gensokyo's seen in a good, long time."

It was all Reimu could do not to groan out loud. She now had a very good idea of what Yukari was getting at.

"So you see," Yukari continued, "even if Kotohime doesn't have the slightest clue of what you're up to, even if she and her people are not involved, they still are. Should the previously described worst-case scenario occur, Myouren Temple's influence is going to be…severely compromised. Granted, Byakuren's personal retainers will remain loyal, but Sonozika will most certainly use the incident to kick them out of the Human Village, and the GPF with them. Any officer that does not renounce their allegiance and turn on Kotohime and myself will be branded a traitor. And without Byakuren to vouch for them, the denizens of the Wilds will no longer tolerate their presence. That's a fair number of Humans suddenly exiled from their homes and cast into a hostile environment, to say nothing of their nonhuman companions likely abandoning them in the process."

Again, the fire came alive, providing Yukari's words with a visual aide. She saw Kotohime and several other Humans chased from the Human Village by an angry mob. She saw that same mob descend upon Myouren Temple, cut through its defenders, and tear it down. She saw the former GPF officers, many of them wounded, fearfully gathering around a fire, while wild youkai prowled along the perimeter of their makeshift campsite.

Shuddering, Reimu tore her eyes away from the scene. It was just another one of Yukari's methods of manipulation, after all. "You don't know that will happen," she said indignantly.

Yukari raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps not, but have you ever seen the aftermath of a massacre? Because I have. And let me assure you, once the mourning and counseling have passed, anger will be quick to set in, and any old grudge and hurt will be dug up and amplified. Finger-pointing is incredibly common, and Sonozika has many, many fingers. Metaphorically speaking, of course."

"All of that because of him," Reimu muttered. "You're telling me that guy is really that bad?"

Yukari snorted. "Reimu, have you _met_ the man?"

"Then do something about him! You're like the empress of everything, right? Fire him or something!"

Yukari stared. "Oh yes, what a fantastic idea. Just go and dispose of a major community's lawful leader, with no justifiable cause, in a time when all of his people will be at their angriest and most paranoid. Yes, that will go over real well. The man may not be Mr. Popular, but he does have most of the Humans' respect. An asshole, to be sure, but he's _their _asshole. And during a time of crisis, they're all the more likely to rally around him."

"So there's _nothing_ you can do?" Reimu seethed.

"Of course there is," Yukari said, her voice neutral. "Rather than try to shut down his campaign while it's in full force, I prefer to prevent the catalyst that will set it off in the first place. Like, per se, the wholesale slaughter of his people at Rin Satsuki's hands?"

Reimu's knuckles popped as she gripped the armrests. "She is _not _going to go on a murder spree if you'd just shut up and listen to me!"

"I'm sure you believe that," Yukari said. She uncrossed her legs. "And you'll get your chance to try to convince me of that. But I'd really like to complete the ghastly picture you've been drawing for me." She rolled her eyes upward. "Now, the Underground is straight out for obvious reasons. And I seriously doubt that Tenshi was here as your ally, so would I be correct in discarding Heaven as well? Yes? Good. The Netherworld? No? No surprises there." Then her eyes narrowed. "What of Makai? Did those two heavenly rejects-"

"No, no, no!" Reimu said quickly. "Not them, haven't talked to them either."

"No? Interesting. You probably should have, as their aide in dealing with the Shadow Youkai problem would have been invaluable." Yukari shrugged. "And I'm curious: thus far, you've claimed that you went to Byakuren to help win Kanako over, indicating that this was not their idea. And yet, I find it very hard to believe that this, ah, enterprise sprang from you, considering how open you were to executing Satsuki when this first began. Tell me, before we continue rooting out all the people you've talked to, were we to work backward from yourself, would we find anyone?"

Reimu choked.

"Again, I thought so," Yukari smirked. "Now, who could it have been? Byakuren would be the most likely suspect, but she's already been eliminated. Hmmm, Sakuya Izayoi? Not bloody likely. Eirin herself, maybe? Perhaps this is her way of atoning for…But there is that impressive and extremely expensive arsenal she's equipped her bunnies to hunt the girl with. Still can't write her off completely though, as she does have the…Oh wait." Yukari pursed her lips. "Now that I think about it, there was someone closer to Satsuki than Eirin. Someone who, if I recall correctly, attacked Eirin and ran off a few weeks back and hasn't been seen since. Someone who isn't exactly known for having an especially large brain." She waited for an answer, and when none came, she said, "Reimu?"

Reimu didn't look at her.

"Reimu? Did Reisen Udongein talk you into this?"

Reimu considered lying, but she wasn't Genji. She had no chance of successfully deceiving Yukari. "Yes," she said.

"And is Reisen currently hiding in your shrine?"

"Yes."

"I see." Yukari's eyes closed for a moment, and opened again. "So, on top of everything, you are also hiding and aiding a terrorist. Fascinating."

Reimu's head jerked up. "Wait, terrorist?"

"She assaulted the acting head of one of Gensokyo's communities, stole sensitive property, and disappeared. Also, she is actively seeking allies to help her assist a dangerous fugitive carrying a deadly weapon."

"Oh, quit it with the wordplay!" Reimu snapped. "She saw the guns Eirin had bought, tried to run away, and Eirin tried to stop her. Reisen freaked out, zapped her on reflex, and got scared. That's why she ran to me. She's screwed up, sure, but that doesn't make her a terrorist."

"In my experience, actions carry more weight than intentions," Yukari said. "And tell me, when she fled to your shrine, was that where this all began?"

Reimu shook her head. "No, she came to me during the Ringleader meeting. I talked to Kanako and Byakuren soon after."

"Ah. That explains why she fled to you for shelter. No doubt you're the only person she trusted. But Reimu, come on. What were you thinking, taking in a criminal? You risk having the entire Bamboo Forest come down on you-"

"She claimed sanctuary," Reimu snapped. "I gave it. It's allowed. If Eirin has a problem with that, tough."

"You'll be singing a different tune when she presses the matter in person," Yukari said. "But my, what a tangled web of calamity you've woven around yourself. But getting back to your allies, are there any more that…" Then her brow knit together in a furious scowl. "Oh, wait, wait, wait. That old fool had better not have…"

"Huh?" Reimu said, confused. "What?"

"What about the Dragons? Are they involved in any way, shape, or form?"

Reimu's head jerked back. "The hell? The _Dragons? _Why would I be working with the freaking _Dragons? _How would I even begin to…"

"Answer the question, please," Yukari said.

"No! No, I'm not! Hell, the only one I've ever met is that one that lives with Kasen, and she went on some kind of pilgrimage back in September, haven't seen her since! Besides, it's the freaking Dragons! Like they'd ever listen to…" Reimu scowled. "The hell is up with you?"

While Reimu had been speaking, Yukari's face had gone to war with itself. She had been trying to maintain her poker face, but her mouth kept trying to force itself into a smile, and she had the look of something trying very hard not to laugh.

"Nothing, nothing," Yukari said. "A private joke." She cleared her throat.

"Okay, you know what, I've had enough of this bullshit." Reimu leapt to her feet, stomped over to Yukari, and jabbed a finger at Yukari's face. "You wanna know who's part of this? It's Hakurei Shrine, Moriya Shrine, and Myouren Temple. And Marisa too. That's it. No one else. So stop going through the godsdamned list and accuse everyone of stabbing you-"

Then next thing Reimu knew, she was sitting back in her chair with her finger still outstretched, a healthy distance from Yukari. She blinked, and then glowered. "And stop doing that!"

"Oh, but it is necessary," Yukari said, ignoring Reimu's protests. "The scenario I just described to you is but a fraction of the calamity that can come to be because of your failure to think your actions through. You see, that's the difference between you and me: you have gotten yourself worked up over one little girl. Me, I have to worry about _all_ of them."

…

Remilia's hand was still trembling, but she managed to keep it steady enough to dip into the bowl of soup and bring it to her lips. Her eyes fluttered with ecstasy as she sipped the steaming broth.

Sakuya stood at her mistress's side, ready to assist with a steadying hand or a napkin should it be necessary. To be truthful, it was difficult to even let Remilia feed herself. The urge pamper her mistress like she's never been pampered before in her long and spoiled life was almost irresistibly strong, but enough of Remilia's stubborn pride remained for her to insist on holding her own silverware. She had consented to letting Sakuya bathe and dress her in clean clothing, but then, she usually did.

Her mistress's condition was just as bad as she feared, and Sakuya didn't know if she would ever forgive herself for allowing Remilia to decay this far. The first stage of blood starvation! What had she been thinking? Thank the gods for Patchouli's merciful disobedience. The magician was sleeping at the moment and had made it clear in no uncertain terms that harsh repercussions would befall anyone foolish enough to awake her, but Sakuya fully intended to make her gratitude known in the future, just as soon as she figured out how. But for now, her attention was fully occupied with her mistress's care. It was just her good fortune that vampires were evolved to survive on a liquid diet to begin with, so tomato and basil soup mixed with purified blood was just what the doctor ordered.

Remilia managed to finish most of the spoonful, but her hand's shaking got worse, making the rest spill. Sakuya gently covered Remilia's hand with her own, keeping it stable.

"Thank you," Remilia murmured as she lowered the spoon. "Even if I do feel dreadfully silly right now."

"No shame in accepting help when it's needed, mistress," Sakuya said, dabbing at the side of Remilia's mouth with the napkin.

"Hmmm, yes, I suppose." Remilia stared down at the still full bowl before her but didn't lift her spoon for another sip.

"Mistress?" Sakuya said, worriedly tilting her head. "Is there a problem with the soup? I can have it replaced if you're not in the mood for tomato."

"What? Oh, no, no, no," Remilia said with a weak laugh. "No, it's delicious, as always. It's just…" She sighed. "I've been such a fool."

Oh, so that was what it was. "We all we were, mistress," Sakuya said graciously.

Remilia looked up to her. Her crimson eyes were still pale with weakness, but they twinkled with amusement. "Hmmm, I noticed that you did not try to convince me otherwise."

"Far be it from me to contradict my lady," Sakuya said, her voice grave.

"Ah, well struck," Remilia said with another squeaking laugh. "But you're not right."

Sakuya frowned.

Remilia sipped at another spoonful of soup, this time managing not to lose any. "We weren't all fools. At least, Patchouli wasn't."

"In many ways, she is the biggest fool of us all," Sakuya said with an air of gravity. "Just not in this specific situation."

That made Remilia laugh harder. It wasn't much by her usual standards, but it was a heartening improvement. "Ah, truer words have never been spoken. But even so, we all owe her a debt."

On that point Sakuya was in full agreement.

She stayed by Remilia's side until the little vampire managed to finish almost all the soup, then she helped her lift the bowl to drain the rest.

"Ah, well, that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be," Remilia said as Sakuya wiped her face.

"Not at all," Sakuya said. "Would you like another-"

Suddenly Remilia's stomach gurgled, quite loudly. The vampire and her maid looked at each other and this time they both laughed.

"Well, I suppose _that _answers your question better than I ever could, wouldn't you agree?" Remilia said, patting her tummy.

"Completely, mistress," Sakuya said as she drew another ladleful from the silver pot and refilled Remilia's bowl.

"Oh, and ah…" Remilia said suddenly.

"Yes?"

"Do you by any chance have any of those little cookies? The crunchy ones with the chocolate coating?"

Smiling, Sakuya rose to her feet. "Of course. Let me go get them."

She pulled her pocketwatch from her apron pocket. Fortunately, the damage it had taken during that route with Yuuka Kazami had not been permanent, and with Patchouli's help she had fixed it within the first week. Of course, given the state her mistress had been at the time, she had found little to celebrate in its repair, but it had been a small blessing nonetheless.

Clicking it, she stepped off the path of time and left the room, leaving a frozen Remilia behind. She felt an uncharacteristic bout of giddiness, and caught herself skipping down the stairway on the way to the kitchen. Thank goodness all of the mansion staff she passed were as frozen as their master and thus incapable of seeing her, but even then she wouldn't have minded much. She had made enough of a fool of herself already; a little more embarrassment wouldn't hurt her much. Truthfully, she found it hard to care about such things. Remilia was once again in her right mind and returned to her. It was as if Sakuya had been wearing clothes of lead these past weeks and only just had them removed. True, Flandre's absence still cast a heavy shadow over the mansion, but there was so little joy to be found these days, so Sakuya was going to take it where it was found, and Remilia's return was certainly a cause for celebration.

And from the look of things, she wasn't the only one who thought so. All of the fairies that she passed were wearing cheerful smiles, a welcome relief from the fearful expressions that had been the norm as of late. Smiling wide in return and with a bounce in her step, Sakuya passed by one group of fairy maids and turned toward the door that led to the kitchens.

Then she stopped in her tracks. The smile faded away.

Wait a minute…

…

_Deep Within_

Entering the mansion had been surprisingly easy. Most everyone seemed to be inside for some reason, including the gate guard, and no one had noticed Rin sneaking in through one of the side doors. Having spent a solid week trying to keep the ever-persistent Marisa Kirisame from entering the place, Rumia had a working knowledge of the easiest points of entry.

Once inside, there were enough of the fairy maids moving around in groups that Rin was able to tag along with one after another, using them to blend in as she moved through the corridors.

"So, where's the library?" she asked.

Rumia frowned as she searched her memory. "I don't really know this part of the mansion. I was only here for like a week and spent most of it outside. Try to find that big room in the front, the one with all the staircases. I think I can find it from there."

"The foyer?"

"Whatever. That one."

Rin nodded and kept moving through the hallways. Rumia kept searching for any recognizable markers, but nothing popped out at her.

"This place is big," Rin said, wonder in her voice. "I mean, this place is really, really big."

"I know, right?" The group of maids they were following passed through a some kind of sitting room full of rich furniture done up in red satin and gold trim. It was easily larger than most monarchs' banquet halls, complete with a lilypad-filled fountain in one corner. "Miss Sakuya does something weird with that pocketwatch of her, makes it bigger on the inside than on the outside."

"Wow," Rin said as she paused to stare at a gem-encrusted grandfather clock that was topped with a golden carving of a bat with its wings spread wide. "That's kind of neat, actually."

"Yeah. Kinda makes you wonder why Miss Marisa only ever went after the books and the magic doodads. I mean, look at this stuff!"

With great reluctance Rin turned away from the wealth that surrounded them to continue the search. They weren't on a sight-seeing tour after all, even if the Scarlet Devil Mansion held more marvels than most museums.

The next hallway had a row of nine-meter tall windows along its left side. "Okay, we're on the edge," Rumia said. "So, just follow this, and it should take us to the big room sooner or later."

Rin nodded and moved along. The small group of fairies was heading along the same way, so Rin was able to continue to use them for cover. Paying no attention to the fact that they had picked up a tagalong, the fairies chatted happily amongst themselves. Distracted with their mission, Rin and Rumia only listened with half-an-ear. Apparently Remilia Scarlet had been ill as of late, and was finally on the mend. But it wasn't until a different name was mentioned that the two invading youkai began to pay real attention.

"_Everything's almost back to normal!" _said one of the fairies. _"And when someone rescues Flandre, everything will be all right!"_

Rin's head jerked back. She exchanged a brief glance with Rumia and then leaned in closer to listen.

"_I don't know," _said another fairy. _"I'm actually kind of relieved she's gone. I mean, it sucks for the mistress, but at least we don't have to worry about her getting out and tearing us apart anymore."_

"_Yeah, remember the last time that happened?" _said a third. _"I had nightmares for weeks!"_

A wide smile grew on Rin's face. "Did you hear that?" she said excitedly. "Flandre Scarlet's gone!"

"I'm right here, of course I heard!" Rumia said. She began to smile in turn. "Well, well, well, finally something's going our way!"

"I know, right?" Rin jumped up and started looking a little dance. "I mean, now we have nothing to worry about! She was the only one who could fight us, and with her gone, that means-"

"_Wait one moment!"_ shouted an authoritative voice. _"You there! Come here!"_

Rin stiffened immediately, her eyes popping wide. As for Rumia, she felt like her system had been flooded with ice water. She knew that voice.

There, standing behind them, was Sakuya Izayoi. The chief maid's brow was furrowed. She looked perplexed, and a little angry.

"Where did she come from?" Rin whispered frantically. "She wasn't there a second ago!"

"I don't know!" Rumia whispered back. "Just don't freak out! Maybe she's talking to one of the other guys or just wants us to do the laundry or something."

Indeed, the other fairies they had been following had also stopped and were staring at Sakuya with naked apprehension. They moved toward her, but she held up her hand, stopping them.

"_No, not you four,"_ she said. _"I know you. Go about your business. I need to talk to her."_

She was pointing straight at Rin.

"She can't see through my disguise, right?" Rin said. She was starting to shake. "This has gotta be a mistake, right?"

"I don't know!" Rumia said. "Just…hold it together, okay?"

Sakuya frowned as she leaned in close, her icy eyes studying Rin's face. Then she said, _"I remember the names and faces of every fairy, youkai, mortal, demon, spirit, and other sentient being to have ever worn one of my uniforms. And I am quite certain that I've never seen you before in my life. So tell me, who are you, and what are you doing in this house?"_

…

Reimu was growing angry again. "You think I don't care about them too?" she demanded. "You think I'm just singlemindedly focusing on Rin and forgetting about everyone else? I've got the same worries as you! I've just got one more person I intend to save than you!"

"If it were that simple, our lists would be identical," Yukari said. "Unfortunately, it's not, so they're not."

"Look, I understand that-"

"No you do not," Yukari said harshly. "You cannot, so don't pretend otherwise. You are mentally incapable of grasping the peril our home is in right now, and thus fail to understand how much worse you are making things."

The color in Reimu's cheek rose. "Hey, where in the hell do you-"

"Where do you think? You cannot understand the situation we are in because, to be quite frank, you do not understand death."

And Reimu was struck dumb.

"You just don't understand it, Reimu," Yukari said with a small wave of her hand, her voice weary. "You've tasted it here and there, certainly, but that's not the same thing as seeing the aftermath of a horde of invaders, of walking through the charnel house that had been, just the day before, a thriving village that had never been a threat to anyone, the dirt turned to mud from the blood, the heads of the children stuck on pikes as a warning, their bodies left out for the wild dogs. You've never had to descend upon a mighty metropolis, filled with just as many innocent as guilty, fully intending to annihilate every living thing within with her own hands. You haven't watched generation after generation of friends and enemies grow old and die, to be replaced by the next batch in turn. You've never denied a starving family entry to your personal paradise, because they carried an incurable curse that would have spread to your people as soon as they stepped foot inside. You haven't watched your friends and colleagues fade away and vanish because the people who had once paid them faith and devotion decided that they didn't need their help anymore." She closed her eyes and pressed two fingers against her forehead. "Wait until Marisa goes insane and you're forced to end her life yourself, then you can claim to understand. At least, I'd acknowledge you as a junior member of the club."

Reimu's throat was now so thick that she didn't dare try to speak. Because as much as she wanted to tell Yukari to shut up, that she didn't know what she was talking about, hadn't she had those same thoughts just a few minutes ago, when that woman, Meira, had died for her? Hadn't watching someone lose their life in her place shaken her up so profoundly that she had been in a near-daze for a good portion of the cleanup? She imagined having to witness such things again and again over the centuries, of having to do the killing herself because no one else could.

What kind of person would she become, to have seen so much death and caused so much of it herself? To continue on, year to year, decade to decade, century to century, with so much blood on her hands and knowing full well that the future would only make them bloodier?

The answer was simple: _Ask Yukari._

Studying Reimu's face, Yukari nodded slowly. "Yes, I've done as much, and will do so again. No, I don't enjoy it, I would rather not have to resort to such measures, but you know as well as I do that sometimes, you just don't have any other choice. It doesn't happen very often, but live as long as I have, with the responsibilities that I have, and you'll find that it adds up."

Reimu found her voice then, though it was thick and rough. "Why do you care?"

"Excuse me?" Yukari blinked. "I didn't catch that."

Taking a deep breath, Reimu tried again. "Why do you care? You're…you're a youkai, an immortal. You don't see death the same way we do. Why would you care about all the people you've killed? Hell, why would even care enough to kill in the first place?"

"Oh, that's easy enough to answer," Yukari said with a small shrug. "I love this county."

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia inhaled sharply. Damn it, why did all their attempts to be stealthy always blow up in their faces? Even with the combined powers of a Nue and a Tanuki things went wrong. It just wasn't fair.

"Okay Rin, keep cool," she said. "Don't freak out, and, uh, just tell her what I tell you, okay?" She tried to keep her own panic levels down as she wracked her brain for a suitable cover story. "Uh, say that Miss Patchouli was, was, was using you to test out a…a face changing spell thingy, and it got stuck!" That actually wasn't half-bad, given the circumstances. Pleased with herself, she nodded and added, "Or you liked the new more than the new one! Miss Patchouli is always doing weird-ass experiments on people…which I just remembered that you already know…so she might buy that!" She waited for Rin to follow her script. When she didn't, Rumia cleared her throat and said, "Rin? Any moment now. Hello, you listening?"

She wasn't the only one to notice Rin's lack of response. On the screen, Sakuya was also growing impatient. _"Excuse me, are you mute? Or have you simply been struck speechless? Perhaps you are unaware of how things work here, but when I ask a question, I expect an answer." _She flicked her right hand, and three of her trademark silver knives appeared between her fingers. Rumia, having been on the wrong end of those knives on at least one occasion, shuddered.

Rin, however, wasn't intimidated. In fact, she still hadn't moved at all. She just remained in place, staring at the screen with a look of open curiosity.

"Rin!" Rumia hissed. "Come on! You're about to blow our cover!"

"You know, I was thinking," Rin said, not taking her eyes away from Sakuya.

"Really? That's a first," Rumia snapped. "And can you save the deep thinking for a time when we're not-"

As if she hadn't heard her, Rin waved an arm at Sakuya. "Flandre Scarlet's gone, so why do I have to be afraid of her again?"

…

The strange fairy had still not given Sakuya the answer she had demanded. Instead, she just hovered there, staring stonefaced.

As for Sakuya, she was starting to grow worried. In her experience, when such diminutive creatures such as fairies showed neither fear nor aggression, it meant there was more to them than met the eye, especially when they had been caught trespassing. Keeping her thumb at the read over her pocketwatch's button, she held up her knives in plain view. "You are trying my patience," she said. "I will give you one more chance. If you do not respond, you'll be cut to ribbons."

"Is that so,"the fairy said suddenly, speaking for the first time. "And I'm curious: after I resurrect, then what will you do?"

The answer to that question would be to swat her outside and kick her over the gates and send her flying with a knife sticking out of her backside, but now that Sakuya had proof of the fairy's hostile intentions, she was no longer interested in asking or answering questions. She brought time to a stop and set to work: swiftly moving over, under, and around the fairy, hurling knives as she went. When the fairy was surrounded by a sphere of gleaming silver, she put a healthy distance between herself and her victim and let time and physics take their course.

Now released from Sakuya's hold, the knives flew forward to impale the fairy from several dozen directions, sticking to her like a humanoid porcupine. But though that space now contained more knife than fairy, she didn't die. She didn't even stagger.

Oh, this wasn't good.

The fairy reached up with one knife-covered arm to pull out two blades that were holding her mouth shut. "Yes, I remember you and your knives; and believe me, I also remember very well how much they hurt. But you wanna know the funny thing about that? Once I get hit by the same thing enough times, it stops hurting. And you already used up all your tries nine years ago."

And then her body started to suck the knives in.

All of the joy Sakuya had been feeling from Remilia's recovery was washed away by a flood of ice-cold fear. A horrible realization was dawning, one that was almost too terrible to contemplate. No, it couldn't be. Not here, not now.

The fairy finished absorbing the last of the knives and showed no injury for it. Then her body warped and morphed into a shifting blob of color, which shrank into a new form: one of a young youkai girl, with shoulder-length blonde hair, a round face, and clear blue eyes.

Rin Satsuki cocked her head to one side and grinned. "But I guess the _real _question is this: do you remember me?"

Sakuya's interactions with Satsuki had been limited. She had been introduced to the Kirin girl at the start of the experiment, certainly, but of the two residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion that had been involved, Patchouli had considerably more contact with her, interviewing Satsuki multiple times and running her through endless tests. Sakuya had spent most of her time discussing matters with Eirin Yagokoro and making plans with Patchouli, content to let the others see to Satsuki's care.

Of course, once things had gone completely wrong, Sakuya had done her part to try to fight her off, only to discover that her powers were useless. And while using Flandre as a weapon had been her idea, she had still had very little direction contact with Satsuki. Even during her trial and imprisonment, she had hung mostly toward the back. In fact, out of everyone who had been involved in that calamity, she had been the most withdrawn from the actual test subject.

But it appeared that Satsuki still remembered her, and she had finally arrived to settle that score. And with Patchouli's barrier unfinished and Flandre gone, there was next to nothing they could do to stop her.

Satsuki's form changed once again, this time becoming Sakuya herself. Her double grinned wide and spread her arms. Her fingers lengthened and narrowed, turning into metallic claws.

Sakuya didn't meet her challenge. She stopped time immediately and fled. She couldn't hope to face Satsuki alone, and the others had to be warned. If she hurried, perhaps they could evacuate everyone before anyone was lost. But with Remilia in the condition she was, she was not at all optimistic about their chances.

…

At Reimu's incredulous look, Yukari allowed herself a small smile. "You look surprised. Was my answer not one you were expecting?"

Reimu shook her head. "No, not really. I mean, I know you're really protective of Gensokyo, but…"

"Well, you're not wrong." Yukari leaned her head back, her eyes misting over. "I love this country. I love watching the moon rise. I love wandering through the forests. I love it when wild youkai try to pick fights with me. I love watching the cherry blossoms fall. I love the long fishing trips Chen always insists we go on at least twelve times every summer. I love watching the setting sun, on the rare occasions that I get up early enough to watch it.

And I love the people. The Humans who always seem to be overcompensating for something, the Tengu who always seem to have detached their mouths from their brains, the Kappa believe that there is no problem that can't be solved with lots of explosives, the Celestials who all seem to have cotton candy for brains, the fairies who'll cheerfully attack the same overpowered monster in the evening that had blown them up that same morning, the Oni who only emerge from their drunken hazes when they find something they haven't smashed yet, the Kirin with their ridiculous fashion statements, the Satori who insist on loudly providing commentary for every embarrassing thought that crosses your mind and then act surprised when no one wants to be around them, and the list goes on. It's a country of silly children, and while it occasionally drives me up a wall, I love the fools that inhabit it."

"Okay, fine," Reimu said. "But still, how the hell does that give you the right to do the things you do, to be so cold as to just point at someone and say 'Okay, you need to die, so these people over here can live'?"

"Ah, now we get to the heart of the matter," Yukari murmured. "I thought this would come up sooner or later. And for your information, I am not so blasé with the lives of others as you've been led to believe. I simply have lost such reservations a long time ago, and gratefully parted ways with the delusion that you can always save everyone. Reimu, wake up. As hard as it might be to face, sometimes it _is _necessary to sacrifice someone else's life to keep everyone from dying. You simply have the misfortune of living through one of those cases."

"Yeah? And you're willing to sacrifice _anyone _if you had to?"

Yukari's eyes glimmered. "Oh, I see where this is going. You're going to name off a bunch of my personal friends and try to catch me playing favorites. Nice try Reimu, but I have let, or even caused people I was close with to perish in order to save this country. And before you ask, yes, could include yourself. As fond as I am of you, and as hard as I will fight to protect you if I can, your life is not worth more than the whole of Gensokyo. No one's is."

"So that's what we are to you?" Reimu spat. "Potential cannon fodder? Sure, you may, ahem, 'like' us and all, but you still just use and dispose of people so you can stay safe in your little paradise-"

Despite her weakness, Yukari was on her feet in an instant. The anger that had been simmering below the surface had just boiled over. "Reimu Hakurei," she said in a harsh whisper, almost a growl. "As much as I am willing to indulge your insolence, my tolerance only goes so far. Next time, _think _before you accuse me of such things."

Reimu was struck dumb. While she knew that Yukari wasn't happy, she hadn't expected such an open display of anger.

But as she thought about, she understood why Yukari had taken offense. Yukari was in the condition she was in because she had put herself on the front lines to protect Gensokyo. Sure, she had manipulated others to help give her an edge, and sure she had probably planned to have the fight with Yuuka Kazami ended before she was wounded, but the fact remained that, once the plan had collapsed, she had still kept fighting. According to what Ran and Genji had told her, the reason Yukari was so hurt was because she had used her very soul as a weapon, even after learning that doing so could result in its destruction. And even after, she had still exerted herself to save her remaining allies. Those weren't the actions of someone content to sit on the sidelines and let others shoulder the danger in her place.

Reimu took a slow breath and let it out, releasing her previous hotheadedness with it. "I'm…sorry," she said. "I got upset and wasn't thinking. Sorry."

Yukari glowered at her, but then the anger seemed to leave her as well. "Accepted," she said grudgingly. "Just so long as you understand."

She gingerly returned to her seat, wincing as she did so. "Stupid," she muttered. "Shouldn't have moved so fast."

Reimu hesitated, and then said, "You…really will do anything to protect Gensokyo, won't you?"

"Egad, Holmes," Yukari said, giving her a look. "You are just now noticing?"

Reimu wasn't sure what "Egad, Holmes" meant, but she assumed it was some foreign phrase. The implied meaning was clear enough. "Even if it kills you?"

"In a second," Yukari whispered. "Preparations have long been made for the Hakurei Barrier to survive in the event of my death, so yes, I would."

A silence fell between them as Reimu struggled to think of what to say next. Then Yukari surprised her by asking, "Do you know why I founded Gensokyo in the first place?"

Reimu blinked. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Yukari settled back into a more comfortable position and folded her hands in her lap. "Because Reimu, much as learning the full extent of your plan and who exactly you had gotten involved was necessary to calculate how much damage control might be needed, a full understanding of my position and motives is necessary if this dialogue is going to go anywhere. And the root of that is found in Gensokyo's genesis. So I ask again: do you know why I went through all the trouble of taking a significantly large piece of real estate and physically and spiritually separating it away from the rest of the world, something that required an excessive amount of power, precision, planning, and cooperation from a variety of beings that did not play well with others and in some cases were openly hostile toward me and each other? And not only bring it into being, but ensure its continued existence: making sure that the sun continued to rise and set on schedule, that the weather proceeded as normal, that the land would continue to produce life, and that newcomers could still enter but that we wouldn't experience a problematic amount of magic leaking out? Because let me tell you, it was not easy."

Reimu stared, completely befuddled as to why Yukari would consider this detour necessary. Even with the explanation of "need to know my motives," Yukari wasn't giving her any new information. "Yeah, I know. Everyone knows. You managed to work out a truce with the Youkai Sages and strike up a deal with the Dragon God, and together you created the Hakurei Barrier. It's in all the history books."

"Yes, I know," Yukari said patiently. "But I asked you if you knew _why_."

"You already told me that too! Back at Pandemonium, remember? Mr. Capital Letter God was becoming really popular, everyone was forgetting their old gods, so you and your buddies decided to up and split before you all faded away!"

Yukari nodded slowly. "That's…also not incorrect, but oversimplified."

"Is there anything about you that _isn't?"_ Reimu said, repressing a groan.

"Certainly. For example, the reason I prefer to hibernate through the winter months is because I find the season to be unbearably dull, save for Christmas of course. That's always worth waking up for. But in this particular instance, the bare summary fails to full encompass the details."

Yukari's gaze drifted upward and her eyes glazed over as she assembled her memories. Reimu felt her neck start tingling again. She glanced to the fire to see if it was doing anything interesting. It was.

"A bit over two thousand years ago, a shift started to occur," Yukari said, her voice a droning murmur. "The big fellow upstairs decided to become an expansionist. Until then, He had contented Himself with a tiny piece of territory far to the west of here, which He guarded, and at times reprimanded, as jealously as I do with Gensokyo. But either this had become too restraining or the time had come to enact a long-awaited plan, but He decided to kick off a movement: a new religion was born, or a continuation of an old one, depending on who you talk to. It really doesn't matter."

Again, the flames took shape, this time of a handful of tiny people composed of white flame surrounded on all sides by tiny people made from yellow flame. Then, one by one, the people made from white fire reached out to touch the people made from red fire, turning them white in turn. These in turn touched their neighbors, who touched their neighbors, until all of the fire people were burning white.

"It started off small, as such things tend to do. A tiny sect, in an unimportant country. Most people considered them a harmless passing fad at best, a temporary inconvenience at worst. But of course, they were neither of these things. It didn't take long for their teachings to take root, and once they had built up steam, well, this part you should already know from your readings."

The crowd of fiery people shrank down to a single white dot in the middle of a flaming globe, showing a collection of landmasses that Reimu vaguely recognized from some of the maps she had managed to find of the Outside World. The dot grew, consuming large chunks of yellow and spreading across the face of the Earth.

"Naturally, this progression saw quite a great deal of resistance, oftentimes violent. However, this failed to hinder the new religion, and in some cases actually helped it. One of the most important lessons I've taken from history is that banning a way of thought is the best way to ensure its survival, and this certainly was the case here. Of course, once they had gained enough power, the followers of said religion also turned to violence and conquest to further their grasp, something I have on good authority that this pissed off the majority of the Silver City's populace. Like they're in any position to judge."

Reimu cleared her throat. "Uh, look, this is all very interesting, but are we going to reach some kind of point here, or are you just planning on filibustering me into submission?"

"Oh, absolutely," Yukari said. "And if you weren't paying attention before, I suggest you start now. Because this is where things become relevant. This is where I came in."

…

It never failed.

Having successfully accomplished within the space of five minutes what Sakuya had failed to do over the expanse of nearly two months and dragged one overly melodramatic vampire back to her senses, Patchouli Knowledge had felt that she had earned her nap.

Unfortunately, her success had seemed to have won her one of the single most irritating organizations known: a fanclub. It seemed that just by giving Remilia a pep talk had caused her to become the toast of the mansion, with everyone lining up to offer words of congratulations, admiration, and oaths undying loyalty. In its proper place and time, Patchouli might have been more receptive, as she often felt that her many accomplishments and discoveries in the field of magic had warranted her much more recognition than she got. But for something so trite as speaking the truth, it just became bothersome.

So, once Hong Meiling had finished parading her around the place and the fairies had wrapped up their fifth rendition of "She's a Jolly Good Fellow," Patchouli had finally managed to excuse herself from the celebrations and retire to her quarters for some much-needed rest.

However, just as she had finally started to drift off into the warm embrace of slumber, some idiot decided to barge into her room and start shaking her by the shoulder.

"WHAT!" she bellowed, swiping out with one hand that glowed with scarlet energy and missing the other person by mere centimeters. "I swear, if we are not under attack right this very second, I will fill your veins with so many clots that the flow of blood will be brought to a standstill!"

"Get _up," _hissed the person who had waken her, who turned out to be a panicked-looking Sakuya. "There's an emergency. We need to go. Now."

Despite the urgency in Sakuya's voice, Patchouli was still too angered to respond rationally. "What, does Remilia need her diaper changed as well?" she snapped. "Does someone need to put her over their shoulder and burp her? I do believe your meager skills are adequate for that at least."

"I said _get up!" _Sakuya said. The harried maid grabbed Patchouli by the sleeve and hauled the magician out of bed.

"All right, fine!" Patchouli stumbled to find her footing and yanked her arm away. "What is so important that it couldn't wait un…until…"

Her damned lung problems chose that moment to make its presence known. Her breathing passages closed, her lungs burned, and she started wheezing uncontrollably. Covering her mouth with one hand, she fumbled around her nightstand with the other until it closed around her bottle of medicine. She hastily pulled the cork and inhaled the thick, sweet-smelling smoke that floated out.

As Patchouli soothed her rebellious airways, Sakuya said, "Actually, that whole part of there being an emergency was just to get you out of bed. I just wanted to ask you a question."

Still coughing but now able to speak, Patchouli gawked at the maid. "Wh-what? You dragged me fr-from my well-earned nap to a-a-ask a qu-question?"

"Yes," Sakuya said. "I just wanted to know how you sleep at night."

Patchouli stared at her without speaking. Then she took one last deep lungful of medicine and corked the bottle. "Not well," she said, putting the bottle back on the nightstand. "Given that I cannot nod off for more than a few minutes without some _imbecile_ shaking me awake so as to question me about meaningless trivialities!"

"I meant in general," Sakuya said. In contrast to her panicked voice earlier, she now spoke with deadly calm. "You know, given the things you've done. How do you manage to sleep? How do you live with yourself? Does your conscience bother you at all, or were you born without one?"

"What are you-" Patchouli shut up immediately. Her brain had woken up enough to start putting the pieces together, and the picture that was forming was not a good one.

"After all," Sakuya continued. "You had me in that box for nine years. Probably had me locked away somewhere nearby, yeah? Practically next door. How were you able to sleep, knowing what you had done to me, what you were putting me through?"

Patchouli wondered briefly if she was still asleep and dreaming all of this, but the sensations were too real. She glanced toward the door.

"Go ahead," said the thing wearing Sakuya's face. "I won't stop-"

The rest of the sentence was cut off when a spike of hardened ice slammed through its eye. It blinked the other in surprise, and then smiled.

"The first two times you did that was agony," Satsuki said. "The third was painful. The fourth stung a bit." The icicle was absorbed into its face, leaving her with a perfect blue eye. "But every time after that might as well be the brush of a feather."

Patchouli broke out into a run. She was out of shape, yes, and her usual heavy robes were not at all suited for such activities, but she ran with all her might, out of the door and into the library beyond. True to her word, Satsuki did not stop her, but remained in place, smiling as she watched the magician flee.

…

"I was young," Yukari said. "Well, relatively speaking. Only two-hundred and eighteen years old. And very much enjoying myself, thank you very much."

The fire was now deep red. Reimu watched as it showed her the supposed "young" Yukari, well, acting like Yukari: that is, floating aimlessly through forests, chatting with wispy spirits, and laughing at Humans. Some things just never changed.

"At the time, Japan was much like Gensokyo is now. Well, sort of. Magic was a great deal more prevalent, and youkai and gods were creatures you encountered on the roads rather than discussed rumored sightings. Fine days, to be sure, but like everything good, it was doomed to end."

One of the wispy spirits that the younger Yukari was talking diminished until it vanished with a tiny _pop. _She turned toward two others, only to have them disappear in turn, leaving Yukari all alone.

"The gods operated much as they do today: their continued existence dependent on the faith they gathered from those would pay them worship. And even then, some were unable to maintain a sufficient level of devotion to survive. Some were patron deities whose family lines finally snuffed out, some were eliminated by rivals, and some were simply discarded and forgotten. I lost some of my first friends that way. And though that was the way of things, I soon became worried. Mortals were so easily swayed, and Japan was not large. What if the time came in which all the gods were forgotten? Or maybe one would grow strong enough to encompass all of the mortals' needs and the others were no longer needed, or the mortals would learn enough to render all of the gods obsolete. And how long before the youkai themselves were likewise driven out? Not a pleasant thought, and though many of my peers felt that I was just being paranoid, that it was natural for old gods to die away to be replaced by new ones, it turned out that I was right. But of course, I often am."

The younger Yukari now stood among a crowd of people, some Human and others not, that had gathered around a single man. This man was urgently telling his audience something important, something that seemed to require a great deal of arm waving.

"One of our young people had gotten adventurous and decided to go see what other lands look like. It happens from time to time, only this one not only managed to go further than anyone else, he also made it back to tell the tale. Quite a rarity, I can tell you. And the tale he told was both strange and frightening. Far, far away was a mighty empire, one that had discarded _all _of its gods and now only worshipped one. Not only that, they were bound and determined to have all of their neighbors follow their example, through force if needed. Of course, such a story needed to be confirmed, but though I have never been much interested in exploring, I could move about then just as easily as I do now."

The younger Yukari emerged from a tiny gap in the middle of a city full of people, all of them made from white fire. From there, she flew over roads, villages, and fields, encountering more and more of the white fire people, until at last she found someone made from yellow flame: an old, crippled man, wrapped in rags and sitting with his back to a withered tree.

"It was just as the young man had reported. There was a concentration of faith unlike any I had ever seen, and it was all directed at toward a single focal point. A wonderful thing, if you happened to be that focal point. But to any other supernatural being, it was a choking wasteland. I tried to find the old gods, the ones those people had discarded, but there was no trace of them. They had all shriveled up and faded away, all but one: once a youthful god of wine and revelry, he was now a broken old man, abandoned by his followers and left with nothing. He barely remembered his own name, the poor creature. It was then that I knew that sooner or later, this all-consuming faith would find its way to my home and take my people. Maybe not right away, maybe not for another century, but sooner or later, they would come and take away everything."

Then the fiery Yukari was seen speaking to a gathering of a multitude of beings, each one of a different color. The discussion appeared to be a heated one, with one person after another shouting opinions and objections.

"My colleagues were deeply trouble by what I had learned. Some suggested that we prepare our defenses, while others argued for a preemptive strike. However, the smoking remains of those who had tried to stop this new faith's advance quickly discouraged that idea. This was a problem, one that had to be addressed. And as it turned out, we weren't the only ones to think so. There were any number of pantheons and foreign faiths throughout the world that felt threatened. What followed was unprecedented: a gathering of gods, heroes, spirits, and demons from a variety of religions, temporarily setting aside their differences and internal battles in order to decide how to survive in the changing world."

And then the same group of multicolored people stood before a different group. These people were all made from white flame as the ones that had been presented before, but unlike them they were all in possession of six wings apiece. It didn't take any great leaps of the imagination to guess who they were supposed to represent.

"It was the Norse group to come up with the idea, actually. Instead of fighting the inevitable, we would move instead. Each pantheon would create a sanctuary of their own, separate from the world and yet still connected to it, a place where the forgotten gods could retreat to instead of falling to oblivion. Not everyone was on board with the idea, of course. Many saw it as giving up, and refused to have anything to do with it. Those people no longer exist, sad to say. But those of us who chose reality over personal pride went to meet with the guardians of our enemies so as to secure permission to put our plan into action."

"Okay, hold up!" Reimu interrupted. "The hell? You had to ask _permission _from the people that were threatening to _invade _you and take your lands just to ensure your own survival? What the hell is up with that?"

Yukari chuckled. "Well, perhaps I misspoke. Made arrangements to ensure that they would leave us alone is perhaps more accurate. And though they weren't exactly thrilled with the idea, word came from upstairs to let us be." She snorted. "I suppose that would be points in the Big Guy's favor, but I'd feel a bit more kindly towards Him if He hadn't, you know, taken our lands."

"But I thought Christianity wasn't that big in Japan."

"Well, maybe not _my _lands specifically," Yukari admitted. "Our homeland has held out better than most, and it has retained a healthy population of those who still practice the old ways. But facts are facts: the old faith is on its way out. Gensokyo wouldn't be as fruitful as it is without most of the gods and youkai migrating over. Every century more arrive, Kanako Yasaka's household being a prime example." She shrugged. "But returning to the story, even though they had received direct orders to let us go ahead with our idea, the Angels weren't content with that alone. In fact, they wanted payment. And, as I was the one representing the Japan delegation at the time, it fell to me to pay it on our behalf."

Mystified, Reimu could only shake her head. "The hell? You mean _their own freaking God _told them to leave you alone, and they still wanted you to _pay _them for the _privilege _of leaving Japan so they could come in and take over?"

"Perhaps you have noticed that I am not at all fond of the Silver City and its residents?" Yukari said wryly. "That little condition is one of the many reasons. But desperate times called for a great deal of pride swallowing, so in the end, the ones who were most committed to the project agreed. Not happily, mind you, but we agreed."

"And what was the payment?" Reimu wanted to know. "What did they make you give up for your own freaking survival?"

"I don't know," Yukari said.

Reimu blinked. "Uh, but you just said…"

"That, unfortunately, was another condition of theirs, and a particularly cruel one at that. Not only was I to give up something, they also took all memory of what it was. I don't know what I gave them, only that I no longer have it." She sighed. "I can't tell you how many times I've wondered exactly what it was. Power? Some sacred treasure? A lover? A friend? A child? I do not know."

Reimu felt a little sick to her stomach. "So, you mean you might have had a _family_ that you…" She couldn't finish the rest of the sentence.

"It is certainly possible," Yukari said. "I'm not exactly the motherly type, and I certainly have never established any sort of romantic attachments since Gensokyo was formed, but the equipment does work, if you wished to know. I do wonder…"

She was silent for a time, staring at the fire. Reimu didn't say anything, deciding to wait. Some pauses you just didn't interrupt.

Then fire moved again. The tiny Yukari now stood with various members of her own circle. Judging by how the fires around them were leaping up, it had been a time of violent energies being released. And then, overshadowing them all, a massive reptilian head appeared to gaze down on them.

"Once we knew we would be uninterrupted, my companions and I set to work," Yukari continued. "We chose an appropriate spot to serve as the gateway between the old world and the new, spent several weeks working out how to balance the powers we would be wielding, devised a system to keep our sanctuary protected and functioning, and finally started to build it. This of course attracted the attention of a very large fellow, whose presence had been conspicuously absent until then. I'm sure you know what happens next."

Reimu nodded. As she had mentioned earlier, the Dragon God's appearance at Gensokyo's genesis was one of the most important events in their history, as it was thanks to his assistance that the Youkai Sages had succeeded in their enterprise. Also just as well known was his subsequent disappearance after the Hakurei Barrier had finally gone up. Few people knew where he had gone. Reimu strongly suspected that Yukari was one of those people, but she had remained tight-lipped about the whole thing every time someone dared to question her.

"Good," Yukari said. "Oh, and by-the-by, you see that woman hanging near the back, third from the right? That's your ancestor, in case you were wondering. The first of the Hakureis, and the only Human actually present during the event. Be sure to wave hello."

"What, really?" Startled, Reimu jerked up. She stared at the brightly burning figure. "She was there?"

"Indeed. The barrier is actually named after your family, instead of the other way around. You do guard its only official gate, after all."

Now _that _was interesting. It went a long way to explain why Yukari always treated her with more respect than other Humans. Still didn't explain why she lived in perpetual poverty though.

"What was her name?" Reimu asked.

"Hakurei," Yukari answered.

"Uh, I know that. I mean her _first _name."

"So did I. I just told you she was the first of the Hakureis. Much like the barrier takes its name from your family, your family takes it from her."

Well, that did make sense. "Okay, but what was her family name?" Reimu asked, mostly out of curiosity. "I mean, before."

Now Yukari was smiling again. It was not a nice smile. "Oh, you are going to love this. Her full name was Hakurei Sonozika."

Reimu sat up straight in her seat. "Hold up!" she shouted. "You mean-"

"Yes, she came from the same family that runs the Human Village today," Yukari said, nodding. "It only made sense, seeing how they were the first Humans to cross over." She snickered. "No doubt that old fool who runs it today would throw a _fit _if he ever found out, considering how much he detests you and your shrine."

"Uh…" Reimu tried to think of a suitable response, but none was coming to mind. "I, uh…"

Yukari laughed again. "Oh, don't let it bother you. That was centuries ago, and your two families haven't mingled since. Honestly, you're probably more closely related to Marisa than you are to Kotohime. Besides, trace _any _Human family in Gensokyo back far enough and you'll find connections to the rest."

Well, that much was true, and Reimu found it to be something of a relief. She was on shaky enough terms with Kotohime enough as it was. Having to call her "cousin" would only make things awkward. Half-a-dozen questions sprang up concerning her family's role in Gensokyo's creation, but she decided to let them wait until a more appropriate time.

"At any rate, the rest is, as they say, history," Yukari said, settling back into the story. As she spoke, a familiar landscape appeared in the fire, lush and beautiful. It was Gensokyo: not quite as Reimu knew it, but close enough to be recognizable. People poured in: Humans, youkai, fairies, gods, and many, many more. "This country of ours came to being, and for a time, all was well. Life went on, and it was good. But then, less than seventy years after, we hit upon our first real problem."

…

Already panting with exhaustion, Patchouli bolted from her quarters and into the small sitting area that was between the door and the ocean of bookshelves. She bunched up her muscles to leap into flight, intending to make a straight beeline for the exit, when someone coughed.

Satsuki was following behind her, calm and unhurried. She had dropped her Sakuya disguise in favor of a form that closely resembled the one she had been described as wearing when Patchouli had been at the Ringleader meeting, with flowing ebony hair tied by numerous ribbons, flower-patterned trousers, bone-white skin, lavender eyes, ripping talons, and an aura of twisting darkness, shot through with red and purple.

"_Look," _Satsuki said, speaking in a voice like a burning crypt. _"I know you're in a hurry to go and all, but are you sure you wanna leave me alone with all these books?"_

Patchouli came to a sudden stop. The peril forgotten, she whirled around, her hands glowing. "Don't you fucking dare!" she shouted.

"_I'm just saying, this is a lot of wood and paper." _Satsuki held out her hands to either side, and flames ran up and down her arms. _"Seems kinda dangerous if you ask me. I mean, what if someone drops a match?"_

Growling, Patchouli advanced. "If you so much as singe a single bookmark, I will reduce that repulsive hodgepodge you call a body to its base components and seal each and every one of them in-"

Then the air was split by an eardrum-shattering cry of challenge and something dropped from above to slam into Satsuki's head, driving her down with such force that the marble was smashed. Patchouli gaped in surprise when she saw Hong Meiling hopping off of Satsuki's prone form.

"Patchouli!" the Chinese guard shouted. "Go! Now!"

Snarling with fury, Satsuki spun to her feet and slashed out with her bladed right hand. Meiling deflected the blow with her forearm, spun around with it, and used the momentum to drive her foot into Satsuki's stomach, driving her back two meters.

"Now, librarian! I'll protect your books! Go!"

The hell she was leaving. Patchouli charged up her energy and anxiously watched as Meiling and Satsuki traded blows, looking for an opening. But before she found one, someone laid a hand on her shoulder. She jumped in surprise and almost discharged the power she had gathered.

"No, Patchouli," said Sakuya, the real one. "There's no point."

"But Hong…" Patchouli protested.

"She can handle herself, at least long enough to keep Rin distracted. The sooner we're gone, the sooner she can flee as well."

Patchouli shook her head. "No, I'm not leaving-"

Then her body erupted into pins and needles. Patchouli tried to move, but found that her motor skills no longer functioned, and instead she collapsed to the floor.

"I'm sorry, I do not have time to argue," Sakuya said as she withdrew her hand from the nerve cluster in Patchouli's lower back. She pulled out her pocketwatch. "And time is now of the essence."

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia wondered if she should be worried. On the one hand, Rin had completely flipped, and in a wholly different way than usual. Instead of the rage-blinded berserker she had become in the Ancient City or the panicked whiner from just about any other time, she was now a catlike predator. Instead of stealthily paying evil unto those who had done evil to her, she was now out in the open and playing with them. Not only that, she was loving every moment of it. All things considered, it was not a heartening metamorphosis for someone who commanded so much raw power.

On the other hand, Rumia was no paragon of morality. She wasn't evil, per se, she was just a wild youkai, and as such she tended to have a very shaky grasp of ethical behavior. Her primary concern ever since Rin had devoured her had been her own survival, and with that now a near-impossibility, she had resigned herself to the fact that she was probably going to die, and might as well enjoy the rest of the ride. Besides, she had never liked Patchouli Knowledge, so seeing Rin scare the bejeezus out of her had been very satisfying.

At the moment, Rin had temporarily abandoned her two specific targets in favor of going head-to-head with Hong Meiling, the Scarlet Devil Mansion's red-haired gate guard. Rumia wasn't sure if the crazy was responsible for Rin's sudden increase in competency, but though the Chinese youkai was renowned for her mastery of the martial arts, Rin was more than holding her own. Of course having Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou's shared skills to draw upon probably helped, but even so, it was impressive.

But perhaps even more impressive was that though Rin had accumulated quite the unsavory reputation as of late, Hong Meiling was not showing any fear. Or at least, that's how it seemed to Rumia. Having to view the fight from Rin's point of view made it difficult to tell, what with the quick-moving limbs flying all over the place. Still, it was exhilarating to watch.

At the moment, Rin was taking advantage of her superior strength to keep Meiling on the defensive. The gate guard steadily moved backward, ducking and weaving through the flurry of Rin's slashes and kicks.

Suddenly Meiling cried out in pain. She rolled back, putting distance between her and Rin, and clutched at her side.

"Gotcha!" Rin crowed as she rushed forward. Rumia stiffened when she realized that Rin was focusing on Meiling's neck.

"Hey!" she cried. "Wait a-"

Then Meiling threw herself to the floor. One of her legs swept into Rin's shins, while the other came up to hit her just below the knees. Caught up by her own momentum, Rin pitched forward to slam facefirst into the ground.

Rin flinched. "Ow," she said.

"Really?" Rumia said. "Ow? After everything you've been through, a little faceplant makes you go 'ow'?"

Before Rin could retort, Meiling was already on the attack again. Rumia couldn't see how from her position, but the next thing she knew, Rin was lifted up and hurled backward. She flew backwards and up, smashing through the ceiling and into the room above. Once there, she was able to regain control, twisting her body around to land crouched on a support column.

Less than two seconds later, Hong Meiling came rushing through the newly created hole, right leg outstretched and aimed at Rin's head. However, this time Rin was ready for her. Her head moved just enough for the oncoming foot to crash into the space it had been, and she grabbed the gate guard by the ankle.

Hong Meiling's face changed as she realized just how vulnerable she was now. She tried to twist out of Rin's grasp, but before she could, Rin had already lunged forward and smashed her fist against Meiling's face, sending her crashing back through the far wall.

"Okay," Rin muttered as she scanned the area for her opponent. "Now I'm getting mad."

Rumia cleared her throat. "Um, yeah. About that. Go easy on her, okay?"

"What?" Rin turned to stare at her in bewilderment. "Why?"

"Because I kinda like her. She was the only one who was nice to me when I had to work here."

Rin's face contorted in frustration. She mumbled something angry sounding under her breath and said, "Okay, _fine!" _She turned back toward the screen. "Have it your way! But don't blame me if she…uh…"

Hong Meiling was nowhere to be seen.

Rin cautiously advanced, eyes scanning for any sign of movement. However, after a while it became apparent that this wasn't a set up for a sneak attack.

"Oh great, she's gone!" Rin complained, motioning toward the screen. "Perfect!"

"So?" Rumia said. "It's not like you were after her. She was just doing her job."

"Yeah, but Patchouli Knowledge is gone too." Rin's eyes narrowed. "Okay, fine. I guess we get to go hunting."

"Yeah. But hey, can we speed things up? I mean, freaking them out is funny and all, but if they decide to call for help…"

Rin frowned, but she nodded. "Right. Keep focused on the mission. Gotcha." Then she turned her attention toward the hole in the floor, the one that led to the library. "Hey, wait a minute."

"What?"

Rin moved toward the hole and peered in. "I think someone's down there. Might be the librarian."

It was then that Rumia noticed something. "Uh, Rin? Is something wrong?"

Rin giggled. "Wrong? You mean _besides-"_

"Yeah, I mean besides all that stuff you were about to name off," Rumia interrupted. "You're not…feeling any different, are you?"

"Nope. Why?"

Rumia shook her head. "Never mind." But she still felt uneasy. Rin's eyes were different. They normally were bright blue, but now they were noticeably darker, almost violet.

…

"It was a youkai," Yukari said. "One of the younger ones, one of the first Gensokyo originals. I can't tell you how pleased we were when new youkai and fairies started coming into being, as it meant that our plan had worked." For a brief moment, that half-smile became genuine. "And of course, it was hard not to become fond of the cute little critters. I'll not deny, there were many of us that felt somewhat parental toward them."

In the fire, Reimu watched as Yukari and her fellow Youkai Sages floated high in the air. Below, tiny glowing children were coming into being. They started running around the miniature Gensokyo, behaving as children will: playing, fighting, exploring, and enjoying their personal playground to the fullest. Reimu couldn't help but wonder exactly how accurate Yukari's depictions were, given that newborn wild youkai tended to be mischievous pranksters at best, predatory monsters at worst. But then, from Yukari's point of view, it probably amounted to the same thing.

Then she noticed that one figure stood out from the others, one of the girls. Not apart; quite the contrary, there seemed to be more of the children gathered around her than any of the others. Reimu had encountered many a youkai gang in her time, and any decent-sized one had a leader. Sometimes it was official, as was the case with Cirno and her friends; other times, it was just the one the others listened to. She could tell that this one was a leader.

"One in particular started to draw attention from her…well, I guess 'siblings' isn't exactly the right word, but it fits in this situation. She was stronger than most, and the ones she couldn't beat through sheer power she outwitted, earning the others' respect. She was also very charismatic and outspoken. There was a pull to her. When she talked, the others listened, even if they had no idea who she was." Yukari's voice was growing wistful, nostalgic. "Around that time, many of the older youkai, the ones that had come over with us, had formed several little communities, and most of the younger ones were gravitating toward them. _She, _one the other hand, wasn't interested in having an elder take her by the hand and regale her with tales of what life was like in the Outside World. She wasn't interested past defeats, only future triumphs. And she had no desire to follow anyone's lead."

Now the girl was taking her followers into a secluded part of what would one day be the Wilds. Reimu, who knew the topography of Gensokyo better than nearly any other Human, didn't really recognize it, but given the centuries that had passed since then she wasn't surprised. As she watched, the little gang of new youkai started to etch out a community of their own. Tiny shelters were erected, at first primitive tents and lean-to's before upgrading to wooden huts; a deep trench was dug out in a rough circle around their encampment, far larger than was needed to house their numbers; and jobs were delegated to the members, with some becoming hunters, some becoming guards, other the builders and craftsmen, and so on. Reimu had to admit that she was impressed. Wild youkai were typically unorganized and rarely had the patience to learn any skills beyond the ones they had been born with. And while youkai villages and hamlets existed apart from such civilizations as the Tengu Village and the Ancient City, they tended to not last long. But it was clear that this group was not only taking the creation of their little territory seriously, they fully intended to expand, if the large empty space between their border and the actual settlement was indication.

"I honestly couldn't have been more proud of them," Yukari said. She was now watching her past play out in the fire along with Reimu. There was a faraway look in her eyes. "I mean, it's one thing to carve out piece of territory and say, 'Look here, this is our country now, and it will grow and become strong.' But when the little rodents that you made the country for actually pull their head out of their asses and start making something of it for themselves, well, that's something special. And when we heard that they were actually seeking out relations with the Humans, I think I actually jumped up and down and cheered." She sighed and shook her head. "But like all things, there was a darker side. You see Reimu, our ambitious young leader had heard the same stories that all the young youkai were told, that Gensokyo had been founded as a sanctuary to preserve our way of life from a foreign culture and religion that was steadily assimilating everything around it and bringing the world under a single flag. And that's where we had a problem."

Reimu considered her question carefully before asking, "Yukari, are you talking about who I think you're talking about?"

Yukari's smile became bitter. "I believe so. As you may have guessed, she took the wrong lesson from those stories. Instead of learning that the paradise she had been born in had been bought with a heavy price and she should never take it for granted, her fascination had been with the peril we had escaped, with the all-consuming foe we had fled. She had looked at them, heard about what they were doing, and thought, 'Wow, what a good idea!'"

Reimu's eyes shot up from the fireplace to the mantle that hung over it. There sat an ancient helm of iron. A sharp horn of ivory curved up from the left side, while the one on the right had been broken off. A ring of diamonds, some of them missing, circled its rim, and a gleaming ruby sat in the center of its forehead. It was rough and crudely made, but still somehow beautiful in its noble savagery, and it was clear that it was meant to function as both a crown and a war-helmet alike.

"Minerva," Reimu said, feeling her insides squirm at the name. She glanced down to the fire. The little youkai settlement was now much larger, with proper houses that were slowly expanding to the border, and the trench was replaced by the beginnings of a proper wall.

"Yes, Minerva," Yukari said heavily. "When word reached the sages that our bright young prodigies were planning on engaging in, ah, an aggressive recruitment campaign, Minerva was immediately brought before us and questioned. Naturally, my colleagues were not at all happy about her ambitions, and more than a few counseled that she should be unmade and her settlement scattered."

In the fire, Minerva was now prostrated on her hands and knees before the sages, including Reimu's ancestor. However, Reimu couldn't help but notice that Yukari wasn't standing with the rest of her allies, but at Minerva's side, facing the rest of them.

"But you didn't," she guessed.

"No, I didn't," Yukari said with a sad shake of her head. "I probably should have, but like I said, I had grown fond of the girl and found her little village to be very promising. I argued that her actions were born of ignorance instead of malice, that she just didn't understand the implications of what she intended and thought she was doing the right thing. Then I had a private chat with the girl herself and did my best to explain why forcibly conquering the rest of Gensokyo and setting herself up as queen was a really, really bad idea."

Yukari shrugged. "It seemed to work. The other Sages agreed to give her a second chance. After all, it wasn't as if she had actually _done _anything yet. And she seemed genuinely repentant and claimed to understand the error of her ways, and so the matter was laid to rest. Life returned to normal and they kept building their city. We watched them for a while, but when no one tried to conquer anything, we eventually moved on to other matters."

"Big mistake, huh?" Reimu said.

"Oh yes," Yukari said. She glanced to the fire. In it, the youkai settlement was now a good-sized town, and the wall was growing ever higher. "Very big mistake."

…

"We need to leave," Sakuya said.

They had all gathered in the observatory, at least all the ones that could be found. The observatory was composed of two levels: first the ground floor, where Koakuma and the maids were huddling together, trembling and consoling each other. The leaders, Remilia, Patchouli, and Sakuya, were on the second level, a silver disc about two-thirds the size of the room that floated halfway between the floor and ceiling. It was from here that Remilia's multi-lensed telescope stretched up through the observatory's domed ceiling. Normally, an illusionary solar system would circle overhead, mirroring the movement of the planets while the dome itself displayed the stars. But no one was interested in astronomy at the moment.

"Leave?" Remilia said, her voice an angry hiss. She was sitting in the swiveling observation chair and though Sakuya had insisted that she avoid unnecessarily putting herself under stress, she insisted in taking a direct role during the strategy session. "Just retreat, and abandon our home to that monster's clutches?"

"Mistress, our home is lost already. We have no weapon that can fight her, no matter of defeating her. And now that she's gained the ability to shapeshift, she'll be able to pick us off with ease."

"Ridiculous!" Remilia retorted. "There must be _something _we can do. Whatever happened to Patchouli's supposed brilliant security idea?"

"Well, obviously if that was working, Satsuki wouldn't have entered the building, now would she?" Patchouli snapped.

"It _still _isn't finished?" Remilia exclaimed. "You've had weeks! What have you been doing all this time? Stacking rocks?"

Before the two of them could descend into one of their famous catfights, Sakuya swooped between them. "Ladies, please!" she said, thrusting an open palm toward each. "Mistress, Patchouli has been hard at work this whole time. Her lack of success is due to the extreme difficulty of what she is trying to accomplish, not negligence on her part. Patchouli, the Mistress is still weak. Please do not aggravate her."

The two glowered at each other for a moment longer. Then Remilia's shoulders slumped. "Of course," she muttered. "My apologies. No slight on you skill intended."

Patchouli thought of saying something snappish, but thought better of it. "Well, all right," she said. "But Sakuya does have a point. Satsuki has already tasted the best she and I have to offer once before. And there is nothing in our arsenal that she will be unable to adapt to. If we try to fight, we will be defeated."

Before Remilia could respond, someone started banging on the observatory door. Remilia, Sakuya, and Remilia spun towards it, half-expecting to see a laughing Rin Satsuki breaking in to slaughter them all. More than one of the fairy maids screamed.

But no one broke through. Granted, the sealing spells Patchouli had put in place would make doing so quite the chore, but they were all sure that Satsuki would be able to pull it off. Instead, the person on the other side just kept banging their fists against the door. Accompanying them were a great many voices, all of them calling to be let in.

Sakuya floated down to the door and cautiously approached it. "Who's there?" she said.

"It's us!" said a voice that she recognized as belonging to Fidra, one of her maids.

"Please, let us in!" added Jessi.

Sakuya wanted to, but recklessness was not part of her nature. She glanced to Patchouli, who had come down to join her. "Well?" she said.

Patchouli's eyes fluttered for a moment as she checked the wards she had set up. "It's them," she said. "The rest."

"Are you positive?" Sakuya said.

"Of course not," Patchouli said, a touch of impatience in her voice. "Satsuki might very well have acquired the ability to divide herself, and shapeshift the separations. Or perhaps she now has unmatched skills as an illusionist, able to deceive my wards, though I heavily doubt it. Or it is possible that she can now burrow into her prey's minds and direct their actions, and is now using our friends as a way to trick us into opening the door. And I suppose that it is possible that-"

"Enough," Sakuya said. "Open the door."

The door swung open, and in rushed a gaggle of fairy maids, two of them supporting a limping Hong Meiling. As Patchouli resealed the door, Sakuya did a quick headcount and felt a small twinge of relief. Good, everyone was accounted for. As often as the maids drove her to frustration with their slacking off and messing around, they were still her staff. She was not going to allow any of them to be harmed.

"What happened?" Patchouli demanded of Meiling. "Where is Satsuki? Are my books all right?"

"Mmmmph!" Meiling said, pulling her arms away from the maids and frantically waving them in the air. "Mrrrrif!"

"What?" Patchouli's face twisted up in confusion. "What does that mean?"

Looking frustrated, Meiling pointed at her chin. "Rumpher!"

Patchouli shook her head. "You still aren't making any sense. Speak actual language!"

Sakuya tapped Patchouli on the shoulder. "I believe what Hong is trying to tell you is that her jaw has been shattered, and she would like you to heal it."

"Oh," Patchouli said, feeling a little foolish. "Of course."

She touched Meiling's jaw with a glowing hand, triggering her natural youkai recuperative abilities and accelerating them by a significant multiple. The Chinese youkai's skin shifted and bubbled as the bone fractures came together and restructured themselves.

When she was done, Meiling rubbed her jaw, nodded in satisfaction, and said, "Thank you." She bowed. "Please excuse me." Then she turned back toward the door.

Sakuya stopped her with a hand to the shoulder. "And where do you think you're going?"

Meiling looked surprised. "The invader is still loose within the mansion, and lady Knowledge's books remain in peril. I cannot stop her from here, so I must go to where she is."

"Finally someone is talking sense!" Remilia said as she dropped down to the floor. She took the landing harder than she had expected and stumbled to regain her balance. Within a millisecond Sakuya was at her side, steadying her.

"Please be careful, Mistress!" the head maid implored. "You are still-"

"Yes, yes, I had noticed," Remilia said, brushing off Sakuya's hands. She pounded her fist into her open hand. "But still, Meiling is right! Now is not the time to retreat!"

"We're open to suggestions," Patchouli said, putting one hand on her hip and rolling the other out.

Remilia's brow furrowed and her mouth closed tightly, making her fangs stick out. "All right, just give me a minute…"

"On second thought, maybe you'd better let us take care of that," Patchouli said hastily. When Remilia looked offended, she added, "No offense, but even mild blood starvation has been known to affect a vampire's decision-making capabilities."

"While you are doing that, may I have permission to leave?" Meiling asked. "If nothing else, I can distract her until a plan of attack is ready."

"No," Sakuya said. "You are _not _sacrificing yourself just to buy us some time."

"Who else will?"

"Not me," Patchouli said.

"No one is sacrificing themselves!" Sakuya said, this time a bit heatedly. "This is going to be a sacrifice-free day!"

"Which includes the mansion," Remilia said, briefly looking up from her pondering.

"Mistress, you know I hate to contradict you, but is the mansion worth our lives?"

"That beast isn't after the mansion. If she were, she would have burned it to the ground already, wouldn't you agree?" Remilia shook her head. "If we were to leave, she will just follow, and we do not stand a chance while out in the open. At least here, we have a wealth of resources at our disposal."

Patchouli and Sakuya exchanged an awkward glance. After all, they were the reason Rin Satsuki was here in the first place.

Sakuya cleared her throat. "Ah, should we at least call for help? Surely Reimu Hakurei or Yukari Yakumo would come in an instant."

"What do you think I've been trying to do since we got here?" Patchouli said crabbily. "But I don't know where Yukari Yakumo is, and Hakurei Shrine is still inside that box of hers that my signals can't seem to penetrate."

Remilia's eyes suddenly lit up. "Wait a moment…"

"What of the GPF?" Sakuya asked.

"The what now?"

"Boxes," Remilia mused, mostly to herself. She stared at Patchouli.

"The Gensokyo Peacekeeping Front!" Sakuya said. "The closest thing we have to a police force!"

"Oh, them," Patchouli said, nodding as if she had known all along. "What about them?"

"They answer directly to lady Yakumo! If anyone can get in contact with her and have her come and catch Satsuki in time, it's them!"

"Catch her," Remilia said, looking from Meiling to Sakuya. "In time."

"Yes, Mistress," Sakuya said. "That is what they can-"

"That's it! Sakuya, you're a genius!" Remilia said, excitedly grabbing Sakuya by the collar. "And you too, Patchy!"

"I know," Patchouli said. "Why?"

"I know how we can beat her!" Remilia said. There was a wide grin on her face. She quickly pointed to her librarian, chief maid, and gate guard in turn. "And all it'll take is the three of you and your natural talents!"

Sakuya frowned. "Mistress, are you certain? What of the GPF?"

"What about them?" Remilia said dismissively. "It took them a ridiculous amount of time to finally bring down Marisa, and Yukari is probably still in no shape to be of any help anyway!"

"Even so, they can quickly spread the word that Satsuki is here, and bring others to…"

As they argued, Patchouli felt someone tug on her sleeve. "Lady Patchouli," she heard Koakuma whisper in her ear.

Annoyed at the interruption, Patchouli scowled and said, "What is it?"

"It's Tokiko," Koakuma said. "She isn't here, and she wasn't with the second group."

"What?" Patchouli blinked. "Wait, I thought she was with you! She was the last time I checked, back during that overblown celebration!"

"Yes, but we parted ways after returning to the library! I haven't seen her since!"

"Patchouli," Remilia said, noticing their conversation. "Is there a new problem we need to be aware of?"

Patchouli cleared her throat. "It seems that my intern has yet to join us, and may still be in the library. My assistant was expressing her concern."

"Tokiko is still out there?" Sakuya said, looking troubled.

"Who?" Remilia said. Then before someone could answer, she said, "Never mind, it doesn't matter." She clapped her hands together. "All right, that just means we need to move more quickly. Meiling? We may need that distraction after all. But do _not _allow yourself to killed, severely injured, or devoured. We'll be needing your skills more than anyone else's."

Meiling covered her fist with her open palm and bowed.

"Patchouli? Anything you can do to give her an edge, give it to her. And as soon as you can, we're going to need one of those crystal boxes of yours."

Patchouli stared at her blankly. Then her eyes widened as she began to understand.

"Sakuya, while they're keeping Satsuki busy and rescuing Patchouli's intern, evacuate the rest of the staff as quickly and as quietly as possible and then join the rest of us. The fewer bodies getting in the way, the better, wouldn't you agree?"

Sakuya hesitated, but nodded.

"Excellent." Remilia rubbed her palms together eagerly. "All right girls, here's how we're going to catch a monster."

…

Her back pressed flat against a bookshelf, Tokiko inched her way forward to peek out into the next aisle. She was trying her hardest not to breathe loudly, though nothing could stop her heart from pounding.

When everyone had been celebrating Mistress Scarlet's recovery, it had occurred to her that with her boss all but promising to spend the next few hours asleep, now would be an excellent time to catch up on her reading. So she had snatched up the book she was currently going through, found a secluded sitting area, and gotten lost in the story.

However, not half-an-hour later, she had been startled by the sound of fighting from the far end of the library. When she had snuck over to investigate, it was already over by the time she arrived, but given the broken floor and the hole in the roof, something very bad must have happened.

And then some kind of…creepy, glowy monster girl had dropped down through the hole and started moving toward the shelves. Tokiko had been unable to keep from gasping, which had immediately drawn the monster's attention.

Now she was sneaking from aisle to aisle, hoping desperately that she would be able to reach one of the exits before the monster found her. She didn't know where it was now, but every now and then she would hear the sound of someone scampering across the shelves or something sharp being dragged over the floor. It was still here, and it was hunting her. Her only hope was that her superior knowledge of the library's paths would save her.

The next aisle was empty. Biting her lower lip, Tokiko quickly glanced over her shoulder and slipped around the corner. She flew low to avoid making footsteps. Hopefully this thing didn't have a good sense of smell.

Then something dropped down from above to land behind her.

Squeaking, Tokiko whirled around. There was nothing there. She looked up. Again, nothing.

It had to be her imagination playing tricks on her. She continued on. Yes, it was that, and nothing more. The library was huge, and the monster was probably in a _completely _different part-

Something sharp tapped her on the shoulder.

Nearly soiling herself, Tokiko forgot that she was trying to be stealthy and rushed upward as fast as her wings could carry her, heading toward the top of the towering shelves.

The monster was already up there, sitting on the top and waiting for her. _"Boo," _it said.

Tokiko screamed and shot back down. She zigzagged through the aisles until she came upon an area with four chairs surrounding a table. She ducked under the table and clutched at one of its legs, all the while praying to every god she could remember for some kind of miracle.

For what felt like an eternity she just lay there, trembling and waiting for her death. This had to be the monster everyone was so afraid of, the one her boss had been trying to prepare for. But they were too late. It was here, it was going to eat her, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Except it didn't seem to have come after her. Seconds ticked by, then a minute, and Tokiko opened her eyes. She was alone.

She looked around, wondering if she should move. She poked her head out from under the table.

And then two eyes of shining violet simply appeared in the air directly in front of her.

Tokiko couldn't even scream as the rest of the monster appeared. It was sitting on its haunches with its forearms resting on its legs not two meters away and staring at her.

"_Hi," _it said. _"Who are you?"_

"I…I…I…" Tokiko desperately tried to remember how to speak. "I just work here! I didn't do anything, please leave me alone!"

One of the monster's talons tapped against the inside of its leg. _"Where is Patchouli Knowledge?"_

"I…I don't know! She s-s-said she was g-going to take a nap! Maybe she's still there! In her room!"

"_Already woke her up. Almost had her, but I got interrupted. Now she's gone. Where is she now?"_

"I don't know!" Tokiko shrieked again. "Oh gods, please! I don't know!"

"_I see." _The monster sighed. _"Well, do you know where-"_

Suddenly the monster's head snapped up and it stared upward, toward the ceiling. It looked back and forth, as if it were sniffing the air.

The next thing Tokiko knew, the monster was gone, skittering its way up the far bookshelf like a long-haired spider. She watched wide-eyed as it reached the top and lunged at something she could not see.

There was the sound of a concussion, and the monster was launched backward to slam against a support pillar. Hong Meiling came sailing after it, feet-first.

Tokiko watched in stupefied amazement as Hong Meiling drove the monster straight through the pillar, and soon the two were grappling in the air, pitching this way and that as they struggled for some kind of advantage.

"Tokiko?"

Tokiko yelped and leapt up. Unfortunately, she had forgotten that she was under a table and ended up clutching at her throbbing head.

Then someone grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out into the open. "Are you okay?" Koakuma said as she helped Tokiko up.

"I th-think so," Tokiko said, rubbing her head. That was going to leave a bump. "What's going on?"

"Isn't it…obvious?" said Patchouli Knowledge as she huffed her way toward her two assistants. "Rin Satsuki…has finally…decided to seek revenge."

Tokiko stared at her. "But the generator isn't finished!"

"Yes, and isn't…that just rude of her, to attack…before we were ready for her?" Patchouli steadied herself with a hand to the side of a bookshelf and panted. "But for now…I need your help."

"Me?" Tokiko said, bewildered.

"Both of you." Patchouli took a deep breath and started jogging again, this time in the direction of her chambers. "Follow me."

Tokiko and Koakuma glanced at each other and moved to follow. As they did, Tokiko stole one last glance up at the battle taking place overhead. Hong Meiling had grabbed Rin Satsuki by the ears and brought her face down to smash against the gate-guard's knee. Well, at least the fight was going well, at least for now.

…

"We were called away from Gensokyo," Yukari said. "Well, most of us. Word reached us that one of our northern counterparts was having trouble keeping their borders intact and was requesting our aid. But when we got there, everything was fine, and no one had any idea who had sent for us."

"A trick?" Reimu guessed.

"Indeed," Yukari said darkly. "In my defense, I was a bit more…gullible then, more ready to take people at their word, but everyone is born with a certain measure of naiveté that is worn away by age and experience. Or at least, it should be."

Reimu suspected that she was being subtly insulted and glowered. Yukari, however, wasn't paying attention to her, but to the fire.

"As you are well aware of, Minerva's repentance was anything but. She still fully intended to take Gensokyo for her own. She just needed us out of the way. And as soon as we were gone, she made her move."

The light of the embers flickered in Yukari's eyes. The scene in the fire was changing. Reimu didn't want to look, but she couldn't help herself. Minerva's settlement was now a high-walled city, with the spike of her citadel jutting out from its center like the needle of a sundial. And out from the city charged her followers, who now numbered in the hundreds. No longer were they a group of eager-eyed children; now they were fully armed conquers. And there wasn't just youkai. Reimu could see a fair amount of Humans among their ranks, as well as several fairies. They descended upon their closest neighbors, a tiny Human outpost, barely large enough to be called a hamlet. And from there, they did as all invading hordes did with their victims.

"Unfortunately for Minerva, she had severely miscalculated in several areas," Yukari said calmly, as if the display of horrific violence taking place inside her fireplace were of no consequence. "She was right to judge me and my fellow Sages to be a dangerous obstacle. However, she was limited by her lack of knowledge. You see, she had assumed that my power over the Borderlands was restricted to within Gensokyo's borders. As such, she had thought we would need to make the journey on foot, and would be gone for months. It never occurred to her that I could be sitting here at home one minute and at the far side of the Outside World the next. As such, once we had learned of our error, we returned home that same day." She sighed. "Unfortunately, we were still too late."

The Youkai Sages emerged into the aftermath of Minerva's invasion and stared in shock at the carnage all around them. The younger Yukari looked like she was in a daze.

"I couldn't believe it. How could Minerva have done this? Why had she betrayed me? There had to be some mistake. A coup, perhaps. A rebellious follower of hers disposing her and turning her city back toward its path of bloodlust. Or she was being controlled by some other being and used as a puppet. The Angels, perhaps. Or Mima."

"Mima?" Reimu said, perking up in surprise.

Yukari nodded. "Yes, she was active back then. She wasn't a ghost yet, certainly, but still had gathered more than her fair share of notoriety. However, in this instance she was not at fault. Eventually I had to face the facts. Minerva had lied to me. She had used me. And as I was the one who was responsible for allowing her to go free, it fell to me to make amends."

Now the tiny Yukari was flying through the air, burning lightning bolts being drawn to her hands like little lightning rods. Minerva's city loomed before her.

"I was devastated," Yukari said. "Heartbroken. Ashamed. And very, very angry. Minerva obviously had not expected me to be back so soon, but she was quick to adapt. As soon as she heard that I was coming, she called back her forces and locked up tight. Unfortunately for her, she was again misinformed about my abilities. She believed that I was like her, only older and stronger. She believed that all of the followers, weapons, and magical failsafes she had been accumulating on the sly would allow her to overwhelm me. She was wrong."

A hail of arrows shot out from the city to descend upon the miniature Yukari. In response she stuck out her hand and turned them around, returning them to the walls. They detonated upon impact, and the walls simply collapsed.

And then the fire flared up brightly, making Reimu jerk back. When it settled down again, there were only two figures within, both the size of one of Alice Margatroid's dolls. One of them was Yukari, who was standing with her arms folded. The other was prostrated before her, face down on the ground. It was Minerva. Lying between them was the same crown that now sat on Yukari's mantle.

"I need not tell you what I did to them," Yukari said. "You've already seen the results for yourself. As for Minerva, once she was beaten and humbled before me, she begged for her life. She claimed that she would spend the rest of her days atoning for her sins, that she would serve me from there on out. Unfortunately for her," both of the flaming figures puffed out of existence, letting the fire burn normally, "I wasn't hiring."

Reimu reluctantly looked up away from the fire. Yukari was already gazing at her. "Now, earlier you asked me if making you sit through a history lecture served some sort of purpose, and it did. You also asked me why I was so cold, so unwilling to consider other avenues. And my answer is this: I've been there, Reimu. I stuck my neck out to save a young girl that I believed to be merely misunderstood, because I thought it was the right thing to do. And as a result, people died. And it was far from the first time. I've made other mistakes, let my heart get the better of me, and others paid the price. I can't allow it to happen again, not this time. There is too much at stake. Rin Satsuki has my sympathy, but she does not have my mercy."

"Furthermore," Yukari continued, this time a hint of steel in her voice. "You also asked me what gave me the right to decide who lived and who died. And to _that _I give you this answer, which you should have known already: Gensokyo is _mine, _shrine maiden. Bought and paid for. I may not rule it, but I sure as hell own it. And I protect what is mine. The Angels aren't going to take it from me. Neither is Yuuka. Neither is the Shadow Youkai. I've sacrificed too much to allow it to be harmed by misplaced sentimentalism. This country is more than just my little getaway. It is the entire justification for my existence, and _no one, _not even you Reimu Hakurei, daughter of Miko Hakurei and descendant of Hakurei Sonozika, is going to jeopardize it and its people. And _that _ismy answer."

…

The door to Patchouli Knowledge's private vault wasn't thick. Physical resilience was never reliable in her line of work, and she didn't much care for the thought of having to move a heavy door every time she needed something. However, it was sealed with every kind of defensive ward she could think of. And given her considerable expertise in such matters, it should have been harder to penetrate than the heart of a fully-armored oni warrior, which was why the fact that Marisa Kirisame had managed to get inside purely by accident remained a significant bruise on her pride, and would likely remain so for the foreseeable future.

However, she didn't have time for past embarrassments, save for the one that was currently trying to kill them all. Patchouli pressed her hand against the door and deactivated the wards.

The vault itself wasn't large, perhaps the size of Reimu Hakurei's shrine. Thirty of her crystal boxes filled the shelves along the walls, with six more occupying the table in the center.

The ones on the table were the least dangerous, containing mostly books. Grabbing one at random, she keyed in the passcode and popped the lid open. "Empty it," she told Koakuma and Tokiko. "And let's go."

Her assistants were reluctant to touch it. "It's not…dangerous, is it?" Koakuma said, keeping her distance.

"The boxes with explosive contents are kept along the northern wall," Patchouli said with a glare. "The ones containing lifeforms are along the eastern, and the western holds items of a delicate nature. Now, empty the box, and do so _carefully, _or you'll find yourself inside one."

That galvanized them into action. They worked together, quickly removing the literature inside and stacking them in the corner.

"Good," Patchouli said with a nod. "Now grab it and let's go."

"Wait," Tokiko said as she peered curiously at the box's former contents. She picked one of the books up and opened it. "What are these?"

"Does it matter?" Patchouli said, turning toward her. "They're books, obviously. I happen to own quite a few of them, as you might have…" Her voice trailed off when she realized that the pile of "books" weren't actually books in the strictest sense. But that wasn't possible. That specific box was always kept at the opposite end of the table, wasn't it?

Too late Patchouli remembered that she had rearranged everything after learning of Marisa's burglary escapade and cursed herself for not taking the time to mark the boxes.

"WHOA!" Tokiko said as she stared at one of Patchouli's Outside World doujin comics, her eyes popping wide and her cheeks turning bright red.

"Tokiko, what are you doing?" Koakuma said as she tried to pull the comic away. "We don't have time for…Oh, wow."

Mortified, Patchouli snatched it away from them. "Okay, that is _none _of your business, you have no right to be going through my stuff, and, and I only have them because Remilia likes them!" She moved between them and the rest of the stack. "Now, please let us remember that the mansion is currently under attack and that we are all in very mortal danger!"

"Right, right," Tokiko said. "But, uh…"

"WHAT!"

She pointed at the comic in Patchouli's hands. "Can I borrow that?"

Patchouli took a deep breath. "Help me move that box _now _and without complaint, and swear that you will never speak of what you saw in here, and you can have it!"

"Deal!" Tokiko quickly lifted one side of the box while Koakuma took the other, and they carried it out. As they left the vault, Patchouli heard Koakuma whisper, "I'd better get a turn."

Her face now even redder than Tokiko's, Patchouli quickly covered the pile of contraband with an invisibility spell. After all this was over, she resolved to test herself for malicious curses. It would go a long way to explaining the day she was having.

…

As Hong Meiling seized Satsuki by the shoulder and the waistband of her pants to hurl her against the wall, she couldn't help but feel a little guilty. True, the Scarlet Devil Mansion under attack, and true, she and her friends were in very mortal danger. But despite the seriousness of the situation, it couldn't be denied that she was enjoying herself far more than she had in years.

This Rin Satsuki person was good. In fact, she was excellent. She didn't seem to be using any identifiable style, but her movements were quick and graceful, and her every blow was potentially lethal. Meiling couldn't remember the last time she had been challenged at such a level. In a world where disputes were solved by magical bullets and spellcards, it was a rare thing that she got to put her expertise with the martial arts to good use. As such, she was relishing this opportunity to test herself against a true master.

Of course, according to Patchouli and Sakuya this person wasn't actually a master but someone who robbed others of their hard-earned skills and power, something that Hong Meiling, who had worked hard to reach the level she was at today, found to be ethically reprehensible, but the end results were the same. Meiling had always wanted to travel to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost to try herself against Kaguya Houraisan or Fujiwara no Mokou, and now she could fight both of them at once!

Which wasn't to say she was going into this fight armed with nothing but her feet, fists, and reflexes. Satsuki reportedly was armed with a great many of other tricks, ones that could end the fight in an instant should she decide to use them. Fortunately, Meiling had Patchouli Knowledge to help her prepare. Phoenix Fire? It would have to deal with her fireproofing spells. The touch of death? Life-sucking fields of darkness? Those would have to pierce through her stoneskin enchantments, specially designed to cause such attacks to simply wash over her. Of course, Satsuki could always just eat through Patchouli's enhancements, but if it got to that point, the fight would be over anyway, so Meiling might as well arm herself with every advantage she could get her hands on in the meantime.

Strangely enough, Satsuki wasn't bringing her heavier attacks to bear. Quite the contrary, she seemed to be enjoying the fight as much as Meiling, rolling with her punches, ducking her kicks, and rebounding off the walls and ceiling to return with her own onslaught. There was a tooth-baring grin on her face. Just as well. Both Sakuya and Patchouli had made it clear that Meiling didn't stand a chance of defeating Satsuki on her own and could only keep her distracted for a time. So long Satsuki was absorbed by their contest, it gave Meiling's allies more time to do what they had to.

Meiling ducked a decapitating slash and pounded at Satsuki's stomach with her fists several times in quick succession before striking with both palms at once. They hit and hit solidly, and Satsuki was launched back with the speed of a discharged bullet. She recovered, but Meiling slammed shoulder-first into her midriff less than a second later. The two spun in midair, with Meiling coiling her legs back and shoving up as soon as her back was lined up with the floor, sending Satsuki up and through the ceiling.

Well, at least they were out of the library. Now she had to take the fight out of the mansion. Meiling soared straight up, passing through a succession of holes before emerging in a banquet hall, just in time to see Satsuki cut the supports of the heavy chandelier, bringing the whole thing down.

Meiling rolled to one side, just in time to avoid being crushed but not quick enough to keep one of her feet from being pinned. Scowling, she used her free foot to kick the chandelier off, but Satsuki chose that moment to land feet-first on her head, smashing Meiling's upper torso through the floor and leaving her in the awkward position of having her top half sticking out of the ceiling of one room and her bottom half emerging from the floor of the other.

Then Meiling felt two horribly strong arms wrap around her middle and lift her up through the floor, still upside-down.

"_Here's a trick I learned from a big metal guy," _Satsuki said. She fell to her knees, driving Meiling's head back through the floor. It hurt, sure, but no more than anything else had.

Satsuki lifted her up again and stepped to one side, fully intending to drive her again through a solid chunk of floor. Before she could do that, Meiling wrapped her legs around Satsuki's neck, used her arms to grab her ankles, and put every ounce of energy into her power of flight, sending the two of them hurtling backward. She prayed that their path would lead them through a window. The sooner they were outside, the better.

It was actually a wall, but the end result was the same. They burst through into fading sunlight, pitching this way and that. The impact had stunned Satsuki, loosening her grip and allowing Meiling to wiggle free. She spun around and propelled her fist towards her opponent's terrible, yet beautiful face. However, Satsuki's open palm was waiting for it.

This time Satsuki was the one to spin around. She drove her other forearm into Meiling's elbow, knocking the two of them into a whirl and sending them tumbling toward the grass. As they fell, Satsuki started laughing, and caught up in the insanity of it all, Meiling joined her.

…

Reimu was stunned. She had come here to plead her case to Yukari, no easy feat to begin with, and she had been defeated before she even had the chance to begin. Granted, the odds had been stacked against her from the beginning, but she had thought that she would get the chance to speak before having her argument dismantled.

And the worst of it wasn't that Yukari wasn't giving her a chance. Quite the contrary, she was sitting patiently, waiting for Reimu to begin. The problem was that Reimu had nothing to say, because Yukari was _right. _Oh sure, she was still kind of a bitch and many of her methods were…questionable, to say the least, but that didn't change the fact that everything she had said was true.

Rin's life didn't begin to compare to the importance of Gensokyo as a whole? True.

Reimu was in no position to point fingers at Yukari and condemn her for the things she had done and was planning to do? True.

By bringing Moriya Shrine and Myouren Temple into her scheme, she endangered them both and threatened to tear down everything they had worked so hard to build? True.

Rin was fast slipping into becoming the monster Yukari had feared from the beginning, and even if she didn't, the Shadow Youkai would surely emerge and make the decision for her? Very, very true.

"I…" Reimu said as she desperately wracked her mind for something to say that wasn't, "You're right, I'm sorry," but it wasn't coming. "I…uh…"

What was there to say? She couldn't appeal to conscience, because Yukari was already following hers. She couldn't appeal to emotion, because she had known that to be useless from the beginning. She couldn't appeal to logic and reason, because…

_Reimu, I may be an idealist. That doesn't mean I'm an idiot._

Wait a minute.

Something had emerged in the forefront of her memory, that conversation she had had with Byakuren some weeks ago, when Reimu had been experiencing some heavy doubts about the wisdom of continuing her efforts. She mentally went over that conversation, reviewing the points that had been made. Then she went over her most recent encounter with Rin, everything the Kirin girl had said and done, both positive and negative. And when she was done with that, she went over everything Yukari had just told her, and compared it to the above.

Reimu started laughing. She couldn't help it. Because in explaining herself to Reimu and justifying how she did things, Yukari had also given her the key in turning her around.

Yukari frowned. "Ah, I'm sorry, is something the matter? Was there a joke made that I missed?"

"No, no, sorry," Reimu said, struggling to bring herself under control. "It's just, I thought of something."

"Oh? And what might that be?"

"You're right," Reimu said.

Yukari had an excellent poker face, but sometimes she didn't bother with hiding her surprise. This was one of those times. "Yes, I know," she said, staring. "Though it's a bit…odd, to hear you say it so plainly."

"Yeah, but hear me out," Reimu said. "You're right about what might happen to Kanako and Byakuren if all this goes wrong. And you're right about how I can't judge you and what you've done. Hell, you're right about a lot of things. But there's one thing you missed."

"Really. Do tell."

Reimu nodded. "I'm not going to deny that doing things my way is super-risky. I'm walking a razor-edge with my flight gone, I get that. And there's every chance I'll take everyone with me if I fall. And then everything will be lost and Gensokyo could burn."

"But see, here's the thing," she continued. "We've talked about what _might _happen _if_ I screw up. But if we do things your way, then it's all but guaranteed to end in disaster."

…

One hand clutching at the stitch in her side and the other gripping her medicine, Patchouli limped out into the open sunlight. Sure enough, there was Rin Satsuki and Hong Meiling, still engaged in mortal combat. To the gate-guard's credit, she wasn't dead. In fact, just like before, she was holding her own, though to Patchouli's mind it was only a matter of time. Meiling was very good, yes, but she wasn't _that _good.

If only to illustrate that point, Satsuki suddenly rolled back, putting distance between them, and struck the ground with her fist. There was a small flash of scarlet energy, and the ground literally surged up and outward in a wave. Meiling was only put off her balance for a fraction of a second, but it was enough. Satsuki seized her face with one hand and shoved forward while swept her legs, driving Meiling to the ground. Once the gate-guard was down, Satsuki proceeded to pound at her face with both fists.

Fortunately, Patchouli's enchantments saved her from being split open like a watermelon, but though she managed to fight her way out of Satsuki's grip and restore the distance between them, one eye was already swollen shut and her lip split and bleeding. Furthermore, she was dragging one leg in a worrying matter.

This wasn't going to last much longer. Patchouli frantically searched for some way to keep Satsuki from killing Meiling and then spied her broken barrier generator, still sitting under the protective shield she had raised over it.

"Meiling!" she called as she waved and pointed. "The generator!"

Meiling saw her and nodded. "Don't worry, I won't let her touch it!" she called back.

"No, you idiot! Knock her at it!"

That surprised Meiling enough for her to stand up straight and stare at Patchouli in confusion. Predictably enough, Satsuki took advantage and smacked the gate guard with a sharp elbow to the temple, knocking her to the ground.

As Meiling moaned, Satsuki turned around. She saw Patchouli and smiled. _"Ah," _she said, her talons twitching with excitement. _"There you are."_

She started to advance. Patchouli tried to remember what spells she had used against her during their battle nine years ago and finally just went with simple explosion of force.

Satsuki's hair was blown as if stirred by a great wind, but she was otherwise unaffected. Damn it, she was already adapted. She kept coming, the color disappearing from her arms. Patchouli remembered full well what that meant.

Then she spied a marble statue of Vlad Drakul standing in a bed of roses. She seized at it with her mind, broke it from its pedestal, and hurled it toward Satsuki with all her might.

Satsuki caught it with one hand, stopping it cold. Her forearm melted and flowed over the statue, enveloping it completely. From there, it literally was eaten away from the outside in until nothing was left.

"_Om nom nom," _Satsuki said as she resumed her advance. Her eyes suddenly flared bright crimson. _**"Hey, I'm feeling kinda hungry."**_

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia's breath caught in her throat. She knew that voice. She edged around to get a good look at Rin's eyes. They were shining with anticipation. What was more, they were bright red, like her own.

Oh _shit._

…

Well, that was disconcerting. Satsuki's voice had been horrible to listen to already, but now it was downright spine-chilling. Patchouli hurled a bolt of lightning at her. The effects were predictable.

"_**Just keep doing that. It just reminds me of how much I hate-"**_

Then she was struck by a blue-and-white blur. Finally she was lifted off her feet and sent tumbling toward the generator, where she ended up sprawled over the dome of the shield

Not questioning her good fortune, Patchouli turned the shield off, dropping Satsuki onto the generator itself. From there, she turned the shield back on, sealing her inside.

Of course, that wouldn't hold her for long. Satsuki had proven to be quite effective against magical barriers the last time around. But that wasn't Patchouli's intention.

She reached out with her mind and felt the heart of her flawed generator. She started charging it immediately, filling its core with as much power as she could summon as quickly as she could. She could literally feel Satsuki stare down at the glowing dome in surprise, no doubt wondering what it was.

And then, before Satsuki had a chance to react, Patchouli turned the generator on.

The last time she had done that, the generator hadn't exploded as its predecessors had. It had just sort of deflated and cracked. But then, the last time she had taken numerous safety precautions and hadn't recklessly filled it with power before throwing the switch. And it hadn't been filled with cracks then.

The long-awaited explosion finally came, this one far more spectacular than the ones that had come before.

The shield popped like a squeezed grape as the magical equivalent of a fireworks display shot out in every direction. Patchouli shied back into the shelter of the mansion as sparkling fragments rained down onto the gardens. It looked as if the sky were raining gemstones. And, in a way, it was.

Satsuki emerged in a daze from the multi-colored smoke. Apparently her concentration had been disrupted, making her body shift between the features of at least four, perhaps five different people. She took two drunken steps to the right and fell flat on her face.

"Very pretty," Sakuya said as she joined the exhausted magician. "Was that what you had in mind?"

Patchouli shrugged. "That was admittedly not its original purpose, but at least it came in handy in the end. Thank you for getting her there, by the way."

"My pleasure. The box?"

Patchouli coughed. "At the ready," she said, inhaling her medicine. "The staff?"

"Safely evacuated." Sakuya nodded to where Meiling had fallen. The gate guard was now gone. "And Hong has recovered and stands ready."

"Good." Patchouli looked over to Satsuki, who was struggling to push herself up. "All right. Let's put the little abomination back where she belongs."

…

Yukari placed one withered arm in her lap while resting the elbow of the other on the armrest and leaning her head against her fist. She crossed her legs and said, "Oh, will it? And no doubt you have supported your conclusion with your long years of experience in such matters." She sounded amused, which only grated Reimu's nerves further.

"I've got more experience in this matter than you do," Reimu shot back. "Because let me tell you right now, Rin isn't _anything _like all those other people you had to deal with."

Yukari shrugged. "If by that you mean she isn't driven by evil ambition as Minerva was, that she never chose to become what she is today, that she was an innocent thrust into a bad situation through no fault of your own, then yes, she is nothing like Minerva. But neither were a great many of the other problems I've had to deal with since. Let me tell you a story about a perfectly normal young man who, about four-hundred and forty-eight years ago came across a cursed box in his-"

"That's not what I'm talking about either," Reimu hastily interrupted, before Yukari could regale her with another horrifying tale of bloodshed. "I'm sure you've, uh, dealt with plenty of people like that too. I'm talking about _what _Rin is, not who."

"And what might that be?" Yukari said.

"You tell me," Reimu shot back. "What can she do?"

There was a lengthy pause, and then Yukari uncrossed her legs and said, "Ah, I begin to understand. You believe that I am unable to overcome her, should it come down to it."

"I _know _you can't."

"Do you now?" Yukari murmured. She closed her eyes and massaged her forehead. "All right then, why not?"

"Because…because…" Reimu ran her fingers through her hair as she tried to gather her scattered thoughts and level out her breathing. "Okay, give me a minute here."

"Of course. Take all the time you need."

Reimu nodded and closed her eyes. When she was ready, she said, "Look, I talked to Genji about this, and he told me the same thing you did, that Gensokyo's been attacked by plenty of monsters in the past, some of them very, very powerful."

Yukari nodded. "Well, he was right."

"But he also told me that none of them were anything compared to what Rin will become, if she loses it completely."

"'If'?" Yukari repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. _If. _And hey, you've changed the subject plenty of times to go off on your tangents. This time, let me do the talking, without you butting in, okay?"

Yukari laughed, a sound that set Reimu's teeth on edge. "Oh, fair enough. All right then, what is it that you want to tell me?"

"A lot of things you already know, but either you somehow don't realize what they really mean, or you're so afraid of them that you've plunged yourself into denial."

Yukari's eyebrows rose only a few millimeters, but Reimu was willing to bet that she had scored a hit. However, the elder youkai didn't move to stop her, so the shrine maiden pressed on.

"Let's go down the list again," she said, "for what has got to be the millionth time. I mean, I know you must do it daily, right?" She held up her right hand and starting ticking off points on her fingers, starting with the pinky. "First she's got that adaptation thing going for her, perfected by none other than Eirin Yagokoro herself, in ways even she couldn't have imagined. Use anything against her, and she'll get used to it in seconds. Shoot her, and she'll walk right through the bullets. Stab her, and she'll just swallow the sword. Any kind of magic, any kind of weapon, all of them useless. Sure, you'll hurt her the first few hits, but she'll take it and just keep coming."

"Next, there's the Hourai Immortals," she said, moving her ring finger down. "Another one of Eirin's greatest successes. Thanks to them, what damage she takes before adapting will get washed away in seconds. Pound her flat, and she'll be back on her feet the moment there's a break. Blow her apart, like Flandre Scarlet did, and she'll pull herself back together in moments, good as new. It doesn't matter what you cut off, what you blow up, what you squish, she'll just keep healing and staying fresh while you exhaust your energy."

Next was the middle finger. Reimu briefly considered saving that for last, but now wasn't the time to be petty. "After that, there're the guys she got today, Nue Houjou and Mamizou Futatsuiwa. Kotohime told you about that, right?"

"She did," Yukari said neutrally. "And I find it interesting that, despite the fact that Byakuren is going out on a very unsteady limb for her, Rin still consumed two of her entourage. Quite ungrateful of her, if you ask me."

"Yeah, well, maybe," Reimu admitted. "But they weren't acting on her orders at the time. She told me a few weeks ago that they disappeared without telling anyone where they were going, and Nue told me that they were after the bounty, so they were definitely acting on their own. Hell, Nue even told me that she was trying to keep Byakuren from having anything to do with Rin."

"Smart girl."

"Not really," Reimu said. "Especially when she did a piss-poor imitation of you."

Yukari blinked. "Ah, I suppose you mean literally?"

"Yeah. She was trying to scare me off. Didn't work."

"I see." Yukari shrugged. "Well, I suppose arresting her for impersonating a public figure would be pointless. But even so, I doubt that Byakuren will find much solace in the fact."

"Or it'll make her want to attack Rin even less because she'll be afraid of hurting them too," Reimu countered. "And we're not talking about Byakuren right now, remember?"

"No, indeed we are not," Yukari murmured. "Though I should point out that she is a subject that we'll have to return to sooner or later."

"Then make it later. Let's stick with Rin for now." Reimu brought down her ring finger. "Like her weapons, for example. Let's stay with the immortals for now. Take Fujiwara no Mokou, because she sure as hell did. Somewhere, a long time ago, Mokou consumed the soul of a Phoenix, didn't she? Like Utsuho Reiuji did with that dead sun god? It gave her Phoenix Fire, the hottest, most destructive flame known. And now, Rin's got it. And believe me, she doesn't mind using it. You saw what happened to Tenshi, right? And that was with her holding back. If she wanted to, she could set the whole godsdamned county on fire, kick off a raging inferno all the oceans in the world will be unable to quench."

"Very poetic," Yukari said. "Though not strictly accurate. It is possible to snuff out Phoenix Fire. It's just very difficult."

"Yeah, okay. And if the fire had an inexhaustible source, like, say, one really pissed off Phoenix, or someone with the power of a Phoenix?" Reimu countered. "What would win, the oceans or the fire?"

"Hmmm, point."

"And finally, there's the big one, the one everyone's so scared of." Reimu brought down her thumb, completing the fist. "The Shadow Youkai. The avatar of a homicidal Archangel. Something that can kill people with its freaking shadow, and loves doing it. Something so powerful, and so evil, it's got even you pissing your panties."

A flicker of annoyance passed over Yukari's face, but she remained otherwise dispassionate. "A crude way of putting it, but not inaccurate. Fearing such a creature is, after all, a sign of sanity."

Reimu nodded. "Right. I don't even need to go into why she's bad news, and you probably know that better than I do. And not only that, but this time she's hiding behind all that other stuff I just talked about. You can't get to her, but she can get to you, and easily."

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia lunged, intending to tackle Rin down. A wave of force bowled her over and sent her sprawling.

"**What are you doing, Rumia?" **Rin said with a playful giggle. **"You know that won't work. You can't stop me, nobody can!" **She lifted her hand to her mouth and giggled again. **"But why would you want to? Isn't this what you wanted, to see your former tormentors twist and scream?"**

Scrambling into a crouch, Rumia shouted, "Not with you like this! Crazy Rin I can handle! Bad guy Rin I'm okay with! But not evil Rin! I mean, come on!"

"**Evil?" **Rin tilted her head to one side. **"Is that what I am? Is that what you think of me?"**

"What am I supposed to think?" Rumia thrust a finger at Rin's face. "I mean, for the gods' sakes, your eyes look like they're on freaking fire! And you sound like her!"

"**Her?" **Rin bared her teeth in a ghastly grin. **"Whoever are you talking about?"**

"The evil me, you twit! The one you were supposed to have killed! The one that killed you!"

The smile vanished. **"I did kill her," **she said. **"I already told you that."**

"Oh yeah?" Rumia challenged. "Okay genius, try this: say something, and _really _listen to yourself."

"**What are you-"** Then Rin blinked. She glanced down and grabbed her throat. **"Wait, what…" **Then her eyes went wide and she looked at Rumia.

"**No," **she said.

"Oh, finally caught on, have you?" Rumia said. "Now look at your arm. Notice something weird about your glowy thing?"

Rin looked. Her aura was now writhing like a pit of snakes, and was the color of a dust storm. Glowing arms were shooting out to connect to some unseen part of her mind. **"No," **she said, patting her arms and her torso. **"No," **she said again, her hands going to her face. **"No, I…**I killed **her, I…**I'm not **going…"**

Fascinated and horrified, Rumia watched as Rin literally went to war with herself. The Kirin fell to her knees as she clutched at her face and hair. Parts of her aura dimmed to grey, almost becoming white again, before plunging back into violent colors. The color of her eyes pulsed from crimson to violet and back again.

"I can't…I **can't**…" Then Rin's head snapped back and she screamed.

The sound of it was simply unearthly. Rumia hunched over and covered her ears as the darkness vibrated with the pain of it. It tore through her mind like a jagged shard of glass. She had no doubt that if she heard that noise in the real world, her ears would be bleeding.

Gritting her teeth, Rumia glanced up. Rin was still screaming, the echoes reverberating through their dark world. But beyond her, on the screen, Rumia saw that their enemies weren't going to let her have her breakdown in peace.

"Oh wow," she said, her voice barely audible over Rin's cries. "This is gonna be bad."

…

Meiling came barreling toward the dazed Satsuki with all the speed she could muster and swung her clenched fist straight to the center of Satsuki's mass.

Now, though Meiling and her allies didn't know it, Rin Satsuki had spent a good portion of the previous day trading blows with two veteran Oni warriors. And when it came to sheer physical power, the Oni were a species that measured their bench presses in units of mountain ranges. They were unmatched, and Rin had taken numerous hits from them and kept going.

Hong Meiling was nowhere near the level of an Oni. She was exceptionally strong, true, but compared to them she might as well be a fairy. However, what she _did _have was the power of focus, the ability to manipulate and control her _chi. _And with the proper focus and application of strength, chisels could shatter diamonds, straws could impale trees, and bare hands could shatter stone. And focusing was her specialty.

As such, when the punch connected, it hit with such force that Rin's ancestors probably felt it.

Her eyes bulged to twice their normal size and she briefly flashed through every color of the spectrum. Then she was hurtling backward, a shapeless blob of half-formed limbs and melted faces.

Had she been allowed to continue, she might have gone several kilometers before she even started to slow down. However, simply knocking her away was not her opponents' intention.

Waiting for her beyond the garden's boundaries were a number of glowing hoops, forming a sort of tunnel. As Rin passed through each hoop, a fraction of her momentum was shaved away, bringing her down to a more bearable speed: not enough to allow her to recover, but enough to ensure that she could be caught without compromising the integrity of the waiting net and to give the person hovering next to it the time she needed.

And there, as the end of the tunnel, floated Patchouli Knowledge's box, its lid open and waiting.

Even with the hoops slowing her down, Rin Satsuki still entered the box with the speed of a freight train. As such, the backlash would have been immense, possibly enough to rebound her back out. However, in that fraction of a second between her entering the box's interior and the collision with its bottom, Sakuya Izayoi brought time to a halt. She reached over and calmly closed the lid and activated its security spells. Then she allowed time to resume its course.

The box was rocketed back nearly half a kilometer before Patchouli's slingshot spell brought it back the way it came. It passed through the hoops, lost a significant amount of momentum in the process, hit the ground and proceeded to dig a trench through the garden before coming to a stop in a bed of primroses. And there it sat, completely inert.

Hong Meiling stood still for a moment, staring at it. Then, when she was sure that Rin Satsuki wasn't going to coming burst out she walked out to the box and tentatively touched it with one finger.

Nothing happened.

Meiling nodded. She covered her fist with an open hand and bowed low. "Ill-gotten as your skills may have been, that was still well-fought," she said. "May you find peace in the end."

…

_Deep Within_

Though she couldn't hear Hong Meiling's words, it wouldn't have mattered anyway, as Rin wasn't feeling very peaceful. She wasn't acting out in violence, but she certainly was not at peace.

"No," she choked as she stared out at her new prison. The fire in her eyes died, as did the cold in her voice. She walked over to the screen and placed her hand against its side. Then she sank down to her knees as she moaned, "No, no, no…"

Rumia wondered if she should say anything, and decided not to. Sometimes, there was nothing to say. As such, she just sat still and said nothing as Rin kept whispering, "No, no, no, no…"

…

To be fully truthful, Reimu was surprised that she had managed to keep the argument going as long as she had. As she heard it told, when Yukari got serious, those who tried to oppose her often ended up losing, blackmailed, and/or disintegrated, as Remilia had, minus the part about disintegrated. Or so Reimu assumed. Given Remilia's vampiric regeneration, it was quite possible that she had been at least partially disintegrated sometime in recent history.

But not only had Reimu avoided all of the above fates, she had survived Yukari's opening bout and taken the offensive. The way she saw it, she deserved some kind of medal for that accomplishment alone. But then, she deserved a medal for the sort of things she did on a monthly basis, and none had yet arrived. Still, the feeling she was getting was not unlike the one she had gotten the first time she had met Yukari, when she, Marisa, and Sakuya Izayoi had started to gain the upper hand during their first danmaku duel. Granted, Yukari had just been playing with them for kicks, but since the elder youkai was now deadly serious and Reimu was on her own, it only made things all the sweeter. She just had to keep the rush from going to her head, as a single mistake would bring it all crashing down on her.

"Reimu, I understand the point you are trying to make," Yukari was saying. "But if anything, the mention of the Shadow Youkai only works against your argument. After all, your entire thesis hinges upon cooperation with the unfortunate child in question being a viable alternative to seeking her destruction. And if she is, in fact, under the Shadow Youkai's influence, than there is little to nothing we can do for her. If anything, it only makes killing her all that more of the merciful thing to do."

Reimu nodded and hoped she didn't look too eager. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. But see, that's not the case. When Yuuka attacked us, Mima got all of us together-"

"And who does 'all of us' consist of?" Yukari interrupted. "Just out of curiosity."

"Marisa, me, Sanae, and Rin," Reimu said promptly. "Kanako was kinda dead at the time, and so was Nitori. The Asakuras were kinda hanging out with us, but no one really wanted them around. And everyone else was either already taken out or still trying to kill us."

"Hmmm, and Rin was, in fact, assisting you of her own free will at this time?"

"Yeah, she was," Reimu said, with just a hint of impatience. "I'll get to that part in a second. But like I was saying, we didn't want Yuuka listening in on us when we, uh, strategized I guess. So Mima had us touch her hand and…" Reimu frowned as she tried to think of the right way to verbalize that bizarre experience. "She did something so that _our _minds were inside hers. She had like a mock-up of my shrine that she brought us to and said it was made from her memories."

Now Yukari was showing interest. "A domain spell? Surely not."

"I don't know what it's called," Reimu admitted. "But that's what she did. We all were there, Rin included. And so was Rumia." To be honest, Reimu probably enjoyed the stricken look on Yukari's face more than she should have, but she still was quick to clarify, "Not, not _that _one. I mean the one I knew her as, the one that was part of Cirno's stupid gang. Yeah, apparently Rin somehow managed to preserve her mind when she ate her."

Reimu quickly summarized that meeting the best she could, leaving out the unimportant bits and focusing on her interactions with Rin and the harmless Rumia. When she was done, Yukari wasn't even trying to keep from staring. "Fascinating," she said. "And you are _certain _the Shadow Youkai is not influencing her actions? Because while I am willing to buy that the other Rumia was preserved, I cannot bring myself to believe that her deadlier counterpart is at all idle."

"She isn't," Reimu said and felt a small measure of apprehension soil her high. "Mima checked for that."

Yukari's eyelids lowered. "Oh?"

"Yeah, uh…" Reimu rubbed the back of her neck and she wondered how much of Rin's "visit" to Hakurei Shrine some weeks back she should reveal. Deciding that Yukari was better off knowing nothing about it, she just said, "Rin…knows about the Shadow Youkai, actually. Apparently they had some kind of confrontation, and Rin thinks she came out ahead."

Yukari snorted.

"Yeah," Reimu said reluctantly. "That was my feeling too. But still, Rin's convinced that she managed to kill her, and I guess the Shadow Youkai doesn't feel like discouraging her. But according to Mima, the real nasty Rumia is still in there." Reimu pointed at her own head. "Like, real deep in her subconscious, doing who the hell knows what."

Yukari sucked in a sharp breath, only to regret it when she started coughing. When she was able, she said, "That…is very troublesome news."

Reimu nodded. "Tell me about it. And during the fight, there were a few times when Rin became, well, really freaking scary. She didn't get murderous or something, but when first Tenshi and later Nue and Mamizou kept attacking her, Tenshi in specific, well, she kinda got really, really ruthless." She shrugged. "Okay, admittedly they kinda had it coming, seeing how they wouldn't quit and kept stabbing and shooting her and stuff, and she did try just knocking them out at first, but after that didn't work…Look, you saw what happened to Tenshi, and we both know why we can't find the shapeshifters."

"So just so we're clear, you are, in fact, confirming that the Shadow Youkai is having an influence on her actions?" Yukari said slowly. "And how, exactly, does this bolster your point?"

"Because she might be getting influenced, but she hasn't going under yet," Reimu answered. "I mean, after I snapped her out of one such, uh, episode, she saw what had happened to Tenshi and had a kind of a freak-out. I mean, she was honestly horrified." She leaned forward. "Look, she's slipping, I admit it. She's slipping. But she's not gone yet. She definitely doesn't want to turn into a monster, and is terrified of it happening."

"And I'm sure you believe that," Yukari drawled. "But I feel compelled to point out that this is hardly the first time I've heard such sentiments, from a great many people who ended up becoming monsters anyway."

"She saved my life," Reimu shot back. "And not just the one time. There were a couple of other times she stopped my ass from getting cooked by one thing or another, when she could have just let me die and split." Before Yukari could say anything, she added, "And oh yeah, did I mention the part where she was freaking _cooperating _with us? Because I think I did. Sure, she was skeptical and all, but still was willing to take the chance. She fought by our side when she could have wiped us all out. That alone proves that she can be reasoned with."

Yukari's shoulders lifted in a shrug. "Perhaps, but one can't help but notice that she was and still is conspicuously absent. That doesn't speak well of her desire to cooperate, if she is so quick to abandon you once the danger has passed."

"_She_ was never in danger to begin with. Hell, she probably could have left any time she wanted. But she stayed to help, and only disappeared when you showed up on the scene! What does that tell you?"

"That my involvement is likely to be detrimental to any effort to convince her of your good intentions?" Yukari suggested.

"Ha. Haha. No, it's that she's as scared of you as she is of herself. Look, let me make this plain for you. She wants to be helped. She wants to be saved. And she not only is willing to cooperate, she _was _cooperating until you scared her off." Reimu took a brief moment to ready herself. This was it. "Sure, my way may be risky as all hell, but it was working, while we've all seen where your way has been going. Plus, my way has this being resolved all the more quicker. My way has her going with us to see Shinki and Sariel and getting all traces of the Shadow Youkai removed of her own free will. Meanwhile, _your _way will just keep her running, keep her fighting, keep making her grow more and more desperate, cross more and more lines, and give the Shadow Youkai more and more time to work. Your way is going to end up turning her into the very thing you're scared of. And even if you do manage to destroy her in the end, a whole lot of people are going to die in the meantime. Once she finally goes over, she's going to be unstoppable, and you know it."

…

"You know, after all that worry, I must admit that I can't help but feel a little disappointed. Relieved, but disappointed," Patchouli said as she looked over at the box.

Meiling, who was busy stretching out her recently healed limbs and testing them for missed fractures, looked at her in surprise. "Disappointed?" she said. "I cannot recall the last time I was challenged so!"

"And that's the thing," Patchouli said. "You were _challenged. _She was _difficult. _By all rights she should have been invincible."

"She was," Sakuya told her. "We outwitted her, not outfought. And we extremely fortunate that the plan went off without a major hitch."

"Fortune, nothing," Remilia said, staring at Rin Satsuki's new prison. "It was fate."

No one bothered to argue with her. When Remilia was involved, especially in her own home, she might have been speaking literally.

At the moment, the four of them were standing in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's foyer. The box containing Rin Satsuki sat in the center of the floor, contained in a bubble of halted time. Or rather, Sakuya and Meiling were standing. Patchouli was sitting on the bottommost step of one of the staircases while Remilia had taken one of the chairs that had sat along the wall and pulled it close to the box. She now sat with her hands gripping the underside of the chair, her eyes focused on the box in a manner not dissimilar to a hawk perched protectively over its eggs.

In a way, Sakuya saw Patchouli's point, though she herself was far from disappointed. Rin Satsuki had gone down surprisingly easily. Personally, she attributed to the girl having become so confident in her abilities that she had decided to play with them first, allowing them time to come up with an effective counterattack. The same thing had happened during the first Satsuki incident. That was the problem with these godlike beings; they were always sure of their overwhelming strength that they constantly misused what they had. As far as she was concerned, power wasn't measured in terms of magical reserves or how many tricks you possessed. It was what you did with what you had. Which was why they were alive and Satsuki was back in a box.

Of course, they couldn't just shove her back into Patchouli's vault and be done with it. She still held at least four people captive, quite possibly more. They needed to turn her over to the right people to be dealt with, and soon. The bubble Sakuya had created to ensure that Satsuki wouldn't even try to break out was different from what she did usually when she stopped time. Normally, her pocketwatch would focus her natural her natural talent to allow her to step off the current of time and accomplish numerous tasks within the space of a single moment. This was also the reason why the mansion was as large as it was, with the interior having been expanded many times over while keeping the exterior at a manageable size.

But that wasn't the same as keeping a single object anchored in time while allowing everything else flow freely. While she could hold it in place for the time being, it wasn't a permanent solution. Besides, the sooner Satsuki was out of the mansion and in someone else's hands, the more comfortable she would be.

And so she turned to the exhausted magician on the stairs and said, "Patchouli, please notify the GPF and have them get in contact with Yukari Yakumo. Tell them that-"

"Oh, that won't be necessary," Remilia interrupted.

Sakuya blinked in surprise. "No? Mistress, why not?"

"Because I've already called to have this…thing removed. During that last bit of the battle. They should be here any minute now."

"Is that right?" Sakuya said. She smiled. "Well, good! Lady Yakumo surely has been told by now, and should be-"

"I didn't call the GPF."

"No?" Now Sakuya was confused again. "You were able to contact Lady Yakumo directly then?"

Remilia's gaze remained focused on the box. "No."

"Ah…Reimu Hakurei then?"

"No."

Now Sakuya was starting to grow uneasy. She exchanged a look with Patchouli and asked, "Mistress…who did you call?"

Remilia looked up then. She smiled at her chief maid, a sad, regretful smile. "Ah Sakuya, you remember how earlier, I lamented my recent bout of foolishness?"

"Yes, Mistress."

"Well, I'm afraid I've gone and done something very, very foolish."

Before Sakuya could question her further, there was a sudden knock at the door: polite, but insistent. She froze, and glanced over to Patchouli.

"Who?" she mouthed.

Patchouli frowned, and shook her head. "Something's gone wrong with my wards. I can't tell."

The knocking continued, louder this time. Sakuya turned back to Remilia.

"I'm sorry, Sakuya," she said. "You would have tried to stop me if I had told you, and would have been right to do so. But I had to."

Sakuya stared at her. Then she wordlessly turned and walked over to the door. She placed her hand on the handle and turned it.

The door burst open, nearly upsetting her balance. And in sauntered the last person Sakuya wanted to see.

"Good afternoon everyone!" Yuuka Kazami called as she folded up her umbrella and thrust it into Sakuya's hands. "Or is it evening now? Sunlight always seems to retreat too quickly for my taste." She looked around with a pleased look on her face and focused on Remilia.

"Ah, little Remilia Scarlet," she said, strolling over to where the vampire sat. She walked with the aid of a copper cane, its tip echoing as it struck the marble floor. "So good to see you again! And your message couldn't have come at a better time. Little Elly was giving me quite the earful for wandering off earlier today. Not that she was wrong to do so. I fear I upset the poor thing quite unnecessarily." She sighed dramatically. One of her eyes was covered by a black patch. "No doubt I'm in for another lecture when I return again. But ah well, such is to be expected. Still, this is such an unexpected pleasure. You are looking divine, as always." Then she tilted her head to one side. "Well, no, actually you look shriveled and malnourished. My dear child, have you been eating well?"

As Yuuka spoke, Sakuya set aside the umbrella and stole forward, drawing out her pocketwatch out with one hand and a knife with the other.

Then something invisible slammed into her and knocked her back against the wall. Dazed, she slumped to the floor.

"Wonderful to see you too, Sakuya Izayoi," Yuuka said cheerfully. "Still an efficient killing machine utterly devoted to your master's protection? Excellent!"

Then her hand snapped up to catch Hong Meiling's foot as the gate guard came flying at her head.

"Now, you I don't know," she said as she hurled Meiling away. "But I am certain that whatever your function, you perform it with competence and reliability. Ah, ah, ah, none of that."

That last sentence was directed toward Patchouli, who had been in the process of expanding a ball of flame between her hands. The magician hesitated, and then decided that her chances of success were not high enough to risk the consequences of failure. The sphere snuffed out.

"Very good," Yuuka said approvingly. "Patchouli Knowledge, is it? Your reputation precedes you. I am pleased to see that your intelligence does the stories justice."

"Everyone, stop!" Remilia shouted. "Sakuya, Meiling, Patchouli, do not attack!"

"Very wise," Yuuka said, nodding. "But I do not begrudge your servitors their…tenacity, considering how our last little encounter ended." She focused on Sakuya, who was coming to her senses. "However, your fears are unfounded. The last time we met, it was on the battlefield. But today, we meet to do business. As such, I see no reason for violence, do you?"

Sakuya pressed her back against the wall and pushed herself up onto her legs. "Mistress," she said in disbelief. "What have you done?"

Yuuka clicked her tongue. "Now, now, what kind of attitude is that? I am here by your master's invitation with nothing but peaceful intentions. Come, come, cannot we set aside old grudges and work towards a mutually beneficial arrangement? In fact…"

Her eye narrowed as it focused on the crystalline box that sat in front of Remilia, unaware of the conflict that was taking place around it.

"Is that what I think it is?" Yuuka said. There was something strange about her expression, at once reverent and hungry, and yet with a noticeable amount of apprehension.

Remilia nodded. She stood to her feet and did her best not to tremble. "Yuuka Kazami," she said. "I would like to collect the bounty on Rin Satsuki."

…

There, she had finally gotten it out, and not ended up shot down in the process. Reimu couldn't help but feel proud of herself. Okay, granted, it was highly unlikely she was going to convince Yukari of anything, and there was still every possibility that she was going to end up in that cell anyway, likely for her "own good" or something equally stupid, but just having made her concluding statement felt damn good.

Still, she would have to admit to a certain amount of nervousness as she waited for Yukari's response. The elder youkai was still staring at her without any sort of concrete expression appearing on her face. She was deep in thought, that much was evident. That, or she was trying to psyche Reimu out. But either way, the ball was in her court.

When Yukari finally spoke, it was slow and methodical, as if she were crossing over a verbal minefield. "You do realize that, in order for your plan to see success, you will need a way to make Rin 'normal,' as you call it, don't you? After all, I highly doubt that as much as she wishes to stop running, she also has no desire to spend the rest of her existence as a glob of mucus. Without a cure, you are doomed to fail, as there is nothing you can really offer her, and she cannot be allowed to keep any of her captives."

That surprised Reimu. Yukari's comment wasn't a direct attack or a dismissal. Instead, it was…constructive criticism? "Yeah, we know," Reimu said. "Rin said the same thing. But just because we don't have one doesn't mean one can't be found."

"Despite the fact that Eirin Yagokoro has been working towards one ever since the original Satsuki incident, and to date has made no real progress?"

Reimu took a deep breath. "Look, I know it isn't going to be easy. But as smart as Eirin is, it was just her, alone. Now, we have people like Mima and Byakuren helping too. And…and if, if, if you agree to, well, not shut us down, and maybe even help us, we have an even better chance."

"That is not good enough, Reimu. This is not something that can be solved by 'maybes.' You need a bonafide cure for this to work."

Reimu scowled. "And your way needs a bonafide way to kill her. You got one?"

"Oh, I'd say so," Yukari said. "There is, after all, any number of places I could drop her through my gaps."

Crap, that was right. Yukari did have a noticeable advantage when it came to wishing problems away.

But then again… "Yeah? If it were that easy, why didn't you do it to the Shadow Youkai the first time around? Or Yuuka, for that matter?"

Yukari didn't answer. And with that, Reimu realized the answer.

"Because you don't want to risk it," she said, her eyes widening and her mouth perking up. "Because it's too dangerous. You don't want to let creatures like them into the Borderlands, even if it's just for a second, because you're afraid they'll drop something, or shoot something, or somehow spread their influence into it. Because if they do, then you've lost everything."

And then a second realization followed the first. "Besides, you can't just get rid of her out of hand. She's still got Kaguya Houraisan, remember? We need to get her back, plus everyone else Rin's absorbed. If you were to just drop her into a black hole, how does that save anyone? Especially since there's no guarantee that she won't survive and not come back, looking for revenge. I mean, for the gods' sakes Yukari!" She motioned toward the elder youkai. "Just look what fighting Yuuka did to you! You sure you can handle Rin once she cuts loose?" A third realization blossomed. "And oh yeah, speaking of which, Yuuka is still on the loose and wreaking havoc. Hell, you saw what she did today. And that was just for the hell of it. Can you really concentrate on bringing Rin down while you're watching your back for Yuuka?"

When Yukari didn't respond, Reimu, who was now starting to feel a little dizzy, decided to ease up a bit. "Look, I know, despite everything you've done, you're just acting in the best interests of Gensokyo. You're going to protect it at all costs, I get that. But if it makes more sense to help the kid before she cracks, shouldn't you do that instead? It's safer that way, fewer people get hurt, and…" Reimu hesitated, then though _ah, what the hell, _and said, "…and she's _still _a scared little girl who doesn't deserve any of this, damn it!"

There, she was done. Exhausted, Reimu slumped back into her chair while she waited for Yukari's answer.

…

Remilia's words hung heavy over the remaining inhabitants of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and everyone had a different reaction. Patchouli moaned and buried her face in her hands, a sign that she had given up trying to inject rationality into the world of madness that had gripped her household. Sakuya stared slack-jawed at her mistress, her brow rising as open shock gave way to realization as she finally came to understand what Remilia was doing.

And Hong Meiling, the slowest thinker of the three, at first frowned in puzzlement as she tried to comprehend this strange turn of events. However, while no genius, she wasn't stupid, and she too came to understand. However, unlike the other two, her reaction was not negative. Instead, she smiled grimly and nodded in approval. Then she stood up and walked over to stand behind Remilia with her arms folded, a silent declaration of support.

As for Yuuka, she looked thoughtful. "Is that right?" she mused, rubbing her chin. "Well, well, well, what an interesting change of events. Now, whatever could that foolish young man be up to?" A shadow fell over her face. "I wonder…"

Remilia was confused. Who was Yuuka talking about? But before she could ask, the Yuuka's dark look was gone, replaced by one of delight. "Well, splendid!" Yuuka exclaimed, clapping her hands. "You know, I had just about given up hope that someone would come through. Why, just today there was a tremendous commotion over by the Youkai Mountain over that very problem."

"Excuse me?" Remilia said, surprised

"You haven't heard? No, of course not." Yuuka idly scratched her neck. "It's been too soon, and news travels so slowly it seems. But as it turned out, the elusive individual herself had gotten herself cornered by a number of hunters, all wishing to do what you have just claimed to accomplish. I was there myself, to keep an eye on things. It was quite the spectacle." She shrugged. "Of course, even with my encouragement, each and every one of the poor devils ended up failing miserably. Quite disappointing, I can tell you." She nodded toward the box. "The little tyke must have come straight here afterward, to have allowed you to catch her so soon."

Remilia inhaled sharply. "I…I assure you, I am _not _trying to deceive you! She is there, in that box, and…"

"Hmmm?" Yuuka tilted her head to one side. She chuckled. "Oh, I see. You think I disbelieve your word, that I am experiencing doubt due to having seen the girl herself chased this way and that in an entirely different part of the county. But lay your troubled mind at ease. What I saw of her capabilities has told me that she is extremely swift. And what I know of her troubled history, she would have good reason to pay you a visit." She shrugged. "Now that I think of it, it makes sense that those events would scare her into settling what scores she could as quickly as possible. No doubt she felt that she was racing against time." She glanced again at the box. "And she was right. By the by, how did you pull it off?"

"I…well…ah…" Remilia shot a pleading glance to Sakuya. The head maid sighed and strode forward. While she most definitely did _not _approve of Remilia's new course of action, she was not going to turn her back on her mistress now. What's done was done, and nothing would be gained by rebellion.

Using as few words as possible, Sakuya summed up the battle and how they had managed to put Rin Satsuki down. Yuuka listened with fascination, her eyebrows rising and falling in response to certain highlights. When the story was done, she said, "Ingenious. So simple of a solution, and yet so effective! If only the others had…But of course, they were constantly interrupting one other and fighting amongst themselves, so I suppose I shouldn't judge them too harshly." She spread her hands and shrugged. "One can one do?"

"I…" Remilia had no idea what she was supposed to say now.

"At any rate, to business!" Yuuka declared. "Now, I'm afraid that a month has passed since the bounty's original posting, so you no longer qualify for the special bonus. But of course, the full amount is yours. Now, that would be twenty-million yen, in exchange for-"

"Keep your money," Remilia said. "I don't need it."

Yuuka raised an eyebrow at the interruption. "Oh, well, no doubt your wealth would make such an amount seem trivial, but if you weren't looking to increase your cash reserves, why come to me?"

"I want my sister," Remilia said firmly. "That's my offer. Rin Satsuki for Flandre."

A silence fell upon the room, so thick it was almost tangible. Remilia's friends tensed up in preparation for some form of retaliation. Yuuka's eye narrowed, and she started tapping her cane against the floor.

"Ah, I suspected as much," she said in a low voice. "So, the girl in the box in exchange for the girl in the jewel?" She reached into her blouse and extracted a metal ring. Attached to it was a large crystal that burned with a bright crimson light. "One crystal encased monster for another, is that it?"

Remilia's long-dead heart leapt when she saw that crystal. So, Yuuka had not brought Flandre back yet. There was still hope. "Yes," she said, her hands reaching out. "Please…"

"Hmmm." Yuuka snapped her hand away from Remilia's, her fingers closing around the ring. "No, I don't think so."

"No?" Remilia said in dismay. "Bu-but surely, there is room for negotiation…"

Yuuka shook her head. "There really isn't," she said as she placed the ring back into its hiding place. "The terms for the bounty were quite clear. Rin Satsuki for a certain amount of money. Really now Remilia, while my heart breaks to see you distressed so, had I ever intended to leave the price up for negotiation, I would have stated as much from the beginning."

"But-"

"No buts," Yuuka said firmly. "Rin I was seeking on the behalf of another, but as far as Flandre is concerned, I have my own designs. As such, I simply will hear no talk of handing her away. She was won, after all, fair and square."

Remilia's hands were starting to shake. "B-but surely we can come to s-some sort of agreement," she said, a forced smile on her face. "S-some kind of c-c-compromise?"

"Why would I want to do that?" Yuuka asked. "Dearie-o, I cannot see how I would benefit from such an arrangement. Flandre is a magnificent creature, one that is dripping with potential." She tapped her breast, presumably over where the ring was secreted. "And to be quite frank, you were squandering it. No, I am afraid I cannot allow her to return to your care. To allow such a precious child to be locked up again, to rot away because big sister is lazy to teach her control? Such a waste cannot be tolerated."

"But she _can't _be taught," Remilia cried. "I've tried, so many times! It just won't work!"

"Then perhaps your methods were inadequate and the time has come for an adult to take over. I mean, honestly. A child raising a child? Cute in theory, but the practical application leaves much to be desired." She chuckled with amusement and leaned over. Remilia stiffened as Yuuka's fingers brushed her cheek. "Now, don't you worry any. Little Flan-Flan's in excellent hands, and I promise you that I'll take tender loving care of her."

What few pretenses Remilia had towards reasonable negotiation snapped then. "No!" she cried, lunging forward. "You will give me-"

The next few moments were a flurry of confusion. Seeing the ensuing violence, both Sakuya and Meiling moved to prevent their mistress from getting herself killed, and Patchouli started to summon her power. Then came three seconds of pain, and all four of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's residents found themselves under heavy restraint.

What looked like the upper portion of a gnarled tree had burst out of Yuuka's back, a web of twisting, knotted, and naked branches. They had struck out, rendering everyone helpless: Patchouli found herself pinned against the stairs, Sakuya had been slammed back against the wall and held there, Meiling thrust up against the ceiling, and Remilia held against the floor, her limbs spread wide. Save for Remilia herself, all of them had been knocked unconscious.

Leaning on her cane, Yuuka hunched over to glower at Remilia. "Excuse me?" she growled. "What was that you said just now? I…'will give'? Did you just issue a command? A warning? A threat? To _me?"_ She lifted her cane and pressed the butte against Remilia's forehead. "You arrogant, self-deluded leech, who are you to dictate my comings and goings? Do you know what you are, little vampire?"

Writhing under Yuuka's grip, Remilia cried out as the pressure against her head increased.

"You're a corpse," Yuuka said as she slowly twisted the cane back and forth. "A dead little girl, who should have been rotten away to nothing but maggot food hundreds of years ago, consigned to nothing but a skeleton and a stone with a name and two dates, if you were lucky. It is only because some other shambling corpse chose you for a meal that you remain. Do you comprehend, oh foul creature of the night? You're leftovers, a memory of a meal long discarded. So don't you _dare _go putting on airs with me, you pathetic, mewling _quim!" _Snorting with disgust, Yuuka withdrew, taking the cane with her. She reached up, and one of the knobby branched creaked as it twisted up and around to hand her the umbrella she had brought. "I can only pray that when your sister has been properly broken into and trained, she at least learns a measure of the humility that you are so sorely lacking."

Horrified more by the implications of what Yuuka was saying than her present predicament, Remilia screamed, "No! You _do not _touch my sister, you twisted-"

The umbrella came down across her face, knocking her senseless. "And there you go again," Yuuka said. "Honestly, what does it take to drive the point through that skull of yours? Flandre is _mine _now, and I will touch her whenever, however, and wherever I please. The sooner you come to terms with that fact, the happier we all will be."

With that, Yuuka unfolded her umbrella and held it overhead. "Well, I don't see any reason to continue this dialogue. I'll send word to the appropriate papers and let the people know that the bounty has been concluded and collected." She nodded cordially to the trapped vampire. "A good day to you, Remilia Scarlet. Thank you for your assistance in this affair."

The doors suddenly burst open, and what looked and sounded like a hurricane of paper rushed into the room. They filled the space quickly, fluttering on the raging wind like bats. But even so, the last thing Remilia said before darkness claimed her completely was Yuuka's eye, shining through the gale.

And then, there was nothing.

…

The fire cracked and sparked warmly, and Yukari hadn't stopped staring at it for nearly five minutes now. Across from her, Reimu was fidgeting as she waited for an answer, but Yukari didn't have one. And that bothered her.

This was a strange situation, one that made her feel uncomfortable. Yukari was well-used to being challenged, sometimes to the point of open defiance, but she always had an answer. Granted, sometimes it wasn't always the right answer, and many times she had been in the wrong. But that normally came to light after the fact. It wasn't often that she had heavily reconsidered her own stance after setting a course.

Which wasn't to say that she thought that Reimu was necessarily in the right. As much as the shrine maiden claimed to be fully aware of the risks she was taking, her earlier reactions to the effects failure would have upon her allies told Yukari that no, she most certainly did not. Reimu was a lot of things, a great many of them admirable, but she wasn't famed for thinking things through. Which wasn't to say she wasn't intelligent, just that she was a person of action. And while she clearly had given the subject a great deal of thought, more so than she usually did, there were a great number of details that had slipped past her attention.

But that didn't mean she was in the wrong either, and it was that realization that Yukari found troubling. If she had discovered this mad scheme being fronted by anyone else other than Reimu, their talk would have gone much differently, mainly with Yukari verbally overpowering them and destroying their ego. They wouldn't even have been given the chance to defend themselves. But then, if it had been anyone other than Reimu, there probably wouldn't have been a conversation in the first place. Just a gap to someplace with a long drop and a sudden stop.

And yet it was Reimu, which had a profound effect on the shape of things. The list of people that Yukari considered worthy of conversing with on an equal level was vanishingly small, and for reasons known to an even smaller number, Reimu was the only mortal on that list. Of course, the same had applied to most of the previous Hakurei shrine maidens, save for the few that had proven to be complete fools, but she was especially fond of the current one. Yukari liked Reimu, and what was more, she respected her, a rare privilege. As such, Reimu deserved an answer beyond a hard "No" and being kicked out the door.

If only Yukari had one to give.

Yukari stood up suddenly, winced when a sharp pain slowed her when she was halfway, and completed the rest of the motion with care. Reimu stiffened, no doubt certain that their debate was about to reach its final climax.

"So…" she said, waiting for Yukari to fill in the blank.

Yukari said nothing. Instead, one hand holding onto her chair for support, she hobbled off toward the hallway, coughing as she went.

"Uh, wait a minute," Reimu said, rising. "Where are you going?"

Yukari gave her a brief glance over her shoulder and kept moving, leaning against nearby furniture to keep upright, painfully making her way out of the room.

"Okay then," Reimu said. "I'll be right here then."

When Yukari crossed the threshold into the hallway, Ran was immediately there to assist her.

"Master, what's wrong?" she said, putting one of Yukari's arms over her shoulders to help support her. "Is everything all right?"

Still coughing, Yukari said, "My study, please."

"But what of…All right."

Ran helped her ill master through the house and into Yukari's private study. From there, the elder youkai was carefully eased into her chair, which wasn't all that unlike the one she had just left.

"My thanks," Yukari grunted as she rubbed her throbbing knees. She sighed and gingerly leaned back. "I hate being like this."

Ran looked concerned. "Would you like me to prepare another bag of the Elixir of Life?"

"No, no, I'm just grousing," Yukari said, shaking her head. "It's just not fair. Yuuka walked away from that fight in far worse condition, and yet she's apparently well enough to go traipsing about the countryside and stir up trouble again, whereas I can't even walk from one room to the other without help. Where's the justice in that?" She sighed and massaged her forehead, careful not to upset any of the blisters. "So, I take it you were listening?"

Ran hesitated before answering. "Not intentionally, Master, but I was standing ready in case you called, and you know that I do have sharp hearing."

"Yes, you do. So, what do you think?"

There was another moment of hesitation, and then Ran said, "Well, it is not my place to dictate your actions-"

"I wasn't asking you to. I am simply requesting the opinion of one of the people I trust before I give an answer to another."

"I see," Ran nodded. "Well, if it were me, I would do what is in Gensokyo's best interests."

Yukari snorted. "Oh, come now. That's just being evasive."

"Apologies," Ran said, bowing her head. "But very well. Perhaps you should consider this: you have on a number of occasions claimed that you would do absolutely anything to ensure Gensokyo's survival, correct?"

"Yes, and I believe I've demonstrated that just as many times."

Ran nodded. "Well, pardon me Master, but doesn't 'absolutely anything' include the more merciful paths as well as the horrible ones?"

Yukari quirked an eyebrow.

"I mean, Reimu did make some good points," Ran continued. "And if she's right, if it is more logical to help Satsuki than it is to seek her destruction, should that not be the course you take?"

Yukari grunted. "A strange thing to say, considering how much you feared that Chen had been killed at Satsuki's hands."

"There is information I have now that I didn't have then," Ran said respectfully. "Just as there is information that you have now that you didn't have before."

"Hmmm." Yukari made a tent with her fingers and pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I suppose."

"Besides," Ran said. "I know what it's like to almost lose a child that I love dearly. It is not a fate I would wish upon anyone else."

Yukari tilted her head. "You speak of Reisen Udongein?"

Ran nodded.

"Hmmm. That girl has proven to be most troublesome. My fault for not keeping a closer eye on her." Then Yukari reconsidered. "No, wait, it's Eirin's fault. The rabbit was her responsibility, after all."

There was a short but noticeable pause before Ran asked her question. "What are you going to do to her?"

"Which one?" Yukari asked. "Reisen or Eirin?"

"Reisen."

Yukari shrugged. "Nothing. Damage done. Besides, she claimed sanctuary. She's Reimu's problem now." She rubbed the back of her neck, massaging her aching muscles. "Though I have to give Reimu the credit she deserves. I'll admit: when I agreed to hear her out, I fully expected for her to have nothing of worth to say. I seem to have acquired a bad habit of underestimating people. Still, while she still has a lot to learn, I can at least rest easy with the knowledge that, should something happen to me, I am leaving the country in good hands."

Ran looked alarmed. "Master, you're not-"

"No, no, calm down," Yukari chuckled. "I have no intention of dying any time soon. I simply speak of unpleasant but real possibilities, that is all."

Nothing was said for a time. Yukari leaned her head back and thought. It wasn't on what decision she was going to make; that much had already been decided. She simply reflected on everything that had happened up to that point, and noted how strange the current situation was. It was, after all, not very often that she changed her mind to such a degree."

Finally she grunted and sat up. "Well, I'd better go finish things with that girl," she said. "Come, give me a hand."

Ran complied. "Master? One more question," she said as she helped Yukari to her feet.

"Ask."

"Reimu. You seem to trust her word implicitly, whereas most people would receive open suspicion. Why?"

Yukari chuckled as they moved toward the door. "That is one of the great benefits of dealing with someone like Reimu. The girl simply cannot tell a lie to save her life. It simply isn't in her nature."

…

Reimu immediately stood up as Yukari reentered the room with Ran's assistance. "Oh, hey!" she said, noting with annoyance that her voice had cracked. She cleared her throat and said, "So…you made up your mind."

"I have," Yukari said shortly.

"Ah. Good." Reimu watched as Yukari was helped back into her seat. The elder youkai cautiously settled in, sighed, and said, "Sit down, please."

Reimu sat.

A ponderous silence passed, until at last Yukari said, "You do realize that if the worst ends up happening, that Satsuki truly progresses beyond reason, she will have to be destroyed. You understand that, yes?"

Reimu's heart gave a little jump. Was this really happening? "O-of course!"

Yukari nodded. "You also understand that, if this is going to work, a cure for her condition must be found; or lacking that, some means for her to carry on that doesn't require the consumption of others, and ensures that she will no longer have the ability to adapt and absorb, correct? This isn't negotiable. If she is to be 'helped,' she must be fixed, and never be able to threaten anyone again. And a way of doing so must be discovered soon."

"I know," Reimu said. She was staring openly, unable to believe that this was happening. "So…are you really…"

Yukari grunted. "Well, if it is as you say, I see no reason why we shouldn't at least attempt to gain her cooperation. If successful, it will make things go all the more smoothly."

Reimu was still staring, though she was now wearing an uncharacteristically sloppy grin. "So you're in?"

"Hmmm, interesting way of putting things. I am willing to give 'your way' a chance, and I truly hope it succeeds. That's it."

"Oh, my gods," Reimu breathed. "Wow. Uh, I really wasn't expecting…well, you know…"

"Neither was I. But I am full of surprises, sometimes even for myself." Yukari scowled. "And wipe that silly smile off your face. It's disturbing."

That only made it grow larger. Now Reimu's cheeks were starting to hurt. "Sorry," she said. "Can't help it."

Yukari muttered something about kids these days, and then said, "All right. But you do understand that I can't overlook the fact that you doing all this behind my back, and had dragged others into it as well. I will be having some words with Kanako and Byakuren." When Reimu looked stricken, she added, "Don't worry, I'm not going to banish them or even remove them from power. I'm just going to make sure that they don't try to pull something like this again. Such division during a time of crisis is to be discouraged. And that goes for you as well. Next time you have a problem with my methods and have an alternative course of action, come talk to me first, all right? "

"Uh, okay," Reimu said. "Whatever you say."

Yukari smirked. "Now that's a sentence I do not hear nearly as often as I'd like." She nodded toward the door, which opened of its own accord. Beyond was twisted, eye-filled nether of the Borderlands. "Where would you like to be dropped off? The disaster area, or your shrine?"

Reimu thought for a moment. "Uh, first one and then the other. I need to check in with the others, but leave me a way to get back to Hakurei Shrine when I'm done."

"Very well," Yukari said. "And come to think of it, I'd better head back there as well. I need to talk to Kotohime and Kanako anyway." She signaled her hand toward Ran, who nodded and went to pick up Yukari's wheelchair.

"Kanako?" Reimu said, the hairs on her neck rising. "Uh, what about?"

Yukari gave her a look. "Reimu, I told you already: your cohorts aren't going to be punished. Lectured, yes. But I am not about to kick out someone whose had as a positive effect on Gensoyko's population as Kanako Yasaka and Byakuren Hijiri has just because I'm a little miffed. So please, stop being so overprotective and let me do my job."

Which was about as good as she could hope for. Ran helped Yukari into her wheelchair, and soon the three of them were heading for the way back.

Before they stepped through, Reimu cleared her throat, "Uh, Yukari?"

"Yes?"

"For what it's worth, thanks."

Yukari blinked. She exchange a brief look with Ran and then said, "Well, two-for-two. That is also something I don't hear often enough."

…

Remilia's return to consciousness was slow and painful. The first thing she became aware of was the throbbing pain in her forehead. The second was just how weak she felt, and how thirsty she was. The third was that she was, for some reason, she was lying in a thick pile of paper. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable, per se, but she would have preferred the warmth of her soft bed.

And then her memory finally rebooted and she sat up suddenly, only to cry out and clutch at her head when the throbbing became severe.

"Lady Scarlet!" she heard someone say. There was the sound of rustling, and two strong arms picked Remilia out of the pile. "There you are! Are you okay?"

Remilia's vision cleared enough for her to make out Hong Meiling's worried face. She looked around. Though things were still blurry, she could tell that she was still in the foyer. A purplish, Patchouli-shaped blob still sat on the steps, her head clutched in her hands. There was something weird about the place though. It seemed to be buried in something.

"Mistress?" she heard Sakuya say. The maid appeared at her side in an instant. "My gods, are you hurt?"

"Nothing life-threatening," Remilia muttered, her tongue thick. "What happened? Where is Yuuka?"

"Gone." Everyone looked over to Patchouli, who had raised her head to glare at them. The magician looked absolutely miserable, not to mention thoroughly angered. "She's long gone. Though she didn't leave empty-handed."

"What?" Remilia stared at her, and then up at her two servants. "What does that mean?"

Overhead, Sakuya and Meiling exchanged a troubled look. "Mistress," Sakuya said. "Perhaps it's best if you don't-"

"No, tell her!" Patchouli snapped. "She deserves to know! After all, she's the one who _invited _that beast into this house in the first place!"

"That's _enough, _magician!" Sakuya shouted back. "I think she's been through enough as it-"

Remilia reached up to grab Sakuya by the shoulder. "No, she's right. Tell me."

A pained look crossed over Sakuya's face, but she said, "I'm sorry Mistress, but she took the box."

Remilia's stomach clenched up. "She now has Rin Satsuki?" she whispered.

"Yes."

"But…but Flandre…"

"She still has her as well."

"But then, what is…" Remilia sat up in Meiling's arms to get a good look at the place.

The whole room, from the floor to the staircases, was buried in single yen notes. They covered the place like a heavy snow, waist-deep even to the two tall women that held her. There had to have been hundreds of the little bills. Thousands.

Millions.

"Yes, she still paid your precious bounty," Patchouli said scornfully. "In full, I might add. Of course, she got to choose the denominations." She angrily smacked a nearby lump, sending notes fluttering. "At least the maids will have something to do now."

No. No, this couldn't be happening. It wasn't supposed to go this way. Dazed, Remilia lay back and stared listlessly up at Meiling and Sakuya's concerned faces. Rin Satsuki was gone. Yuuka Kazami was gone. Flandre was gone. She had failed.

What had she done? What had she been thinking? That Yuuka Kazami, someone who had already proven herself to be a monstrous sadist, would be so overcome with sympathy that she'd let Flandre go with a pat on the head and a cookie? Now, after her friends had risked their lives to save the mansion, at her insistence no less, she had made it all for naught. She had thrown away their last chance to redeem themselves in Yukari Yakumo's eyes. Capturing Satsuki was supposed to be their salvation, but now it would be their destruction. After all, if Yuuka made good on her promise to make known what had happened here, Yukari was not going to take kindly to the new. Not at all.

Everything was lost, and it was all her fault.

Wretched, miserable, and utterly disgusted with herself, Remilia curled up against Meiling and cried like the child she appeared to be.

…

In a different part of Gensokyo, in another mansion entirely, another servant was also quite fed up with her master's foolishness.

Elly paced back and forth in front of Mugenkan's main entrance, her tiny hands balled into fists. All around her, the many flowers that filled the foyer followed her back-and-forth path, with the ones closest to her making a point of shying back lest they attract her wrath.

What in the world was Yuuka thinking? A few short hours ago, she had returned from her unannounced sabbatical, something that Elly could scarcely believe she had taken in the first place. True, Yuuka had a tendency to be…spontaneous, sometimes to the point of self-endangerment, but given the current hostile feelings toward her, one would think that she would understand that leaving the Garden of the Sun now was almost suicidal! And to Yuuka's credit, she seemed to realized this, and had meekly allowed Elly to lecture her at length about how now was not the time to be taking unnecessary risks, how she was in no condition to be exerting herself, and given how many people depended on her, acting so recklessly was just irresponsible.

Given Yuuka's acceptance of what Elly was saying, the Shinigami fully expected that, once she had exhausted her angry words, there would be a time of hugging and tender forgiveness. But just as she had started to gather steam, a message had arrived at the mansion, via magical channels. That in itself had been a tremendous shock, as they _never _received messages from anyone. But to have one finally arrive only to interrupt Elly's righteous anger had been infuriating.

And to top things off, as soon as Yuuka heard the message, whatever it was, she had left again! Elly had stood stupefied as her master apologized profusely, explaining that something had just come up, that it was actually important this time, she truly was sorry, and please don't worry so much, everything will be fine! And then she was gone.

Now Elly was on the verge of tearing at her hair. This was insanity! What was she going to do? If something happened to Yuuka, she would never be able to forgive herself. It wasn't her fault of course, but that was inconsequential as far as her feelings were concerned.

That was when she heard someone whistling. Elly paused in mid-pace, her ears straining to listen.

It was Yuuka. Oh, thank God. Elly turned toward the door just as it opened and Yuuka walked in. Whistling a local folk song to herself, Yuuka handed her umbrella to a waiting vine and shut the door with her behind. She seemed very pleased about something, which probably was related to the lavender crystal box she carried under one arm.

Then she looked up and saw Elly glowering at her.

"Ah," she said, the happy look turning into one of guilt. "Well, I'm in for it now."

Elly marched straight up to her and hovered so they were face-to-face. "What's wrong with you?" she demanded. "Twice! Twice in one day you leave suddenly, telling no one where you're going, and worrying me sick! And right when I was in the middle of reminding you how _dangerous _leaving the Garden is! What if you had been attacked?"

Yuuka bowed her head. "I'm so sorry, Elly. The first time was foolish, I do agree. But this time, I really was needed-"

"Needed! I'll tell you where you're needed! It's here, in the safety of the Garden! You are not fully recovered from your injuries! And let's not forget the missing piece of your soul. What if you had been attacked?"

"Ah, well, I have been weakened, it is true, but I like to think that I am at least strong enough-"

"No!" Elly's finger jabbed the center of Yuuka's chest. "That's what you thought before you went to go fight Yukari Yakumo! And what happened then?" Her face now beet-red, Elly took a deep breath and shouted, "There are people here that depend on you, master! That need you! If you had been hurt, what would happen to-"

"Elly," Yuuka said, placing a finger over the raging Shinigami's lips. Despite her anger, Elly shut up immediately.

"You're right," Yuuka said softly. "Going out the first time was extremely irresponsible, and I am very sorry for worrying you. However, this second time was necessary. I had very important business I needed to attend to."

Elly withdrew from Yuuka's finger. "Business?" she said suspiciously. "What kind of business?"

"You recall that little scavenger hunt I've been hosting on the behalf of our guests, the one with only one item and an impressive reward?"

"The bounty? Of course I remember!"

Yuuka jiggled the box under her arm. "Well, it seems someone finally came through!"

Surprised, Elly leaded forward to curiously look the box over. "What, that's her? I mean, that box has the person you've been looking for?"

"Indeed." Yuuka smiled fondly at her blonde helper. "Now, I'm sure that you have many more cross words for me, and I'll not deny that I am deserving, but might they wait until this matter has been seen to? I really must get this box to someplace secure."

"Oh," Elly said, her anger dying. "O-of course! But what are you going to do?"

Yuuka walked briskly forward, and Elly followed. "As imprudent as my earlier departure might have been, it did bear unexpected fruit. I learned something very interesting about this troublesome child, and I do believe it is time that she and I got to know each other better."

…

Even though there was still one hell of an ongoing crisis, even though her people now needed her more than ever, Kanako just couldn't concentrate on the problem at hand, which galled her. This was the sort of situation where she normally thrived; to take hold of chaos and direct it towards order, and from order, profit. To take charge and mold catastrophe into opportunity.

And the fates knew that, all ambition aside, now was an excellent time for her to do just that. Momiji needed to talk to her. Kotohime needed to talk to her. Boss Tenma needed to talk to _somebody _before he either went off on an alcoholic binge or suffered a full emotional breakdown. Lord Zora didn't really need to talk to her but had dropped a polite hint that touching base sometime before the day was out would to both of their benefits. And based upon what Kanako had been hearing, Suwako had been talking entirely too much and probably needed a swift kick in the rump before she forgot herself and gave the general public the entirely wrong idea.

But as much as she should, Kanako just couldn't concentrate on her duties. Her mind was too wrapped up with another ongoing catastrophe entirely. When she had allowed the GPF to assist in the recovery efforts, she had done so reluctantly, for fear that their involvement would draw Yukari Yakumo to the scene all the quicker and lead to her finding the full truth of what had transpired before a cover story could be constructed. And unfortunately, that was exactly what had happened. Yukari had shown up, immediately stumbled upon the truth, and then dragged Reimu Hakurei away for a "private talk." And all reports agreed: the border youkai had been absolutely _livid._

Yukari Yakumo _knew. _All was lost.

All right, granted, she was going to find out sooner or later, but Kanako had been nursing a hope that by the time she was made aware of Reimu's reckless mission of mercy, they would have a cured and decontaminated Rin Satsuki to mollify her with, or at the very least some evidence of progress. Instead, they had a very large crater, an alarming amount of scrap metal, confirmation that Yuuka Kazami was back on her feet and once again actively wreaking havoc, and the very real possibility that Rin Satsuki had just eaten two people whose abilities made her essentially invisible. Oh yeah, this was going to end poorly for everyone involved.

For the first time, Kanako began musing on the current state of her old territory back in the Outside World and if moving Moriya Shrine back would be a feasible plan. Perhaps it was time for a revival.

Some kind of commotion drew her attention, back at the pavilion. Kanako reflexively glanced toward it and her face paled when she saw one of Yukari's gaps opening up. Well, here it came…

And then out of the gap stepped Reimu Hakurei. What was more, she wasn't exhibiting the slumped-shoulder posture of the condemned. In fact, she looked…baffled, a little dazed, and entirely too pleased with herself. That was odd. Either the meeting had gone extraordinarily well or Yukari had psychically dominated and rewired her mind. Kanako leaned toward the latter theory, especially since Yukari herself emerged behind Reimu, again pushed around in that wheelchair by her Shikigami.

True to form, everyone under the pavilion immediately stiffened when Yukari retook the scene, but neither she nor Reimu seemed at all interested in them. Reimu looked around and, noticing Kanako, ran toward her.

"Hey," she said. "Don't worry, Yukari is-"

"Currently in one of the foulest moods she's been in in recent history," Yukari finished for her as Ran wheeled her toward Kanako's way. "The shrine maiden's enthusiasm is unfortunately a bit on the presumptuous side. Yes, Kanako Yasaka, I have been brought up to speed. And no, I'm not happy about what I've learned."

Reimu whirled to face her. "What? But you said-"

"I know very well what I said, and I'm not going back on it. That doesn't change the fact that I am still not happy."

That made Reimu scowl. "What is this, group therapy? Do I get to share my feelings next? Look, I already told you, the whole thing was my freaking idea, so don't take it out on her!"

"Seeing how Yuuka is no longer present, I am not going to be taking anything out on anyone. But, like I told you, there are certain kinds of behavior that must be discouraged. And one of them…ah…"

The sentence trailed off as Yukari looked up and around, as if she were searching for something. "Hang on now," she muttered. "I sense…that we are about to be annoyed."

Confused, Kanako, Reimu, and Ran also looked up. Then all four of them focused on a swiftly moving dot that was streaking right at them, followed by five other dots moving at a somewhat slower speed.

The dot turned out to be a Tengu female, one with two brown twintails and a fashion sense that tended toward purple-plaid. Clutched in her hands was what honestly appeared to be a cellular phone.

Everyone stared silently as Hatate Himekaidou flew toward their little group for all she was worth. "Oh my _gods!" _she squealed. "I mean literally! Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh _my freaking gods! _All of you together! This is, uh…"

She held up the phone-like object and pressed a button. There was a quick flash of light, indicating that the device did in fact have a camera function.

"Oh, that is _so _making the front page!" she said breathlessly. "Unless…Hey, can I get a pic of you guys, like, smiling or something? Because you all just look like really confused, and that won't-"

"HiiiiiiYAAAH!"

The rest of Hatate's photographic ambitions were cut off when Aya Shameimaru dropped like a meteor to kick her rival in the head.

"So! Reimu Hakurei!" Aya said as she pulled out her notepad and clicked her pen, paying no attention to the fact that she was still standing on the only partially conscious Hatate's head. "What response do you have to the recent allegations that you and Yuuka Kazami have been secretly working behind the scenes to sabotage Yukari Yakumo's power base? Yukari Yakumo, have you anything to say to the rumors that your Shikigami has been deliberately hindering your recovery? Kanako Yasaka, my-your-name-be-praised-and-your-miracles-celebrated, do you suppose that this is all part of the alleged Human conspiracy to-"

Wordlessly, Yukari held up a glowing finger. A beam of white light shot out to hit Aya in the center of her chest, knocking her off her feet and sending her flying back beyond the valley's boundaries.

The five other dots, who turned out to be various members of Momiji's Hakurou, finally arrived, all of them panting for breath. They took one look at the scene and the color left their faces.

Kanako shook her head. "I thought I told you to keep the press out of here," she said.

"I'm sorry!" said one of the wolves. "We tried to stop them, but they were just too fast!"

"Then try harder," Yukari said in a clipped tone. "Install surface-to-air missile silos if you have to. Because if one reporter gets through, you'll be fired and end up working for them instead. Clear?"

Five pairs of eyes stared at her in horror. They then turned pleadingly to Kanako.

"What are you looking at me for?" she said. "She outranks me." She nodded toward the groggy Tengu still lying facedown in the dirt. "Get her out of here, confiscate her camera, and tighten up that perimeter."

Moments later Hakurou and reporter alike were gone, leaving the four of them alone.

"This is certainly shaping up to be one of those days," Yukari muttered as she closed her eyes and lightly rubbed her eyelids. "All right, Kanako. As I was saying, you're not in trouble, not really. But even so, given the circumstances, I can't overlook the fact that-"

Again she stopped in mid-sentence, this time because the ground had starting shaking in rhythm, as if it were being steadily pounded like a great drum. This was following by the sound of shouting, coupled with the occasional scream.

And then the sun was blotted out.

Fearing the worst, Kanako turned to face this new problem. Despite her extremely low expectations, her heart still fell when she saw what it was.

_Oh, you can't be serious, _she thought, her mind growing numb. _I thought we were done with this giant robot nonsense._

Indeed, that's what it appeared to be: a twenty-meter figure, clad completely in black metal, leaping toward them. It landed in a crouch, its landing sending a small shockwaves that blew a small cloud of dust and stone chips away from it. It looked around, focused on the staring group, and stood up.

It was then that Kanako noticed that another metal figure was standing on its shoulders, this one of normal size. She also noticed that the larger figure had two horns sticking out from either side of its head and the smaller one has as single horn jutting from its forehead.

One metal-encased hand reached up to raise the visor of its helmet, revealing Suika Ibuki's massive face. "All _right!" _she shouted. "Where's _the _party?"

Kanako, Ran, and Yukari stared blankly, first at the giant oni and then at each other. Reimu just groaned and buried her face in her hands.

"What?" Suika said in confusion. "C'_mon! _I need _to _beat some _pain _into Rin _Sat_suki! _Where _is she?"

The smaller figure on her shoulder leaned over to whisper in her ear. Suika blinked and her face fell.

"_Awwww," _she whined. "Don't tell _me _we _missed _it!"

…

_Deep Within_

Rin had stopped whimpering, but that was only because she had withdrawn so deeply into herself that she had ceased to acknowledge anything around her. Granted, Rumia was the only thing around her, but the point still stood.

The little Kirin had drawn up her legs in the fetal position and was now rocking back and forth. Her eyes had returned to normal at least, but they were dull, unfocused, dead.

As for Rumia, she wasn't doing so well herself. The thought of having to spend the rest of eternity trapped in Rin's mind was nothing short of horrible. Her only hope was that their captors would open the box in order to force Rin to regurgitate her other captives. From there, she could only pray for execution.

She looked over to Rin. Maybe, if imprisonment was to be their fate, she could talk Rin into sending her into a dream and leaving her there. Her previous experience with that idea had been a literal nightmare, yes, but it was infinitely better than the alternative. Not all dreams were bad, after all, and maybe Rin could do a little tweaking to make it at least a tolerable one, and wasn't it just a measure of how far she had fallen if she was seriously considering such options?

Rumia got up and walked over to Rin. Rin didn't acknowledge her. Rolling her eyes, Rumia drew her foot back and kicked her.

"Hey," Rumia said. She kicked her again. "Get up."

Rin fell over, but otherwise there was no reaction.

"I said get up!" Rumia kicked her again, and again. "Get. Up. And. Fix. Your. Gods. Damn. Mess!"

Rin did glance at her then, but her only reply was a morose, "Go away, Rumia."

"The hell I am." Rumia reached down and hauled Rin up by her hair. "Look, idiot. It's your fault we're in here, remember? And I can go on and on about every stupid thing you've done, and keep beating you up for it, and I just bet that you're gonna lie there and take it. But that's not good enough. You still owe me a promise, remember? So get up _off _your ass and make good on it already!"

Rin didn't even bother to free herself from Rumia's grip. She just hung limply, her eyes unfocused. "And where would you like me to release you?" she said, her voice a dead monotone. "Into the box? With me? I doubt you'll enjoy it. Limited space to move, and you'll just be cuddling with me forever."

Rumia dropped her. "Then get us _out _of the box first!"

A low, unpleasant chuckle rasped out of Rin's mouth in response, one completely without life. She crossed her legs before her and leaned back on her elbows to look up at Rumia with incredulity. "And how would you like me to do that?" Rin said. "Hmmm? The last time I was in one of things, I ended up staying in it for-"

"Nine years," Rumia finished for her. She wasn't especially interested in hearing the story again. "Yeah, I know."

"So, tell me: has it ever occurred to you that if there was any way to get out of one of these things, any way at all, I might have used it then?"

Rumia crouched low so that the two of them were locking eyes. "And has it ever occurred to _you _that the last time you were in one of these things you were nothing more than…" What had Cirno called her? "…a giant booger? And this time you're kinda _not?"_

Finally, there was a flicker of life in Rin's eyes.

"So you're stuck in a magic box?" Rumia pressed on. "So what? You eat magic for breakfast! So it's really super-hard? Big deal. You practically _fly _through solid rock and make it look easy! Plus, you're so strong you can knock a freaking _Oni _senseless. Are you telling something like _this _is gonna hold you?"

Rin frowned. It was a slow startup, but Rumia could see that her mind was finally moving again, digesting this intriguing possibility.

"You wanna go down in history as a loser?" Rumia said. "Just another monster that the so-called _good guys _put down? Huh?" She leaned in closer. "Meanwhile, the same people that made you this way get to go down as freaking heroes. You didn't even get your revenge. Are you just gonna lie down and let that happen? Well? Are you?"

"No." Rin's face hardened with determination. She stood up. "I'm not."

With that, the screen flashed back into existence. Beyond, the crystalline edges of the box's interior could be seen. Rin stomped over to stand in front of on.

"It's not going to end like this," she breathed. "I'm not…**I'm not going to let them win!"**

Her eyes burned with fire again, and this time Rumia was especially inclined to stop her. She watched as Rin's fist shot forward to slam against the side of their prison. It drew back, and hit it again. And again. And again.

…

"Oh my," Yuuka said as the box started to shake and thump to a rhythmic beat. "Now, perhaps I am jumping to conclusions here, but I'm starting to get the impression that she wants to come out."

Gulping nervously, Elly backed away. "Master? I…I don't think this is such a good idea?"

Finding a room free of plant life in Yuuka's domain was next to impossible, so they had to settle for one that was reasonably clear and tell everything inside to take a hike. Personally, Elly would have been quite happy to do this from a stone cave deep underground, and was quite certain that one could be provided in a reasonable amount of time, but according to Yuuka it wouldn't have made a difference.

Now the box sat in the middle of the domed room, with Yuuka and Elly standing over it. "A good idea?" Yuuka said, watching in fascination as the box continued to jump. She rested one hand in the crux of the opposite elbow while she used the other to thoughtfully rub her chin. "No, Elly, my honeysuckle. It is not a good idea at all. A good idea would be to hurl that box as far away from the Garden as strength will allow and pray the thing inside does not turn its attention toward us."

Elly's face went pale. "It…it's that bad?" she whispered.

"It is worst. If she were of a mind, she could kill both of us with ease, and go on to level the Garden in moments. And there would be little either of us could do to stop her."

Now a cold sweat had broken out on the tiny Shinigami's forehead. Wiping her brow, she said, "Then please! Be rid of the thing before it gets out!"

"Normally I would be in full agreement," Yuuka said. She was using that calm voice she used before she did something really scary. "But there are promises I made that I cannot go back on. There are things in motion that I do not fully understand, but certainly wish to. There are powers at play that most certainly need to explain themselves." A slow, cruel smile twisted her lips. "Besides, I do not believe that it is our fate to die here today."

"B-but how c-can you be so sure?"

Yuuka looked over her shoulder to wink at her helper. "Because Elly, my darling little pumpernickel, we are far too interesting to be killed off in such an anticlimactic manner."

And without bothering to explain such a strange line of reasoning, Yuuka knelt over and placed one hand against the box's side and the other on the slanting curve of the lid, near where the seam would be if it were still visible.

"Hmmm," she said as she looked the box over with the critical eye of a craftsman. "Fine work indeed. It seems to be password locked. A pity I didn't bother to pick that bit of information out of its creators' brains. It would certainly make this easier. Still…" Her hands changed, becoming gray roots that adhered to the box's sides. "There is something to be said for brute strength."

With that, she started to pull her hands in opposite directions. The box stopping thumping, but then the trembling began as the thing inside abandoned hard blows in favor for one, long push.

"Yes, I feel you in there," Yuuka said, her voice now a guttural growl. "You desire to be free, do you not? Well, push then!"

Now terrified and fully convinced that her master had gone completely mad, Elly pressed herself against the wall and whimpered.

"Push!" Yuuka commanded again. The strain was showing on her face, but she continued to apply pressure.

"Push!"

The box was starting to really shake now.

"Push!"

A crack appeared in one facet, followed by two more.

"Push!"

Elly covered her eyes.

"PUSH! Damn you to hell, PUSH!"

And then the lid was literally ripped straight off the box, sending glittering fragments flying everywhere. And out shot one of the strangest creatures Elly had ever seen. It flew straight up, somersaulted, and clung to the wall and stared down at the room's occupants with wide eyes.

"Magnificent," Yuuka breathed as her hands returned to normal, allowing the two shattered chunks of crystal to fall to the floor.

The creature reared back in shock. **"You!" **it roared.

Yuuka nodded in greeting. "Ah, Rin Satsuki I presume? It is such a pleasure to finally meet you face-to-face." She held out one hand toward the creature. "And I believe we are long overdue for a heart-to-heart talk."

…

_So…yeah. I was going to have the author's notes just be something like "Yuuka's got Rin. Be afraid" or something like that, but it seems that, now that I'm here, there's a great many things I need to talk about. Okay, let's do this!_

_First of all, it seems that I may have given the wrong impression in the last chapter and led many people to believe that I was upset with the last two chapters themselves. This is not the case, and I apologize for the way I phrased things. What I was upset about was that the last two chapters ended up being necessary at all, as they were written to bail me out of an incoming massive plot derail. I was also upset about having to drag Yuuka out of hiatus so suddenly, as again, she wasn't supposed to return until this chapter and was only there to force the plot into a direction I could work with. Plus, it all happened at a time when I was working a lot of hours, and that probably affected my mood. _

_However, I feel the chapters themselves were the best they could have been given the circumstances, and actually really liked how most of it came out. And I have to admit, they did their job spectacularly in getting things back on track, and working on RoSD right after made for some fantastic therapy. As such, when I went to work on this chapter, well, it's no exaggeration that I found myself having the most fun writing that I've had in a long, long time. This chapter was a freaking blast, and I was thrilled to find that I was excited about working on the story again. So yeah, things are definitely much better now! Sorry about all the whining._

_And, ah, speaking of this chapter, you probably have noticed that it is really freaking long. Over a hundred pages, in fact. I did consider splitting it into two, but ultimately decided to release as a whole, given that it's the arc finale and all. Still, the chapter lengths are becoming a real problem, and once the next arc starts I'll definitely start working to keep them at a more manageable size. Does that mean the end of monster chapters? No. But it does mean that there'll be considerably fewer of them. And hey, it means updates will come quicker, which is always a plus._

_Anyhow, like I mentioned earlier, this is the Hide-and-Seek arc's finale, so I guess this is a good time to give me finale thoughts on the arc as a whole. Overall, it was kind of a mixed bag. On the one hand, I love the character development for Reimu, and getting into her personal conflicts went over very well. Also, it was great to be able to return the spotlight to Rin and Rumia after the Yuuka vs. Yukari rivalry ended up taking up too much attention in the previous arc, even if it did mean putting them through more pain and suffering, but hey, such things are to be expected. So from a character standpoint, I feel it went rather well. Still, there's a few parts that could have gone better. I've already beat the whole robot fiasco horse to death, so I won't touch on that again. Beyond that, looking back it does suffer somewhat from not having a concrete antagonist until the very end, given that Yuuka was on the bench for most of it, the Shadow Youkai is doing her thing over in RoSD, and Yukari was also mostly in the background. While that did give the underrepresented characters some breathing room, it did mean things tended to be a bit unfocused at times. Still, on the whole I'm pretty okay with how things came out._

_Now, regarding the next arc…Uh, let me put it this way: when I start a new arc, I usually have a vague idea of where I want it to go, with one or two important points that I need to hit, and don't really figure out what the climax is going to be until I'm about halfway through, which is when I start working towards it. But this arc is going to be the first one where the beginning, ending, and middle are not only preplanned, but have been in the works for well over a year. So yeah, this is gonna be…interesting. _

_Hehehehehe…_

_On a lighter note, I always had this nagging feeling that I was taking inspiration for Yuuka's portrayal from somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn't think of what it was. And then, when I was out on a delivery last night, it hit me: Yuuka was subconsciously inspired by Hexadecimal from Reboot! I felt sort of stupid for not realizing it earlier, because their personalities are terrifyingly similar. And as such, I now picture them as having the same voice, with allowances made for accents. So it's official: should IM ever get any sort of animated adaptation (hey, I can dream, can't I?), Genji will be voiced by Jeff Bridges, and Yuuka will be voiced by __Shirley Millner. And I guess Sayaka Ohara can do Yukari. _

_Oh, and just a reminder: Yuuka has Rin. Be afraid. _

_Until next time, everyone! Imperfect Metamorphosis resumes in March._


	43. Intermission: IM Abridged

So, with the three-year anniversary and the new chapter in a few days, it's occurred to me that since it's been several months since the last update, since this story is really freaking long, and since the plot is real convoluted and confusing anyway, there's probably a whole lot of stuff that's been forgotten during the hiatus and a lot of people are probably lost. So, to help clear things up, I decided to write up a summary of most of the important points of the story so far. To that end, I give you:

Imperfect Metamorphosis

The Abridged Version

Spring had come to Gensokyo, and nobody cared. Well, except for Lily White, but it's kinda her job.

Lily: SPRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNG!

Unfortunately she runs afoul of Team Nineball, who immediately start to troll her.

Team9: Torment!

Lily: I hate you all! (runs into a tree)

That done, Team Nineball find out that a certain mad magician known for her love of wanton property damage had stolen a very suspicious magical box from another magician known for her deadly knowledge of the arcane arts. Naturally, they decide that stealing said box is the thing to do.

This goes about as well as you'd expect.

Marisa: MASTER SPARK!

Team9: RUN AWAY!

Despite taking a beating, they manage to get away with the box. A box, it should be reiterated, that had been previously owned by two dangerous magicians and probably shouldn't be tampered with. They open it anyway.

This…goes about as well as you'd expect.

Cirno: Oh no, carnivorous booger!

Rumia: Ah! Don't eat me!

She gets eaten.

Team9 (sans Rumia): OH NOES!

Wriggle: Get Reimu!

They go do that.

Meanwhile, the carnivorous booger turns into an evil looking copy of Rumia, and goes loping off towards Eientei for some reason. As for Rumia herself, she wakes up floating around in a big, empty world of blackness with a crazy girl named Rin Satsuki. And they're both naked.

Rin: Hi Rumia! My name's Rin! Sorry about eating you and all, but I was real lonely, and wanted someone to be my friend! And you looked like you could be my friend, so I brought you here so we could be bestest best friends, you know?

Rumia takes this about as well as you'd expect.

Meanwhile, the rest of Team Nineball make it to Hakurei Shrine, where they meet the crabby shrine maiden hero Reimu Hakurei, perpetually drunken oni adventurer Suika Ibuki, master of borders and sorta-owner of Gensokyo Yukari Yakumo, and (former) evil overlord and (semi-retired) notorious sorceress ghost Mima.

Cirno: Reimu! Help us save Rumia.

Reimu: No.

Yukari, however, appears to know something.

Yukari: Do it, bitch.

Reimu: Fine.

They go off and run into Marisa, who's still kind of pissed off at Team Nineball, so she blows them up. Nobody really cares, and Marisa joins the group. As they go looking for Rin Satsuki, Yukari explains a few things.

Yukari: So yeah, as it so happens, Rumia's really this super-evil, super-powerful youkai who really liked to kill things back in the day. Your mother and I were the ones who stopped her the first time around, and Mima helped us make her into a not-problem.

Reimu: How?

Yukari: Well, first we beat her up…

Reimu: Okay.

Yukari: Then we put a ribbon into her hair!

Reimu: …why do we let you run things again?

Meanwhile, Rin makes it to Eientei. As it turns out, she used to work for Eirin Yagokoro as a nurse, until some weird experiment turned her into a man-eating blob of mucus. And she didn't even get worker's comp. Go figure. Anyway, Rin wants to clear the air between her and Eirin, so she walks in and asks for an appointment. Naturally, the predictable happens.

Eirin: OPEN FIRE!

Rin: Gabrabbgbgabarg!

But she starts adapting to the bullets, and Eirin puts two and two together. Given that she's a super-genius from the Moon, she's capable of at least that.

Eirin: Rin? Is that you?

Rin: Ow…

And then Reimu and co. show up.

Yukari: OPEN FIRE!

Eirin: No, wait!

Rin: Gabrabbgbgabarg!

Things kinda spiral out of control from there, but long story short, nearly everyone gets the crap beaten out of them, Rin gets away, but not before absorbing Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou, thus gaining their immortality, and Rin is _pissed off _at _everything! _

Oh yeah, and some creepy voice starts talking in Rin's head at one point.

(Totally Not Evil) Ex-Rumia: **Hey Rin! I'm your angry side! Listen to me, okay?**

Rin: Something smells fishy about this, but okay.

Yeah, that doesn't work out well for anyone.

Rin: HOW COULD YOU BETRAY ME?

Ex-Rumia (Who Is Most Definitely Not Evil): **…really? Moron. **(disappears into somewhere)

But anyway, the place is a mess, and after learning that Rin can adapt to and absorb any kind of energy attack, can regenerate from anything, can eat people and use their powers, and is quite possibly carrying around Rumia's super-powerful, homicidal past-self (which she totally is not, and don't let anyone tell you differently!), Yukari decides it's time to round up the posse and calls in Gensokyo's leaders to formulate a battle plan!

Only about half show up, and those that do spend most of the time insulting each other.

Yukari: I need a new job…

Meanwhile, Team Nineball decide to take matters into their own hands.

Cirno: Let's put a bounty on the blob monster!

Wriggle: We're broke, dumbass.

Mystia: I'm not. (shows a shitload of money)

Everyone Else: HOLY SHIT, YOU'RE LOADED!

That done, Cirno decides that the next thing they need is protection! Of course, that means bringing in a certifiable monster onto the team is totally a great idea!

Cirno: Hey, Wriggle! You used to date Yuuka Kazami, right?

Wriggle: Only in the loosest of terms.

Cirno: Great! Go ask her to help.

Wriggle: NO!

She ends up doing it anyway. And nothing was ever the same again.

Yuuka: This is my story now, kiddies!

And it was.

_Meanwhile, _Rin gets tired of having Kaguya and Mokou hanging around, and kicks them out of her head and creates a spin-off!

Mokou: Go read Rhapsody of Subconscious Desire, if you haven't already!

Kaguya: Seriously, the jerks are more charming, there's a lot of crazy monsters, and we have actual lesbians!

Mokou: Just the one.

Kaguya: Squared.

Mokou: What?

_Ahem. _Anyway, after that happens, Rin goes digging around in Rumia's head for clues about her past. While she does that, Rumia goes on a weird-ass trip through dreamland, during which she encounters a circus, a burned down building, a burning cross, and a tarot card reading. Symbolism, ahoy!

Oh yeah, and this person comes back.

Ex-Rumia (Who Is Totally Evil After All): **Yo.**

Rin: I kill you!

This…backfires.

Ex-Rumia: **See you in RoSD, bitches!**

Awkward.

_Meanwhile, _things are starting to get at least a little optimistic elsewhere.

Reisen: Hey Reimu, Rin's really not that bad. Could you, like, help her, instead of trying to kill her.

Reimu: Sure. Hey Kanako and Byakuren, you guys wanna help?

Byakuren: Of course!

Kanako: Hell no!

Byakuren: Please?

Kanako: Ugh. _Fine!_

While all that is going on, Yuuka beats up Yukari's police-captain (AKA henchwoman) Kotohime and has her deliver a personal challenge to Yukari. Soon after, she hurts both of Yukari's Shikigami. Because when you've been tasked with protecting a group of local troublemakers, the first thing you want to do is piss off the most powerful person in the country! Also, she threatens to break anyone Yukari sends after her.

Yukari: Okay, so this is happening now.

Satori: If I may offer a suggestion…

Following Satori's advice and disregarding Yuuka's warning, Yukari starts rounding up a gang of pawns. First are Remilia Scarlet and the rest of the SDM gang.

Remilia: Haha, Yukari! I am blackmailing you!

Yukari: No, actually I am blackmailing _you._

Remilia: …so you are.

Next are Marisa and Mima.

Kotohime: You're under arrest!

Marisa: Gods_damn_it!

Yukari: Hey, I had you arrested because you're dangerous and I don't like you. But I'd be willing to let you off if you-

Marisa: Go to hell!

Yukari: -partake in a huge, insanely violent battle against a super-being, during which you'll be given the opportunity to play with god-tier spells and reduce a significant portion of the landscape into fine powder.

Marisa: …may I have your babies?

And later...

Mima: Marisa! I have come to rescue you.

Marisa: Nah, it's cool. See, there's gonna be a big old fight, and they'll let me go if I join. Hey, wanna come with?

Mima: Sure.

And of course, Satori and her pets are already on board. Oh, and these guys show up too.

Yuyuko: Hello, Yukari! I just ran into Yuuka, and I do not think she likes you.

Yukari: WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?

Yuyuko: Oh, you know. Around.

Yukari: And this is my ruler of the dead. No wonder we can never get anything done.

Oh yeah. This happens at one point.

Eirin: Yukari, I found the Shadow Youkai's sword. It's…kind of nasty.

Yukari: And familiar. Ooooh boy.

Reimu shows up.

Reimu: Yukari, stop being such a jerk!

Yukari: Oh, you're so precious. Say, if you'd be so kind to forego the self-righteous rant for today, check this out. Turns out the Shadow Youkai is the avatar of Azrael.

Reimu: The who of the what now?

Yukari: She's the reincarnation of an insane, genocidal Fallen Angel. And these two can back me up on this.

Sariel and Shinki: It's true.

Reimu: Oh. That's…problematic.

Yukari: But on the plus side, that means these two have to help me now!

Shinki: Yeah, fine. Sure.

That was two years ago. Shinki and Sariel _still _haven't made a reappearance.

And speaking of which…

Rin and Rumia: Are we even still in this story?

Yeah, okay. You run into Reimu for a chapter.

Reimu: No, Rin! Come back to the light!

Rin: It's too late for me.

Okay, it wasn't quite so eloquent. Anyway, it doesn't work.

Readers: Oh, come on!

Hehehe.

Anyway, Yukari gets her group of illegal mercenaries together, and plans how to kill Yuuka.

Yukari: So, I'm going to distract her for a while, then I'll bring you guys in. You'll beat the shit out of her, Flandre will blow her up, and we'll seal her in this nifty little crystal. Simple!

Mima: There are _so _many ways this will go wrong.

Yukari: You mean "could," right?

Mima: No.

Yuuka and Yukari finally have their big fight. Which stretches over three giant chapters. Lotsa stuff happens, but the summation of it is: nothing goes right.

First, Yuuka divides herself into four Yuukas, and attacks all of Yukari's lackeys simultaneously.

Remilia and Friends.: Oh no!

Satori and Friends: Oh no!

Yukari: You cheating bitch!

Marisa: I am _so _fucking high right now!

No, she really is. Anyway, Remilia's group gets the snot beaten out of them, and Flandre gets staked and sealed in a crystal meant for Yuuka.

Remilia: Flandre! NOOOOOO!

And then the cave blows up. They're okay though.

Same thing happens to Satori's group, only it's Satori that gets put in a crystal.

Utsuho: Satori! NOOOOOO!

And then she blows up. She gets better though.

And Marisa's group (consisting of her, Mima, Yuyuko, and Youmu), also gets knocked around.

Marisa: Except for me!

Yeah, yeah, except for you. In fact, despite being the only mortal on the team, she's the only one to not get hurt, and is the only one to successfully kill and seal up a Yuuka. Turns out, overloading yourself with magic drugs does have its benefits.

Marisa: YOLO, bitches!

Except for the part where she gets deathly ill immediately after. And stays that way for weeks.

Marisa: Medic! (barf)

Don't do drugs, kids.

Oh yeah, the three remaining Yuukas come together to form one Yuuka, which then beats the crap out of Yukari.

Yukari: What the hell are you?

Yuuka: You ever read Lovecraft?

Yukari: Aw shit.

She goes berserk and toasts Yuuka down to the bone. And then does some sort of weird metaphysical soul-combiny-crushy thing.

And then this happens.

Yuuka: Wait…What is happening here? Are those…other universes? With other Gensokyos? And other Yuukas?

Uh-huh.

Yuuka: Ah! Who are you?

The writer. Hi!

Yuuka: Did I just break the fourth wall?

So it seems.

Yuuka: Wait, so are you controlling me, or am I dictating what you write?

I dunno.

Yuuka: But you must! You can't just do something like this and not…Why aren't you wearing pants?

Okay, conversation _over!_

So everyone who's left puts themselves back together and goes home. Yuuka and Yukari are so busted up that they're bedridden for most of the next arc.

Team9: Are we even still in this story?

Not really.

But anyway, a few chapters of emoness go by. Reimu and Kanako both have crises of faith, but get over them. Marisa and Reimu become estranged for a while because Marisa almost killed somebody earlier, but they make up. Alice is still kinda pissed though. Bitches, man. And oh yeah, this happens.

Reisen: Did you order a bunch of guns especially designed to attack Rin?

Eirin: Looks that way.

Reisen: I _QUIT!_

She brain-scrambles Eirin.

Eirin: I'm a little teapot, short and stout!

Reisen: Oh crap. Better run!

Eirin gets better.

Eirin: You know, a simple two-week notice would have been fine!

She hasn't shown up since.

In the meantime, Reisen runs to Reimu's shrine!

Reisen: Hey Reimu, I know you already got a lot to do, seeing how I convinced you to start a secret campaign to save Rin that will get you into a whole lot of trouble if you got caught, but I kinda just attacked my boss, who is really powerful, influential, and bad tempered, and ran away. Think I could bunk here for a while?

Reimu: …

Reisen: I'll cook and clean for you.

Reimu: Fine, you can have the couch.

Reisen: But…you don't have a couch.

Reimu: I know. Anyway, this flying and talking turtle is Genji. He's old and grumpy, but otherwise all right. Genji, this is Reisen. She'll be staying with us for a few days.

Genji: HELLOOOOO NURSE!

Reisen: (blushes and giggles)

Reimu: Okay, that was traumatizing. Don't do it again. And oh yeah, Mima sometimes hangs out here. She kinda this ghostly sorceress who's really strong, really smart, kind of a prick, is sort of evil, and is my family's ancestral enemy.

Reisen: Uh, okay…

Reimu: But it's okay, she's cool now!

Reisen: Why?

Reimu: Because…uh…huh.

Reisen: …

Reimu: You know, I should probably put some more thought into that.

True to form, Mima eventually shows up.

Mima: Hi kids, did'ja miss me?

Reimu: Oh crap…

Mima: Oh, come on! I'm on your team now. Besides, you need my help with that whole Rin Satsuki thing, don't you?

Reisen: Wait, you're helping me? Why?

Mima: Because your little campaign has not only united three of Gensokyo's most prominent places of worship, but put them in a position that threatens to destroy everything they've worked so hard to build if they're found out, all to save one person who is probably too far gone and will most likely kill us all! That is so neat that I just have to see how it ends!

Reisen: …oh.

Reimu: Wait, did you say something?

Mima: Nope.

Meanwhile, Rin and Rumia finally come back. And true to form, things just can't go right for them.

First they're chased by mushroom people.

R&R: Run away!

Then they crash into the Ancient City, and get beat up by Suika and Yuugi.

Rin: Hey, I figured out how to fight!

Yamame and Kisume: We're making a cameo!

Rin: Hey, I figured out how to control my evil, kill-everything powers!

Rumia: Fantastic. Now let's celebrate by GETTING THE HELL OUT OF HERE!

They do, and in the process, Utsuho shows up and accidentally blows up a building. She gets put on time-out.

Rin and Rumia then get chased all over Gensokyo, and Cirno's bounty hunters (remember those?) all go after her. Reimu and Marisa head out, meet up with Sanae, and Mima watches from afar. This is where things get…complicated.

Readers: Weren't they always?

I mean complicated for me.

Readers: Weren't they always?

Shut up. Anyways…

Rin is flying willy-nilly all over the place, and as she's passing by the Youkai Mountain, she runs into a bit of a problem: a giant robotic spider called the Strutter piloted by the Asakura sisters. Moments later, a giant humanoid robot called the Hisoutensoku shows up, piloted by Nitori.

Nitori: (babbles excitedly in a nearly incomprehensible dialect)

And naturally, the first thing they do is beat the crap out of each other. And…

(record scratch)

Sigh. Look, I hated this fucking storyline, and don't really feel like reliving it in detail. So, brief summary: Tony and the Three Fairies of Light get decapitated or blown up and are arrested upon revival, along with Nitori and the Asakuras. Nue and Mamizou show up, get beat up, and Rin eventually eats them behind Reimu's back, gaining their shapeshifting abilities. Yuuka comes back, hijacks the Strutter, but it's destroyed by Sanae and Mima in the Hisoutensoku and the _Palaquin. _Rin scares both Yuuka and Reimu with her strength and increasing madness, and the former is talked into leaving by Kanako. Rin is almost talked into giving herself up by Reimu and Kanako, but decides to split when Yukari shows up at the end, thinking that that door had just been slammed in her face. And Meira becomes the first canon character to be killed off when she saves Reimu from the berserk Strutter. And that was that.

And while we're on the subject, did you know the whole robot fight was only supposed to be one chapter? ONE CHAPTER! Just that first clash between Nitori and the Asakuras in Heavy Metal, and things would have gone straight on to Methods and Motives of Monsters! That's it! But noooooooo, everything had to go off the fucking rails, forcing me to elongate the whole thing well past its welcome, drag Yuuka off the bench several chapters early just to dig my ass out of the hole I had stuck myself in, to the point where I was sick and tired of the whole goddamned thing and seriously considering abandoning the story entirely to work on Resonance Days exclusively, and I swear to God if I ever consider using those bloody robots again, someone better clock me upside the head before the madness utterly consumes my-

Yuuka: Excuse me, dear.

Yeah, what?

Yuuka: I think you've complained enough on this subject, and our adoring audience is probably getting sick of it. So it's probably best to let the subject lie, wouldn't you agree?

Oh, fine. I knew I'd regret giving you fourth-wall privileges.

Yuuka: Besides, that catastrophe led to more of me! How could that be a bad thing?

Lady, remind me to show you some of the posts on Spacebattles one of these days.

(sigh)

_Anyway!_

So…_that _all happened. Rin sneaks away, and Yukari, who is still really ill by the way, had just finished up getting permission to kill Rin from the Kirin queen (who grants it because she's kind of a bitch) and arranged to talk with the King of Dreams about the Yuuka problem (seeing how Yuuka originally came from the Dream World), only to come back and find a spectacular mess. She finds out about Reimu's plans to help Rin and takes her aside for a personal chat, though she promises to hear Reimu out. Their debate includes a history lesson and can be summarized as such:

Yukari: Reimu, while I respect your morals and empathize with your reservations concerning the necessity of ending Rin Satsuki's life, the fact of the matter is that she simply is too dangerous to be allowed to live. Her power, her near-indestructibility, her deteriorating mental state, and the fact that she might be influenced by the single greatest mass-murderer in history makes her a deadly threat to the whole of Gensokyo. I know that she didn't really choose any of this and is a victim, but her life is not more valuable than that of the people she's endangering. I too have, in the past, risked others' lives in order to save someone I thought I could redeem, only to fail, causing the deaths of hundreds of innocents. I'm sorry, but Gensokyo must be protected at all costs.

Reimu: I understand where you're coming from, and you make many good points, but things are not quite as simple as you've made them out to be. It is true that Rin is both extremely powerful and becoming progressively more unstable, but her anger and violent impulses rise in response to being attacked, and attempting to kill her will only drive her further into rage-fueled madness. Furthermore, thanks to that nigh-invulnerability you mentioned, it will take an incredibly long time to finally bring her down, during which there will most likely be heavy casualties, and in the end the best you can hope for is an extremely bloody victory. However, despite her mistrust, she has shown a willingness to cooperate with those who offer to help her, and might just cooperate should an opportunity for her to regain her old life present itself. Your way, while well-intentioned, will just drive her into becoming the monster you fear while causing untold amounts of damage, which, given that Yuuka is still at large, is not something you can afford. My way has already been shown to have a chance at succeeding and will resolve many of our problems without bloodshed, which will in turn free you to settle the Yuuka problem without distractions.

Yukari: You make a very compelling argument, and while I still have a great many reservations, I will allow you continue as you have and offer my support in any way I can. However, be aware that for your idea to work, a cure for her condition must be found. Furthermore, I strongly discourage any further operations that do not have my knowledge or consent, as given the current threat-level we cannot afford to be at cross-purposes.

Reimu: Understood, and thank you for being reasonable.

Yukari: Not at all.

Only, of course it was considerably less…brief. And polite. Seriously, Yukari drops Reimu into a jail cell at one point, and Reimu strongly considers flipping her off at another.

But while all that is going on, Rin is doing her best to undermine Reimu's arguments by behaving like the dangerous lunatic that Yukari was so afraid of.

Rin: **Imma go get revenge on everyone who was mean to me! HA HA HA HA!**

Rumia: I hate my life.

And since Eirin and the Asakuras have already beat up and/or screwed over, that leaves Patchouli Knowledge and Sakuya Izayoi. So she disguises herself and sneaks into the Scarlet Devil Mansion, where Remilia is just getting over an extremely long moping period over losing Flandre.

Naturally, hell breaks loose within minutes.

Rin: **HA HA HA! I AM SCARY!**

The SDM Crew: Holy crap, she's scary!

Rumia: Can we hurry this along? We're kind of on a clock here.

Rin: **NO! I want to play with them first!**

Rumia: See? This is why everything you do ends up failing spectacularly. Because you're a _freaking idiot!_

Remilia comes up with a nifty plan to stop her, which first involves Meiling distracting Rin in hand-to-hand combat.

Meiling: Meiling PAWWWWWNCH!

Rin: **PILEDRIVER!**

But Meiling manages to knock Rin into a box. The same kind of box she had been locked up back at the beginning of the story.

Rin: **OH NOES!**

Rumia: Told'ja so.

And so Rin is finally captured.

Sakuya: So, are we going to hand her over to Yukari now, redeem ourselves in her eyes, and end a good portion of this nightmare?

Remilia: No, I'm giving her to Yuuka.

Patchouli: Wait, what, huh?

Yuuka arrives.

Yuuka: I'm HEEEERRREEEE!

Remilia: Trade you Rin for Flandre.

Yuuka: And if I say no?

Remilia: Please?

Yuuka: No.

She leaves with both Rin and Flandre, but leaves the full bounty amount behind. In one-yen notes.

Remilia: Nothing I do goes right!

Patchouli: Gee, I wonder why.

Yuuka takes Rin back to her mansion.

Elly: So…now that you have the only being in Gensokyo capable of killing you locked up in a box, you're going to drop it into a deep, dark hole a million miles away, right?

Yuuka: Nope! I'm going to open it right here and now!

Elly: What? Why?

Yuuka: Because PLOT!

She opens the box.

Rin: **YOU!**

Yuuka: Hi! Let's have some girl time together!

And that's where we are now. There's probably some stuff I overlooked, but I think I got most of the important bits. Hopefully, that clears some things up and brings other things back to remembrance. And hopefully I didn't just make things even more convoluted and confusing than they already are.

…

I just made things more convoluted and confusing, didn't I?

Goddamn it.


	44. A Meeting of the Minds

A Meeting of the Minds

All religious competition aside, Reimu had always liked Byakuren. The elder youkai had an aura of calm about her that the easily aggravated shrine maiden found soothing. And by extension, Byakuren never seemed to panic. Even when Reimu and her friends had been convinced that she was some sort of renegade demonic warlord that needed to be put down and resealed she had readily indulged her attackers' insistence for a spellcard duel while calmly speaking to them through the battle, using arguments of both logic and emotion as piercing weapons to cut away her opponents' misguided presumptions and convince them that she was not their enemy. And later, when that loud Taoist prince with the gender issues had burrowed right up under her temple and attempted to trash the place, she alone had kept her head and dealt with the situation in quick and decisive manner, while all of her followers had been thrown into panic. Well, all of them save for Murasa, of course. Reimu wasn't sure if the ghost captain was even capable of being surprised.

However, Byakuren was fully capable of showing concern. As such, after Murasa had returned to Myouren Temple and delivered her report, Byakuren had immediately headed to Hakurei Shrine in person to see if Reimu was all right and get the full story. And after being filled in that yes, Rin Satsuki was now both more powerful _and _unstable than ever, that Yuuka Kazami was growing bold again, and Yukari now knew of their plans, she started to show plenty of concern. Which is to say she sat in complete silence for nearly a minute, her cup of tea and saucer held motionless in her hands as she stared at Reimu. Then she closed her eyes, slowly took in air, and let it out in much the same manner, while letting out a somewhat uncharacteristic, "Hooooo boy," which was probably the best summation of current events that Reimu had heard yet.

"Yeah, pretty much," Reimu said. "You're…probably going to get yelled at by Yukari before too long. She's here, actually."

"She is?"

"Yeah." Reimu nodded toward the back end of the shrine and the grounds beyond. Through the walls, raised voices could be heard. "Said she had some business to take care of. But yeah, she already gave Kanako an earful for not telling her about all this, and odds are she'll have one for you too."

"I think, Reimu, that in light of the circumstances, a lecture is rather trivial. That she's allowing us to continue is a miracle in itself. I'll take whatever she has for me."

"Yeah." Reimu squirmed awkwardly for a bit, and then said, "Look, about Nue and Mamizou…"

Byakuren winced.

"Look, I didn't mean for that to happen to them, but I really do think Rin, uh, absorbed them. And, and I know how protective you are of your people, so…"

Taking a deep breath, the saint of Myouren Temple said, "I am. And while I had anticipated that taking part in this would…endanger my friends, I hadn't really…been as prepared for the actual fact as I had expected."

Reimu tilted her head to one side. "So, I really have to ask: you're still in, right? I mean, Rin did eat them, so this kind of changes-"

"Absolutely nothing," Byakuren said firmly. "We already knew that Rin's state of mind was slipping, and…" She grimaced. "As much as it pains me to admit it, they _did _attack her, so…"

"Yeah, but they were kind of defeated and helpless at the time," Reimu pointed out. "Well, Nue was at least. I wasn't there for Mamizou."

"True, but the point stands. If anything, it just means we need to end this all the quicker. I just wish Nue had spoken to me first and given me a chance to talk her out of it." Finally taking a sip of tea, Byakuren said, "How are the others holding up?"

Reimu shrugged. "Well, Kanako's being, uh, Kanako, which is to say she's gone full control freak right now with the recovery thing."

"It's her way of coping."

"Yeah, I'd noticed. But beyond that…" Reimu scratched her head and thought. "Well, Mima and Marisa kinda made themselves scarce. I think they're worried that Yukari's gonna press the whole probation thing, but she didn't so much as say a word to them." She glanced outside, toward the back of the shrine grounds. "She and Genji are yelling at each other right now. I don't think either of them are winning, though."

"That's normal enough. Most of their interactions back during the Magician's War involved a great deal of yelling. What of Reisen?"

"Reisen? She's…uh…" That was a good question, actually. As soon as Reimu had stepped out of Yukari's gap, Reisen had rushed out of the shrine, desperate for news. And then Yukari had appeared right behind the shrine maiden, and all color had left Reisen's face, followed quickly by the ability to form coherent thoughts and produce speech.

Fortunately for her, Yukari had taken one look at her, rolled her eyes, and told Reimu to "Deal with the rabbit, while I go deal with the lizard." Then she had left, wheeled by Ran toward Genji's pond. The whole incident had left Reisen in such a bewildered state that Reimu had to explain the situation to her three times before she had managed to comprehend the part about Yukari not really caring that she was there.

However, once she had accepted that she wasn't about to be deported back to Eientei for trial and execution, Reimu had to tell her of her failure to bring Rin around. In fact, progress was currently moving toward the negative end of the spectrum, what with Rin's frustrating new abilities meaning that finding her again was going to be next to impossible.

Reisen had gotten very quiet after that. In fact, she had said nothing at all. Instead, she had wandered over to the well and sat down against it. As far as Reimu knew, she was still there.

"Not great, to be honest," Reimu admitted.

Byakuren's mouth set in a straight line. "Well, to be expected I suppose. I think, out of all of us, she has the most invested in our success. Save, of course, for Rin herself." She looked down at her tea, stirring the surface of the warm liquid with the tip of her finger. "Perhaps I could talk to her? Give her some encouragement?"

"That…actually, yeah, that would be great," Reimu said gratefully. "I'm kinda horrible at that sort of thing."

"Oh, I wouldn't say so," Byakuren said, raising an eyebrow. "After all, you were the one she went to for counsel, originally. You must have said something right to compel her to seek shelter with you after she ran away."

Reimu let out a small groan. "And what a world of wonder that has done both of us. I'm just relieved we don't have to worry about Yukari finding out and dropping us into deep space anymore. Unfortunately, we're still stuck at freaking square one." Her brow furrowed. "No, wait, I think we've moved back to square zero. I mean, Rin's pretty much untraceable now!"

"Don't give up hope," Byakuren said. "Contact has been made, and Rin heard your words. She still has the option of accepting them. And I don't doubt that she'll be driven to seek someone's help sooner than you think. And who else would she go to, if not you?"

…

It was a meeting of monsters. But then, in Gensokyo, most things were.

And like most things in Gensokyo, this one was deceptively innocent looking, almost cute. On a sundeck pleasantly decorated by colorful floral arrangements, two women sat across from each other at a round, white table. A purple umbrella was spread overhead, though given the lateness of the hour it was hardly necessary. Fortunately, though the sun was vanishing beneath the horizon, the deck was well-lit by a network of electric lanterns. Soothing violin music played softly in the background, pumped in from an unseen source.

Supper was spread before them, though only one of the two seemed at all interested. She was tall, well over two meters in height, with a regal bearing and aristocratic features. Her ancestry was impossible to tell, as she seemed to have blood from the noble upper-class of every nation swimming in her veins. Attractive she certainly was, possibly even beautiful, with porcelain skin and a well-curved figure. However, there was something _wrong _about her, something alien and hideous, even if one were to overlook the lime-green hair that stopped short of brushing her shoulders and the fact that one eye was covered with a black leather patch while the other was bright crimson. Even those ignorant of Yuuka Kazami and her reputation tended to be subjected to cold sweats and squirming bowels while spending any amount of time in her company. And, if the forcefully pleasant smile she wore at almost all times was any indication, she was fully aware of the effect she had on people and enjoyed it immensely. She was also the host of this particular dinner party for two.

In contrast, her companion didn't even bother hiding her monstrous nature. Her appearance, while definitely female, was such a hodgepodge of features taken from five different people, each of a different species, that it was almost headache inducing to look at. She had claws that looked like cleavers, she had a great big bushy raccoon's tail, she had wings that looked like scythes and arrows coming out of her back, and her hair looked as if hadn't been able to decide if she wanted to wear it long or short and finally had decided on going half-and-half. Her outfit was eccentric at best and nauseating at worst, and her unblinking eyes were of the same color as her host's, though they burned with a fiery luminescence that could only be described as "Hellfire." Though she was the guest of the first monster, she was not at all interested in the food spread before her. Indeed, it seemed that only a sliver of will was preventing her from leaping across the table and tearing out her host's throat.

Yuuka Kazami knew this too, and it worried her. Normally, such malcontent would not be a cause for concern. There were any number of beings out there who longed to have her head nailed to their wall, and she had entertained several of them at her house at one point or another. The difference between them and the creature now before her is that if it decided to go for the kill, she might not be able to stop it.

Her life sat on a razor's edge, and along with it, the lives of everyone she was responsible for. She was accustomed to playing dangerous games, but this was the most dangerous one yet. After all, she had never before invited one of the Fallen into the heart of the Garden of the Sun.

Still, she did have a few things going for her. For one, while she was far from the being she had once been, she was no insignificant power herself, and they were, after all, at the heart of her power. And while the edge it gave her would not allow her to overcome her guest should the situation devolve into violence, she would be able to fight back. For another, there was _another _power involved in all this, one that she now believed was looking over her shoulder. She was gambling on its protection in this matter.

Hiding the worry from her face, Yuuka favored her guest with a gracious smile and said, "You're not eating? I really must recommend the shrimp-kabob. Elly's been experimenting a great deal with seafood as of late, and I must say, she has a real flair for it!"

Her guest didn't answer, though it did start clenching and unclenching the fingers of its right hand, cutting through the tabletop with its claw-tips with a burning sound. Its eyes never left Yuuka's face.

"No? Well, later perhaps." Yuuka folded her hands in front of her face and said, "Though if you are in no mood for supper, perhaps we should get down to brass tacks. Now, as a understand it, you have been told a great many things about me that are, to be quite frank, simply-"

Apparently Yuuka's guest's idea of "brass tacks" differed from her own, because without so much as a warning, Rin Satsuki pounced.

Food, dishes, and silverware scattered everywhere, and the umbrella shot five meters into the air before bounding off into the night, as if fleeing for its life. As for Yuuka herself, though she had been ready for the attack, Satsuki was far too fast for her to defend herself.

Fortunately, her friends were faster.

A green, leaf-covered column burst out of the ground, smashing through the marble deck to slam neatly into Satsuki's stomach and bear her high into the air.

Down below, Yuuka had been knocked backward over her chair. Taking deep breaths, she held a hand over her rapidly pounding heart and said, "Saints alive, _that _escalated quickly!"

Looking up the massive beanstalk's height, her eye widened and she said, "Oh, this is _not _going to end well."

Her words proved prophetic, as the beanstalk suddenly shivered as if afflicted by fever. Then it went as stiff as a redwood tree, and its vibrant green color started to fade.

"Let her go!" Yuuka yelled as she kicked the chair away and pulled herself to her feet. "Let her go before you-"

It was already too late. The beanstalk went from sickly green to grey before darkening to black. Yuuka grimaced. She had accepted that there would be death tonight. That didn't mean she had to like it.

But there was no time to mourn. Satsuki was already dropping from the shriveled stalk's zenith, talons spread like some sort of demonic bird of prey.

Yuuka lifted her umbrella into the air and gave the plummeting creature a blast of her trademark destructive green energy. As Satsuki was sent spiraling away, Yuuka let the matter of her body shift and change, reforming into something more battle-appropriate. She hoped that it would not take long to beat this foolishness out of her guest, but she was going to be ready for the long haul.

And apparently, so was Satsuki. She landed like a cat, on all four limbs, and bounded forward in the same manner, dodging attempts by Yuuka's many botanical friends to slow her down. Yuuka managed to tag her two more times with energy blasts, knocking her back each time.

The third time, not so much. The energy simply splashed off of Satsuki like a gentle spring rain.

Yuuka blinked. Ah, Satsuki's vaunted adaptability. She had already seen much of what the girl was capable of, and still she continued to impress.

Well, Yuuka could adapt with the best of them. Perhaps a dose of paralyzing venom would slow the little strumpet down. Her right arm shivered and sprouted a forest of thorns, their needle-tips glistening and ready to fire.

And then Satsuki simply vanished.

Well, that was unexpected. Or perhaps not. The girl had absorbed that Nue and Tanuki, hadn't she? In which case, Yuuka decided that a vanishing act of her own was probably in order-

She felt some warm slither up her legs. Looking down, her eye widened when she saw that her entire lower body was fully enveloped by a clear, gelatinous substance.

"Wait," she said as she realized what this meant. "This isn't supposed to happen."

It wasn't her preferred final words of choice, but she didn't have time to come up with better ones, as the substance lurched upward and covered her completely.

…

_Deep Within_

Rumia cleared her throat. "Well. That was quick. I, uh, thought you were going to hear her out first."

Sitting cross-legged with her back to Rumia, Rin had her head bowed and her red eyes shadowed by her bangs. Her formally white aura was now dark grey and writhing like a thing alive. **"Rumia, do me a favor," **she said, her voice still utterly terrifying. It was something of a measure of how incredibly messed up Rumia's life had become that she was becoming used to even that. **"Name one time where hearing someone out hasn't led to something horrible."**

Rumia thought for a moment. She shrugged. "Rin, I gotta be honest with you. I can't think of _anything _you've tried that hasn't led to something horrible.

Rin gave her the briefest of glances over her shoulder. There might have been a tiny smile on her face, but she looked away before Rumia could tell for certain. **"I'm done taking chances," **Rin said. **"Every time I give someone a chance to talk, something bad happens. Every time I go easy on someone, I get beat up or put back in a box."**

"Right, okay then," Rumia said. She looked to the screen. Unfortunately, as Rin didn't currently possess visible eyes, there was nothing to see. "So, you sure you can handle this lady once she comes in?"

"**Yes," **Rin said. A blur of color was already starting to form nearby. **"I can handle anything and anyone, now."**

That was not at all reassuring, but Rumia was smart enough to know that now was not the time to turn Rin's ire toward herself. So she jogged backwards until she had put a safe distance between herself and the two lunatics and waited to see what was going to happen.

The blob of color was now coming into focus. Rumia frowned. While she had never seen Yuuka save through Rin's screen, she was fairly certain that the thing that was currently materializing in front of Rin wasn't her.

Rumia suddenly lost all desire to watch the coming proceedings. She turned and ran as fast into the nothingness as she could. Behind her, she heard Rin say, **"Wait, what in the world is…"**

Then there was a sharp intake of breath, and Rin started shrieking, **"What? No! Get out! Get out, get out, get out get out **_**get out!"**_

…

In another part of the Garden entirely, as far away from the mansion one could be and still be within Yuuka's realm, Elly sat hunched over in a tight ball and exerted every drop of will she had available to keep from going mad. Fortunately, she was quite good at it. After all, she had plenty of practice.

She just didn't understand what Yuuka was thinking. She knew that her master had a reputation for chaotic behavior, but her actions at always made sense to Elly. But ever since Yuuka had been hurt in that horrible, horrible fight, she had gone strange. There was no other way to describe it. She talked to people who weren't there, she discussed herself using the oddest of terms, and often waxed philosophical about the nature of the universe in a manner that Elly found to be quite bewildering. And while putting herself in danger wasn't unusual behavior for Yuuka, her recklessness was now borderline suicidal.

Clearly something important had been knocked loose in Yuuka's brain, and Elly was at a loss on how to fix it. There was no one she could turn to. Yuuka was all she had, and if her master was lost, then she was consigned to a future too horrible to imagine.

There had to be _something _she could do. But if this creature, this Rin Satsuki, was as deadly as Yuuka had made her out to be, then what options did she have? Was this to be the end of the only home she had ever known? Was she again to be thrust back into the hard, uncaring hands of-

"Awwww riiiiight! Batter up!"

Elly groaned as chants of "Hey, batter batter!" rose up. To top things off, she was not permitted to fret in peace. Before sending her off, Yuuka had instructed her to take her houseguests with her and keep an eye on them. And as Yuuka had declined to inform said houseguests as to the reason they were being asked to go so far out into the Garden after dark, they were blissfully unaware of the very mortal peril their selfless host was currently in, and was treating the whole ordeal like some sort of field trip!

Cirno had created a small pile of rock-hard iceballs and was tossing one of them into the air with one of her perpetual cocky grins stuck on her face. Across from her, her fellow ice fairy Daiyousei was holding a bat, also made from ice, and was looking somewhat uncertain about the prospect of having Cirno hurl any sort of projectile her way. Wriggle crouched behind her wearing an old oven mitt open and ready, while Mystia, the sole outfielder, zipped to and fro a ways behind Cirno.

As Elly watched scornfully, Cirno hunched over, spat on the ground, and then leaned back as far as balance would allow, her right hand gripping tight to an iceball.

"Hey, batter, batter, batter, swing!" she cried as she hurled the iceball forward.

Daiyousei swung the bat with all her might, but she flinched and missed by a mile. The iceball thumped into Wriggle's glove.

"Strike one!" the firefly called as she threw the iceball back.

"Come on, Dai!" Mystia called encouragingly. "You can do it!"

Shaking her head, Elly again hunched over and did her best to ignore them as a second pitch was thrown and a second strike registered. "Stop closing your eyes!" Mystia said. "That's why you keep missing."

Despite her earlier hostility toward Yuuka's guests (partially due to unresolved bad feelings toward Wriggle for running out on them, and partially due to that fact that Yuuka would never have been injured had the firefly and her friends not chosen to insert themselves into Yuuka and Elly's lives), Elly had to admit she had softened toward them over the last few weeks. Well, most of them at least. She and Wriggle still didn't speak much to each other, but at least she could share the same room with the firefly without glaring. Cirno was okay, she supposed, if a bit on the annoying side. Daiyousei was better, as it was difficult to resent anyone with such an inoffensive personality. And she was getting along quite well with Mystia. Their mutual love of cooking had helped them form a rapport, and had allowed Elly to do something she had never had the opportunity to try: exchange recipes. Mystia was quite proficient in preparing sea cuisine, while Elly primarily specialized in red meat, and the two had spent many happy hours experimenting in the kitchen.

But even so, even if she managed to achieve the same level of closeness with the others, Elly knew she would never become "part of the gang," as Cirno had once suggested. In time the crisis that had driven those four to seek sanctuary in Yuuka's domain would pass, and they would go their own way, while Elly would remain in the Garden, where she belonged. Her place was by Yuuka's side, which was why she was so agitated at having to leave it. If they were to fall to that monster (as she believed they would, despite Yuuka's assurances to the contrary), then she wanted to do it defending her master!

Still, despite the severity of the situation, she saw no reason to interrupt the baseball game. As there was a very high likelihood that they would all die horribly sometime within the next hour, she might as well let them have their fun. In truth, she envied their ignorance. Her knowledge of what was going on made her helplessness to do anything about it all that much worst.

Then there was the sound of some kind of crystalline impact and Mystia cheering "You did it!" This was quickly followed by Wriggle shouting, "Oh hell, Elly! Look out!"

Elly looked up to see that not only had Daiyousei managed to score a hit, in doing so she had sent the iceball straight at the Shinigami's head. Reacting on instinct, Elly's hand snapped up to catch the cold sphere before it gave her a concussion.

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Wriggle glanced over to the dumbstruck Daiyousei, shrugged, and said, "You're out."

"But…but she wasn't even playing!" Daiyousei protested with a stricken look on her face.

"She's got a point, Wriggle," Mystia put in. "I think that counts as a home run." Turning to Elly, she said, "Are you sure you don't want to play? We need another outfielder, and you've got a great arm!"

Forcing what she hoped was a disarming grin, Elly said, "N-no, that's…_quite _all right. I've…never much been into sports."

"Aw, really?" Cirno said, sounding disappointed. "Is that why you never play with us? Seriously, give it a try! You can be on my team!"

"We're rotating positions, remember?" Wriggle said. "We don't have teams!"

Then Mystia frowned. She cleared her throat and said, "Uh, Elly?"

Dear God in Heaven, why wouldn't they go away and leave her alone? Certain that her grin must be looking strained, Elly said, "Yes, Mystia? What is it?"

The night-sparrow pointed at Elly's hand. "Isn't that, you know, kind of cold?"

It was then that it finally registered in Elly's brain that she was, in fact, still holding a ball of ice with her bare hand. "Ah!" she cried as she quickly dropped it. She shook out her hand and blew on it. "Cold, cold, cold!"

"Wimp," Cirno muttered scornfully. "It's just ice."

"Not everyone is immune to cold, dope," Wriggle said, rolling her eyes. She pulled off her oven mitt and tossed it to Daiyousei. "Anyway, c'mon. I'm up next."

As the others returned to their makeshift baseball diamond, Mystia hung back. She leaned in to get a better look at Elly's face. "Uh, Elly? Are you _sure _everything's okay?"

Resisting the bubbling urge to scream out, "NO! Everything is NOT all right!" Elly said, "O-of course! There's nothing to worry about!" If for no other reason than to expose her as a liar, her voice cracked badly.

Upon ushering the lot of them out of the mansion, she had told them that Yuuka was bringing over a new kind of plant from another world and needed them out of the way until Yuuka could ascertain the plant's safety. Given the large number of otherwise dangerous and deadly flora under Yuuka's control, her guests had no problem believing the cover story. Unfortunately, it would seem that even the soundest of stories required a halfway-competent teller in order to be effective.

Unsurprisingly, Elly's reassurance attempts left Mystia looking even more dubious. "Okay," she said. "Then why are you freaking out so badly?"

Elly's fingernails were starting to cut into her palm.

"I mean, you look like you're ready to blow up or something! Does this have something to do with how Yuuka disappeared earlier? Because you were going pretty nuts then too. Did something happen while she was out? Elly?"

That did it. "Something?" Elly said, her grin becoming downright manic. Her voice grew in pitch as she erupted. "Did something happen? NO! Nothing happened! It's not like she just up and left without warning in a time of great danger when everyone out there wants to kill her for one reason or another, and she's not even fully recovered yet! It's a good thing she didn't do that, isn't it?"

Seeing that the little Shinigami was swiftly losing control, Mystia wisely started to back away. However, now that the night-sparrow had pried off the lid, Elly wasn't about to let her back out of this conversation.

"And it sure is a good thing she didn't leave _again _mere minutes after she got back!" she shouted, advancing forward. "I mean, that would be a most foolish thing to do, to go _back _out into the open after stirring things up yet again, which she also didn't do! Because Yuuka's much too smart to do anything like that!"

Her rants drew the attention of the other three, who turned to curiously see what had worked Elly into such a fuss.

"No, she would never do something like that! And she _certainly _wouldn't go and not only bring the _Devouring Monster _back into the Garden, but also willingly set it loose from its prison!"

Mystia's jaw dropped. Strange, little squeaks came out of her throat. Daiyousei's face went very, very pale, and she sat down rather suddenly.

"Wait," Wriggle said, her body going completely stiff. "Say that again. She brought _what _back with her?"

"Oh, nothing!" Elly very nearly screamed at her. "Because that would be stupid! And there's absolutely no chance that someone as smart and wise as her would not _only _bring the devouring monster into the Garden, set it free right after saying that it was strong enough to kill her and everyone around her, but insist on entertaining it for dinner! Wouldn't that just be the _most ridiculous thing you've ever heard?"_

"The Devouring Monster is _here?" _Wriggle cried. "And Yuuka's having it over _for dinner? _Is that what's going on?"

"It's here," Mystia whimpered. She curled up into a ball and hugged her knees. "It's here, it's here, it's here. No, I won't be eaten, I won't be eaten, I won't be eaten."

"Hold up," Cirno said, her face twisting up as she struggled to catch up with the others. Pushing her way over to Elly, she said, "You mean that ugly booger thingamajig that ate Rumia? The one I put a big fat bounty on?"

"No!" Elly screeched at her. "The _other _Devouring Monster!"

"Wait, there's another one?" Cirno gaped. "Since when? We don't have enough money to put a bounty on both of them!"

"Cirno, shut up," Wriggle said. To Elly, she said, "Elly, you better come straight with us. If that thing is here now, then we need to-"

That was when a piercing scream tore through the air. The sound of it was simply unearthly, a cry of horror and agony unlike anything any of them had heard. The very air seemed to shudder with the pain of it.

Mystia shrieked and clutched at her temples, nearly matching the scream for pitch. Daiyousei jumped in startlement, and then rushed to her friend's side and held her close, though whether she was trying to comfort the terrified night-sparrow or was seeking comfort herself was anyone's guess. Cirno and Wriggle just went as still as statues, neither of them fully grasping what was going on.

Elly, however, had a few ideas of her own. "Yuuka!" she cried as she leapt to her feet. She snatched up a thin rod from the ground. As she lifted it up, it seem to unfold into a six-meter pole, with the curving scythe blade popping out from some unseen compartment.

Gripping her scythe with both hands and forgetting her master's orders completely, Elly leapt into the air and flew toward the mansion with all the speed her tiny body could muster. "I'm coming, master!"

…

Rin's memories of her life before taking Eirin Yagokoro's serum were admittedly shoddy. She could recall specific events, certainly. Her horrific metamorphosis in particular stood out brightly in her mind. But other things were dark and murky.

She especially had trouble recalling certain sensations. While her hodgepodge of an avatar body was capable of the basic senses, there were any number that required an actual living, organic body in order to be experienced. Things like tiny itches from dry skin, the tickle of a stray eyelash, hot blood being pumped through veins, the taste of air as the lungs inhaled and exhaled, and the gentle murmur of the heart's drumbeat, all so often ignored, but all missed immediately once they were gone.

There were other sensations too. Burning adrenaline being flooded into the body, for one. Or that drowsy state of partial awareness that came moments before or after sleep. Rin had only the vaguest recollections of how they felt.

However, she no longer had any trouble remembering what crippling nausea felt like, or what it was like to forcibly expel something horrid from her body. While the feeling of forcing Yuuka Kazami back out was probably not the same, the horror and disgust of it had to be close enough to count.

For all the countless people she had absorbed into her body and mind, Rin had _never _experienced anything quite like that. There was something _wrong _with Yuuka. No, that wasn't quite it. Yuuka _herself _was something wrong, something alien and horrible. And it wasn't like when Rin had been unable to adapt to that Celestial's weapons. That had been a strange kind of resistance. Here, she had no problem dissolving and absorbing Yuuka's body, but her essence was absolutely repulsive.

No, wait, come to think of it, Rin _had _experienced something similar, once. Back when she had been freshly released from the first box and absorbed Rumia, there had been a brief moment, no more than a few seconds, when she had felt a horrible presence, dark and cold and strong. But it had quickly vanished, to be replaced by the comforting simplicity of Rumia's mind, causing Rin to attribute it to being nothing more than a fluke of the imagination. Of course, that same presence had later reappeared, and to say that it had caused her nothing but trouble would be a gross understatement. And while the feel of Yuuka's mind was certainly different from that of Rumia's Evil Twin, hot and feverish instead of deathly cold, it was just as bad. Just having it in her head had caused Rin's thoughts to twist themselves into knots. She wanted no part of it.

To her credit, Yuuka seemed to be of the same mind, and wanted out of Rin as much as Rin wanted to get rid of her. Even before her body had finished reforming, she was already trying to tear her way out of Rin, clawing at the viscous substance with skinless fingers. But Rin held on, not letting her get away until she had expelled all of her vile essence.

Finally Yuuka was once again whole, and Rin was all too happy to release her hold. Gasping like a swimmer coming up for air, Yuuka dragged herself away from Rin with her fingertips. Her green hair was soaked with sweat and her eyes wide with alarm. But beyond the shock and fear, Yuuka was also absolutely livid.

"You…you…" she panted as she kicked the rest of her way out. "How _dare _you!"

Moments later, Yuuka was standing tall on her feet and looking down at Rin with an expression of pure fury. "You _miserable wretch!" _she snarled, her fingers curling into claws. "I bring you into my home, release you from captivity, and invite you to a civilized conversation over dinner, and this is how you repay my generosity? Do you have concept of courtesy at all, you deformed little _trollop?"_

Then she slapped Rin across the cheek with the back of her hand, knocking her to the ground. As Rin's memories of her fights with the oni and Remilia Scarlet's gate guard were still fresh in her mind, she couldn't say that it was the hardest she had ever been struck, but fair to say it rated in the top ten. However, Rin was feeling too numb to care.

"I don't care what you are and how powerful you might be!" Yuuka said. "Attempt such a thing again, and I swear to God I will make you _choke _on every bit you swallow! Do you understand me?" When Rin didn't provide an immediate affirmative, Yuuka leaned in closer and repeated, "I _said, _do. You. Understand me?"

Instead of answering the question, Rin just stared back and stammered, _**"W-what are you?"  
**_

Her lips curling into a sneer, Yuuka reached back to strike Rin down again. But then she caught sight of the back of her hand. There was a patch of cold blackness where her flesh had made contact with Rin's face, not entirely unlike frostbite. It was shallow, but it was there.

Yuuka stared at the traces of the taint, her expression unreadable. Then she sighed and lowered her hand. "The irony of it all is that I was going to ask you much the same question," she said as she straightened up. The anger seemed to leave her, and she put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "What a delightful mess we've found ourselves in."

"_**You're not a youkai."**_

Yuuka's right eyebrow shot up. "Oh, am I not? The term is extraordinarily fluid in my experience. But if you mean I am not a being stitched together from the elemental energies that saturate Gensokyo's air, then you are correct; I had my genesis elsewhere, in a time and place far outside of mortal memory. But what of you, Rin Satsuki? What horrid cocktail of foul circumstance gave birth to you?"

"_Oooh boy," _Rumia said with a laugh, from within Rin's mind. "_Is _that_ gonna take a long time to explain."_

Rin found herself agreeing, though she was a little surprised that the question was being asked at all. It seemed that nearly everyone else was familiar with her history by now. But then, she supposed that someone like Yuuka wouldn't have merited an invitation when Eirin had told the story, unless it had been as a gate-crasher.

However, before she could even begin to consider answering, her heightened senses became aware of a new presence, one that was moving fairly quickly and heading right toward them. Yuuka noticed as well, as her attention moved away from Rin to focus on a point behind her. Then her shoulders slumped and she sighed, "Oh Elly."

"Master!" shouted a high, piping voice. "Master, I'm- Get away from her, you beast!"

Rin turned to see a tiny little girl flying toward them, wielding a scythe that had to be twice as long as she was tall. It was a measure of how bizarre Rin's life had gotten that as odd as this was, the girl wasn't even the tenth strangest person to attack her in the last two days.

The girl swooped down and swung her scythe with all her strength, the tip of it making for Rin's neck. In response, Rin's hand snapped up to grab the scythe right below the blade, stopping it cold. The girl grimaced and pushed, but her weapon didn't budge.

"Elly, stop right there!" Yuuka commanded. "We are at a very delicate stage, and further violence will only aggravate matters!"

"She attacked you!" the girl called Elly cried as she kept trying to wrest her scythe out of Rin's grasp.

"Yes, but she's hardly unique in that regard. Now, do as I say and stand down!"

The look on Elly's face made it clear that standing down was the farthest thing from her mind, but she obeyed. Or at least she tried to. Unfortunately, Rin still had her scythe.

"Miss Satsuki," Yuuka said. "If you don't mind, you would be so kind as to release my companion's weapon? I assure you, she is no longer a threat."

Not that she had ever been one, but that wasn't the issue. Rin simply didn't want to let go. What she did want to do was reach over, grab the little twerp by the neck, and twist until her head popped right off. It would be so easy too. She was right there, within reach of-

"Miss Satsuki!" Yuuka said again, raising her voice ever so slightly. "Now, please!"

Realizing how close she was to losing it again, Rin shuddered and slowly unwrapped her fingers from the scythe's pole. Elly quickly yanked it away and backed up three steps.

"That's better," Yuuka said. "Now Miss Satsuki, we'll continue our conversation in a minute, but for now, Elly? I do believe I instructed you to safeguard my guests. But seeing that you are here now, I must assume that you felt that your duties as my personal guard were of greater weight than obeying my orders. Commendable to a point, but that still leaves us with the issue of said guests, and where you decided to leave them."

Elly's cheeks flushed red, and she looked shamefaced at the ground. As for Rin, her earlier homicidal impulses were giving way to confusion. Guests? What guests?

…

_Deep Within_

"**What guests?" **Rin asked. **"Who is she talking about?"**

Rumia shrugged. "Hell if I know. The King and Queen of Flowertopia? Her aunt Petunia? Yuuka's a weird, scary lady. She could have anyone over for the weekend. You should hear some of the stories Wriggle used to tell, about how she-"

Wait.

Wriggle.

Rumia sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth. In her mind, the pieces had suddenly come together. After all, if memory served, Yuuka Kazami had not been the one originally responsible for the bounty.

A wild hope rose up within her. It was a wild shot, but if her guess was right, then this nightmare may very well be coming to its end, and not in a way that led to death. She could be free from Rin, and returned to her normal life. She just needed Yuuka's guests to be who she now suspected they were.

Seeing the look on Rumia's face, Rin frowned and drew in closer. **"Rumia, if you have any idea who Yuuka is talking about, you'd better tell me right now."**

Rumia wasn't sure if it was the dark influence of her Evil Twin that was giving Rin her forceful new personality, but she did know that she didn't care for it. The voice change and violent impulses were one thing. This was just irritating.

Fortunately, she was spared from making an issue over it, as the answer to both her hopes and Rin's question chose that exact moment to make her entrance.

…

One hand pinching the bridge of her nose, the other resting flat on her stomach, Yukari sat back into the wheelchair with her eyes closed and said, "Give me one good reason, just _one, _why I shouldn't drop you through a gap and dump you into an Outside World aquarium."

Looking completely unconcerned by the threat of exile, Genji let out a wheezy snort and said, "Hell, I'll give yah several. One, 'cause I'll kick your ass if you tried. Two, the Hakurei Barrier would eventually destabilize and collapse without me around. Three, you'll never find anyone better than me to train them shrine maidens. Four, Reimu would never forgive you if you did. Five, this shit ain't my fault, and you know it."

Yukari opened her eyes just enough to glower at him. "You lied to me."

"Not my fault."

"You _lied _to me."

"Repeatin' yourself ain't gonna change things," Genji said. "Rules is rules, after all. Kid told me not to tell you, so I couldn't tell you. She told me to stall you any way I could, so I did." His shell lifted in a shrug. "You don't want them shrine maidens using me against yah, you shouldn't've given them as much free reign as they've got."

"You still could have tipped me off through other ways. There are always loopholes."

Genji rolled his ancient, rheumy eyes. "My toes were tied, okay? An' I did get Mima to get her smoky ass over here right after to save the day, didn't I? C'mon, I don't blame yah for bein' pissed, but cut me some slack. I work with what I have."

With a weary sigh, Yukari let her hand fall. "Damn it, Genji. That's not the point, and you know it. We're supposed to be on the same team here. You still should have found a way to tell me. Because if something had happened to Reimu because of this, I would have…"

She fell silent, leaving the threat unfinished. Genji winced and looked away.

After a long silence, he said slowly, "If somethin' had happened to her 'cause of that, I woulda let yah."

"I know," Yukari said as she massaged her eyes. "For all the good it would have done." Shaking her head, she said, "But I suppose it's a moot point now anyway. And as risky as it was, calling Mima was quick thinking, though I should reiterate the part about the riskiness."

"Don't I know it," Genji grumbled.

Yukari knew he did, and that was the frustrating part. Like herself, Genji had been a part of Gensokyo since its inception, and had been around for a considerable time before that. In many ways, he was more like a partner than an ally, one for whom, despite their constant arguments, she harbored a deep personal respect for. Which was why finding out that he had been assisting Reimu in a mad project that had come frighteningly close to getting the girl killed scared her so much. That, and the acknowledgement that it was thanks to the restrictions that she herself had helped set up that had compelled him to hide the truth from her. Perhaps it was time to add some amendments to his list of duties and the powers available to him.

Which meant another thing she had to worry about.

She felt tired, just so damned tired. It felt like she had to plug up an active volcano by sitting on it, while a mob of children constantly pulled at her arms. Part of her was tempted to just walk away and let them deal with the ensuing eruption on their own, while the other part of her was disgusted by the first part, which in turn found the second part to be annoyingly insistent.

_Focus, _she told herself. _One crisis at a time. Delegate, compartmentalize, and get to work._

"Well, as tempting as it might be to indulge in another one of our famous spats, the real reason I'm here is because I need to know something, something Reimu herself might not be aware of."

"Oh?" Genji cocked his head to one side. "Alrighty, I'm all ears."

With a quick glance to the shrine, Yukari lowered her voice and said, "Did you involve, whether directly or by proxy, your…people in Reimu's scheme in any way, shape, or form?"

"My people?" Genji let out a brittle laugh. "Yeah, no. Fat lot of use a bunch of turtles would be, my own infinitely useful self notwithstandin', of course."

"Don't be disingenuous, I'm not in the mood," Yukari said. "You know exactly who I'm talking about."

That sobered him up. "Yeah, yeah, fine. And no, they ain't. Or if they are, I don't know nothin' about it and I ain't the one who brought 'em in. Come on, Yukari. All paranoia aside, this ain't a situation that involving _that _lot would help. Despite their wide array of talents, there ain't nothin' they can offer that we already don't have. Satsuki's a case that calls for careful precision, not smashy smash-smash."

Noting the jab and accepting it, Yukari nodded and said, "Point taken. But I figured I might as well check. However, now we're both on the same page, you will inform me the next time Reimu decides to do something stupidly suicidal, won't you?"

"If I think you need to know, sure."

"That's not good enough."

"That's all I can promise yah," he said. "I may be the baddest of the bad, but I ain't no fortune-teller. So I'm not gonna bind myself to something I may or may not be able to keep. But for what it's worth, I swear to do anything in my power to keep in her one piece, and to keep you informed of anything you should know if at all possible. I swear it by the rainbow. Best I can give yah."

Yukari slowly filled her lungs, ignored the flash of pain it gave her, and exhaled. "I…suppose that will have to do." She shook her head. "Genji, do you ever feel like maybe we've been doing this job for too long?"

"Eh?" The elderly turtle looked befuddled by the sudden, unannounced change in subject. "The hell is this comin' from? Yukari, you ain't goin' all existential crisis on me, are yah?"

She shrugged. "Maybe I'm just feeling my age."

"Like I said. Existential crisis. 'Sides, I am your elder by more than half, and you don't see me bein' all melodramatic."

"Oh, never mind," Yukari grumbled. She twirled her finger in a circle, and Ran turned the wheelchair around to face the shrine.

But before they had left earshot, Genji suddenly called out, "Hey, Yukari."

The two youkai women came to a stop. Glancing back over the armrest, Yukari said, "Yes?"

"Mope for a while if you gotta, but don't let it drive you into getting stupidly suicidal too. I aim to have many more arguments with you before you sleep."

Yukari raised an eyebrow, and the smallest of smiles, barely perceptible, tugged at her chapped lips. "Why Genji," she said. "That was almost sympathetic."

"Get out of here," he growled.

Her smile growing just a bit wider, Yukari indicated for Ran to return her to the shrine.

"Well, that went as well as could be expected," she said to Reimu as they entered. "Now, as I have the Yuuka situation and that mess in the Underground to concentrate on, you and your friends will be responsible for Satsuki. Given that-" She blinked, and then nodded at Reimu's new guest. "Oh, hello there Byakuren. I didn't hear you come in."

Byakuren returned her greeting with a guarded nod.

"I trust Reimu has already brought you up to speed on the current situation, and my displeasure on being locked out of the loop?"

"Yes," she said. "And I understand if-"

"Good. Don't do it again." Back to Reimu, who looked rather startled, she added, "Given that the Shadow Youkai is still an ongoing threat, I expect you contact Shinki and Sariel by the end of the week. While current treaties mean that their demons can't exactly help with the search outside of Makai, they will still be invaluable as consultants."

Looking quite beside herself, Reimu had to practically strangle herself to get any words out. "Oh…uh…sure."

"Good. I'll let them know you'll be calling. Also, the same applies to Eirin Yagokoro. All past misunderstandings aside, you will need her to find that cure."

That made Reimu wince. "Er, m-might not be a great idea, you know? You know, seeing how I kinda got someone she's, uh, probably mad at living with me."

Yukari folded her hands on her lap. "Handle the Reisen situation anyway you feel is appropriate. You granted her sanctuary, so she is your responsibility. I'll tell Eirin what to expect, but you will bring her on as a full member of your team, and her opinion in everything regarding Satsuki's condition is to be regarded as tantamount to fact. Am I clear?"

"But-"

"Am. I. Clear?"

"Yes, absolutely," Byakuren said. Reimu looked like she was going to protest further, but then she let out a yelp of pain as Byakuren presumably silenced her with a kick to the shin.

Nodding, Yukari added, "Except, of course, that it can't be done. _That _opinion is to be dismissed immediately as unhelpful and uncooperative. Find a way."

"We planned on doing that already," Byakuren said.

"Good to hear. And now if you conspirators would be so kind as to excuse me, there is a subterranean uprising I need to see to."

With that, Yukari motioned with one hand and tore open a gap to the Borderlands. Ignoring the flash of pain it brought her, she nodded at it, and Ran wheeled her through the tear, which then closed up and vanished.

…

Reimu sat still and stared at the empty space where Yukari's gap had been. She considered commenting on what had just happened, she thought about fainting with relief, she even toyed with the possibility of moving, but all of the above considerations never made it past the planning stage and she remained frozen in place.

Then Byakuren cleared her throat, startling the shrine maiden out of petrification. "Well," she said. "That…could have gone a great deal worse."

"You can say that again," Genji said as he poked his head in through the door. "How come you just got a quick 'Don't do that again,' and I got a full-on ass rippin', with threats and everything?"

"She likes Byakuren better?" Reimu suggested weakly. Truth be told, she had been thrown for such a loop that she couldn't even begin to piece together everything that had just happened.

Genji started scratching his head against the doorframe. "Wouldn't surprise me one bit. But correct me if I'm wrong, but did she just say that you gotta go recruit Shinki and Eirin Yagokoro?"

"As I understand it, yes she did," Byakuren said.

"Heh." Genji let out a dry, rasping chuckle. "Well, ain't that somethin'."

The elderly turtle continued to snicker to himself, amused by some untold joke. Reimu and Byakuren exchanged puzzled frowns.

"Okay, what?" Reimu said at last.

"What, you don't see it? Your allies, girl!"

"What about them."

Genji shook his head. "Ah, kids. Wouldn't know a straight-line if it snuck up behind them and jammed a finger up their ass. Fine, looks like I have'tah spell it out." Looking from one bewildered face to the next, he suddenly gibed, "So a Buddhist monk, a Shinto goddess, a Fallen Angel, a sorcerous ghost, and an alien doctor all walk into a bar…"

…

_Hey, I'm back, and Imperfect Metamorphosis is three years old today! Woohoo!_

_Okay, jumping right into things. You all probably noticed that this chapter was a hell of a lot shorter than its predecessors, especially that 100+ page monster that preceded it. Yeah, this is how things are (for the most part) going to be for now on. I know I'm known for really long chapters, and I know many people like that about this story, but lately it's just been getting ridiculous, and since I have two big stories running at the same time it's becoming a real problem, with updates growing further and further apart. So I'm going to be working to keep the chapters at a much more manageable length, within 20-30 pages instead of the 40-60+ that has become the norm. I know some people won't like this, but the way things were was just becoming too stressful. I also realize that this means that there will be less plot progression per chapter, but it also means that updates will be coming out much faster from now on. Does these mean that this is the end of monster-length chapters for good? Nope. If I feel that the plot demands a longer chapter, then a longer chapter it will get. It just means that they'll be the exception rather than the rule from now on. _

_And in relation to that, I'm also abandoning the block format I was using for updates (three IM updates followed by three RD updates and so on). I tried it last year and it was kind of a disaster. So, from now on I'm going to be switching off every chapter, with the pattern being IM-RD-IM-RD and so on. I really want to keep both stories updating as often as possible, so here's hoping this will streamline things. _

_But before that, I'm afraid there will be one more month before the next update (Boo! Hiss!). Sorry, but I really need to catch up on some other obligations that I've been putting off, and also want to get something of a buffer going before I launch this thing full force. But things will pick up soon enough!_

_So, with that said, here's to another year of Imperfect Metamorphosis. Welcome to the Retaliation Arc._

_Until next time, everyone!_


	45. Meltdown

Meltdown

_"Isn't it obvious, Lunarian? The most dangerous person in Gensokyo is you."_

Reisen Udongein Inaba was not having a good day. Then again, who was?

It had started off badly, when she and Marisa had their personality clash that morning. And then it had gotten worse, when Mima had shown up, brought her along on a terrifying journey, and convinced the rabbit that she was unintentionally becoming as terrible a monster as Mima herself. Following this, she had spent several hours fretting and worrying while she waited for Reimu's return as the shrine maiden chased after Rin, fruitlessly poring over Rin's old diary but learning nothing of value except that Eirin Yagokoro had felt genuine remorse over what she had done, which in turn only added to Reisen's own guilt over having betrayed and attacked her.

And then, when she was certain that the tension would drive her mad, Reimu had finally returned. Only she had done so with a very disgruntled Yukari Yakumo in tow.

Reisen had truly believed that she was moments away from death then.

But to her complete and head-spinning surprise, Yukari not only seemed to have no interest in punishing her, but had apparently given Reimu permission to continue their campaign to rescue Rin, only this time with full, if provisional, state support. That in itself was almost unbelievable, and for a moment Reisen had dared to feel hope. She wasn't a fugitive anymore, and her allies were no longer in danger. Granted, returning to Eientei was still not an option, but a major step had been made toward success, one that she had considered impossible.

But then, when Yukari had headed to the back of the shrine to have an argument with Genji, Reimu had told her the rest, and Reisen's newly raised spirits had come crashing down. Rin, while not a lost cause just yet, was getting worse. She was now more powerful than ever, had access to abilities that rendered her undetectable, and was slipping downward into becoming a monster. And despite Reimu's assurances that all was not lost, Reisen's imagination had immediately began conjuring up images of the hideous creature that Rin had evolved into, the one that had devoured Princess Kaguya and Fujiwara no Mokou and nearly killed her and Tewi, laughing as she went on a murder spree throughout Gensokyo, killing everyone who crossed her path before finally being struck down by the very people currently trying to help her. Though Reisen knew that Rin's condition probably did not work as she imagined, the scenarios always ended with the girl she remembered before the incident, lying bleeding and dying, surrounded by the carnage she had caused. A horrific image to be sure, and made all the worse by the knowledge that the gist of it was now a very likely possibility.

Reisen was not a brave person, and she was very much inclined to believe the worst. As such, it did not take long for her to convince herself that what she was imagining was definitely going to come to pass. Her body started shaking as her ragged breathing became more and more violent, edging toward hyperventilation. Trying not to spill too much, she lifted the cup of warm tea she held to her lips and gulped it down, hoping it would help steady her nerves.

It wasn't until it was nearly gone that she emerged enough from her pessimistic daze to wonder where the tea had come from. This was followed by the realization that someone was sitting with her.

"WAH!" she cried, jolting up in surprise. The teacup fell from her hands, but fortunately there wasn't enough left to do much more then sprinkle her with a few stray drops, and her previously unnoticed companion caught it before it landed in the grass.

"I'm sorry," said a soft, warm voice. "I didn't mean to startle you."

Her heart pounding loudly, Reisen stared goggle-eyed at the voice's owner. "Lady Hijiri?" she said. Why was the leader of Myouren shrine here, and how long had she been sitting there without Reisen noticing. "I-I'm sorry, I, uh, didn't n-n-notice…I mean, I was-"

"It's okay," Byakuren Hijiri said with a comforting smile. "You've had a lot on your mind."

Now _that _was a gross understatement. Reisen hastily composed herself, tugging on her skirt and doing a quick check-over to make sure she was at least presentable. Byakuren Hijiri was both one of Gensokyo's foremost names and, according to Reimu, their most committed ally. It would not do to make a poor impression. "Is there, ah, something I can help you with?" she said in her politest tone.

Byakuren shook her head. "No, actually, I wanted to see if I could help you."

That just made Reisen blink in confusion. Wasn't Byakuren helping her already? Granted, she had only Reimu's word concerning Myouren Temple's support, but she never had reason to doubt it.

"I heard about what happened at the Youkai Mountain, so I can here to touch base with Reimu," Byakuren clarified for her. "She explained the situation to me, I got a surprisingly short lecture from Yukari, and I saw that you seemed to be very upset, so I thought I'd see if there was anything I could do to help."

Oh, so she meant _that _kind of help. Reisen felt a little embarrassed for not realizing it before. "Oh, it's n-nothing," she stammered. Realizing just how transparent her lies were, she said, "I mean, I just need, I'll b-be okay, I don't think there's nothing you can-"

Reisen shut up before something insulting came out.

Fortunately, Byakuren didn't look at all offended. "Perhaps, but we won't know until we try. If nothing else, I can provide a sympathetic ear. I have long learned to never underestimate the value of someone willing to listen." She patted the ground next to her invitingly, and after a second of hesitation, Reisen sat back down.

She wondered where she should begin. While she was not at all averse to a cheering pep talk, the fact of the matter was that she simply didn't know Byakuren, and as such she didn't really know how to talk to her, especially not about something this intimate. Reisen wanted her consolation, she really did, but she also didn't want to open up so much that she started looking like an even larger idiot than she did already.

But fortunately, Byakuren had that handled. "Reimu told you about her encounter with Rin, didn't she? About how they worked together against the bounty hunters and destroyed Yuuka Kazami's floral cage. And how Rin saved her life several times in the process."

Reisen hesitated, and then nodded.

"But you're more focused on the other half, aren't you? On Rin's violent episodes, on how she is still absorbing people, and that she fled the scene and has yet to reappear."

Reisen nodded again. She opened her mouth, perhaps to express gentle worry about Rin's current condition, something that was at least calm and reserved, but to her surprise she ended up blurting out, "We'll never find her now!"

…

Cirno had always considered herself to be a fast flyer. Given her competitive spirit, she was fond pitting her speed against both her friends and strangers, and as such she was used to exerting every bit of strength to overtake her opponents.

But as she panted and struggled to keep up with Elly, she noted that it was a good thing that she had never engaged the little Shinigami in a race before, because she would have ended up humiliated several times over. Granted, Elly did have quite the head-start, but even if they had both taken off for the mansion at the exact same time, Cirno would have quickly left been left behind anyway. Heck, not even a head-start of her own would have helped her.

As such, by the time Cirno finally reached the mansion, things were already winding down. Or at least, no one was actually hitting each other. But the spectacle she found waiting for her was so bizarre that she wasn't sure exactly what had taken place.

Elly was standing by herself, hands gripping tight to the pole of her scythe, with a frantic look of frustration on her face. Yuuka stood across from her, looking quite put out but otherwise unharmed. And crouching between them was the freakiest looking person Cirno had ever seen in her life of living in a country of freaks. However, there were certain elements that Cirno recognized immediately. There was that aura of writhing darkness, for example, though it was now more prominent and shot through with color. Also, there were those scary knives-for-fingers. And then there were those crimson eyes, so much like Rumia's, only they burned with a bloody fire that Rumia had lacked.

If there Cirno had been harboring any doubt that the Devouring Monster which she had posted a several million yen bounty on was now before her, it evaporated in that moment. She might have reacted then, going on the attack or screaming accusations, but there was something else of note, something that killed any aggression and brought her to a full, dumbstruck stop. And that was, for whatever reason, Yuuka was totally naked. Furthermore, she didn't seem at all concerned about her lack of clothing.

Now, nudity wasn't as big of a deal to a wild fairy as it would have to a civilized Human. Given that Cirno was, like all of her kind, asexual, to her it would be either funny or not even worth commenting on, depending on the situation. But even so, this was Yuuka. Even with the Devouring Monster finally within her grasp, there were some things that just demanded that you stop in your tracks and stare slack-jawed. Especially since now that Yuuka's eyepatch was gone, the eye it had covered was now an exposed hole in her face, letting Cirno see the inside of her head.

For her part, Yuuka seemed more annoyed than anything at Cirno's sudden arrival. "Ah, hello Cirno," she said, only giving the ice-fairy the briefest of glances before returning her attention to the Devouring Monster. "I suppose I should have anticipated your disregard for my warnings. But now that you're here, I really must advise against making any sudden moves. Our mutual acquaintance here seems to have a problem with spontaneity, and I'd prefer it if you didn't provoke her into-"

"_**Cirno!" **_the Devouring Monster blurted out. _**"You're okay!"**_

…

_Deep Within_

A storm of emotions was howling its way through Rumia. Even with the vestiges of the fear, panic, and pain acquired through the many battles they had gone through over the last two days still lingering; the acknowledgement that her companion and captor's mental and moral deterioration was turning her into the worst kind of monster; the lethargic resignation she was developing in response to their continuous bad luck; and the whiplash that came from starting the day as Yuuka Kazami's enemy and ending it as her dinner guest; having Cirno show up in the flesh was giving her the first bit of real joy she had had in weeks. She still fully expected this reunion to go horribly wrong somehow, but at this point, she was going to take whatever scraps of happiness she could find.

And then Rin had to drop that little bombshell and ruin the whole thing.

Rumia turned toward the little Kirin and said, "Excuse me? You, uh, wanna explain that little comment?"

Realizing her slip, Rin looked at her and winced. On the screen, everyone outside also looked confused by her comment. _"Huh?" _Cirno said. _"Of course I'm okay! Why wouldn't I be?"_

"**Uh, hold on a second," **Rin said to the screen. To Rumia, she said, **"Well…You remember the day we met?"**

Rumia glared.

"**Right, of course you do," **Rin said hastily. **"And you probably remember how I kinda sent you away for a while so I could fight all those people?"**

Rumia folded her arms and started tapping her right bicep with her left index finger.

"**Er, okay then. Well, you see, when I was running away, Cirno kinda showed up. And, uh, Madam Mima and Marisa Kirisame blew her up. Big time." **She looked down at her feet. **"I mean, I know she's a fairy and all, but the spells they used looked really, really powerful, so I thought it mighta been permanent, you know?"**

"Is that so," Rumia deadpanned. "You know, I don't believe you ever mentioned that."

Rin grimaced. **"Sorry," **she said. Given that her voice still carried that element of demonic evil, the sheepish apology made for some unusual dissonance. **"I didn't want to upset you."**

"You ate me just a little bit before that. I'd say it was too late to start worrying about my feelings, Rin."

"**Sorry."**

Rumia sighed. This was pointless. "Well, she's okay after all, so whatever." She nodded toward the screen. "You, uh, might want to tell her that though. I think they're getting impatient."

…

Cirno was getting impatient. "Hey!" she snapped, clapping her hands together. "You were talking to me! Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"I concur," Yuuka said, still completely unmindful of her nudity. "That was a very odd thing to say." She tilted her head to one side. "And I'm sure she doesn't appreciate you shutting down immediately after making it. You owe the fairy an explanation, girl."

The Devouring Monster, which had been standing stock-still, gave a sudden twitch. _**"Sorry," **_it said. _**"It's just the last time I saw you, you were getting blown up. I was a little worried, you know? I mean, I figured you were all right when I heard about the bounty, but even so…" **_It shrugged.

"Eh?" Cirno scratched her head. "Wha-" Then she remembered.

The last time she had seen the Devouring Monster, she had mistaken it for Rumia with her face painted black and her voice choked with smoke. But before she could learn the truth, Marisa Kirisame and that spooky ghost Mima had shown up out of nowhere and blasted the Devouring Monster with some major league spells. Cirno, still operating under the belief that they were attacking her friend, had pushed the monster out of the way and taken the hit herself.

Of course, she had been right as rain a few minutes later, but it was odd that the Devouring Monster would have any sort of concern for her, especially since she had forgotten all about it until now.

"You were worried?" Cirno said. She screwed up her face in confusion. "Why? You don't know me! Heck, the first thing you did when we let you out was eat one of my friends!"

"A valid point," Yuuka said. "I confess, given your history of violence, this concern you're showing for her is quite uncharacteristic."

"And oh yeah!" Cirno said, snapping her fingers. "That's right!" She stabbed an accusatory finger at the Devouring Monster. "You ate one of my friends, you jerk! Give her back!"

"No," Yuuka said flatly.

Cirno was taken back. "What?" she said. "But…but all this…"

"Was to rescue Rumia, I know. However, in light of certain events, I cannot allow her to be unleashed until her harmlessness has been ascertained."

"Huh?"

"_**Whoa, wait a minute!" **_the Devouring Monster said, holding up its hands. _**"Are you talking about her nasty evil side? Because I…Uh…"**_

Yuuka quirked an eyebrow. "Yes? You what?"

Further adding to Cirno's growing confusion, the Devouring Monster actually looked bashful. It glanced down and toed the ground. _**"Well, I **_**thought **_**I had killed that part of her, but-"**_

"Is that right?" Yuuka said in a clipped tone. "Because evidence supports that you didn't do a very good job."

The Devouring Monster said nothing.

"And speaking of which, I must insist that you turn _off _that abominable power you're using. Our encounter back at the Youkai Mountain suggests that you maintain some measure of control over it, so you will start using that control." Yuuka's eye flashed. _"Now!"_

The Devouring Monster shivered. It closed its eyes and concentrated.

Though it didn't change its shape or appearance, the monster still _changed. _Its aura became smaller and less dark. The lines of its face softened. Even its claws seemed to lose some of their sharpness. Then the monster opened its eyes. Cirno gasped out loud. They were no longer burning crimson, but a brilliant kaleidoscope of different colors.

"_Th-there," _said the Devouring Monster. Its voice, while still freaking scary, had also lost something: that spine-chilling undercurrent of bitter cold. _"I got it…under control."_

"Well, great then!" Cirno said. "Now give me back my friend!"

"Again, _no." _Yuuka said, turning her scowl toward Cirno. "Not until I know it's safe! I am _not _releasing the Shadow Youkai into the Garden!"

"_But Rumia's not the Shadow Youkai!" _the monster protested. _"They're like, two different people! Heck, Rumia hates the Shadow Youkai!"_

Cirno's mouth fell open. "Wait, you mean you talk to her?"

"_Rumia? Yes, all the time!" _The Devouring Monster pointed at its head. _"She's fine! She's in here, in my head with me!"_

"Oh, is she now?" Yuuka said. "That's quite a claim. Of course, it needs confirmation."

Elly, who had spent most of the conversation in silence, chose that moment to break in. "Master, what are you talking about?" she said, her eyes going wide. "Y-you're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting, are you?"

"_I'm not absorbing you again," _the Devouring Monster said flatly, its eyes narrowing. _"That is so not happening."_

"On that, we agree. But fortunately, there are other, less intrusive methods."

And then Yuuka did something that made Cirno wonder if Elly's assertion that she had gone mad was correct: she walked over to the Devouring Monster and stared at it in the eye. What was more, the Devouring Monster actually cringed back.

"_Wh-what are you doing?" _it stammered.

"Hold still, please," Yuuka said. "This won't take long."

"_But…"_

"I said hold still." Yuuka tapped the Devouring Monster on the cheek. It flinched back at the touch; Yuuka, however, merely examined her fingertip. Finding no trace of that weird frostbite, she nodded and smiled her satisfaction.

Then she gripped the Devouring Monster by the chin and forced it to lock its shimmering eyes with her solitary crimson one.

"Master!" Elly squeaked. "What's going on? What are you doing?"

Cirno found herself agreeing with the frightened Shinigami. She expected the Devouring Monster to break free and attack. But today was already a day of surprises, and the monster looked to continue the streak, as instead of fighting back it stared right back at Yuuka, it's face going blank and its body going limp, with only Yuuka's hand holding it up.

"Now then," Yuuka said. "Let's see who's _really _in there."

…

"…and she's only going to get worse and worse, and no one's going to be able to do a damned thing about it!"

Reisen had gone quite beyond simply sharing what was on her mind. Now she was wailing it.

Everything that had been bubbling so close to the surface was pouring out, and all concern for composure had been boiled away.

As she continued to spill, Byakuren simply sat and listened. She never contradicted anything Reisen had to say, she never added commentary, she never so much as interrupted. She just listened.

"That Shadow Youkai monster is probably whispering to her right now, and after how everyone's treated her, who can blame her for listening? And she's just going to keep getting angrier, so by the time she does finally come back, no one's going to be able to get through to her, so everything we've tried will be for nothing, and she'll just end up killing _everyone _before someone finally kills _her! _Nothing we do is going to matter, it's too late for anyone, and it's all my fault!"

"All you fault?" Byakuren repeated, breaking her silence. The elder magician sounded perplexed. "I'm afraid I don't follow. While I understand your…other concerns, even if I do not personally believe the scenario you've described is a certainty, I can't see how you would be at all to blame for the catastrophe you just described."

Caught up in the fervor of her own doomsaying, the words "Because I'm the most dangerous person in Gensokyo, that's why!" slipped out of Reisen's mouth before she could stop it.

When she realized what she had just said, Reisen's face turned beet-red. She clamped her mouth shut and focused on the grass.

There was a noticeable pause, and then Byakuren cleared her throat and said, "Ah, I'm afraid you've lost me there. Given the…competition, how would you qualify as the most dangerous person in Gensokyo?"

Reisen cursed herself for her slip. She was trapped. Mima had all but said that she would turn on her if Reisen spoke to anyone about the terrifying conversation they had had that morning. Just by bringing up Mima's assessment of Reisen's destructive activities, she risked making an enemy of the ghost, one that she could ill afford to have.

So she said nothing. It was safer that way.

Byakuren solemnly studied Reisen's face. The Lunar rabbit winced, but refused to meet the magician's gaze. Finally Byakuren sighed and withdrew.

"Hmmm, I see," she murmured. Shaking her head, she said, "Well then. Without…revealing any sensitive information, under what conditions would you be considered the most dangerous person in Gensokyo? Theoretically speaking, I mean."

Reisen swallowed. Well, so long as they didn't have to bring up Mima, she could act as if the idea were her own. "J-just think about it. All this, you, Reimu, th-the Moriya Shrine, joining together. It's all because of me, because I went to Reimu!"

Byakuren's brow knitted together. "And this…is a bad thing?"

"Yes! Because…My gods, don't you see how dangerous that was? If Yukari had…well…"

"What, found out?" The corner of Byakuren's lips lifted in amusement. "Reisen, I hate to point this out, but Yukari _did _find out. And the results were as good as we could have hoped for. Better, even."

"But they might not!" Reisen protested, finally looking Byakuren in the eye. "She could have…Well, I don't know, but if she had been angry, she could have done all sorts of awful things to you!"

"But she didn't."

"She could have!"

"But. She. Didn't," Byakuren repeated, her tone gentle but firm. She reached over and covered one of Reisen's shaking hands with her own. "Reisen, I'm not going to belittle your fears and say they weren't unrealistic, but please realize that _they didn't come to pass. _The worst we got was a stern talking to, and mine was scarcely two sentences long."

Reisen gritted her teeth and looked away. "It's more than that."

"How so?"

"You…you know what happened at Eientei, right? Between me and Eirin?"

"Most people do, I think," Byakuren said, a touch of irony in her voice. "Your Earth-born cousins aren't exactly renowned for their control over their tongues."

Reisen had to acknowledge the truth of this, and admit that the Lunarian stock wasn't any better. "Then you know the rabbit tribes are probably already mad at her for turning Rin into what she is, and what I did to her will just make things worse, so that they'll end up running her out?"

"Hmmm, well." Byakuren thoughtfully tapped her lower lip. "While I cannot claim to know the full details of what transpired between you two, I will not disagree that you may have acted…rashly, but considering the situation, I don't think anyone can fault you."

"That's not the point! If the rabbit tribes think Eirin's becoming weak, they might-"

"They haven't," Byakuren interrupted. "I may be a bit out of touch with how things have changed, but I do notice things. The tribal leaders respect her. In fact, I'd say they're a little afraid of her. And given she's been with them for well over a thousand years, I wouldn't worry about having those feelings eroded just because she's had a few bad weeks."

Well, that was true enough. In fact, while Kaguya had recently been appointed as the tribes' official representative to the rest of Gensokyo, and while Tewi was the undisputed master of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, everyone knew that the true seat of legislative power was contained within Eientei's clinic. And while it was true that Tewi's methods of revenge were legendary and that Kaguya could kill a person a dozen different ways before they realized that she was even there, Reisen knew that any of the rabbit youkai would gladly court their wrath before they thought about risking having Eirin's stormcloud eyes narrowed at them in anger.

But even so, that still wasn't the point Reisen was trying to articulate. "You're not getting it! Sure, m-maybe you're not going to get in trouble, and maybe Eirin will be okay, but that was just luck! Who knows who I'll screw over next?"

"That's…a bit fatalistic of you."

"It's true!" Reisen insisted. "Every time I try to do the right thing, I just make things worse for everybody!" She brought her knees up against her chest, and tears prickled her eyes. "That's why I'm so dangerous! I just keep trying to help, trying to make things better, and because I'm not…not Rin, or the Shadow Youkai, or Yuuka Kazami, or some powerful leader, or anything like that, no one pays any attention to me! They're all focused on keeping the big monsters from destroying everything, and meanwhile I'm wrecking everything behind their backs!"

Her fingers curled around handfuls of grass and gripped them tightly, nearly pulling them up by the roots. "I'm worse than those monsters, because at least they're honest about what they are! I'm not some ancient evil that's been locked up, or super-powerful youkai that's got everyone terrified, or anything like that. I'm just a useless bunny, one who couldn't hack it in the Lunarian military, who was practically worthless as Eirin's assistant, who failed _miserably_ as Rin's protector. I break everything I touch, ruin the lives of everyone I come in contact with, but people still keep helping me out because they feel sorry for me!"

Choking sobs blocked up her throat, leaving no more room for words. Her shoulders hunched over, weighed down by her own self-loathing, and she wept bitterly.

For a time, neither of them spoke. Night continued to fall over Hakurei Shrine, as the daylight retreated and the shadows grew ever longer. The air filled with the chittering of nocturnal insects, and in the distance, the laughing cries of wild fairies and youkai could be heard. Before too long the only light was that of Reimu's lamp inside the shrine's living quarters, and the luminescence of both the Hakurei Barrier behind them and Yukari's barrier over them.

Finally Reisen's tears began to slow, and as she regained control of herself, Byakuren spoke in a soft voice, "Well now. That's…one way of looking at things, I suppose. And I will not deny there is truth in what you are saying. But, with your permission of course, perhaps I can offer an…alternate interpretation?"

Sniffing, Reisen wiped her eyes with her sleeve and looked at Byakuren in confusion. She nodded.

"Tell me, Reisen: you are aware of everything that has just happened, at the foot of the Youkai Mountain?"

"What? O-of course I am!"

"Yes, but do you understand the significance of it?"

Still utterly bewildered, Reisen shook her head.

"Reimu convinced Yukari to abandon her seek-and-destroy mission and let continue to try to reach out to Rin." There was a noticeable pause, and then Byakuren repeated, "Reimu changed Yukari's mind. Yukari was committed to a course, in service to Gensokyo's protection no less, and Reimu changed her mind. Reisen, do you have any idea what a momentous event that is?"

"Uh, a big one?" Reisen said weakly.

"It's almost unthinkable! And she did so using information she gained by s_peaking _to Rin, speaking to and working with. Information regarding Rin's current mental stability and the extent of the Shadow Youkai's influence over her. Information she would not have gained had she attacked Rin with everyone else." Byakuren turned to face Reisen. "Had you not gone to her, had you not pleaded for her help, Reimu would have been as committed to eliminating Rin through overwhelming force as Yukari was, and all would have been lost."

Reisen couldn't think of a thing to say.

"Because of the events you have set into motion, a plan of action that would have undoubtedly resulted in Rin becoming the monster we all fear has been abandoned, replaced by one that has a much greater chance of success. Had things continued without your intervention, the only outcome would have been, at best, an extremely bloody victory, one that would have left a permanent scar on Gensokyo. But now, we have the opportunity to save everyone, Rin included." Byakuren shrugged. "Which is exactly what I've been saying from the start, but nobody ever seems to listen to me until it's too late."

Reisen blinked. "B-but it could have turned out horribly! Yukari might have-"

"Reisen, she _didn't," _Byakuren interrupted. "She. Didn't. It is very important to remember this. The only thing that matters is what happened; everything else is a distraction." There was a short pause, and she added, "And I should probably point out that as risky as our actions have been, it has resulted in mutual cooperation between my temple and Gensokyo's two most prominent Shinto shrines, which will certainly serve to strengthen relations between our respective organizations, which in turn will certainly be beneficial to us all."

Reisen's mind immediately leapt to what Mima had told her earlier, about Gensokyo's three most important places of worship were being endangered by her actions. This was not a possibility that she had considered.

"Reisen," Byakuren said kindly as she laid a hand on the rabbit's shoulder. "I know it's a hard thing to accept, but please believe that you have actually had a positive effect on things." Then she hesitated, and said, "Though I should probably ask you to refrain from destabilizing any other ruling bodies. All justifications aside, it's a nasty habit to get into."

Reisen let out a hiccupping laugh. Then she wiped her eyes and said, "And…and Rin? Is there any hope for her?"

"Always," Byakuren said with complete confidence. "There is always hope. Remember this; it is essential if we are to succeed."

…

When Rin had felt her body literally melt into a homogenous substance, it had been bar-none the most frightening moment imaginable. When Kaguya Houraisan had sentenced her to what had seemed like solitary confinement for the rest her immortal life, the despair she had felt was indescribable. And when she had torn her mind apart and burned the pieces to destroy Rumia's Evil Twin, it had been a pain unlike any she had ever felt or felt since.

In comparison to the above traumas, what Yuuka did to her was far worse; not by subjecting her to a new horror that exceeded the old ones, but by returning her to the old ones, in full, vibrant detail.

It wasn't something she was going to forget it any time soon.

As soon as Yuuka's eye met her own, things had gotten…strange. Time seemed to slow down, though it didn't quite grind to a halt. It felt more like everything was moving through thick water. All sound faded away, to be replaced by a powerful rushing noise, like the crashing of a mighty waterfall, only from far away. Her whole body burst into tingles, and then slowly lost all feeling, as if it had gone asleep while her mind remained awake.

However, that wasn't to say she remained _aware _exactly. Her thoughts became jumbled up and twisted, much like they had when she had glimpsed Yuuka's true form. Only this time, instead of a sudden, horrific shock, it was more as if her mind was being slow-cooked. Yuuka's eye grew until it filled the entirety of her vision. Shapes started moving, tiny inhuman figures that crawled or flew out of the pupil to swirl up around the cornea. Rin watched as they chased each other in circles, moving closer and closer until…until they…

…went in…

…_and then the fingers were everywhere; clingy, clammy things that moved all over her, touching her inside and out, digging deep into her most private places and laying them bare, reaching deep within her thoughts and memories and picking them apart until nothing was hidden, nothing was concealed, and she wanted to __**SCREAM, **__but her body was no longer her own, her mind belonged to someone/something/some_WHAT_ else, and there was nothing (everything?) she could, could not, could ever do, except ride the wave and let it carry, bear her up higher and higher for all to see and touch and expose her to the world for all to for all to for everyone to…_

_**FLASH**_

"_A-are you sure this won't hurt her?" Reisen said nervously as Dr. Yagokoro dipped the syringe's tip into the clear, luminescent liquid and drew back on the injector. Though Reisen was holding tightly to my hand, I was starting to get the feeling she was needing the reassurance more than I did. _

"_Quite," Dr. Yagokoro said without looking at her. She sounded like she was getting annoyed. "At least, no more than any other injection. And in the grand scheme of things, I'd say Rin is more than capable of handling a needle prick." _

_Okay, I know it's a small thing and she was just being ironic, but I couldn't help but feel a swell of pride. Dr. Yagokoro had just complimented me._

"_But-" Reisen started to say, but I stopped when I patted the top of her hand. _

"_It's okay, Reisen," I said. "Dr. Yagokoro knows what she's doing. If she says it's safe, then there's nothing to worry about, you know?"_

_From there place at the other end of the room, the people that Dr. Yagokoro had brought in to help seemed to think what I said was funny. Rika Asakura, one of the Human scientists, covered her mouth and started making loud snorting sounds, while that magical youkai who's always got a book to read, Patchouli Knowledge, just rolled her eyes and shook her head. I don't really know what their problem was, but I do know that Patchouli Knowledge and Dr. Yagokoro get into fights a lot. I asked Reisen about it once, and she just said that they're both smart and strong-willed and don't like it when someone disagrees with them. Well, I guess I can kinda see that, but why would anyone disagree with Dr. Yagokoro? I mean, this was her project, right?_

_Anyway, as disrespectful as they were being, Dr. Yagokoro must've thought that it was beneath her or something, because she just said, "That's exactly right, Rin. Relax, Reisen. This is, after all, the primary area of my exhaustive expertise."_

_Reisen still looked really, really worried. I guess I didn't blame her, seeing what a big deal this experiment was, but I wished she wouldn't be so scared. I mean, Dr. Yagokoro only created the Elixir of Immortality, didn't she? _

_Okay, to tell the truth, I was kinda nervous too, but it was more from the excitement. Finally I was going to have my chance to be useful! And not just useful, I was going to become one of Dr. Yagokoro's masterpieces! Like, literally! _

"_Now, hold still Rin," Dr. Yagokoro said as she leaned toward me. She held my arm with one hand and pressed the tip of the needle against my skin. And then-_

_**FLASH**_

"_Frankly, I'm surprised you would even need to ask that question," Dr. Yagokoro said to that scary maid lady, Sakuya Izayoi. "Once we're able to fine-tune the formula, the possibilities are, quite simply, boundless." She lifted her glass toward the other Lunarian (the maid was a Lunarian, right? I'm pretty sure she is. She sure looks like one) in a salute. "Honestly, I really should have pursued this project a long, long time ago. It would have solved a great many problems." _

_Weird thing was, she was actually smiling. Whenever she's putting someone down for doubting her, she always has this really scary glare, like she's seen right into your thoughts and finding them wanting. _

_Of course, the fact that the experiment had been a major success was probably why she was in such a good mood. Heck, everyone was. The Humans were having some of a private party over in one corner of the infirmary. I don't know what they were drinking, but it was green and it made them laugh. Like, a lot. Plus, they kept trying to get Patchouli Knowledge to join them, and she kept refusing and called them a lot of nasty names._

_And me? Well, I wasn't joining in the drinking (they wouldn't let me anyway), but I was still having a blast._

"_Reisen, lookit this!" I said, excitedly sticking my arm out. I had stuck on seven Band-Aids in a straight row up to the elbow. I narrowed my eyes and started to concentrate._

_My skin tingled, and the Band-Aids sunk into my arm and disappeared. The whole thing took like five seconds. I was thrilled. Usually it takes me the better part of a day to absorb even a tiny piece of paper. It was so cool! My new powers (excuse me, old powers pumped up beyond belief) were awesome! _

_Reisen, however, didn't look that happy. "I wish you wouldn't do that," she said. "Not until we're sure it won't do anything bad to you."_

_I grinned. "Oh, don't worry. Seriously, I'm fine!" I looked around for more, small items I could absorb, stuff that Dr. Yagokoro wouldn't miss._

_Then I started coughing. I figured I just needed a drink of water or something, but it didn't stop._

"_Rin?" Reisen's voice raised in alarm. "Are you okay?"_

_I tried to wave off her concerns. "Yeah, ye-" Then my upper body lurched over my knees as the coughing fit turned into gagging. My stomach felt sick, and my skin had exploded into pin-and-needles, like a cloud of tiny little fairies were sticking tiny swords into me all over._

_Reisen grabbed hold of me, keeping me from falling over. "Eirin!" she screamed._

_The celebrations stopped in an instant, and everyone rushed over to me. "What's going on?" Dr. Yagokoro demanded. "What's wrong with her?"_

"_I don't know, she just started…doing this! Help her!" Reisen begged._

_By then I felt awful, like my insides were getting all squished together. I kept trying to throw up, but something was wrong with my throat. Nothing was coming up. I couldn't even gag anymore. I couldn't even breathe._

_Then a half-dozen hands started touching me, poking me, sticking things into my skin. "Something's gone horribly wrong," I heard Rikako Asakura said as she stuck something into my ear, but her voice sounded strange, like she was underwater or something. "Her energy's gone all out of whack."_

"_That is your professional opinion, is it?" Patchouli Knowledge said scornfully. "A child could have deduced-"_

"_Holy hell!" Rikako yelped, and I felt someone leap away. "Her _ear_ ate my mysticoreader!"_

"_Everyone get back!" Dr. Yagokoro ordered. "Don't touch her!"_

"_What? No!" Reisen said, but someone grabbed her and dragged her away. "You can't just…Rin!"_

_I tried to lift my head to look at her, but my body had stopped working right. My muscles felt so mushy, like they were turning into oatmeal. Plus, now my eyes were going all blurry, like they do whenever I start crying and blind them with tears. But that didn't make any sense. I felt horrible and scared, but I wasn't crying._

"_Holy shitting bricks," Rika Asakura said, her voice almost a scream. "What in the bloody, motherloving hell is _happening_ to her?"_

_I could still see my hands. They were shaking hard. I couldn't have stopped them if I had the strength to try. But I did manage to turn them over enough to get a good look at my fingers._

_They were all stuck together, their sides joining into a singular whole. I tried to pull them apart, but the skin had already fused together. It was like I was _melting _or something._

_And that was when it hit me. I _was _melting. The experiment had gone terribly wrong, and the serum was making my whole body melt._

_No, no it wasn't supposed to go this way. This wasn't supposed to happen. I couldn't die, not like this, not from this. Somebody help me! Dr. Yagokoro, why wasn't she helping me? Why wasn't she making me better? Why wasn't she making it stop?_

_And then my eyes dimmed out completely and I was plunged into a world of darkness._

_**FLASH**_

"_It's a miracle," Reisen breathed as she ran her fingers over my cheek. "I don't believe it. A miracle." She started laughing._

_Then she grabbed me and held me close, laughing all the while. I returned the hug and joined on the laughter. I mean, who wouldn't? Everyone had been convinced that I was going to be stuck as a blob of…stuff for the rest of forever, and suddenly I was not only back, but I had made it happen by myself. Everything was going to be all right._

_However, not everyone was as happy as Reisen and me. "I don't believe in miracles," Dr. Yagokoro snapped. She was pacing back and forth and looked angry. "And I for one am not convinced that Rin's return is such a cause for celebration."_

"_That is an incredibly foolish thing to say," Sakuya Izayoi said, her voice as unruffled as ever. "After all, you are in a country where mortals rub shoulders and exchange pleasantries with any number of gods on a daily basis."_

_Dr. Yagokoro looked annoyed. "I'm not talking about that," she said, waving a hand in a vague manner. "Those are just beings with specialized abilities exercising their power and influence. Real miracles, impossible events occurring with no explainable cause, do not exist, and anything perpetrating as a miraculous event is to be regarded with suspicion!"_

"_Well, this one does!" Reisen shouted at her. "You're just mad because you're not the one who made it happen!"_

_Everyone in the room stopped talking and stared at her, even me. I mean, even with everything that's been happening, that was just too weird. Reisen _never _talks to Dr. Yagokoro like that! It just doesn't happen!_

_And apparently Dr. Yagokoro didn't like, not one bit. Her eyes got all cold and scary, and her nostrils started flaring. But before she could fire her or something, some almost as surprising happened._

"_Actually, the Lunarian is correct," Patchouli Knowledge said, turning everyone's stares toward her. Out of everyone, she was the only one who hadn't looked shocked at Reisen for being so disrespectful. Instead, she just kept going through the gigantic book she was reading. _

_However, sensing the reaction to her words, she looked up and scowled. "Oh, pick your jaws off the floor," she said as she slammed the book shut. "Every event, no matter how extraordinary, has some sort of root cause. And as tempting as it might be to declare the subject's sudden recovery a wondrous miracle, it would behoove us all to contain any outpouring of joy until we have discerned the exact cause."_

"_I'm open to suggestions," Dr. Yagokoro said icily. _

"_That's a first," Patchouli Knowledge snorted. "And here's a thought: perhaps a cross-examination of the subject herself? After all, she is the one claiming to have willed herself back to normal."_

_All eyes turned to me, and my face went red. "Uh, I don't really know how I did it," I admitted as I separated from Reisen. "It's just…well, I figured that since, back before the…" My tongue tripped over the word "experiment," so I just skipped over it. "Well, before I had to concentrate really hard to absorb anything, so I thought that maybe if I concentrated really hard, I could turn…turn back into me." I shrugged, and a big smile moved across my face. I couldn't help it. "And, well, it worked!"_

"_So it seems," Dr. Yagokoro said. "And there are no…side effects?"_

"_Well, it kinda feels like I have to keep concentrating to stay like this," I admitted. "Sort of like holding your stomach in, you know?"_

"_What?" Dr. Yagokoro said, her head snapping up. "This condition must be consciously maintained?" She sounded really worried, which in turn made me worried. "Rin, do you feel any sort of strain, any kind of aches or muscle spasms?"_

_That made me hesitate, because if I was going to be honest, I did have one heck of a headache, and my back, arms, and legs kept doing these little twitches. But I didn't want to tell her that. I know it's dumb, but it was like if admitted that something was wrong, it really would be wrong._

"_N-no, everything's fine," I said, but my voice cracked. _

"_Don't lie to me," she snapped._

"_I'm not!" I said. I sniffed and wiped my nose with my arm. "Seriously, there's nothing-"_

"_Rin," Reisen said, her face going white. She pointed at me. "Your…your face."_

"_Huh?" I said, not understanding. What was she talking about? "What about-"_

_Then I saw the red smear across my upper arm. Wait a minute, where had that come from? _

_There was a bit of wetness under my nose. I touched it with my fingers. When I drew them back, there were tiny crimson dots on the tips._

_Reisen gasped and stumbled back. I was so confused. What was going on? "No," she whimpered. "No, not again."_

"_Change back!" Dr. Yagokoro barked, her eyes going wide with horror. "Rin, stop concentrating! Change back!"_

_Change back? But I had done that already? Couldn't she see that? _

_I started to ask her what she meant, but then I threw up. Blood splattered all over my knees and onto the clean, white floor of the infirmary. Crap, I was in trouble now. Dr. Yagokoro hates it when someone makes a mess on her floor._

"_Rin, change back!" Dr. Yagokoro said again. "The strain, it's killing you!"_

_I threw up again, more this time. As I coughed, something stung my eyes. I blinked, and rubbed them with the back of my wrist. As I did so, I noticed that my fingernails were all red and wet. And my mouth tasted like sickly copper._

"_Do it now!" Dr. Yagokoro said. She grabbed me by the shoulders and screamed into my face. "Now, Rin! Do you want to die?"_

_Die? That didn't make any sense. Why was she so upset?_

"_Do it now, Rin! Do it now!"_

_**FLASH**_

_Deep Within_

_Crying with relief, I threw her arms around Reisen's neck and buried my face in her hair. It didn't matter that we were both naked. It didn't matter that I was still stuck in this horrible, horrible world of nothing. I had Reisen back. That was all that mattered._

"_Oh Rin," Reisen sobbed as she fell to her knees, clutching me to her chest. "Thank the gods. Thank you, thank you."_

_Neither of us said anything for a while. It just felt too good, being able to touch her again, to have her hug me. I hadn't realized how much I missed that comfort, the simple warmth of having contact with another person. Back when I was normal, whenever I had a bad day and was feeling lousy, Reisen would let me sleep in her bed and hold me as I slept. It always made me feel better, but I had never realized how much I was taking it for granted. I just always assumed that she would be there for me when I needed it, you know? _

_I guess that's what really made me do what I did. Reisen had been talking to me…Well, not really _talking; _she had been using that code-thing Dr. Yagokoro had set up, the one that was so frustratingly slow that it sometimes makes me want to start screaming. But still, we had been communicating like we've been doing every night now, the only thing I really had to look forward to. And just before she had been about to leave, she reached over and patted the hideous lump of goo my body had become._

_I think I went a little crazy then. I'm not sure what happened next, my memory's kinda fuzzy, but things got sizzling, my insides tickled like mad, and the next thing I knew, Reisen was here, in the darkness with me. Deep within._

_It had never occurred to me that I could do that: absorb a whole person. I mean, sure, it makes sense that I would be able to, but who would have thought that doing so when bring their…mind? Spirit? Soul? Whatever. Bring them in here with me, is what I meant. _

_But boy, am I glad that it did! Now Reisen's here, and we can be together again! I won't have to be alone anymore!_

_But then something bothersome occurred to me. Now that Reisen was in here, would I be able to push her back out again? As happy as I was to see her, I didn't want her to be a prisoner too! That would be-_

_Then I gasped. Something was different. Something was changing. My body, my _real _body, not this mental construct, was moving. I could feel it shifting, warping, morphing into something else. _

"_Rin?" Reisen said. I guess she felt me tense up. "What's wrong?_

_I didn't answer. Something wondrous was happening, something I hadn't thought possible. A miracle._

_My senses were coming back! I could feel the cold steel of the table I had been sitting on. I could hear the sound of the janitor's mop swishing over the hallway floors, just outside the room. I could smell the familiar sterilized air of the infirmary, taste it too. And-_

_I gasped again. Sight! I could see! Okay, everything was all red-tinged, like someone had stuck some kind of transparent red paper over my eyes, but…but I had eyes! I could see the infirmary around me, actually see it, instead of just picking out vague shadows and shapes! _

_And I had a body. I had legs, I had arms, I had a head and a nose and really long ears and hair and fingernails and lips and, and everything! _

"_Rin, what's going on?" Reisen said, asking the question she should have been asking from the beginning. "What is this place? Where are we?"_

_I giggled and wiped away happy tears from my eyes. "I-in me. We're within me."_

_She stared at me with stunned eyes. "We're…within you?" she said._

_I nodded. "Deep within." I giggled again, harder this time. I couldn't help it; I was just so happy. Everything was going to be okay. It all made sense. I had finally figured it out._

_Reisen was still confused, and she looked scared. I didn't blame her. I had been frightened too, when I first ended up like this. But she needn't worry. It was all going to be all right. _

_**FLASH**_

_Deep Within_

_Where were they? Where? I knew they were around here somewhere, but I couldn't find them!_

_I gritted my teeth as my physical body flew through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Heh, appropriate name. There were plenty of lost little bunnies running around here, and I intended to find them. _

"_Rin, please," Reisen begged. She didn't touch me to try to stop me; she couldn't. But she could talk. As distracting as it was, I couldn't take that away from her. "See reason."_

_My left eyelid had started to twitch, but I ignored it and her. I couldn't afford to be distracted now. I needed to find them, the ones who had turned me into this…this monster._

"_Rin, look at me," Reisen continued. She had been pleading with me pretty much nonstop for the last few hours. "Look at me please."_

_I didn't. I needed to concentrate. I had to find them. Besides, looking at her would mean seeing the others I had brought in with us, everyone I had managed to find at Eientei and afterward. Unlike Reisen, they couldn't move or talk, but can you blame me? All they did was say hateful things and call me names! No matter how many times I told them to shut up, they wouldn't stop being mean!_

"_Rin, if you won't look at me, then please listen." Reisen sounded like she was going to cry. That bothered me. I didn't want to upset her, but it was unavoidable at this point. "You…I don't think you're well, Rin. I think…I think you're sick, and you need help."_

_That made me snicker. I was sick and needed help. Yeah, no kidding. _

"_But you won't get help if you keep on like this. Please Rin, stop this. Let everyone else go. I'll stay in here and keep you company until…until you're better."_

_Better. Like that was going to happen. I squeezed my eyes shut as they prickled with tears. "Nobody's gonna help me," I muttered._

"_Yes they will!" Reisen insisted. "This isn't your fault, and-"_

_She stopped talking, and it didn't take long to figure out why. I had found someone, or someone had found me. It wasn't anyone I recognized though. A girl, maybe about my age, was coming down out of the sky. Her hair was golden, her clothes really fancy, and her eyes were red, like Reisen's. There was a line of glowing things to either side of her, each one a different color. She was laughing like a crazy person._

_My mouth parted in a grin. Okay, someone new. Perhaps she could "tell" me where Dr. Yagokoro and the others were hiding. _

"_Who is that?" I asked Reisen._

"_I…I don't know," she said. She sounded troubled, like the new girl was scaring her but she wasn't sure why. "I've never seen her before."_

"_Huh." I shrugged. "Well, only one way to find out!"_

"_Rin, you're not going to absorb her too, are you?" Reisen sounded alarmed. "But she's just a child!"_

_Yeah, well, so was I, but did anyone care? Pushing the distraction from my mind, I flew higher, over the bamboo to meet the funny looking girl._

"_Rin, don't," Reisen said. "Something's not right."_

_The new girl's eyes widened when she saw me, and so did her smile. "Hello!" she said, waving. "Are you the naughty girl?"_

_I frowned. "Excuse me?" I said._

_Clapping her hands in glee, the new girl said, "Oh you are! Now I just have to punish you, and I can have cookies!"_

_Ah, so that's what was going on. Dr. Yagokoro had decided to hire some crazy youkai to take me down. I couldn't believe she had gotten so foolish. Hadn't she realized how unstoppable I was now?_

"_Punish me?" I said, my grin mirroring her own. Spreading the hands of my physical body, I said, "Well, you're welcome to try."_

"_Rin," Reisen said, her tone pleading._

"_Okay," the new girl said happily. She held up her right hand. It started to glow red, charging up some sort of energy attack. I laughed. Oh, was she in for a surprise._

_Then she closed her fingers and said, "Kyuu."_

_Kyuu? I was confused. What was that supposed to-_

_**FLASH**_

_Deep Within_

"_NO!" I screamed. Desperation filled me, and I kept screaming, as if volume would make my cries heard. _

"_No, PLEASE! Please don't leave me in here! I'm sorry! I won't do it again, I promise! _

_There was no one around to hear me. They were all gone: Reisen, Ryouko, Rika, Lurude, and the others. I had to let them go. Otherwise, the monster girl would keep hurting me. _

_But now I was alone again, alone and condemned. They had beaten me. They had captured me. And then they had sentenced me._

_Imprisonment. So simple a word, and yet so final. To anyone else, that meant…what, a few years in jail? Stuck in a small room with nothing really to do? Lots of boredom, mostly. _

_To me, it was damnation. There was going to be no cure for my condition. They had stopped looking for one. Instead, everyone had been flushed out of me, and they had stuck me in a box. That was the last thing that they had told me, that I would be kept in a special container and given to Patchouli Knowledge and Sayaka Izayoi for safekeeping. No one told me how long I would be here; no one needed to. This was final. I could feel it._

_I already tried to eat my way out, but I couldn't absorb something this big without wrapping myself around it. I had tried extending feelers over every centimeter, but all it did was confirm what I already knew: there was no way out. I was trapped._

"_Dr. Yagokoro, please!" I begged, hoping that somehow somebody was listening. "I'll…I'll be good, I swear! I just got a little crazy, you know? I won't do it again. Please!"_

_But there was no answer. Nobody heard me. I was alone. Forever._

_**FLASH**_

_Deep Within_

_Hello? Can anyone hear me? Can I come out now?_

…

_I guess not._

_**FLASH**_

_Deep Within_

_I wonder what Reisen's doing right now. Does she still remember me? How long have I been here, anyway?_

_**FLASH**_

_Deep Within_

_All her fault! This is all Dr. Yagokoro's fault! She did this on purpose! She never liked me anyway, so she tricked me into melting and going crazy just so she could get rid of me!_

_Well, I'll show her. As soon as I figure out a way to get out, I'll show her!_

_**FLASH**_

_Deep Within_

_Hum dee dum dee dum. One little fairy, looking for the sun._

_Two little fairies, playing in the snow._

_Three little fairies, going for a run!_

_Four little fairies…wait, what was the rest? Something about bows?_

_How did it go? Darn it, how did it go? I used to remember the whole thing! Why can't I remember?_

_Hum dee dum dee dum…_

_**FLASH**_

_Deep Within_

_Damn._

_Heh, I said a bad word. Damn. Damn, damn, damn. They would be so mad if they found out! Good thing they can't hear me, huh?_

…_damn…_

_**FLASH**_

_Deep Within_

_Happy birthday to me, _

_Happy birthday to me, _

_I don't know if it's my birthday_

_But it's passed by now, surely_

_**FLASH**_

_Deep Within_

_I want to go home._

_**FLASH**_

_Deep Within_

_My new friend was starting to wake up. I watched her, barely able to contain my excitement. _

_Finally, someone had come for me! I was out. I was free! I had a new body and everything! And…_

_Oh, the Sun! Not just a hazy memory of it, but real, warm light! I had missed it so much! And the wind! And the sky, and the grass…okay, that keeps dying for some reason, but hey, there's grass! _

_And not only that, but I'll be back home soon! I'll be able to tell Eirin how sorry I was, and finally we'll be able to work things out! And oh, I can't wait to see Reisen again! And Shiina, can't forget Shiina. And Sayu and Hitomi! Won't they be so surprised to see me again? _

_My new friend shook her head and mumbled something. Her name was Rumia, and wasn't that just the coolest name ever? So exotic sounding. Anyway, she and her friends actually managed to open the box I was in, and now I had someone to talk to! Only this time I'd better be careful to explain everything to her, else she might get frightened. But I'm sure once she understands everything, we'll be wonderful friends._

_Rumia opened her eyes. "Rumia, you're awake!" I cheered. Then I jumped forward to give her a big friendly hug._

_"I'm so happy you're here!" I said. "See, I was worried you might not make it here okay, 'cause I've made mistakes in the past and well, it's been awhile. But hey, it's all okay, right?"_

_Then, for some strange reason, Rumia started screaming. That confused me. Why was she doing that? I was being super nice too! Well, maybe she was just startled. All I had to do was let her calm down, and then we'd talk, and everything was going to be…_

_**FASLH**_

_D(i)ep Whiitn_

Nothing. Silence (quiet, all no longer speaking/thinking). Dead? Is it dead? Is I(t) dead? Dead and gone? Dead. Died. Dies. Die. Gone. Die. Gone. Diegone.

No (nothing), can't let. What? Nothing. Falling? May(be). R(a)ising? Don't wanna. Don't make m(h)e(r) get up Reisen, I want to sl(di)eep in!

Reisen? (R)e(i)se(n)? Reisen-ese=Rin, right? It must mean some(thing). Soemtihng. Must firuge it uot. Msut furige it…

...

Can I sleep now?

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

..

.

.

_**Well, damn. I can't use this mess. On to Plan E then.**_

_Wait I don't (do or do not) re(dis)member that/those part(s). She/it/I was dead(burnt), right(wrong)? I felt(nothing left to feel) her/it/me die(gone), I/she know/knew I… _

And then it was over. Yuuka broke eye contact and released her hold on Rin's chin, letting the Kirin slide limply to the floor.

…

Though Yukari's barrier did not obstruct the flow of air, the air on its outside still smelled and tasted fresher to Byakuren. It was possibly just her imagination at work, but still, once Reimu had helped her step through the barrier and onto the topmost of the stone steps leading up the hill, Byakuren breathed deeply, filling her lungs with its refreshing coolness.

The forest lay before her, thick and dark. Even so, tiny lights could be seen moving through the trees, as night-fairies danced and played. Above, the stars shined brightly, a tapestry of diamonds unobstructed by clouds. Nearby, an owl hooted, adding its voice to the symphony of chirping insects.

Byakuren stood for a moment, listening to the sounds of night. As savage as it could be in places, Gensokyo really was a beautiful country, one worth fighting for. Despite their many disagreements, this was one area that she and Yukari Yakumo were always in full agreement. Byakuren had always suspected that this was the main reason Yukari kept her around, even if Byakuren was always the first to stand up in opposition when the elder youkai's methods became too extreme.

Though she couldn't see her through the shimmering wall of energy, Byakuren knew that Reimu would be returning to the shrine now, where Reisen was preparing supper for them. The lunar rabbit had seemed significantly cheered once her talk with Byakuren had concluded. Byakuren was glad that she had given the girl some measure of hope. The gods knew that hope was sorely needed these days. And perhaps it was good that she had gone to Reimu for sanctuary. While the shrine maiden was a natural pessimist, she had a strong heart. Reisen needed someone like Reimu to help build her up, and perhaps Reimu needed someone like Reisen as well. Acting as someone's protector could be a mutually beneficial experience.

Then Byakuren took a step, and her ankle bumped against Reimu's donation box, which had been set outside of the barrier in hopes of attracting some means of support. She frowned down at it. Come to think of it, maybe there was more she could do to help Reimu. She owed the girl a great deal, and certainly had plenty to spare. Byakuren couldn't help but feel a little abashed that she had not thought of it before. Reaching out to the unfortunate had always been one of Temple's purposes, and Reimu had hardships in plenty.

Making a mental note to rectify that oversight, Byakuren descended the steps, down toward the rough dirt road. There would be time for charity once she got back to Myouren Temple. For now, she had other business to see to. Reisen was not without strong influences in her life, and there was at least one she could do without.

Once she was certain that she wouldn't be overhead by Reimu or Reisen, assuming they were within earshot, Byakuren turned back toward the shrine and said, "I know you're watching. You can come out now."

The only answer the sound of the gentle wind as it rustled the folds of her robe.

Byakuren's eyes narrowed. "I mean it, Mima. Show yourself."

This time she got the response she was looking for. A soft chuckle, rich and velvet, found its way to her ears. It was without a visible source and seemed to come from all around. Then its owner said, "Be careful, Buddhist. Those who conjure by that name often come to regret it."

Byakuren folded her arms over her chest. "I conjure nothing. I simply ask that an unwanted voyeur reveal herself."

"You always were too perceptive for your own good." A pair of glowing sapphire eyes opened in the naked air before her. They crinkled with amusement. "Though I feel compelled to correct you on one point: I was not, in fact, physically present on the shrine grounds until now. Rather, I was watching Kanako Yasaka try to clean up that spectacular mess over at the Youkai Mountain." The eyes were joined by a grinning mouth, filled with two rows of pearl-white teeth. "You'll be pleased to hear that Suika Ibuki and her big friend have volunteered to help any way they can, and in return, Kanako has pledged to support the Ancient City in recovering from their own little Satsuki encounter. Another victory for interspecies cooperation, I'd say. And another unintended but wholly positive side-effect from this beautiful catastrophe. You must be so proud!"

Byakuren response was decidedly chilly. "And yet this didn't keep you from spying on our conversation."

"Hmmm, well, I do like to keep up to speed on the comings and goings of my shrine." The rest of Mima's body came into being, allowing Byakuren to face her nemesis directly. "In accordance with my duties as Hakurei Shrine's official representative, you understand."

"Hakurei Shrine does _not _belong to you."

"Oh, is that right?" Mima examined her perfectly manicured fingernails. "Sweetie, I hate to burst the comforting web of delusions you've woven for yourself, but you'll find that there are many that would disagree with that assessment." She glanced up. "Like, say, Yukari Yakumo?"

Byakuren smiled. "So certain of your control of the situation. How do you know you're not exactly where Yukari wants you?"

"On the contrary, I am fully aware that I am where Yukari wants me to be. My appointment as Ringleader was something of a tip-off." Mima let her hand drop. She smirked. "And how do you know that what I want and what Yukari wants do not coincide?"

Byakuren was about to respond, but then she remembered the dangers of engaging Mima in any kind of foolish debate. It was a favorite tactic of the spirit, to distract from the matter at hand. "I had a few words with Reisen earlier," she said.

"Oh, no counter? No response? I'm disappointed." Mima shrugged. "And yes, I know. I was, as you say, peeking. And really must congratulate you on successfully lifting our Lunarian friend's spirits. You know, you might have missed your true calling as a motivational speaker."

"I have plenty of opportunities to motivate people with the work I do, thank you very much," Byakuren said. "And I couldn't help but notice that Reisen has been entertaining some very interesting ideas. One can help but wonder who planted them in her head to begin with."

Mima's smirk was wholly unrepentant. "Why blame me? She is a natural worrier, after all. She might have come to those conclusions all on her own."

"Call it a hunch," Byakuren said. "You are what you are, after all."

"Oh, so true." Mima tilted her head back to cast an over-the-shoulder glance in the shrine's direction. "Of course, this leads us to something of a problem. I did instruct her not to go blabbing about any talks we might have had, lest I become upset with her."

"She never so much as mentioned you," Byakuren said, a note of warning in her voice. "I pieced it together myself."

Mima shrugged, but said nothing. The smile never left her lips.

"Leave her alone, Mima," Byakuren said, taking a step forward. "I don't know what your game is, and I know you're not going to tell me, but leave Reisen be."

"My game is the same as it's always been, Byakuren," Mima responded. "And I am not accustomed to being told my business." She reached over to poke Byakuren in the chest. "You will do well to remember that."

Byakuren didn't flinch at the touch. "I mean it, Mima. Leave her alone."

"Oh, so gallant of you." Mima laughed. "My dear saint, how exactly do you propose to stop me?"

Without waiting for an answer, Mima turned and floated up the steps, toward the shrine. "But this bickering is pointless. I mean the girl no harm, and do not plan to break my word with her. She is an amusing diversion, nothing more. And I had other reasons to keep an eye on things this evening."

Byakuren frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Mima tsked. "Byakuren, come now. You know me better than that." Now at the top, Mima turned again and looked down at the elder magician. "Just know that your pep-talk with the rabbit was not the only conversation to take place tonight, and Reisen's lips were not the only ones to slip."

The way Mima said that sent ice water plunging into Byakuren's stomach. She was about to demand some form of clarification, but then she saw that the shrine steps were now empty. Mima had simply winked away her presence, leaving Byakuren alone.

Byakuren shivered. There was a saying that had been popular when she was a child, one still had merit: the snake in your garden was far more dangerous than the dragon outside your walls. And Byakuren for one did not plan to take her eyes off of the former warlord of the Serpentine Marauders.

Maybe her words had done much to lift Reisen's spirits, but now Byakuren felt that she could use a little reassurance herself. Mima's words were troubling, to say the least, and no good would come of them, of this she was certain. With a heavy heart, Byakuren lifted from the ground and began the long journey back to her home.

…

_Mima's kind of a dick sometimes. _

_Anyway, next two updates will both be Rhapsody of Subconscious Desire, which will close up that story. After that, IM and RD will trade off every chapter, barring Christmas specials and any other possible omakes and one-shots. There will be at least one another spinoff story coming in the future, but that's not for a good while yet. _

_Until next time, everyone! _


	46. Together Forever

Together Forever

_Deep Within_

In time, Rumia came to, although she did so slowly. But when her awareness finally returned to a satisfactory state, she was lying on her side, curled up in a tight ball. Her whole body was shivering as though cold, and she was covered with a cool layer of sweat. Her throat felt harsh and raw, as if she had been screaming, and her eyelashes were coated with some kind of gummy substance, sticking them together.

That had been odd. One moment Yuuka Kazami had been holding onto Rin's physical body and forcing the little Kirin to look into her eye. Now Rumia wasn't exactly renowned for her intellect, but she had been around long enough to know that when creepy monsters of Yuuka's caliber wanted you to look into their eyes, even if they only had one, nothing good would follow.

Unfortunately, by the time she had made the decision to warn Rin to look away, Yuuka's eye had already filled the entirety of the screen and Rin had stopped responding. And while Rumia had done her darnedest not to look herself, apparently the connection she and Rin shared was enough for her to take some of the bleedover effect. That in itself was enough to make her black out.

Still shaking, Rumia licked her lips, found them to be chapped, and forced herself to sit up. She rubbed the gunk out of her eyes and looked around.

Rin was still nearby, in much the same position as Rumia had just recovered from. The screen was there too, though it was completely blank, showing nothing but a featureless sea of grey.

"R-Rin?" Rumia said hoarsely. She coughed and, not trusting her legs to support her, crawled the rest of the way over to the Kirin. After a moment of hesitation she started shaking her by the shoulder. "Rin, hey. Wake up."

For a second, Rumia was afraid that she would get no response. Then suddenly Rin jerked up with a gasp. Startled, Rumia backpedaled as Rin instinctively lashed out at her.

"Don't touch me!" Rin cried.

"Okay, okay," Rumia said, holding up her hands in surrender. "Take it easy, Rin. It's just me."

Rin stared at her. There was a wild look in her eyes, one that made Rumia's insides squirm. It was a look she had seen many times before in the eyes of feral youkai, a look she herself used to wear during her more primitive days.

"Rin," Rumia said, waving her hand back and forth. "Hey, it's me. Rumia, you remember me?"

Rin continued to stare at her. A shudder passed through her body, and she swallowed loudly. "R-Rumia?" she said in a hoarse whisper.

Okay, they were getting somewhere. "It's me," she said. "You know me. Rumia. Are you okay?"

Rin frowned. "Rumia," she said again slowly, as if speaking the name for the first time. "You're…you're _my _Rumia, right?"

Actually, Rumia wasn't exactly comfortable with the idea of being Rin's _anything. _But this wasn't the time to argue semantics. "It's me," she confirmed. "The same Rumia I've always been."

Rin gave her a strange look. "Are you?" she said. Rumia didn't have an answer for that.

Shaking, Rin wrapped her arms around herself and turned to walk away. After a moment of hesitation, Rumia followed.

"What did you see?" Rin asked, giving her the briefest of glances.

"Huh?"

"Did you see anything? When…" Rin licked her lips. "When _she _looked at me?"

"Bits and pieces," Rumia admitted. "Mostly about the stuff you told me about, about your, you know, past."

"My past?" Rin croaked. She let out a hoarse laugh. "Are you sure? Maybe she was lying. Maybe I was lying. Maybe it was all a bad dream. How can you be sure?"

Frowning, Rumia peered into Rin's face. "Okay, and that meant _what _exactly?"

"It means…I don't know. It means that I don't know." Rin ran her shaking hand through her hair. Her frightened eyes darted back and forth, as if searching the surrounding darkness for monsters. "I don't get it. Things didn't match up. Not the way I remember."

"Uh…okay, Rin."

Rin glanced at Rumia, as if pleading for her validation. "You know what I'm saying, right? You know what this means?"

"'Fraid you lost me a long ways back, Rin."

Rin's eyes teared up, and she looked away. "Never mind," she mumbled. "Forget it. I don't know why I even…" She drew in a ragged breath and slowly let it out. "She's alive."

Rumia didn't need to ask who "she" was. "Yeah. Looks like."

"But how? I burned her, poured everything I had into her. I felt her die. How could she…"

After a moment of hesitation, Rumia ventured, "Uh, Rin? Don't take this the wrong way, but you were kind of…messed up when that happened. Maybe you felt it wrong?"

Rin let out a hiccupping laugh. "Maybe. Don't see how she coulda survived though. It killed me, it shoulda killed her. How did she survive?"

"Beats me," Rumia shrugged. "I was kind of stuck in a nightmare at the time, so I don't know. Maybe some things are just too mean to die."

Rin paused. She looked at Rin, her brow raised. "That makes…a disturbing amount of sense."

"Just a guess. But hey, if you want to know why the scary lady inside you is still alive, maybe you should ask the scary lady on the outside?"

…

Eyeing herself in the full length mirror, Yuuka adjusted her caveat and straightened out her sleeves. Then she pulled a fresh eyepatch down over her head and snapped it into place. That done, she looked herself up and down and nodded in satisfaction. Call her old-fashioned, but it just didn't seem right to conduct negations with otherworldly affronts to nature while in the buff.

Now presentable, Yuuka left the mansion and went back out to the sundeck. The situation had not changed significantly since she had left to dress. Rin Satsuki was still lying in a crumpled heap on the ground, Elly was still standing vigilant over her still form, and Cirno was still hovering on the edge of the deck, looking like she was three steps away from outright panic. Poor dears, this whole ordeal was upsetting them so much. All the more reason to push toward some kind of resolution.

"Okay, I'm decent," Yuuka announced as she strode out of the doors. "Has she made any sign of recovery?"

The grip Elly had on her scythe was starting to make her knuckles turn white. "N-not really," she said, a slight quaver in her voice. "A couple moans, some mumbling."

"Hmmm." Yuuka regarded Rin Satsuki's body with interest. "Anything coherent?"

Elly shook her head. "Nothing I could understand."

"Is she dead?" Cirno suddenly blurted out. "She looks dead!"

Elly's body started shaking with frustration. "Dead?" she repeated. "You're asking if she's dead?" She spun around and started advancing on the fairy. "How could she _mumbling _if she's dead, you stupid-"

Yuuka caught her by the ear. "Elly. Not now. Control yourself."

"Sorry, master," Elly said, wilting.

"Good girl." Yuuka released her. "Though you raise a fair point." She turned her attention to the bemused fairy. "Cirno? Sweetie? I know you are concerned for your friend's wellbeing, but it would be best for you to return to your other friends until-"

Rin started to move. Yuuka stopped talking and put a healthy distance between herself and the stirring creature, moving Elly behind herself in the process. Everyone watched cautiously as Rin braced her palms against the flagstones and pushed herself up onto her knees.

"_Ugh," _she muttered. _"Okay. Movement, good. Can talk okay. Hearing's a little wonky. Sight?" _She opened her kaleidoscope eyes and squinted. Apparently her sight was working just fine, because as soon as she caught sight of Yuuka, her gaze went cold.

"_Ah," _she said. _"You."_

There were a number of ways Yuuka could respond, most of them likely to incite violence. So she went with the safest option. "Are you all right?" she asked with as much concern as she could muster.

Rin let out a low hiss that might have been a laugh, might have been a threat. _"All right. Huh. Interesting question. Not really sure how to answer."_

"Is Rumia okay?" Cirno blurted out.

Was it Yuuka's imagination, or did a look of shame cross over Rin's face? Either way, she avoided meeting the anxious ice-fairy's eyes. _"She's fine,"_ she mumbled.

Nodding, Yuuka took a step forward. "I'm sorry I had to do that, but given the severity of the threat, I had to check for myself."

A low growl emitted from Rin's throat. _"You could have asked,"_ she said.

"Would you have said yes?" Yuuka inquired.

The growl changed, becoming a sound like a cold wind whistling through a long, dark tunnel. Yuuka braced herself for violence, but the attack never came. Instead, Rin looked away and said, _"What did you see?"_

Relief coursed through Yuuka, though she didn't let it show. "That you got yourself something of a problem," she said.

Rin looked at her then, her eyes narrowed with annoyance. _"I know,"_ she said. _"Maybe you could narrow it down for me?"_

"There's a voice inside your head, one _other _than your cute little passenger, but quite like her in a number of ways."

"_She's alive, isn't she?" _Rin said flatly.

"If you are referring to the Shadow Youkai, then yes, yes she is," Yuuka nodded.

Cirno broke into the conversation. "You mean Rumia? She's alive?"

Elly's scythe whistled through the air and stopped dead, the tip of the blade millimeters from Cirno's throat. "Shut it!" Elly shouted. "Let them talk!"

"Patience, dear. All will be clear in time," Yuuka said to Cirno. She nodded to Elly, who lowered her scythe. Turning back to Rin, she said, "And from what I was able to gather, our nasty friend has somehow lodged herself deep inside your subconscious, where she is no doubt making a frightful mess."

Rin blinked. _"Wait, she's in my what?"_

"Your subconscious. It's that part of your mind where-"

"_I know what my subconscious is! I just want to know how she got there!"_

Irritated at being interrupted, Yuuka said, "Walked, I suppose, or however you people get around in there."

"_But that doesn't…"_ Rin shook her head. She sounded dazed. _"She couldn't have…_

"Could she not?" Yuuka said, raising an eyebrow. "They are tenacious creatures, the Fallen. And their Avatars doubly so. After all, they have the additional advantage of mortal adaptability."

"_The Fallen,"_ Rin whispered. _"She really is…"_

"Based on what I observed, there is little doubt." Yuuka slowly clapped her palms together. "I must congratulate you, my dear. Out of all the beings you could have consumed, you chose one of the strongest and most troublesome."

"_It's not like I knew! How do I get rid of her? Without hurting Rumia, I mean."_

"Hmmm, well, that's a difficult question," Yuuka mused. "The tried and true methods are unfortunately few and-"

"Hey!"

Everyone stopped talking and turned to stare at Cirno.

The ice-fairy was hopping mad. Literally, as she was bouncing from one leg to the other, as if she really needed to use the toilet. "Look, I don't know what all this talk about subcontractors and people falling down is all about, but I still want to talk to Rumia!" She stabbed a finger at Rin. "You said she's okay? Well, prove it!"

Elly growled. "I told you to shut up, you-"

"Silence!" Yuuka bellowed.

Her demand was obeyed, which was a nice change of pace. Cirno froze in mid-hop, balanced on one leg. Elly wilted, taking a few steps back and hanging her head. Rin just watched without reaction, her terrifyingly beautiful face betraying no more emotion than a plaster mask.

Finally, Yuuka spoke. "Cirno, while your…concern for your friend is admirable, I must dissuade you from this course of action. For one, I have already confirmed firsthand that your Rumia is perfectly fine, and if you do not trust my word, my feelings will be hurt. For another, if you wish to speak to Rumia face-to-face, there are only two ways this might come about. The first is for Rin here to cough her up, and that is still out of the question, as doing so will also release a great big scary monster that loves to gobble up little fairies." She glanced at Rin and amended, "Well, another one anyway."

"But-" Cirno started to say as she lowered herself to stand on both feet.

"The second is for Rin to swallow you as well, bringing you into where Rumia is. And I for one would not recommend such a course of action. For one, the process appears to be quite painful, and I'm afraid Rin here does not have a positive track record when it comes to voluntarily releasing those she has consumed."

Cirno scowled. "I'm not afraid! Let her try!"

Rin spoke. _"Actually, there is another way."_

The reaction was immediate. Cirno's eyes bobbled and she squeaked out, "Uh, say what?

"I beg your pardon?" Yuuka said, at roughly the same time.

"_There's another way,"_ Rin repeated herself. _"I could let Rumia, uh, control my body for a while. That way, she could talk to you directly instead of, you know, having me tell you what she is saying?"_

Yuuka stared. Somehow, she had overlooked this memory. "…such a thing is possible?"

"_Well, I've only done it once, and that didn't, you know, really turn out well,"_ Rin said with a shrug. _"But I still remember how to do it, and can just sorta, uh, supervise while she's doing it."_

Cirno grinned. "Great! Let's do that!" She turned toward the night-darkened garden. "I'll go get the rest of the guys, they'll want to talk to her too!"

"No!" Yuuka shouted. "Are you mad? Innocent and oblivious as she might be of her predecessor's crimes, Rumia still holds a spiritual connection to the Shadow Youkai, and I for one will not allow that…creature to gain any more of a foothold than she already possesses!"

Rin chuckled. The sound of it sent fingernails down Yuuka's spine. _"That right?"_

Yuuka scowled. Once again, she was being challenged. "Yes, Miss Satsuki, that is right."

Rin let out a long, whistling sigh. _"Look, lady. I'm having a really crappy day, and most of that is your fault. You screwed up one of my last chances to find someone who could really help me, and got them into serious trouble. Then you took me on a guided tour of the most horrible things that have happened to me in my really horrible life. So I'm kinda cranky right now, you know? And I'm getting a little tired of being pushed around."_

The color rose in Yuuka's cheeks. "Young lady, do correct me if I'm wrong, but was that a threat? "

"_I'm saying that just because everything thinks you're so big and bad, you can go telling me what to do,"_ Rin replied. She grinned. _"I tore up that flower dome of yours pretty good, remember? And maybe eating you was a lousy idea, but getting close enough to do it was really easy."_

"I would be careful if I were you, Rin Satsuki," Yuuka warned. "I would be very careful indeed. Do not forget whose house you are a guest in. There are certain properties that must be observed."

Rin snorted. _"Give me a break. You think just because you let me out of that box, I'm like your guest or something? Nuh-uh. Not happening. If you think you can do something about the Dark Voice, then fine, I'm listening. But I'm not forgetting what you did back at the Youkai Mountain."_

"Careful, Kirin. You are not burdened with a wealth of allies, nor are you starved for enemies. You can ill afford to make one of the latter by losing one of the former."

"_Yeah, and I have you to thank for that,"_ Rin shot back. _"And this isn't a negotiation. Let Rumia see her friends, or I tear your head off._

Silence fell. Elly's face had gone completely pale. Even Cirno looked too shocked to speak. As for Yuuka, she was now so furious that she was seriously considering taking Rin up on her offer. How dare she? Her initial attack could be forgiven, given the circumstances, and Yuuka was willing to overlook her repeated lapses of good manners. But this? This was a deliberate insult, delivered right to Yuuka's face on the doorstep of her home. That was a violation of all rules of hospitality, and Yuuka would be well within her rights to leave her as a smoking black smudge on the ground for Elly to clean up. Didn't the little fool know who she was dealing with?

Except…except that Yuuka wasn't a fool herself, and unlike Rin, she knew _exactly _what she was dealing with. And that knowledge scared her.

Taking a deep breath, Yuuka turned to the aghast Shinigami and said, "Elly, would you be so kind as to round up the rest of the girls and bring them here?"

…

_Deep Within_

Once the Shinigami had left the deck, Rin's legs collapsed. She landed on her butt and seemed content to stay there. "Hooo-eeee," she breathed in and out. "Hooo-eee. Hoooooo-eeeeeeeee."

Rin warily eyed the hyperventilating Kirin. "You, uh, doing okay there, chief?"

"Gimme a minute," Rin said, waving her off. "Panic attack. Should pass soon."

"Yeah, I'm honestly not surprised," Rumia said with a shake of her head. "And feel free to tell me if I've got this totally wrong, but did you just intimidate Yuuka Kazami?"

Rin's face had gone fish-belly pale. She swallowed noisily. "Hey, yeah, no need to remind me." Her arms and shoulders started trembling. "Haven't forgotten, you know."

"Yeah. I bet." Putting her hands on her hips, Rumia tilted her head and quirked an eyebrow. "'And just for the record, I'm not really all that surprised that it worked. Because you were freaking terrifying right now."

"O-o-oh?" Rumia said, her teeth chattering. She twisted her face into what was probably supposed to be a smile, but it came out more like a grimace. "Th-thanks. Y-you know th-the b-b-best part a-about existing i-in two pl-places at once?"

"You, uh, mean out there and in here?"

Rin nodded. "I-I can b-b-be all scary out there while h-h-having a com-complete nervous b-b-b-breakdown in here, and no one will know!"

Good point. Rumia doubted that Rin's intimidation attempt would have worked nearly as well if Yuuka could see her now. However, there was something else that needed to be addressed. "Did you mean what you said?"

"Huh?"

"About letting me take control?" Rumia pressed. Her heart started beating faster. "So I can talk to my friends?"

"Uh-huh."

"Why?"

Rin shrugged. "Well, I f-figured that…" She managed a weak smile. "I kinda owe you, you know?"

Boy, was that understating things. "Is that so," Rumia said, scratching the back of her head. "And, uh, don't take this the wrong way, but how do you know I won't just keep your body and go on a rampage or something?"

Rin snorted. "Oh. Please try. I mean it. I'm not saying that because it's impossible or something. If you want to use me to get back at people you don't like, go right ahead. It'll be hilarious."

Well, that wasn't exactly the answer Rumia had been expecting, nor was it at all comforting. Taking a slow step backward, Rumia said "…you really are having some kind of breakdown, aren't you?"

Rin turned her head to look at her. Her eyes were wide, and looked broken and lost. "H-hey, you know that point where someone who's lost everything realizes that they're so far gone that nobody can hurt them anymore?"

"I guess."

Rin giggled. "I hit that point when Yukari Yakumo showed up and took Reimu away. Anything else is just delaying the inevitable."

…

A youkai lived her life in constant danger. True, they were predators by nature, even the more Human-seeming ones. And true, they were technically immortal, able to recover from virtually any injury, able to crawl back from the brink of death itself. But there was always something scarier out there. There was always someone stronger, meaner, and more savage. And supernatural healing or not, pain still hurt, wounds still cut deep, and even immortality had its limits.

Wriggle knew all of this, and was no stranger to fear. She had started off as a simple creature at the bottom of the food chain, and sometimes it seemed like circumstances had conspired to remind her how little she had progressed. Now she huddled in the relative shelter of the sunflower field, eyes wide and senses extended for the monster they now knew was out there. Her heart was beating so fast that she feared it would give them away, and her arms and shoulders would not stop trembling.

At least she was in better shape than Mystia. The night-sparrow had effectively shut down. She was hunkered down next to Wriggle with her head between her knees and her arms sheltering herself. She kept mumbling under her breath, almost like a chant. Daiyousei was holding onto to her, though whether it was to comfort the terrified bird or because she needed to hold onto _something _to keep from panicking was anybody's guess.

It was times like this that Wriggle found herself envying Cirno. Sure, the ice fairy was an idiot by anyone's standards, but she was also completely fearless. And in situations like this, when horrible death was all but assured, at least she would go out defiantly facing down their foe while the rest of them spent their last few minutes as quivering lumps.

Then again, they hadn't heard anything from Cirno since she had gone after Elly. Maybe she had been eaten already. In which case, perhaps there was something to be said for good old fear.

Wriggle wanted to go after her, she honestly did. Maybe they didn't get along like they once did, and maybe Cirno's stupidity was to blame for everything that had gone wrong as of late, but she was still her friend, damn it! It wasn't right to just let her go off to get torn apart, and yet Wriggle couldn't move. She hated herself for it, but she was just too scared.

Seconds ticked away like minutes, minutes like hours, and finally Daiyousei ventured in a small voice, "I d-don't hear anything."

Neither did Wriggle. There _had _been noises of some kind coming from the mansion not too long ago, but whatever had caused that calamity had ended. Since then, there had been nothing but silence.

Time passed, and then Daiyousei spoke again. "Should w-we go check on th-them?"

"No," Mystia said in a hoarse whimper. "Too late. They're dead. They're all dead. It ate them, and it'll come after us next. It's gonna eat us, and there's nothing we can-"

"Quiet," Wriggle hissed, shoving her hand over Mystia's mouth. Someone was coming.

They cowered deeper into the foliage. Soon, the silhouette of a little girl holding onto a comically oversized scythe came flying through the starry sky. "Hullo?" she called. "Guys? Hullllooooo? Where are you?"

Wriggle let out the breath she had been holding. "It's Elly," she sighed with relief.

"How do you know?" Mystia demanded, still crouching in the same position. "It ate Rumia, than it became Rumia. Maybe it ate Elly too."

Crap, that was a good point. In fact, that meant they couldn't trust anyone. The Devouring Monster could have already absorbed Elly, Cirno, maybe even Yuuka. While Wriggle couldn't fathom anything getting the best of Yuuka, she was not in the mood to take chances.

"Guys?" Elly, or at least the thing that looked like Elly, continued to call. "Mystia? Daiyousei?" Then, after a short pause, she added in a sour voice, "How about you, Wriggle?"

"What if it is her?" Daiyousei whispered. "Maybe she's here to help us escape."

Wriggle didn't answer. She didn't have one to give. Her fingers curled into shaking fists. Damn it, they had come to Yuuka's garden to be safe! She hadn't wanted to return in the first place, but she had at least expected to be protected outside dangers.

"Come on already!" Elly shouted. "I don't have time for-Oh, forget it." She jabbed a finger at the rows of sunflowers. "All right, you punks! Cough them up!"

Wriggle's heart nearly stopped. She couldn't be doing what Wriggle thought she was doing, was she?

She was. At Elly's command, the sunflowers surrounding the terrified youkai bent their stalks away from them, leaving them exposed. They started shaking their leaves, drawing Elly's attention.

"There you are!" Elly shouted as she swooped down to them. Mystia screamed and quickly backpedaled away from her. Elly stared at her in confusion, then she sighed. "Oh, for crying out loud, stop it! I'm not Rin Satsuki, all right?"

Despite her fear, Wriggle was still bewildered by that statement enough to stop cowering and stare at the frazzled Shinigami. "You're not who now?"

"Rin Satsuki," Elly repeated with a roll of her eyes. "Yeah, as it turns out, that's the monster's name."

"It has a _name?"_

"Most things do. And guess what? It also has your buddy Rumia, and says if you go to the mansion right now, it'll let you talk to her."

Now Wriggle was completely beside herself. "Wait, Rumia's _alive? _For real?" She didn't dare let herself hope, but if it was true…

"No!" Mystia hissed. She clamped down on Wriggle's arm with both hands. Wriggle winced as the night-sparrow's talons sank painfully into her skin. "It's a trick! Don't listen to her!"

Daiyousei looked as confused by this turn of events as Wriggle felt. "What about Cirno?" she asked Elly. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, that idiot's fine," Elly growled impatiently. "But here's the deal: Rin Satsuki is _this _close to snapping and doing something horrible." She held up her hands, thumb and index finger curved so there were mere millimeters between their tips. "And she said that if you don't go back and talk to Rumia, she'll kill Yuuka."

"WHAT!" Daiyousei and Wriggle gawked. Wriggle followed it up with, "Is that even _possible?"_

"Don't know," Elly said, her voice grim. "But Yuuka apparently thinks it is."

"But it's a trick!" Mystia insisted. "It'll just eat us as soon as we get there, just like it did Rumia!"

"Yeah, maybe," Elly admitted. "But you see, here's the thing: as much as I like you guys, Yuuka is in danger right now. And when it comes down to you or her, I know who I'm saying goodbye to."

Mystia's body started to shake violently. She burrowed into Wriggle's side and screamed, "NO! You can't do this! You can't make us!"

"I can," Elly said, taking an ominous step forward. "And if you don't believe me…"

There was a sharp whistle, and the blade of her scythe slammed into the ground in front of the cowering girls' feet. "That's one reason why," she said. "And if that isn't enough for you…"

The air filled with the sound of rustling leaves. Looking up, Wriggle saw that the surrounding sunflowers were all bending their head down to stare at the three of them. Despite it being night, their petals had opened and she could swear that she saw tiny eyes glinting in the darkness of their dials.

Then the ground beneath them started squirming. Yelping in surprise, they sprung to their feet and looked down. Roots and vines were emerging from the earth, slithering around them like worms.

Her voice cold, Elly said, "I've got four million, seven-hundred forty-three thousand, eight-hundred ninety-two reasons more."

…

_Deep Within_

As they waited for Elly to return with the rest of Rumia's friends, Rumia pondered on the approaching reunion and how she should go about it. What bothered her was just how _calm _she felt about the whole thing. After all, she hadn't seen her friends in…actually, she had no idea how long it had been, but there was no doubt that it had been a long, long time. Though she had kept hoping, a part of Rumia had come to believe that she would never see Cirno, Wriggle, Daiyousei, and Mystia again, that she would either be killed by one of their enemies or was doomed to be trapped in Rin's mind for all time.

And yet, here Cirno was in the flesh (and boy howdy, did Rumia have a few things to say to her). And soon the other three were to be with them soon. Not only that, Rin was going to give her the chance to be with them, even if it might only be for a short time. She was about to step out into the real world and interact with her friends again.

So then why wasn't she excited? This was what she had wanted, right? She should be celebrating. Instead, she felt very little at all.

Maybe she was just jaded. Everything that she and Rin had tried ever since she had been absorbed into Rin's mind had ended with total disaster. Luck clearly did not favor the two little wayward youkai girls, and perhaps she just expected the rug to be yanked out from under her again.

Ah well.

Then Rin cleared her throat, startling her out of her musings. "So…you wanna do this now? Because they'll probably be back soon."

Rumia swallowed. "Er, okay. Does it…hurt?"

"I dunno," Rin said with a shrug. "Probably not. It'll probably be a little weird, but you can handle it." Then she fell silent. She gnawed a bit on the knuckle of one of her fingers for a bit before saying, "Uh, Rumia? You know I meant what I said, right? If you wanna do something…dangerous when you're in control, I won't stop you."

Her brow bunching up, Rumia scrutinized Rin's face. "Even if that means letting myself go?"

A brief look of pain flashed through Rin's eyes, only to be masked away. "Sure," she said neutrally. "If that's what you want."

Rumia considered that. Seeing her friends again was great. But to be free? To finally be rid of this stupid empty world, to not have to put up with crazy Rin anymore, to be able to walk around in the real world?

How long had she gone without sleep? How long had to been since she last had anything to eat? How long had she felt the wind on her face, or the grass between her toes? Rin was offering her a chance to just walk away, to finally be free from this living nightmare.

Now _that _was something worth celebrating.

Except…Rumia glanced over to the screen. On it, Yuuka was still warily watching them, her arms folded, her eye narrowed with suspicion. She thought about what Yuuka had said about her evil former self still being alive, and how being freed would also unleash that monster. Maybe Yuuka and Rin together would be able to stop her, but if not…

Rumia sighed, her shoulders slumping. She couldn't do it. She couldn't risk letting that thing loose, especially with her friends nearby. Doubly so, since it wasn't very likely that they would have separate bodies. Her former self would probably just take over, wiping out her mind in the process.

"Maybe some other time," Rumia said. "Let's just do this thing first."

Rin slowly nodded. Rumia wasn't sure, but it looked like the little Kirin seemed a bit relieved by her decision. "Okay," Rin said. "Now, what you want to do is this…"

…

Rumia opened her eyes.

She was standing on the deck outside of Yuuka's mansion. Her body (or Rin's, she should say), was still reshaping itself to look like her. Fascinated and somewhat horrified, she watched as Rin's metallic talons shrank down into pink, little-girl fingers.

_Clothes, _Rin said in her mind. _Don't forget your clothes._

Oh, right. Rumia had gotten so used to being naked that she had nearly forgotten. Concentrating on the black outfit she usually wore, some of the bubbling goo that was her body became soft cloth. White shirt, socks and bloomers appeared, followed by a black vest, skirt and shoes. She even added that stupid ribbon.

Boy, this was weird. It didn't her, per se. In fact, she really couldn't feel much at all, as most of her senses were still developing. But it was definitely weird, like her body was boiling in reverse, minus the heat. What was even stranger was the connection between her physical body and the one inside her head. It wasn't like she had left that place to go out here, more like she had created a second, larger body and somehow inhabited them both at the same time. She could see the flower-covered mansion next to her, the stony deck beneath her feet, the star-filled black sky above, and the shadow-covered garden beyond the reach of the lights, but she could also see the empty nothing around her and Rin standing next to her, looking concerned. She moved her physical arm while leaving her mental arm limp at her side. Then she moved her mental arm while keeping her physical one still. And finally, she moved them both in unison.

It was incredibly disorienting. Was this how Rin felt all the time? If so, Rumia really hadn't been giving her enough credit for holding it together for as long as she had.

With careful deliberation, Rumia opened her physical mouth to say something, but at that moment the rest of her senses bubbled up. And _ooohhhhhh…_

The air, the fresh, cool air! It kissed her skin and left goosebumps. The feel of the clothing covering her skin, rougher and heavier than she remembered but not at all unwelcome. The smell of the flowers filling her nostrils, nearly intoxicating her. So many sensations being rediscovered. It filled her being and left her feeling lightheaded.

Yuuka watched with evident interest. "So," she said, tilting her head to one side. "This is the elusive Rumia." Her shimmering eyes glanced the small youkai girl up and down. Rumia cringed under her gaze. It felt uncomfortably similar to that memory of being on that laboratory table, with Yukari Yakumo, Mima, and the unfamiliar Hakurei shrine maiden glowering down at her. "To think that such a destructive creature would be contained within such a diminutive girl."

"Rumia?" Cirno said. The ice-fairy stared at her with wide eyes. Displaying a surprisingly amount of caution, she took a hesitant step forward but stopped. "Is that you?"

"I suppose we are about to find out," Yuuka murmured. "Well, girl? What have you to say for yourself?"

Rumia blinked and tried to steady herself. She was still sorting through the bombardment of sensations. _Focus, _she told herself. _Answer their questions?_

She shifted her weight, but it seemed her motor skills were still a little wonky, as that caused her to lose her balance. Flailing her arms, she tumbled over and landed roughly on her side. Caught up in the moment, her mental-self did the same.

"_Are you okay?" _Rin asked in concern.

Rumia didn't answer. All of her attention focused on her hand, which was lying flat on the ground. She slowly ran her hand over the smooth, stone tiles, marveling at their grainy coolness. Tears fell down her cheeks, and she laughed in the wonder of it all.

"Rumia!" Cirno cried, and she darted forward.

"Cirno, don't!" Yuuka cried out. She extended her hand, and a barrier of thorny rose-bushes pushed up through the stone to block Cirno's path. But the ice-fairy was too fast, too determined, and too accustomed to high-speed chases through three-filled forests. She darted through the grasping vines and threw herself at Rumia.

"_Well, she seems happy to see you," _Rin said, bitterness in her voice. Rumia ignored her. She just stared slack-jawed at Cirno's concerned face, which was now so close to her own that their noses were nearly touching.

"Are you all right?" Cirno pressed. She shook Rumia by the shoulders. "Come on, Rumia! Say something!"

"Cirno, get away from her," Yuuka said. "Right now."

Rumia wondered why Yuuka didn't simply use one of their vines to yank Cirno away, but then she remembered the beanstalk that Rin had killed. No doubt she didn't want to risk any more of her precious plants getting killed.

"Rumia?" Cirno said again.

Rumia supposed she should say something. She slowly lifted one arm and used it to move Cirno out of the way. It was surprisingly easy. Rin's body really did have strength to spare. Then she laid the other hand against the ground and used it to push herself up into a sitting position.

"I'm…okay" she said, forming each syllable with care. "I'm fine." Then she started laughing again. "In fact…I'm better than I've been in a long time.

…

_Deep Within_

Rin stood still as Rumia giggled with joy at her newfound freedom. As she hadn't learned to separate her two selves, the youkai girl that remained with her laughed along with her larger self, oblivious to Rin's presence.

Biting her lower lip, Rin heaved out a sigh and turned away. "Sorry," she muttered.

…

Together, with extreme reluctance and overwhelming fear, Wriggle, Mystia, and Daiyousei marched forward, all too mindful of Elly's scythe at their backs and Yuuka's plants nipping at their heels. Well, no, they weren't exactly _marching. _They were in the air, after all, and their legs were barely moving. But the pace was the same, as was the feeling of inevitability.

Once, a long time ago, nearly the entire gang had been marched to their deaths, after a prank had gone horribly wrong. It hadn't taken of course, and no one really expected it to. The point had been more to send a message than to remove them from the world. But Wriggle found herself remembering that day and finding it familiar. And unlike last time, there were no broken-toothed grins and shouted taunts to their executioners. This time they might not be coming back.

They neared the mansion, and Wriggle could see that something of importance had already taken place. For one, there was an extremely tall beanstalk thrusting up from the ground, one that looked like it was dead. Yuuka stood off to one side, looking quite put out but otherwise all right. Cirno was there too, kneeling next to…

Wriggle's jaw dropped. It couldn't be. "Rumia?" she whispered.

"Is it?" Daiyousei said, craning her neck. When she saw the blonde-haired, red-eyed youkai, her face lit up with excitement. "It is! It's really her!"

"No, it isn't," Mystia said flatly. "It's a trick. She'll eat Cirno. Th-then she'll come for us."

"What a shame," Elly said. She swept the pole of her scythe around, knocking all three girls over the deck's outer railing and sent them sprawling over the stone tiles.

Mystia recovered first. She immediately retreated to the nearest corner, her back pressed against the railing. "It's a trick," she moaned. "It's coming for us all. It's going to eat us. I won't be eaten, I won't be eaten, I won't be eaten…"

…

Boy, moving was harder than she had thought. Rumia carefully maneuvered her feet so that they were under her, pressed her hands against the ground for balance, and slowly rose up. Her knees wobbled, but she was able to keep her balance.

Rising with her, Cirno kept questioning her. "It's you, right? You're Rumia, right?"

"It's me," Rumia confirmed. Okay, she was getting the hang of this.

Cirno's face brightened with joy. "WOOHOO!" she cheered. "Awesomesauce! I knew you'd come back, I knew it!" She grabbed Rumia by the hand and started dancing around. "Stupid Yukari Yakumo, said it couldn't be done! Well, Rumia's back, so there!"

"Whoa, easy!" Rumia cried. Cirno wasn't strong enough to pull her off balance, but she didn't need any distractions right now.

Cirno didn't seem to have heard her. "Do you have any idea how long we were looking for you?" she said, merrily skipping about. "It was crazy! Yukari wanted to have us arrested and stuff, but Yuuka put a stop to that."

"That's great," Rumia said, wrenching her hand free. "Hey, Cirno?"

"Oh, and don't listen to Wriggle. Yuuka's great! She's been taking care of us all this time and is the nicest lady ever!"

Rumia, who still remembered Rin's screams, was less than convinced. "Cool. But look, Cirno?"

"You're gonna love it here! We get to live in a mansion that's a garden! I'm serious, there's a freaking garden inside! Like, the floors are all dirt with flowers and stuff growing out. How cool is that?"

Okay, enough. "Cirno!" Rumia shouted.

Startled, Cirno stopped dancing around and stared at her. "Er, huh?"

Sighing, Rumia ran her fingers through her hair and said, "Look, I know this is real cool, and it's great to see you again, but there's something I really need to tell you."

"Oh!" Cirno grinned widely. "Of course! You're really happy to be back, right?"

"That too," Rumia said, nodding. "But there's something else."

With that, she grabbed Cirno by her upper arms and yanked her up.

…

As the thing claiming to be Rumia lifted Cirno into the air, Wriggle felt her heart stop. Oh gods, Mystia had been right. Now Cirno was going to get eaten and there wasn't anything they could do about it.

The creature lifted Cirno high above her head. A low growl emitted from its throat, and its face, which looked so much like Rumia's, contorted with rage.

Wriggle closed her eyes. Call her a coward, but she had two friends that were horribly devoured, one of which had never come back. She didn't want to witness a third.

And then, something wonderful happened.

"You _idiot!" _the creature shouted in Rumia's voice. "Why'd you go and put a bounty on us? Do you have any idea how much trouble you put us through, you dumb _jerk?"_

"Ayiyiyiyiyiyiyi!" Cirno cried.

Wriggle's eyes popped open. The creature was violently shaking Cirno by the arms while angrily ranting at her. Shocked, she sat frozen in place, staring at the bizarre spectacle. Why wasn't it eating her? It had the opportunity. Instead, it was acting exactly like…

Wriggle sucked in a sharp breath. A tiny quiver of hope sprung to life, lifting her heart. She exchanged looks with Daiyousei and Mystia, who seemed just as stunned as she was.

And to Wriggle's great astonishment, it was Mystia, terrified almost to the point of madness Mystia, who had the guts to break the spell and hoarsely whisper, "R-Rumia?"

Rumia apparently now had very good hearing. She stopped shaking Cirno and turned to see who had spoken. Then she saw Mystia and her eyes lit with delight.

"Mysty?" she said. Her hands opened, dropping one dazed ice-fairy to the ground. Then her eyes moved, focusing on her other two friends. "Wriggle? And Dai! You're…you're here! You're all here! You're all right!"

That did it. The fear broke, and the doubt dissolved. If it was still a trick, Wriggle was willing to risk it.

Crying openly and not caring who saw it, she charged forward and tackled Rumia with a flying embrace around her neck. Rumia _oomphed _and took a step backward, but was able to keep her footing. But then Daiyousei slammed into her midsection, and Mystia threw herself on top of all three. Her balance gone, Rumia fell back and landed on top of Cirno, taking everyone with her in a great big dogpile.

Nobody cared. They had gotten their friend back. Team Nineball was whole again, and everything was all right.

…

Yuuka had not moved. She remained exactly where she had been standing ever since Rin Satsuki had threatened her, dispassionately watching the children's tearful reunion. Normally such a thing would stir strong feelings in her, inspiring clasped hands and gleeful smiles. Not today. Her face might as well have been carved from granite, for all the emotion she betrayed.

Her task accomplished, Elly flew over to her master's side. Yuuka greeted her with a small nod. "A lovely sight, is it not?" Yuuka said, her tone implying that she thought it was anything but. "It warms the very cockles of my heart."

Elly cast an uncertain glance over to their guests. Her fingers tightened on the pole of her scythe. "She's not eating them," she remarked.

"Indeed not. It would seem that young Miss Satsuki's word was good. We live to be cowed another day."

With that, Yuuka abruptly turned on her heel and slowly moved away, hands clasped behind her back. "Walk with me," she said. "We have matters to discuss."

Leaving their joyous guests behind, Yuuka and Elly departed from the deck and entered the mansion. The vines curling around the doorframe grasped the handles and pulled the glass doors shut behind them. Even so, Yuuka didn't stop until they were within the confines of the Tulip Room. She didn't know the limits of Rin Satsuki's senses, and she was not about to take chances.

Now that they had put a sufficient number of walls and closed doors between them and the girls, Yuuka stopped walking. Pursing her lips, she held her hands in the prayer position in front of her face, the tips of her forefingers tapping thoughtfully against her lower lip. "Well, Elly," she said. "It would seem that you were correct. My rashness has indeed invited trouble through our front door, leaving us with quite the conundrum to solve. The situation is far graver than I had ever imagined, which, considering the fallout of my little tussle with Yukari Yakumo, is quite the bold statement to make."

Elly gravely nodded. She had deduced as much. "What do we do?"

"An excellent question, one that requires careful dissection and analysis before a satisfactory answer may be found. So for now, let us set aside our struggles with Yukari and all related to that little debacle and focus on what is before us. To begin, as I see it, we have two pertinent problems that must be overcome," Yuuka said, holding up two fingers in demonstration. She reached up with the other hand and pulled one of the fingers down. "First and most obvious, there is Rin Satsuki herself. I really must give the devil her due, that Lunarian Frankenstein really outdid herself with this one. Rin is a truly unique specimen. Her body is naturally invulnerable to outside attack, and the way she takes skills and power from those she has devoured have turned her into quite the threat." Yuuka shook her head and let out a mirthless chuckle. "A shame about her attitude problem. Still, I find myself curious. There is a great deal of potential in that one."

As far as Elly was concerned, the only thing about Rin Satsuki that interested her was figuring out how to move her to the opposite side of the world from where they were. Deciding that such thoughts were better left unspoken, she said, "And the other?"

"Ah, that should be obvious." Yuuka lowered the other finger, squeezing her hand into a tight fist. "Cute little Rumia's previous incarnation, the Shadow Youkai, still alive and firmly lodged deep within little's Rin's subconscious. Based upon what I've been able to gather from her origins, she is a palpable threat all by herself, of the 'Destroy on Sight' variety. Her current location only makes the situation worse, as I have no doubt that she is making an atrocious mess of Rin's mind."

Elly's eyes widened. She was beginning to understand. "So is that why Rin Satsuki was so, um, mean? Because of the Shadow Youkai?"

"Mmmm, of that I have little doubt." Putting one hand on her hip, Yuuka rubbed her chin, her eye narrowing dangerously. "Though, given what I've seen of the girl's life, Miss Satsuki would hardly need such influence as an excuse for aggressive behavior. Still, the current situation cannot be allowed to continue. The Shadow Youkai must be removed and exterminated before we can move forward."

Elly hesitated a moment before venturing her next question. Earlier, Yuuka had identified the monster as something horrible, and Elly wanted to make sure she had heard her correctly. "Master? The Shadow Youkai? What is she?"

It was a long time before Yuuka answered, and when she did, there was a note of something that Elly so rarely heard from her: fear. "A simple mortal, originally. Human, probably. But one that has been touched and twisted by powers most terrible. We are dealing with the emissary of one of the Fallen."

Elly's breath caught. So, she had Yuuka correctly after all. Yuuka's mansion boasted an extensive library, and she had done her homework. "An Avatar?" she whispered.

"Indeed. Of an Archangel of Death, no less."

Now Elly knew why someone as powerful as Yuuka had been afraid. When Avatars of the Fallen appeared, they often did so as harbingers of the Apocalypse. Worlds had been destroyed, and entire species rendered extinct. "Are you sure?" Elly pressed. "I mean, couldn't it be some other type of Angel?"

Yuuka shook her head. "I know what I saw, sweetheart. I know what I felt. Make no mistake, one of the Creator's tainted assassins dwells inside that girl's mind." Her lips curled into a snarl. "To think that a psychopomp of all things would find its way into my domain. What a revolting turn of events."

While she knew that Yuuka hadn't meant anything by it, Elly still felt hurt by her words. After all, the Shinigami were psychopomps as well, even if she no longer performed as one. Careful to mask her reaction, she said, "But what can be done about it?"

Yuuka shrugged. "In that, I'm afraid our options are limited and risky. Fortunately however, they are not non-existent. And I for one intend to see that hideous creature expelled from Gensokyo by any means necessary. After all, given the reason this country was created, she is nothing more than a trespasser. And with that in mind…"

Her words trailing off, Yuuka's gaze slowly drifted to the circle of soil surrounding the room. Elly followed her master's eyes until they fell upon one of the large, closed tulips, this one a deep purple. While most of the flowers were completely still, this was jerking and twitching as its occupant struggled in vain to escape.

When Yuuka spoke again, her voice was a low, dangerous murmur: "…you know how much I _hate _trespassers."

…

_Deep Within_

Rin sat by herself with her legs folded, arms resting on her knees, and back bowed. Behind her, Rumia's reunion with her friends was still growing strong. The crying had more-or-less stopped, as had all that crawling over each other, and now they were all sitting together, catching up.

"_Did it hurt when she ate you?" _Cirno wanted to know. _"Because wow, that was freaky."_

"Of course it did, numbskull," Rumia told her. "I was getting dissolved!"

"_And she's in there right now?" _Wriggle questioned. _"Can she hear us?"_

Rin felt Rumia's eyes on her back. She sighed but said nothing.

"Yeah, she's here," Rumia told them.

"_Can we talk to her?" _Cirno asked. _"There's a bunch of things I wanna know."_

"Uh, I don't think that's a good idea," Rumia said. "She looks…kind of upset right now."

Upset. Now that was putting it lightly. Right now, all Rin wanted to do was let Rumia go so she could be with her friends again. Except she couldn't. Thanks to her complete failure to rid the world of that Shadow Youkai, Rumia was doomed to stay where she was until a solution was found. And given the sort of luck they had, she wasn't holding her breath for one to present itself. Besides, letting Rumia go would mean she would be alone again. Rin couldn't let that happen, not again.

Maybe she should just let Rumia stay in control. Yeah, that was an acceptable compromise. That way, Rumia could stay free and be with her friends without leaving Rin. And it wasn't like Rin had been doing all that great as it was.

Except that would be the next worse thing to being locked up again. She would be deprived of the world around her, never to feel anything except the vast nothingness inside their shared mind.

Just like Rumia had been for the last several weeks…

Outside, Daiyousei was asking the next question. _"What's she like? Is she really scary?"_

"Rin? She's uh…" Rumia glanced to the Kirin again. "Hey, Rin? What do I say?"

Letting out a broken giggle, Rin sniffed and told her, "Whatever you want. Tell them the truth."

"The truth? Okay, if you say so." Turning back to her friends, Rumia said, "Well, she's pretty messed up, really annoying, has a lot of stupid ideas, doesn't listen when she should, and okay, she's been really scary lately." Rumia took a deep breath and said, "But, I gotta admit, she does grow on you after a while. Sort of. You get used to her, is what I'm saying."

Rin had to snicker at that. Well, that was considerably kinder than she had been expecting, and much more lenient than she deserved.

One of Rumia's friends started to ask another question, but then they were interrupted by some kind of commotion. She heard Rumia inhale sharply. "Rin," she said. "She's back."

Rin didn't need to ask who.

There was the sound of scampering, and then Yuuka's voice spoke. _"Hello again, dears. I apologize for my intrusion, but we are not out of the woods yet, and I need to have a discussion with Rin Satsuki concerning…sensitive matters."_

Rumia let out a long sigh. "Ho boy." She glanced to Rin. "Hey, she wants to talk to you."

As if Rin hadn't heard. "You do it," Rin said without turning around. "I don't wanna."

"Great," Rumia muttered. "Now I get to be the one in the middle." Turning back to the screen, she said, "She says she doesn't want to. She told me to do it."

"_Oh, did she?" _While Yuuka's voice remained even, there was no missing the undercurrent of anger. _"Well, I'm afraid that is unacceptable. Tell her that if she is unwilling to come out and talk, she can go ahead and deal with the Shadow Youkai on her own. Unless of course reasoned discourse is too high a price to pay for having that foul creature removed from her mind."_

"Shit," Rumia muttered. "Hey, Rin? I think you really should-"

"I heard, I heard," Rin groused. Rising up, she slouched back to the screen. "All right, fine."

Rumia hurried to get out of the way, and, with surprising amount of reluctance, Rin took back what was hers.

…

It didn't take long. Soon Rin was looking out at the world through Rumia's eyes. As her normal (if such a thing could be described as normal) body was rather tall, the change in perspective was a little disorienting.

"Okay, I'm here," she said to Yuuka. Rumia's friends immediately retreated, fear etched on their faces. "One condition though."

Yuuka frowned in displeasure. "Still making demands. All right, let's hear it."

Nodding to Rumia's gawking friends, Rin said, "Make them leave. Take them somewhere safe."

"_Leave?" _Rumia said in her mind. She sounded distressed. _"Why? I mean, they just got here!"_

_Trust me, _Rin told her.

"_Why?" _

Rin didn't have an answer for that.

Yuuka's scowl deepened, and her eye bore into Rin's face. But she nodded. "Very well. I would have done so anyway." She glanced to her Shinigami. "Elly? Would you please take the girls to their room and stay there with them?"

This was met with refusals and protests from Rumia's friends, but a harsh glare from Yuuka followed by a meaningful scrape of the Shinigami's scythe against the ground put a quick stop to that. They were escorted from the deck in short order, leaving Rin alone with Yuuka. A meeting of monsters.

"There," Yuuka said. "They are gone. Prudent perhaps, but I must ask why you insisted on privacy."

Grinning, Rin changed her shape, letting Rumia's form melt away and returning to the terrible combination of stolen features that was her natural state. Her viewpoint rose until her eyes were level with Yuuka's.

"_I don't feel like being talked down to," _she said, speaking with a warped symphony of overlaid voices. _"But I didn't want to scare them, you know?"_

Yuuka's facial expression didn't change, but it seemed that she was chewing on the insides of her cheeks. "And you continue to try my patience. Has anyone ever told you how thoroughly annoying you are?"

"_Only every day," _Rin gibed. Her grin widened, displaying her spiky teeth. _"So. What's up?"_

A small twitch had developed under Yuuka's eye, but her voice remained even. "I believe I have a solution for your stowaway problem. But before I continue, I need to know: are you aware of exactly what kind of creature you're carrying?"

Rin frowned. _"Uh, sort of. You said it was one of the Fallen, yeah? That means a Fallen Angel"_

Apparently she was right, as Yuuka's eye widened in surprise. "Well, you have done some legwork, I see. But that's not wholly correct. What you carry is the Avatar of one of the Fallen. Explaining that in full would take too much time, but the shortened version is that she is a mortal that has been corrupted by a Fallen Angel and driven to fulfill its desires."

"_I'm a what?" _Rumia said in confusion. _"How the hell did _that _happen?"_

"_Uh, okay," _Rin said. _"Cool. So, how do I get rid of it?"_

Yuuka clasped her hands in front of her lap. "It won't be easy, and there are few safe methods. The official technique involves returning the Fallen Angel's essence to its original receptacle."

"_Huh?"_

"It normally takes the form of a weapon, such a sword or a spear," Yuuka explained. "Halberds are also sometimes used, though not exactly common."

"_A sword?"_ Rin brightened. _"Oh, I know what you're talking about!_

Interesting. "Do you?"

Rin nodded. _"Yeah, I got this weird, ugly looking sword when I_…" A look of shame passed over her flawless features. _"Uh, ate Rumia."_

"Well, that sounds like the thing!" Yuuka smirked. "Do you know where it is now?"

"_Er, not really. I kinda lost it."_

Yuuka stared at her. "You lost it."

"_Yeah, I dropped it somewhere, haven't seen it since."_ When Yuuka continued to stare at her, she said in a defensive voice, _"Look, the Shadow Youkai had just got done possessing me and almost killed my best friend, Yukari was chasing me, I got scared!" _

"I see," Yuuka said. She sighed. Well, this presented a problem.

"_But I think I can summon it back!"_ Rin said eagerly. Now that she had been presented with the opportunity to rid herself of the Shadow Youkai for good, it seemed that she had forgotten that she was supposed to be intimidating. _"I've done that before!"_

"Hmmm, no," Yuuka said after some consideration. "That would not be a good idea."

"_But…"_

"If Yukari was in the area as you say, chances are she has already found it and has it kept safe somewhere. If you were to summon it to yourself, you risking alerting her of your location."

Rin seemed to wither at that. _"Oh. That would be…bad."_

"Indeed," Yuuka said with a nod. "Furthermore, simply possessing the sword is only half of the process. To complete it we would need the aid of a genuine Angel. And unfortunately, those seem to be in short supply around here. There are only two that I know of, one of which is too…changed by mortality to be of any use."

"_But the other…"_

"…is subservient to the first, and they are both on Yukari Yakumo's council," Yuuka finished for her. "As such, while they would be more than happy to remove the Shadow Youkai for you, I highly doubt that you or Rumia would survive the process."

"_Oh."_

"Indeed." Yuuka smiled. "Fortunately, from what I have been able to gather, the Shadow Youkai's soul is heavily damaged, wounded on a spiritual level. And while harming it will not destroy it, it does weaken its resistance to…certain techniques."

Rin perked up. "What kind of techniques?"

"Well, you know how it is," Yuuka said with a shrug. "When you are unable to afford proper treatment, you seek other, shadier alternatives. What we need here is the equivalent of a back-alley doctor. Crude, but workable. Fortunately, this is Gensokyo, where many individuals in possession of interesting skills exist. And as luck would have it, I happen to know just the doll."

…

_The next day…_

Yawning widely, Shihuha Aki stumbled from the hallway into the small kitchen. Her eyes were still bleary with sleep, and she was relying on her nose to guide the way. Fortunately, her sister, who had probably been up for hours, already had breakfast made, making the trip easier.

"Good morning," Minoriko said sunnily as Shizuha felt her way around. "No, wait, afternoon. For lunch, we have corned-beef hash and sautéed potatoes and onions. Used to be breakfast, but I think that label expired."

"Bite me," Shizuha mumbled as she grabbed the offered plate and plopped down at the wooden table, which was covered by a red-and-white checkered tablecloth. Minoriko handed her a cup of coffee, which had to be three hours old by now. Not caring in the slightest, Shizuha gulped it down. It tasted wretched, but it helped drive the sleep away.

"Oh, by the way," Minoriko said as Shihuha tucked in. "Before she left, Hina said that she found those paint cans you lost. Turns out they were buried in the linen closet."

"Oh yeah?" Shizuka muttered around a mouthful of potatoes and onions.

"Yeah. But she's holding them hostage until you return those ribbons you took from her. She says not to deny that you have them, as she saw you stuff them under your bed."

"Hina can bite me too," Shizuka hissed.

"Shizuka…" Minoriko said, warning in her voice.

Sighing, Shizuka gave up. "Fine, fine, I'll give 'em back. I just needed 'em for one night anyway."

Beaming, Minoriko affectionately pinched her sister's cheek. "I knew you would be agreeable."

Shizuka swatted her hand away. The fogginess was finally clearing, giving her a clear view of the home she shared with her sister and their friend and roommate, fellow goddess Hina Kagiyama. They lived beneath the ground, their house burrowed out around the gnarled roots of a great tree. It wasn't exactly grand, but it served their purposes, and they couldn't really afford anything nicer.

It was tough being a goddess in many ways, especially when you were a lesser deity. Minoriko had it the roughest. She was a harvest goddess, which sounded like a cushy job on paper, but given how many other deities there were running around with the exact same purpose, she often found it difficult to amass sufficient faith. Shizuka had it a little easier. Her domain was changing the color of the leaves in autumn and making them fall from their branches. Not exactly a popular job, but someone had to do it, and at least she didn't see much competition. Hina had it the best of the three. She was a curse goddess, the kind that removed curses, bad luck, and other forms of misfortune rather than spreading them, and those were always in demand. Plus, she was one of the best in the business. Still, even she had her bad days.

That was the downside to living in Gensokyo. Sure, they had a better chance at survival than they would in the Outside World. At least people believed in them here. But given the country's small size and high deity population, standing out from the crowd was a real trial, especially when you were only relevant for one season of the year. Spring sucked. It wasn't as bad as winter, but it still sucked. All the leaves were fresh and young, and Shizuha couldn't even go near them until late September at the earliest.

Ah well. They would get by. They always did.

Shizuha finished her late breakfast/lunch and helped her sister clean up and put the dishes away. As they were finishing, someone knocked at their door.

That made them pause. They didn't get visitors often, and the one that did drop by usually came in the autumn. "Who…?" Minoriko said in bewilderment.

Shizuha shrugged. "They're probably looking for Hina. I'll get it." She walked up the stone steps to the front door and opened it.

Standing on their doorstep was a little girl. She looked like some kind of youkai, with short blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a red skirt and a light pink blouse, with a bit of red ribbon tied at her throat. In her hair was a large red bow, with cherry-shaped hair pins. Something was making her nervous, as she kept glancing out at the woods around them.

Shizuha stared down at her. "Hello," she said. "Can I help you?"

"Uh, yeah," the girl said. "Hi. My name is…Er, well, look. I've got this…problem, you know? And I was told you could help me."

…

_And with this, the Month of Taker comes to a close! Oh, what's that? You don't know what that is? Why not? I mean, I explained it back in Rhapsody of Subconscious Desire._

_Wait, what's that you say? You haven't read Rhapsody of Subconscious Desire, which by the way has just finished up and will soon cross paths with Imperfect Metamorphosis? Well, you'd better get on that then! _

_Note: the above doesn't apply to those who did follow RoSD. You guys are exempt. And sexy._

_But to everyone who hasn't being reading RoSD and don't know what I'm talking about, the reason for this hiatus was that, for plot reasons, I needed to have RoSD finished immediately, so I decided to do it all in one go. That ended up taking five chapters, and during that time I also somehow managed to write a Resonance Days chapter and a three-chaptered RD spinoff. So I decided to release everything over the course of a month, with this chapter capping things off. And now you know._

_Also for everyone who hasn't heard: I recently got with the times and started a tumblr! And now that I have someplace to talk about whatever I feel like, I'm going to be sticking most of my post-chapter thoughts there (the one for this chapter will go up in a couple days), as well as a bunch of behind-the-scenes ramblings and whatever I feel like talking about. It's also open to questions, so check the link in my profile, follow, and say hi!_

_So anyway, now that all those spinoffs are done, I think I'm just going to concentrate on just updating IM and RD for a while, alternating between stories every chapter to keep things fresh. Christmas specials are of course the exception._

_Also, you may noticed that Imperfect Metamorphosis has some sexy new cover art! Kudos to ty4107 for the awesome picture and RandomNumbers5902672 for commissioning it!_

_Anyway, I believe that's everything. Until next time, everyone! Happy Halloween!  
_


	47. Contingencies

Contingencies

Scowling to herself, Elly shuffled her way through the halls of Mugenkan, pushing a cart laden with trays before her. Sensing her black mood, the foliage that carpeted the floors hastily vacated, drawing their roots and vines away from the trolley's path. Elly paid them no mind.

Everything was such a mess, and things had seemed so bright the morning before. But then Yuuka had to go out by herself and anger people. Again. And then she had gone out _again _and brought back that appalling…thing that called itself Rin Satsuki with her. And not only had that…thing turned out to be absolutely horrible, but it also seemed to be carrying the essence of a monster so terrible that even Yuuka herself had openly expressed fear of it. There were not many things capable of worrying her master, so one capable of garnering not only terror from her but also successfully managing to _intimidate _her in her own house was best kept in a cage, preferably one that was underground. To say nothing of it somehow stripping Yuuka nude. Her master had been tightlipped about how exactly she had ended up in such a state, but Elly's imagination had offered a number of possible scenarios, all of them capable of making her cheeks burn with indignation. The indecency of it all!

But the truth of the matter was that Elly could, albeit with some prodding, forgive it for all that. After all, a wild animal, caught in alien territory and surrounded on all sides, would be expected to behave in such a way. But that didn't excuse it from being so _rude! _Yuuka had been trying to help the horrid little thing, and it had just threatened and mocked her! Oh, if only it had not been so notoriously indestructible. Elly would have been more than happy to introduce to the business end of her scythe!

Well, at least it was gone now, sent off to see some minor goddesses about having that Fallen Angel's essence removed. Elly had no idea how they were to be successful, but quite frankly she didn't give a fig's stem. It was gone, and that was all that mattered.

If only she could be assured that it would stay away. When last Elly had seen them, Yuuka's guests were still talking excitedly about the eventual return of their missing number. For that to happen, the little beast would have to come back. Maybe it could just drop her off at the border and be on its way, but Elly was not one given to optimism.

Sighing, Elly continued on her way toward her master's chambers. At least Yuuka was treating Rin Satsuki like the threat she was. Those who garnered such attention from Yuuka Kazami did not tend to last long.

As Elly approached, the doors to Yuuka's room swung open as expected. However, this time the surrounding vines had nothing to do with it, as Yuuka herself, fully awake, dressed, and made-up, sauntered out into the hall, the rubber tip of her cane tapping against the floor.

"Ah, good morning Elly!" she said sunnily as she passed by the surprised Shinigami. "Is that breakfast? Wonderful!" She snatched a piece of buttered and jammed toast from a tray and started munching on it, her gait not slowing in the slightest. "Well, bring it along. I'll be needing the sustenance."

"I, uh, all right." Elly swung the cart around and hurried to catch up. "B-but where are we going?"

"To the House of Orchids," Yuuka answered promptly. She picked up a fork and knife and started helping herself to breakfast while in movement.

Elly blinked. The House of Orchids was a smallish building located near the northern border of the Garden of the Sun, and was there should Yuuka be in the area and was struck by the need to do some gardening but did not want to go all the way back to the mansion for her tools. It also provided amenities should she want take a nap, a bath, to fix herself some lunch (simple ones, as Yuuka's culinary skills were…lacking at best), read a book, or entertain surprise guests, whether they wanted hospitality or not. There were four other such homesteads throughout the Garden, but the House of Orchids was the one furthest from the mansion.

"Why are we going there?" Elly asked.

"Mmmmph." Yuuka swallowed down a mouthful of eggs and sausage and lightly dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. "Because my dear, I have been giving our current plight a great deal of thought, and it occurs to me that even with the Fallen Angel's essence removed, Rin Satsuki still poses a significant threat."

Elly nodded enthusiastically in agreement. "Well, granted, but why the House of Orchids? Is there a secret weapon housed there?"

"No, but there soon will be." Yuuka laughed at the look of confusion on Elly's face. "You see, my buttercup, the House of Orchids provides us with a number of advantages for this little project. It is the furthest from the mansion and the most isolated, it is small and easily repaired if broken, it stands fully exposed to the sun (though I suppose the same holds true of the other houses), and as of ten minutes ago, it is covered from basement to rooftop in Mykr's Sirens."

Elly stared. All of those descriptions, when strung together like that, struck a note of cold apprehension in her heart. "Ah…forgive me, master. But might I ask why such precautions are necessary?"

"Mmmm. Precautions. Yes, that is the reason." Yuuka smiled. "You see Elly, last night I got to poke around in young Miss Satsuki's memories for a bit, and in doing so, I learned something very interesting. Though she has been hurt, though she has been driven off, and though she has been talked down before, she has only been summarily defeated on only a handful of occasions, only one of which could be described as her being…Oh, what's the phrase?"

"Flattened?" Elly supplied.

"Close, though I would go with 'exploded.' Either way, despite being much stronger now than she was then, I feel that she had not quite developed the necessary abilities to overcome her former…exploder." Yuuka's amused smile took on a glint of maliciousness. She held up a hand and made a little flourish. A round, multi-faceted crystal appeared in her fingers. It was held between her index finger and her thumb, and shone with a violent crimson light.

"How fortunate for us that said exploder so happens to be within our possession," Yuuka purred.

…

_Deep Within_

On the outside, Rin was sitting patiently on a wooden chair, hands folded in her lap, face a neutral mask, and pretending that her augmented ears couldn't hear the two autumn goddesses argue in the next room.

"_No way! Forget it! We are not getting involved in this!"_

"_What choice do we have? We're in Yuuka Kazami's bad books already! This is our chance to get _out _of them."_

"_Exactly! So anything she sends out way is probably going to end up horribly for us! Send that girl away!"_

"_If we say no, Yuuka will just come for us anyway. At least this way, there's a chance we'll get out of it okay."_

On the inside, Rin was sitting patiently on nothing, hands folded in her lap, face a neutral mask, while Rumia paced back and forth behind her in agitation.

"_A chance? Sure, she's going to give a chance. Because if there's one thing Yuuka Kazami is known for, it's mercy and compassion. Minoriko, have you completely lost her mind? Don't you remember what she almost did to us?"_

"_Of course I do! Which is why I don't want to tick her off."_

Sighing, Rumia paused her restless wandering and cleared her throat. "I don't know about you, but this really isn't filling me with confidence."

"You had confidence?" Rin giggled. "Wow, I don't know if I should be impressed or shake my head."

"Then what are we doing here?" Rumia demanded. "If you don't think they can help, let's split already!"

Rin shrugged. "Nothing gained by that. Besides, they're not the ones we were sent to see. Might as well wait until this other person gets back."

The place they were in wasn't exactly the sort of place Rumia would expect to find someone capable of dealing with her evil former self. The goddess' home was more-or-less a hole in the ground, dug around the roots of a huge, gnarled, old tree. The walls were natural stone or tightly packed earth, and the floor was tiled with wooden slats. It was homey enough though. Shelves and cabinets held various knick-knacks, pictures, and books; the furniture looked handmade but comfortable; and potted plants sat where the few overhead windows could nourish them with sunlight. The roots themselves poked out of the walls and ceiling. It was certainly nicer than any place Rumia had ever lived, but it was clear that its occupants weren't exactly top-tier deities.

Which was why she was so confused. Why had Yuuka sent them here? She had expected some dark and mysterious sorceress, with a lair full of silk and skulls and things that emitted colorful smoke. This was hardly the ideal place to have a Fallen Angel removed, but it wasn't the place to spring an ambush either. If Yuuka intended betrayal, this wouldn't be the place to do it either. But then, Rumia was just a random wild youkai. What did she know?

Outside, the two goddesses continued to bicker. Wrinkling her nose, Rumia turned to Rin and said, "What do you think they did to make Yuuka mad at them in the first place?"

"Beats me," Rin said with a shrug. "She's a weird lady. Maybe she just doesn't like their faces."

It was as good a reason as any. Rumia wasn't exactly an expert on deities, so she couldn't really tell how one might anger a youkai of Yuuka's caliber. To her, all the gods and goddesses running around weren't so much deific beings as they were entrepreneurs in a field that she had no connection to. It would be interesting to see how these ones could be of any help.

And speaking of which…

"So," Rumia said, clearing her throat again, "Rin."

"Yeah?"

"Say this does work. Say they get rid of Evil Me and we both come out of it alive. You're going to keep your promise, right?"

That finally got through Rin's façade of apathy. Confusion washed over her face, and she turned her body to stare quizzically at her mental passenger. "Promise? What promise?"

"To let me go," Rumia reminded her. "You said that if solved that problem, you would let me go."

Was it her imagination, but did a flicker of fear appear in Rin's face? If so, it was gone a moment later. "Let you go?" Rin said uneasily. "Uh, I don't know if that's a good idea."

Rumia scowled. "You promised."

"Yeah, but even if the Evil You gets taken care if, it still won't be safe! Yukari's going to come for you anyway!"

"Then I'll go to Yuuka."

Rin's eyes popped wide. "What?" she gaped. "Yuuka? Why? She's a monster!"

"Right," Rumia said, her voice a dull monotone. "Because getting help from monsters is totally something we'd never do."

"That's different! I'm just following a tip! It's not like I want to go sleep in her bed and eat at her table!" Rin quickly scampered to her feet, her eyes wide with earnestness. "Rumia, trust me when I say that she's evil! I got a taste of her, remember?"

Rumia did, and just the memory of it made her shudder. But that wasn't enough to deter her. "I know," she said. "I know she's a monster, I knew that even before we met her. But hey, guess what?" She jabbed a thumb against her own chest. "So am I! I've killed people, Rin." When Rin flinched, Rumia pressed in harder. "Yeah. I did. People. Kids. Ate 'em, too. You went through my memories, you saw what I was like!"

Rin shuddered, but she didn't back down. "I know. I saw. But that's still different! You were…you were…"

"What?" Rumia said. "I was what, Rin?"

"Feral! Like an animal, you know? And when you got smarter and, uh, more civilized-"

Rumia snorted.

"Well, more civilized than you were!" Rin said crossly. "You stopped! You got better! You just play pranks now, right? Yuuka's already smart and, er, civilized I guess, but she still hurts people for fun! She's evil!"

"Did'ja learn that from her taste?" Rumia asked.

"Yes! I know what evil tastes like, Rumia. I got a big mouthful of it already." Rin angrily stepped forward and grabbed Rumia by the shoulders. "So believe me when I say that Yuuka Kazami is bad news."

"Hey!" Rumia's hands snapped up, shoving Rin's arms off. "What I say about the touching?"

Rin scowled. "You didn't seem to mind your friends crawling all over you last night."

The gods help her, Rumia almost took a swing at Rin right there and then. The only reason she didn't was because she had tried that in the past, and it rarely worked. Rin usually just vanished before her knuckles made contact. There was nothing stopping her from shouting though. "That's them! They're my friends!"

A hurt look passed over Rin's face. "I'm not your friend?"

The urge to sock the whiny Kirin in the nose only grew stronger. She had to take a few steps back just to make sure her arms wouldn't reach should she give in. "Rin," she said through clenched teeth. "You ate me. You freaking ate me. Remember that?"

Rin opened her mouth, maybe to protest, maybe to defend herself, but Rumia wasn't having it. "You. Freaking. Ate. Me!" she roared. "You ate me, you took me away from my friends, my home, and forced me into this _nightmare, _where I have to constantly listen to you complain about how they locked you up, how you couldn't touch anything, how you were so isolated from everyone and everything. Well, guess what Rin? I know _exactly _how that feels, and you know why?" She jabbed a thumb against her own chest. "Because you forced me into the same deal! What they did to you, you did to me! I hate this, Rin. I hate being like this, I hate being scared all the time, and I hate-"

Rumia clamped her jaw shut, forcibly cutting the sentence off before that last pronoun could come out. She squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth as she used every ounce of willpower to regain control of the rage sweeping through her. When she spoke again, her voice was at least level, but her words were no less cutting.

"We are not friends," she hissed. "Get this through your skull. Cirno is my friend. Mystia is my friend. Daiyousei is my friend. Wriggle is my friend. You are not. You don't have that right. Maybe you're not the monster everyone thinks you are, but you're still damned close. And I don't want to have to put up with you anymore. So as soon as this Fallen Angel thing is taken care of, we're done. You drop me off at the Garden of the Sun and get out of my life. Got it?"

All through Rumia's rant, Rin just stood frozen in place, blue eyes wide and mouth hanging open like a very surprised frog. Even after Rumia had finished getting what she wanted to say out of her system, she still stock-still, her face white. Even her aura looked like it was recoiling in shock.

They stood there, Rumia glaring and Rin staring, neither girl blinking. They might have remained that way for the next several seconds, but Rumia had never been patient. "Well?" she snapped.

Rin closed her mouth with a noisy gulp. She gave a quick nod. "A-All right," she said, her voice small. "You…you're right. I'll do what you want. I'll take you there, I'll let you, and leave you alone. I promise."

"Good," Rumia growled. She turned away, unable to look at the Kirin anymore.

Then Rin let out a noise that sounded like a weak cough. "Uh, R-Rumia? I'm…I'm sorry."

Rumia almost snapped back with something biting and sarcastic, but something made her stop. She had already said all she wanted to say, so what point was there? She considered just ignoring the apology, or pointing out how inefficient a simple "sorry" was in light of the months of sheer terror she had endured, but in the then she just sighed. "Okay," she said over her shoulder.

With that, she stormed away. She sat down, crossed her legs, and folded her arms.

After a while, she stuck her fingers in her ears. She could still hear Rin crying though.

…

Reimu was troubled. This was nothing new: she had been troubled since this whole fiasco had started. But this was anxiety of an entirely different kind.

For once, things were lining up. They no longer needed to fear Yukari. They could progress openly, with the rest of Gensokyo's support. They weren't a radical fringe group anymore. Now, combined with the fact that they had the means to extract Azrael's essence, they could proceed with finding a way to fix Rin and end this whole stupid mess unabated.

Provided that they find her.

And therein was the problem. They _had _found Rin. She had been right there, talking to them and fighting at their side. They had been so close to convincing her to join them. And then Yuuka, Yukari, and all those idiotic hunters had shown up and driven her off, taking Nue Houjuu and Mamizou Futatsuiwa with her. One step forward, two steps back.

Usually, whenever Reimu had something like this pressing on her mind, she would seek out someone wiser to talk to, usually Genji, sometimes Kanako, even Byakuren every now and then. But she had already spoken to all three and had accumulated all the advice she needed. She didn't need more advice. She knew what needed to be done; it just wasn't in her power to do it at that moment. What she needed was a distraction.

So she went to Marisa's house.

The young witch and her spectral mentor had made themselves scarce after Yukari had shown up at the Youkai Mountain. As annoyed as she was at the lack of support, Reimu supposed she couldn't really blame them given their track record, but it did decrease the likelihood that they would be at her home, as opposed to one of Mima's emergency hideaways. But as she approached the woodland house, she heard loud sounds emitting from inside that told her otherwise. One of them was the sound of Marisa grunting in exertion. The grunts were set to a rhythm, about a second apart. Accompanying them was Mima offering words of encouragement.

"Hrgh…hrgh…_hrgh!"_

"Keep going, almost there, almost there, just a few more, and…done! Good job, take ten."

Reimu blinked. Given Marisa's…nature, there were any number of explanations for that strange symphony, very few of them being ones she wanted to walk into. The witch wasn't exactly social, but she wasn't shy either, and had more than a few…trysts under her belt, one of which Reimu had accidentally walked in on already, to her disgust, Marisa's delight, and some poor farmer boy's absolute horror. The fact that Mima was present was even more disturbing. Reimu knew that they were fond of each other, but she didn't think their affection went _that _far!

Realizing that that pursuing that line of thought was a sure sign of Marisa's bad influence and there was probably a perfectly innocent explanation, Reimu landed in the dirt path in front of the house, walked up to the door, and knocked.

There was a short pause, and then Mima said, "Yes? Who is it?"

Right. Like she hadn't already sensed Reimu coming. Taking a deep breath and praying that everyone inside had their clothes on, Reimu said, "Reimu."

"Reimu who?"

Reimu frowned. "Uh, Reimu Hakurei? How many Reimus do you know?"

"Oh, so disappointing," Mima said, clicking her tongue. "Marisa, you really should have taught her better."

"Hey…I tried…" came Marisa's panting voice. The young witch sounded out of breath. "Not my fault…she doesn't listen…"

What? Frowning, Reimu called, "Okay…can I come in? Are you guys, uh, decent?"

"Yes, you may," Mima said cheerfully. "And no, we are not."

Reimu's heart stopped. "What?"

"Reimu, need I remind you that I am a practitioner in magic most foul, a master of the dark arts, whose actions have crumbled cities and destroyed families? If ever there were a Villain Hall of Fame, I would be the first inductee. And Marisa here is my star pupil, who, despite her tender years, has already built up quite notoriety. As such, I don't think either of us could be painted as 'decent,' as it is usually defined. But then again, given the word's flexibility, it could be argued that-"

Rolling her eyes, Reimu shoved the door open and entered. "Oh, for crying out loud. Stop messing with my mind and-"

She froze. In defiance of her prayers, Marisa did not have her clothes on.

Which wasn't to say she was naked. She still had her underwear on, thank the gods, but that was still considerably less than what Reimu was comfortable with. The young witch sat hunched over on a plain, wooden chair, arms resting on her knees and a glass bottle of water in her hand. She was breathing heavily as if winded, and sweat glistened on her skin.

Seeing Reimu's reaction, she grinned widely. "'Sup, Reddie?" she greeted. "Care to…join us? Feel free to strip…we won't mind."

Reimu's skin prickled, and not in a good way. She shot a glance to Mima, who, thank all that was good and holy, was still fully clothed. "Mima," she said, struggling to keep her composure. "What exactly is going on?"

"At the moment?" Mima said. "A ten minute break. A minute ago? Crunches."

Crunches. Well, _that _could mean any number of things, and Reimu's imagination was all too happy to provide possible definitions. "Uh, do I want to know…"

In answer, Mima pointed at the far wall, which was, to Reimu's lack of surprise, still a hole covered by a tarp. A beam of light shot out of her finger and illuminated a bright square on the tarp. Within the square, a grainy moving picture appeared, in which a muscular man with a handlebar mustache wearing nothing more than a pair of tight shorts and a short sleeved shirt walked by, his motions stiff and awkward. He then lay down on his back, put his arms behind his head, and brought his knees up. As he did so, a scratchy, strangely posh voice started to narrate.

"_Of the exercises that work the abdominal region, crunches are among the simplest and easiest to learn! And yet, they are also highly effective! To perform them, assume the sit-up position, with you back flat against the ground and knees brought up at a 90 degree angle. Next, knit your fingers tightly behind your head, just above the neck. But take care not to exert force! Finally, curl your shoulders toward your pelvis without lifting your lower back!"_

The jerky man did just that. When he lay back again, there was a fanfare of trumpets.

"_Congratulations!" _exclaimed the narrator. _"You have just mastered the crunch! Now, go out and enjoy your powerful new abs, you dashing studmuffin!"_

Mima lifted her finger, and both the animation and the narration ceased. "There," she said. "You now know what crunches are."

Reimu shot her a dirty look. "Okay, but you could have just…" Then she sighed. "You know what, never mind. It's you, of course you had to do it like that."

"Indeed."

"But that's it?" Reimu said. She turned to Marisa, who, surprise surprise, seemed very amused by the impromptu lesson. "You're just exercising?"

"Well, yeah," Marisa said, taking a long drink from the bottle. "What'cha think it was?"

"Oh, no doubt her mind was filled with a variety of sultry scenarios," Mima said. "Probably involving you and I copulating passionately, desperately, and destructively, smashing furniture and waking the dead with our cries. I'd point out that such a coupling is physically unlikely, but we are nothing but creative."

Marisa cackled loudly and Reimu's cheeks flushed with embarrassment. She wondered if she should try to defend herself, but given that Mima was correct, it was probably best to just take the jab and move on. "So, when exactly did you become so interested in working out?" she said to Marisa.

Marisa shrugged. "Eh, you know how a few weeks ago, Yukari sapped my mojo like the cheap bitch she is and sicced her talking monkey on me?"

Reimu blinked. "Yukari has a monkey?"

"She means Kotohime Sonozika," Mima told her.

"Oh."

"Yeah, her," Marisa scowled. "I got my ass kicked good and nasty. Not fun, ze. Then, when we all got together to deliver a whooping on Yuuka, I figured I didn't want to get stuck like that again, so I-"

"Drank a bunch of potions that made you superhuman, but also turned you into a sick little mess," Reimu finished for her. "Yeah, I remember."

"Yup! Totally worth it, by the way. Still holding to that." Marisa took another drink. "But still, the recovery time sucked a big fat one, and seeing how I don't wanna have to go through that every time I get into a tussle-"

"You figured you might as well get in shape?" Reimu guessed.

"Z'actly." Marisa nodded to the nearby spirit. "Mima's coaching me. She's got a whole bunch of marital arts knowledge to pool from, ze."

"You?" Reimu turned to Mima. "Martial arts? You?"

"Sweetiepumpkin, my memory is flawless, I love to read, and have had decades of free time on my hands," Mima chided. "You pick up on things after a while."

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Okay Marisa, I know you always want to better yourself, but this…" She cut herself off in mid-sentence and frowned.

The two magicians looked at her expectedly. "Yes?" Mima said at last.

Her shoulder slumping, Reimu admitted, "Okay, fine. It's a good idea. You did good. There."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Marisa said, cupping her ear.

"Get bent."

Grinning, Marisa hopped off her chair. "Close enough." She walked over to a long wooden table, where Reimu saw that a workstation had been set up. She recognized most of the glowing instruments and bubbling recipes from past visits, even if she couldn't name them.

"I thought you had sworn off potions," Reimu remarked as Marisa set to work.

"Nope. Just don't wanna have to rely on them, ze," Marisa said as she started…doing magiciany things. "'Sides, not all potions have to be ingested. Most of them are spells in a bottle, and come in real handy in a pinch." She scowled. "'Course, after Wannacop went and confiscated all my work, I had to start from scratch. That's a lot of catchup work to do."

"Oh, it's not that bad," Mima said. "This place was getting too crowded anyway. Having your working conditions made simpler is better in the long run."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Marisa muttered. Her scowl darkened. "'Course, I'd be catching up a lot quicker if a certain _someone _hadn't gone and jammed a broomstick straight up her ass. Think after a month she'd've had it removed, but nooooooo. She's gotta go riding around on her high ugly horse, sneering down at me like she's better than me."

Reimu stared at her, unsure of what to make of this sudden change in direction. "Uh…" She glanced over to Mima, who was making a show of rolling her eyes.

Marisa's hands slammed down on the table, making her instruments jump. "I mean, it's not like I didn't own up to fucking up. I'm trying to do better, but will she see that? Nope. But that's how it is with her. Fuck up once, and you're dead to her. No sorries, no centimeter given, no godsdamned second chances!"

With that, she stormed into the next room, grabbing her clothes off the bed as she went. The door slammed, and Reimu heard the sound of water being angrily pumped.

Mima sighed. "Well, I guess that's the end of today's workout session. It's best to let her be when she gets like this."

"Tell me about it," Reimu said solemnly. "And let me guess: Alice?"

"Hole in one," Mima said cheerfully. "They haven't been speaking since that little row that you witnessed." She glanced over to the closed door of the washroom. "Which isn't to say Marisa hasn't tried to restore contact. She even to her house this morning, but Miss Margatroid simply refuses to communicate with her. Pity."

"Why not?" Reimu asked. "I mean, that was over a month ago. She can't still be mad, can she?"

Mima clicked her tongue. "Unfortunately, Alice takes more after her adopted mother than she knows. She is not one to forgive an offense, and clings to an antiquated idea of mortality. I hear that same subject was responsible for driving the wedge between her and Shinki." Then she glanced at Reimu and dropped her tone. "And by the by, thank you for not abandoning Marisa as well. She values your friendship more than she will herself admit."

Reimu blinked. "Er, you're…welcome?"

"And also congratulations on your stunning and yet not at all unexpected victory! Well done, child. I had nothing but the utmost faith in you."

"Victory?" Reimu's head jerked back. "The hell are you going on about now?"

"Why Reimu, I refer to your recent triumph over Yukari Yakumo in a battle of wits and words, of course! And now only that, she admitted defeat as well! Did you know that the number of people that have managed to do so can be counted on two hands and half a foot? I myself happen to be in that exclusive club, and can attest to its difficulty. You should have a plaque made to commemorate the occasion."

"Oh," Reimu said. "That." Truth be told, she still wasn't sure how she felt about her so-called victory. Yeah, maybe it was a cause to celebrate, but she was starting to get the feeling that working with Yukari could be just as dangerous as working against her.

Or maybe she was thinking of Mima. It was easy to get them confused.

"Mmmm-hmmm. That indeed." Mima arched an eyebrow. "Of course, that will make our endeavors considerably easier, being able to act openly act without fear of repercussion." Her lips curled in a familiar smirk. "Oh, I cannot _wait _for the inevitable emergency Ringleader meeting that she'll have to call to explain the new direction. Oh, the crow she'll be eating. I'll have to remember to bring a camera."

"Well, I'm glad you'll find it funny," Reimu muttered.

Mima laughed. "Oh, so dire! Honestly child, we could find Rin under these very floorboards within the hour, have the Shadow Youkai sucked back into its blade of origin by evening, have Yuuka Kazami evicted by midnight, and have Rin cured and ready to go home with a lollipop in hand by morning, and you'd still find reason to sulk. Learn to look on the bright side every once in a while, it'll do you good." She pulled out a small, metal file and began tending to her fingernails. "Oh, that reminds me. What brings you by this fine spring day?"

Reimu shrugged. "Nothing, really. Was just feeling restless."

"Felt the urgent need to spread that sourness around, eh? I can sympathize." Mima glanced toward the washroom door. Inside, the sounds of water had ceased, replaced by the rustling of cloth. "Though I fear we already have enough of our own."

As if on cue, the door swung open and Marisa stepped out, now fully dressed. The anger on her face had been bottled away, leaving her face a neutral mask. "Hey, I'm all out of some stuff I can't find in the forest, so I was gonna go to Kourindou," she said to Reimu. "You wanna come with?"

"I…sure."

"Nifty." Marisa held out her hand, and her broom shot from the corner it had been leaning against to smack against her palm. With that, she headed toward the door. "Keep an eye on the pots for me, yeah?" she said to Mima as she passed.

"Never fear, your projects are safe in my hands." Mima glanced at Reimu and shrugged. Shaking her head, Reimu jogged to catch up with Marisa.

…

The Ancient City had seen better days. But hey, it had seen worst.

Most of the damage resulting from Rin Satsuki's brief but memorable passage had been repaired. The market was open again, with most of its regulars already on the way to recovering from the loss of stock and profits the wave of Phoenix Fire had cost them. The buildings that had lost their topmost parts when she had fallen past like a comet were also well on their way to being fully repaired. As rough as the city of Underworlders might be, let it never be said that it didn't take care of its own.

Unfortunately, the damage inflicted by one of its own was still a cause for concern. Utsuho Reiuji's misguided attempt to stop Rin Satsuki from escaping had resulted in one apartment building completely demolished and the surrounding neighborhood contaminated by the radiation. The destroyed building was one thing. Rubble was easy to clear away, and structures could be rebuilt. The radiation was a different sort of beast entirely, one that the city's denizens were ill equipped to deal with.

Fortunately, help came from an unexpected source. The two oni warriors, Suika Ibuki and Yuugi Hoshiguma, had gone above ground in pursuit of their quarry, and had returned with a team of Hazmat-suit clad Kappa, led by none other than the goddess Kanako Yasaka herself. At first, the Underworlders were unsure of what to make of their visitors, but when they saw how quickly the Kappa were able to clean up the irradiated area, they welcomes their aquatic neighbors with open arms.

Sunshu, the mayor, seemed especially pleased. It was a good thing Suika and Yuugi had told Kanako what to expect, otherwise she might have let slip with something insensitive. It wasn't that the mayor's beard was ugly. Quite the contrary, it was very handsome: long, black, and well-trimmed, with crystal beads adorning its curling edges. It was just that the rest of her was very, obviously female, and the dissonance could be disconcerting for someone unused to it. But Sunshu didn't seem at all ashamed by it, and Kanako was able to keep from staring.

"I seriously cannot thank you and your people enough," Sunshu said as she admiringly watched the Kappa work. "Honestly, I don't know what we would have done had you not shown up. That dreadful bird just about ruined the whole block with her messy radiocean-"

"Radiation," Kanako said distractedly. Mispronunciations asides, the mayor wasn't wrong about the rest though. It hadn't taken long for her to detect the nasty stuff clinging to Suika and Yuugi. The silly girls hadn't even been aware of it, despite practically submerging themselves in it. Fearing the worst, Kanako had immediately led her appropriately clothed and equipped Kappa to the Ancient City and had found her fears justified. The people there were proceeding with the cleanup, heedless of the radiation's effects. Maybe to the tougher youkai it wasn't as much of a problem, but even they were getting sick.

"Of course, of course," Sunshu said amiably. "I have to admit, I was surprised when you arrived. You, ah, Overlanders don't often concern yourselves with our wellbeing."

"I don't see why that should be," Kanako remarked. "Overland, Underworld, native-born, immigrant, it doesn't matter. We are all of Gensokyo, are we not?"

Sunshu beamed. "I like your thinking! All of Gensokyo, yes." Then she tilted her head to one side, hand stroking her beard thoughtfully. "And I hope you don't mind me asking, but what kind of goddess are you?"

"Pardon?" Kanako said, blinking.

"I mean in regards to your animal totem."

Animal totem. Odd way of putting it, but Kanako supposed it fit. "Serpent," she said.

Sunshu's smile grew wider. "Ah, that explains things! A proper Underground beast, I must say! You are kin, in a way."

Well, so much for all of them being of Gensokyo. "I am finding family wherever I go, it seems," she said diplomatically. "Though I should tell you that while the Kappa are happy to stay until their work is done, I cannot remain much longer. The monster's rampage did a great deal of damage to my land as well, and I need to be there for my people."

"Of course, of course," Sunshu said amiably. "The aid you have rendered already is more than sufficient. One must put their own house first, after all." Then her face darkened. "If only that view were a bit more…widespread." With a shake of her head, the oni woman said her farewells and left.

Kanako didn't have to puzzle over that last comment. Satori Komeiji, her opposite number of the Underworld, was not well loved by her people, and this disaster could not be helping matters. The fact that one of her beloved pets had done far worse than a rampaging monster would not endear her to anyone.

Strange then, that these people were taking so kindly to Kanako, seeing that she was the one responsible for turning Utsuho into what she was today. But then, when making reparations for her actions, she had only ever dealt directly with Satori or one of her pets. Perhaps the small woman concealed secrets as well as she acquired them from the minds of others. If so, Kanako was grateful. While things had turned out well in the end, that mess was not one of her prouder moments.

But stranger still was the fact that Satori had not spoken to her personally this whole time. When the request had been put in to allow the Kappa to aid with the cleanup, they had spoken to one of her many pets, the red-haired cat, who had given permission on behalf of her master and quickly disappeared. Given the history between Kanako and the Underground, she would have thought that Satori would want to probe her head for ulterior motives. Satori was a private person, yes, but she wasn't stupid.

Musing on this, Kanako moved through the streets back towards the city entrance. Come to think of it, rumors had been circulating that Satori and her pets had been involved with that disastrous tussle between Yukari Yakumo and Yuuka Kazami. Yukari herself had been incredibly tight-lipped about exactly what had happened, save that she and Yuuka had both barely walked away (though given that Kanako had spoken with both the day before and saw what kind of conditions they were in, it was clear that Yuuka was now by far the better off for it). Perhaps Satori had not been so lucky. A troubling possibility, to say the least.

As Kanako turned into a narrow alley, she became aware of another's presence. Someone was following, and taking care not to let her know of it. They were good at it too, but Kanako was still, by her own admission, a snake, and snakes didn't live long without possessing an almost supernatural awareness of their surroundings.

Pausing, she glanced over her shoulder. Her eyes caught a flash of motion, quick enough that another might have dismissed it for a trick of the light, but she knew better. "All right," she said. "Come on out. There's no point in hiding."

Silence greeted her call, but then a large, black cat with two tails slinked out of the shadows. Kanako's eyes narrowed. It was Rin Kaenbyou, otherwise known as Orin, the same cat that had spoken for Satori earlier that day, and, come to think of it, had also accompanied her to that Ringleader meeting.

"Yes?" Kanako inquired. "Is there something I can help you with?"

The shadows shivered, and the cat seemed to melt upward. A moment later her Human aspect stood before the goddess.

"I apologize," she said, bowing her head. "I merely wished to see you safely to the gate."

A lie. "Your concern is appreciated, but it is customary for guards to make themselves known to the person they're guarding," Kanako pointed out. "Besides, should trouble erupt, I daresay I could handle myself."

"Forgive me," the cat said. "I meant no offense."

As honeyed as her words might be, her face said otherwise. The girl was a poor liar, and Kanako could see the mistrust on her face, plain as day. "If there is something your master wishes to say to me, I'd appreciate if she'd just say it," Kanako said. "I realize that our previous dealings would be cause for suspicion, but a simple one-and-one conversation should allay any fears she might be harboring as to my intentions, wouldn't it?"

A flash of anger appeared in the cat's eyes. Ah, so the mistrust was personal. Interesting, though not unexpected. It stood to reason that Utsuho Reiuji would have friends who would be less than pleased how she had been used. "You misunderstand. My master has nothing but the-"

"Oh, for the love of all that is good and proper, will you two please dispense with the run-around? At this rate, you'll be politely loathing each other in this alley for the rest of the day!"

Kanako's breath caught in her throat. Oh no. Not her, not now. And judging by the look in Orin's eyes, she had much the same reaction.

The two them turned, but then the world spun dizzyingly around them. Kanako caught a brief impression of innumerable eyes, but the next thing she knew she and the cat were standing on a flat, grey plane, surrounded by featureless walls.

The reason for the sudden change in location was easy enough to discern. Yukari Yakumo sat nearby in her wheelchair, her nine-tailed Shikigami standing silently behind her. The elder youkai didn't seem especially angry, but it was clear that she was having a long day. Her emaciated hands were folded in front of her face, and her golden eyes glowered out from their sunken sockets.

"Kanako," she said by way of greeting. "Rin. Good day. Apologies for bringing you here so suddenly, but I needed to speak with you both, and I really don't care to be overhead."

Orin edged back, her tails bristling. "Where are we?" she said nervously.

"A temporary sub-dimension, located in the Borderlands. It'll cease to exist once this conversation had concluded and the two of you returned to the Ancient City."

Kanako was on her guard. Yesterday, Yukari had explained to her in no uncertain terms that the goddess's participation in Reimu Hakurei's little conspiracy wasn't at all appreciated. No punishment had been doled out, but Kanako wasn't about to be lulled into a sense of security. "Is there a problem?" she said cautiously.

"Yes, in the plural. But the one I snatched you off the streets to discuss just so happens to be the one you two were dancing around a moment ago. Specifically, Satori Komeiji. Or rather, the current lack thereof."

Stricken, Orin let out a small squeak of surprise. "Wait! You can't!"

"Can, will, and am about to."

"But you said not to tell anyone!" Orin protested further. "You said!"

"I did, but obviously as the one who set that restriction, I am not under it myself."

Though Kanako was still reeling from this sudden turn of events, she was sharp enough to pick up on what was being discussed. Steadying her feet beneath her, she took a deep breath to center her nerves and said, "Lady Yakumo. Would I be correct in presuming that this disagreement concerns Satori Komeiji's current whereabouts?"

Yukari took a deep breath of her own. "Yes. Unfortunately, Satori was killed while in combat with Yuuka Kazami. Not an uncommon occurrence, as about half of those involved in that battle were killed at one point or another. But Satori had the ill fortune to have her life energies sealed away in the very same prison meant for Yuuka. Whether or not she has been since restored is unknown, but there is little doubt that Satori remains Yuuka's prisoner." She tilted her head to one side. "And that was highly classified information, by the way. Welcome to the Inner Circle."

Kanako had suspected as much, but that didn't make things any less troubling. Her relationship with Satori was uneasy, that was true. The whole Hellcrow incident had been a diplomatic nightmare, and while they had eventually worked things out enough to have the nuclear reactor constructed, dealings between them had been decidedly chilly. Still, Satori was still a fellow Ringleader, and Kanako didn't want to imagine what sort of things she might be suffering at Yuuka's hands.

Furthermore, a society deprived of a beloved leader might pull together and stay strong in their leader's absence. But one that was as disliked by her people as Satori would not likely be missed. In fact, should word get out, Satori might return home to find herself replaced, if she managed to get home at all. Rin Satsuki's rampage definitely hadn't helped matters either.

As Kanako mused over this information and its implications, Orin took the opportunity to voice her disapproval. "Wait, you just up and told her?" she gaped. _"Her? _After what she did to Utsuho, you're going to let her-"

"Enough," Yukari growled. She didn't raise her voice, but the command was there. When it became evident that Orin wasn't going to start yelling again, the elder youkai said, "Miss Kaenbyou, I am only going to say this once, so please pay attention: I do not care one whit about any lingering resentment you might feel towards Kanako. The matter of Utsuho Reiuji's acquirement of nuclear capabilities and this goddess's involvement is a thing of the past. It's over. If you wish to press the matter, please wait until our country is not being threatened by horrors so terrible that they boggle the imagination."

Orin shut her mouth. Her tails bristled, and she kept shooting glares in Kanako's direction, but she didn't continue her tirade. As for Kanako, she simply said nothing at all.

Yukari sighed. "Now, if that's done with, the reason I brought you here is to find a solution, however temporary, for the problems created by the existing power vacuum and the civil unrest currently rising in the streets."

"Why would you care?" Orin said, her voice tinged with suspicion.

Kanako knew the answer. "Because while under attack from beyond your walls, dissention from within can be disastrous, if not outright fatal."

"Precisely," Yukari said with a nod of acknowledgement. "We have our hands full enough as it is without having the very people we're trying to protect rising up and forming riots.

Kanako felt a prickle of fear. As someone who had until very recently been a part of a dangerous conspiracy, being turned on by her own allies was an all-too common anxiety for her. "Do you think that is a possibility?"

Yukari quirked an eyebrow, and Kanako felt her skin crawl. Though the elder youkai hadn't given her much more than a stern lecture, Kanako knew that Yukari had not forgotten Reimu Hakurei's scheme, or Kanako's part to play in it. "I think it's enough of one to work towards stability now instead of waiting for things to worsen," Yukari said. "Rescuing Satori will be a tough nut to crack, and I prefer not to count on that alone to solve things."

Orin frowned. "And you are planning on rescuing her, aren't you?"

Yukari gave her a withering look. "Obviously," she said dryly.

Kanako frowned. "But I fail to see how I can help. Unless you plan on having me take charge in her place, I don't-" She stopped talking and blinked. Wait, Yukari couldn't actually be planning on that, could she?

It seemed Orin had come to the same conclusion. "Wait," she said, feline ears sticking straight up. "You're not seriously-

"Oh, the thought's occurred to me," Yukari said calmly. "But if you were planning on standing in representation of three peoples at the next Ringleader meaning, I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. As it stands, you have too much occupying your time to be able to run things in Satori's place." Her gaze settled thoughtfully on the serpent goddess. "Still, I think you can help."

"How?" Kanako asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"As you've noticed, you have a knack for showing up at exactly the right time with exactly what people need. You make friends easily, and know how to win trust."

Orin hissed, in clear disagreement with Yukari's assessment.

Yukari ignored her. "The positive reaction to your assistance here today proves this. What I would like you to do is continue to at least be a presence here. Provide a comforting voice for those here to come to, and be sure to quell any feelings of…anarchy."

"Even that might be too much," Kanako said. "My own people-"

"I never said you had to pitch your tent here and roll out a sleeping bag," Yukari interrupted. "Just make a few appearances here and there, enough to imprint yourself in their minds as someone to be trusted. Get Byakuren to help you if you must. She has the free time, and is if anything even more approachable than you are."

Orin's eyes were still narrowed. "Even if these…outsiders can win the people's trust, it won't be enough! People are talking already. Someone's going to find out that Satori is gone sooner or later."

"Then we will have to provide a Satori," Yukari declared, as if such a thing were obvious.

Kanako cleared her throat. "Ah, did you mean Satori the person, or Satori the species?"

"Both, in this case." When both goddess and feline stared uncomprehending at her, she clarified, "We'll need someone to stand in for her and keep her absence under wraps until the real article can resume her duties. Another of her kind would be ideal. A few tricks, a few glamours, and no one will notice the difference."

Judging by the way her teeth were showing, it was clear that Orin did not approve of this plan at all. "That's your big plan? Just replace her with a fake and expect everyone to accept her?"

"The alternative is to replace her for real," Yukari said, her eyes growing hard. "Would you like me to do that?"

Orin flinched.

"I thought not." Yukari glanced back to Kanako. "Of course, it'll help tremendously if you were to be seen working directly with the replacement, though I would suggest you wait until the people trust you completely before making it public. And always be sure to appear as if you are speaking to her with the people's voice, instead of the other way around."

"I know how the game is played," Kanako told her.

Yukari nodded. "Excellent. Now, the only question is who-"

"There's another problem," Orin cut in.

Yukari frowned, clearly unhappy about being interrupted. "Oh?"

Orin nodded. "Back at the Palace of Earth Spirits. Some of the other pets are…growing restless, and will probably not take well to this replacement. They may cause trouble."

"In other words, the more rebellious ones are challenging your authority as, ah, pack leader," Yukari said, scratching her cheek. "And it's only a matter of time before you get displaced, possibly by someone even less open to cooperation."

Orin looked uncomfortable with the summation, but she didn't contradict her.

Yukari sighed. "How far have we fallen, that we must take the political climate of _pets_ into account. Oh, very well. Fortunately, I do have someone in mind that could slip into the role and still keep control of your furry brethren."

Kanako perked up. She felt she was catching on. "I think I know who you're speaking of. If so, it'll make things easier. We already have something of a friendly relationship." Her brow furrowed as she thought. "In fact, I believe she is currently staying with Byakuren?"

"Last time I checked, yes."

Orin stared at them, still unsure of whom they were referring to. Then her face lit up with realization. "Wait, you don't mean…"

"A little risky, I know, considering her condition," Yukari said. "But that can be at least temporarily remedied."

Agitated, Orin wrung her hands while her tails did the same. "But…but she wouldn't!" she protested. "She left so she wouldn't have to put up with the sort of crap Satori has to deal with! Why would she want to take Satori's place?"

Yukari smiled sweetly at her. "Why, because of the love she holds for her sister and a desire to help."

"Or not," Kanako said with a frown. "Her current emotional state is…kind of complicated."

That was putting it mildly. The person in question was downright insane, at least when judged by the standards of her people. She would not be Kanako's first choice to provide a replacement for one of Gensokyo's most prominent leaders, especially one that had been put in charge of such an excitable populace, however temporary. Or her second, for that matter. Or her third.

But then, the nature of her peculiarities was fixable, and that fix could be reversed afterward. And given how reclusive Satori (the person) had been, she need not appear in public often. And even if one of the other Satori (the people) were to agree, there was no guarantee that one of Satori's (the person; goodness, what had her parents been thinking?) pets would accept the replacement. Animal youkai did not take well to having their loyalties manipulated, and if the situation at the palace was as turbulent as Orin described, the last thing they needed was to set off one uprising while trying to prevent another. There really was only one person that they might consent to following in Satori's absence.

Besides, given the delicate forces at play, Kanako didn't blame Yukari for not wanting to involve a race of mind-readers.

"Indeed they are," Yukari said in response to Kanako's statement. "But again, not an insurmountable problem."

Orin, however, looked less than convinced. "You can't just-"

Yukari sighed. She massaged the flaky flesh of her forehead with her fingertips. "Miss Kaenbyou, I would take it as a kindness if you would stop contradicting me and start cooperating. No, it is not a preferable state of things. But the alternatives are far, far worse."

Orin didn't protest again, but she still looked distraught.

Yukari turned her head toward Kanako. "I trust I have your agreement in this?"

"Yes." What other answer was there.

"Good." Yukari twirled her finger in the air, and her silent Shikigami spun the wheelchair around and started pushing her away. Where, Kanako couldn't guess. "Now if you ladies will excuse me, I have an urgent appointment with the anthropomorphic embodiment of dreams."

Kanako's vision blurred, and she was again standing in the alleyway with Orin. She inhaled deeply of the Ancient City's warm, earthy air and slowly let it out. Well. That had been…uncomfortable.

Orin let out a low hiss. "I really, really don't like her," she said echoing a very common sentiment. Then she glowered at the serpent goddess. "Or you."

That much was obvious, "I think that just about sums up the current diplomatic environment," Kanako remarked.

Orin's eyes narrowed. "Be warned, goddess. If Satori comes to any harm because of this-"

"It won't be by my hand," Kanako said. "And I do not plan on usurping any power from her. You have my word."

"For what that's worth," Orin spat. Without another word, she resumed her animal aspect and leapt back onto the wall. From there, bounded across rooftops, back toward the Palace of Earth Spirits.

Kanako watched her until she was out of sight. Then, shaking her head, she resumed her walk toward the city exit.

…

Once they were out in the open air, Marisa's mood improved noticeably. Her drama with Alice seemed to be at least temporarily forgotten, and she returned to her usual brash self. Reimu was grateful for that, for as annoying as cheerful Marisa could be, moody Marisa was just uncomfortable to deal with.

Unfortunately, like Mima, the only thing Marisa felt like talking about was Reimu's now famed debate with Yukari, when Reimu would be perfectly happy forgetting that it had ever happened. Sure, the results had been ultimately positive, and yeah okay, maybe beating Yukari in a verbal debate was kind of cool. But everyone kept making such a big deal about it that Reimu was starting to feel a little weird. When she had saved Gensokyo from a nuclear holocaust, all she had gotten was a pat on the back and two really unpleasant days getting decontaminated.

"Come on, you gotta give me more than that," Marisa pressed as they sailed over the treetops. "You versus a seriously pissed off Yukari right after she found out about our super-secret conspiracy? _And _you not only walked away in one piece, but actually fucking won? You shoulda been stuck in a little box and stuffed into a big hole in the ground!"

Reimu shook her head. "Look, I know Yukari's got a short temper sometimes-"

"No. _I _have a short temper. Yukari's a bonafide control freak."

"Well, maybe," Reimu admitted. "But that doesn't mean she doesn't-"

"She stuffed me in a jail cell and took away my mouth, just because I got in her face," Marisa said. "Then she shoved a bunch of crazy spells into _my_ hands and tossed me at Yuuka, just because she got distracting, ze. My hands. Me. Bitch be crazy, yo."

Reimu blinked. "Wait, she took away your mouth?"

Marisa mimed the zipping of a zipper across her lips. "Gone. No hole, no lips, nothin'. And I had a _bitch _of a loogie in there too. Like I said: bitch be crazy."

Ew. "Well, she did gap me into your cell at one point," Reimu admitted. Then she regretted it when Marisa let out one of her earsplitting cackles.

"No shit!" the witch gibed. Ahead, a gang of fairies had caught sight of the two girls and immediately swooped in to cause mischief. Reimu and Marisa paused their conversation long enough to reduce their wannabe assailants to a cloud of sparkling dust. As Marisa blasted away four fairies dumb enough to charge her headlong, she shouted, "Maybe we should get matching tattoos, hey?"

Reimu fired off a handful of seeker charms to take care of the rest. "I was only there for a few seconds," she said. "Yukari just wanted to intimidate me."

"Did she?" Marisa asked as she swooped back to the shrine maiden's side.

"Not really."

"Yeah, you'd think she'd know you better than that." Marisa grinned. "So…"

Reimu gave her a sidelong look. "What?"

"How. Did. You. Beat. Her? C'mon, stop leaving me in suspense!"

Sighing, Reimu said, "Look, we just argued a lot. She made a big point of showing me Gensokyo's history and all the stuff she had to deal with to keep it safe, made a lot of comparisons to this Rin Satsuki thing and how dangerous helping her is, and went on a big 'End justifies the means,' spiel. I told her how Rin was helping us and all, and how messing with her will just make her crazier and harder to stop. She went off by herself for a while, and then came back and said she'd try our way for a while. That's it?"

"Ha, the hell it was," Marisa snorted. "And admit it: you cribbed off of Byakuren's speeches like crazy."

"Well, yeah."

"Thought so," Marisa smirked. "And hey: she didn't say anything about Mima and me, did she?"

"Who, Byakuren?" Reimu said in bewilderment.

Marisa came in close enough to flick her in the temple. "No, you twit! Yukari!"

Reimu swatted her away. "Stop that. And not really. She was more interested in Kanako and Byakuren."

"Oh, I feel left out," Marisa complained. "Still, probably for the best. Really don't wanna lose my lips again, ze." She eyed Reimu. "And hey, you really should be happier about this. I mean, come on! You only just-"

"I know, I know, I know!" Reimu exploded. "Mima gave me the talk already! Big accomplishment, should be real proud of myself, things will be easier, stop being so mopey, and so on and so forth. I get it!"

"Jeez, chillax there Reddie," Marisa said, jerking her head back. "And she's right. Why so bad-moody?"

Reimu sighed. I don't know, okay? I just am. So can we drop it already?"

"Nope." Marisa leaned in, bringing her face uncomfortably close. "C'mon. Telllllllll meeeeee."

"Stop that," Reimu growled, shoving her away. "And look: there's way too much crap we still need to handle. When Gensokyo's safe again, then I'll feel better. There, you happy?"

"Eh, close enough," Marisa said with a shrug. "Though Mima's right. You really gotta stop being so grumpy all the time. Loosen up a little, you know? Things ain't gonna get fixed by worrying, so why worry?"

Reimu scowled. "Your breath smells."

"And you love it," Marisa grinned.

Rolling her eyes, Reimu gave Marisa another rough shove, though she did have to fight off a small, half-smile. Though she would never admit, she did find the young witch's audacity to be sort of amusing sometimes. Maybe Marisa was just an acquired taste.

Kourindou was a curiosities shop that sat on the edge of the Forest of Magic, one that specialized in objects from the Outside World that had fallen through the Hakurei Barrier but carried a wide assortment of other odds and ends as well. It was run by one Rinnosuke Morichika, a quiet, bookish man. Rinnosuke mostly kept to himself, preferring to sort through his odd collection and record his observations on the comings and goings of Gensokyo. Reimu mostly knew him through Marisa, for whom he was an old family friend, and apparently one of the few pieces of Marisa's family that she had liked enough to hold onto.

Reimu wasn't exactly sure how he kept his shop open. She had been by a fair few times, mostly in Marisa's company, and it almost always was empty. The local youkai rarely had much in the way of spending money and when they did, they preferred to spend it at the Youkai Market. And Humans generally avoided the place. Reimu wasn't sure why, but the fact that Rinnosuke was half-youkai on his mother's side probably had something to do with it. Silly thinking, if you asked her. Rinnosuke was probably the most inoffensive person she knew, regardless of his parentage.

At any rate, she had heard rumors of him having connections to Eientei and even Yukari herself, so maybe he supported himself through a mail order service. Either way, despite the lack of visible business, Kourindou remained a fixture of the forest. Reimu recalled with amusement one interesting summer when Marisa had been inspired to open up a shop of her own, right out of her house. It hadn't lasted long, but boy howdy did it provide for great material whenever Reimu needed to shut her up.

Soon they reached the edge of the forest and were in sight of Kourindou. Immediately they saw that something was wrong. Part of the roof and a bit of the attached wall had been blasted away, and was now covered by heavy leather tarp, not too dissimilar to that hole that Flandre Scarlet had made in Marisa's house.

Reimu slowing, her guard going up. Youkai generally left Rinnosuke alone, but the forest was dangerous. She glanced to Marisa, whose brow had risen with interest. She didn't seem especially concerned though.

"Well," Reimu said in a low voice. "That…doesn't seem right. You think he's okay?"

"Duh," Marisa said. "Who else woulda put that tarp up? Wonder what happened though."

"Maybe one of his Outside World thingies blew up," Reimu suggested.

That suggestion made Marisa glower. "Oh, he better not have gotten his mitts on an Outside World explodey thing and not told me," she growled.

"Like you need more."

"Doesn't mean I ain't in the market for new ideas, ze," Marisa said. "A girl's gotta have variety, you know!"

Shaking her head, Reimu swooped down to the front door. "Let's just go see if he's okay."

The door was locked tight, though from inside she could hear something moving around. And, curiously enough, the sound of splashing. She glanced at Marisa and shrugged. "Sounds like someone's cleaning something?" she suggested.

"Only one way to find out." Marisa lifted her fist and slammed it loudly against the door.

The sounds ceased, and then Rinnosuke's weedy voice said from inside, "Ah, we're closed!"

Well, at least he was all right. Reimu sighed with relief, while Marisa just shouted, "Hola, Kourin! You know a piece of your house is missing, right?"

"Marisa," Rinnosuke sighed. "All right, give me a moment."

More splashes followed, and then the door opened.

Reimu's jaw just about hit the floor.

As expected, Rinnosuke stood before them. He was tall, but (normally) unassuming, with a slender frame; studious pale gold eyes; a sober face; and short, feathery silver hair, which now clung to his head in damp streamers. However, Reimu was now seeing much more of him than she usually did. The only thing he was wearing aside from his trademark pair of spectacles was a white towel knotted tightly around his waist.

Reimu felt her body heat rise. Unlike Marisa, who had wasn't at all shy about sexual matters and had no problem broadcasting the fact, she really had no interest. She wasn't asexual, she just saw little point to it. Her life was busy enough without worrying about base instincts. In fact, she was kind of put off by the whole thing, for which she blamed Marisa's frequent off-color jokes.

However, she was still Human, and it was hard not to notice that, despite Rinnosuke's gentle and nonviolent nature, he did keep himself in shape. _Very _in shape. But wow, those big robes he always wore concealed a _lot. _

If he noticed how his state of undress was affecting the shrine maiden, Rinnosuke made no sign. He calmly adjusted his spectacles and blinked down at them. "Oh, hello ladies," he said. "I'm afraid you've come at a bad time."

Bizarrely enough, crude and perverse Marisa wasn't the least bit bothered by the sight. "'Sup, Kourin?" she greeted with a cheeky grin, shooting off a quick salute. "Is that a naked I see, or are you just happy to see me?"

Rinnosuke sighed. "Yes, well, you did decide to pop by while I was in the bath."

"Yeah, kinda noticed," Marisa drawled. "You _do _know that it's the middle of the day, right?"

Rinnosuke glanced over his shoulder. Beyond, the hole and the piece of leather covering it could be seen. "Well, I'm afraid I ran into a bit of a mess, and the cleanup…well, it was anything but."

"Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that." Marisa stood up on her toes to peer over inside. "The hell you get that from? You trying to copy me or something?"

Rinnosuke frowned down at her. "What are you…Never mind. I don't want to know. And if you must know, a woodpecker youkai got into a fight with a fairy gang earlier this morning." He took off his glasses and wiped them on the hem of his towel. Reimu swallowed noisily. "Normal enough occurrence, I know, but these had the poor manners to take their brawl right through my roof."

"Sucks," Marisa observed.

"I know. They made a frightful mess on their way out, and furthermore they did not they offer any sort of apology or recompense. I only just finished cleaning up a few minutes ago." He replaced the spectacles onto his nose. "So, what brings you two here?"

"I'm outta snapdragons, cannis root, and swamp pods," Marisa declared. "Came by to pick up a few."

Rinnosuke frowned. "The snapdragons are out of season."

"So? You had a bunch of dried ones in a jar."

"Marisa, that was four months ago."

Marisa's gaze didn't waver. "So?"

Sighing, Rinnosuke turned and walked inside, leaving the door open. "You know, it would be appreciated if you'd at least _pretend _I had some kind of turnover rate."

"What's the point of that? If something's here in November, it'll still be here in July. For the next three years."

"I'm glad to see that you continue to have all the subtlety of a drunken mountain giant." Rinnosuke headed toward another room, hopefully to dress. "Well, come in. And please remember that anything removed from the shop must be paid for."

Marisa glanced over to Reimu and snickered. "You, uh, looking to catch flies there, Reddie?"

Her face already burning scarlet, Reimu clenched her jaw shut. She refused to so much as look at Marisa, who immediately cracked up. Freaking youkai and their weird views of modesty.

The two girls entered the shop. Inside, there was a disturbing resemblance to how Marisa's home had looked before Kotohime had gotten her hands on it, in that it was filled with a bizarre clutter of odds and ends. However, Rinnosuke at least made an effort to keep things organized. As Marisa headed for the herbs, Reimu did what she normally did while visiting Kourindou and browsed around the Outside World items. It looked more-or-less the same as the last time she was here, but there were a few new additions. Most of them were articles of clothing, books, and household items that honestly wouldn't look out of place in Gensokyo. But there were some odd pieces of machinery that honestly perplexed and bothered her. She didn't like machines at the best of times, even when she hadn't nearly been crushed by two oversized metal behemoths. Technology on the whole bothered her. It just didn't seem right for mortals to exert that kind of control over natural forces without the gods' consent. She only tolerated Kanako's many attempts to speed Gensokyo's progress along because Kanako _was _a goddess.

It didn't take long for Marisa to gather what she needed. Rinnosuke emerged from the other room, thankfully fully dressed. "So, I hear you two have gotten yourselves involved in some trouble," he said as Marisa filled a glass bottle full of swamp pods.

"Uh-huh," Marisa said. "And I hear that dirt is dirty and shins hurt when you kick 'em."

Sighing, Rinnosuke leaned over and rested his elbows on the counter. "Marisa, you know I don't like to lecture you…"

"Then don't." Marisa turned to favor him with a cheeky grin. "See? Problem solved."

"But I really hope you're not entangling yourself in something too large for you to handle," Rinnosuke said mildly, as if she hadn't spoken. "And I saw you nick those arrowheads. Put them back."

Marisa reached into her apron and pulled out four amethyst triangles. "Just making sure you were paying attention," she said as she tossed them into a small box filled with more of the same."

"And the egg as well."

"Aw, c'mon," Marisa laughed as she pulled out a small, egg-shaped opal plopped it back onto the shelf it had been taken from. "You know I gotta at least give it a try, else you'll think I don't care!" She walked over to the counter and showed him the herbs she had selected. Rinnosuke named a price, and she paid it. Her back still turned toward them, Reimu wondered if Rinnosuke knew the great power he possessed. He was quite possibly the only person alive capable of making Marisa return stolen merchandise and pay for what she wanted without much fuss.

"By the by," Rinnosuke said as he place the money in his cashbox. "Your father was in here the other day."

Reimu winced. Oh boy, here they went.

Predictably, Marisa's demeanor switched from jovial to ice-cold. "Oh yeah?" she said. "Well. Hope you sanitized everything he touched."

Rinnosuke frowned in disapproval. "I wish you wouldn't be that way. He's worried about you."

"That right? Well, why should he start now?"

"Marisa…"

Marisa snatched her bottles of herbs from the counter and stuffed them into her apron. "See yah around, Kourin." With that, she stormed out of the shop.

Grimacing, Reimu hurried after her. _"Sorry," _she mouthed to Rinnosuke as she passed.

Sighing, Rinnosuke said, "Take care of her, please."

Nodding, Reimu all but ran out of the door.

Marisa stood a ways away from the store, broom in hand. She was looking out over the grassy plains that spread out from the Forest of Magic. Though it was impossible to tell for certain, Reimu was fairly sure that she was looking in the direction of the Human Village.

As Reimu approached, Marisa heaved out a heavy sigh. Then she grinned. "Well, mission accomplished, ze. Be seeing you, Reddie."

Which meant that she didn't want Reimu going back with her. A sour feeling was stirring in Reimu's stomach. "Uh, yeah," she said. "Take care of yourself."

"Don't I always?" With that, Marisa mounted her broom and took off.

Reimu waited until the young witch was little more than a dot on the horizon before muttered, "Not really." With that, she ascended off the ground and made her own way back to the shrine with a heavy heart. She had sought out Marisa's company in hopes of alleviating the dark thoughts swirling through her mind. Unfortunately, it had just made things worse.

When Reimu finally returned to the Hakurei Shrine, her mood was even blacker from having stewed and sulked the whole way back. Even blowing the odd reckless youkai or fairy to bits hadn't helped relieve her frustration. She wanted nothing more than to go find an empty room and sulk until she fell asleep. With the shrine's visitors now wholly non-existent (she fully put the blame on Yukari and her stupid barrier), there was little else to do with her time.

However, as she drew closer, she caught sight of something that made her heart leap into her chest and temporarily drive out the knowledge of how to breathe.

While she was gone, she had received a donation.

No, check that. She had received a _DONATION! _The donation box was now overflowing with currency, and the steps and surrounding road were literally covered with several large buckets, also filled to bursting with money. Powerful charms had been nailed to nearby trees to ward off wild youkai that might try to fill their pockets.

"Uh…uh…" Reimu opened and closed her mouth several times like a fish. Then she bolted down to examine her unexpected bounty.

It only took a few moments to confirm that yes, the money was real, and the charms did not prevent her from gathering it to herself. Unfortunately, all the bills were one-yen notes, which meant her new treasure was not quite as rich as it seemed, but her disappointment quickly disappeared. It didn't matter that the individual bills were of little worth, because by the gods, there were so many of them! It was literally more money than she had ever _seen, _much less possessed. Hell, it just might be more money than the Hakurei Shine had ever possessed, period. With this, she could…she could…well, she had no idea, but whatever it was, she could do it!

Letting out a squeal of delight, Reimu plunged her arms into two buckets. The sensation of yen notes against her skin filled her with euphoria, making her eyelids flutter. She moaned in ecstasy. Oh, this was the best. She had no idea who her wonderful benefactor was, but she now loved them to a degree that she had not formerly believed herself capable of.

Gathering a bucket under each arm, Reimu plodded up the steps, taking the time to admire each cluster of currency in turn. "Hello, my beauties," she crooned as she took each step. "Welcome. Don't worry, Mommy will take good care of you."

Then, as she happily waddled up to her gorgeously full donation box, she saw something that killed her enraptured state stone cold dead. There was a note pinned to the front of the donation box. It read:

"_See me, please._

_Remilia Scarlet."_

…

Rin sat alone in the Aki sisters' kitchen, hand gripping the underside of her chair, head bowed. She felt absolutely wretched.

It was now late afternoon, bordering on early evening. In another room, the two autumn goddesses were still speaking in hushed and agitated tones, though their argument seemed to be over. Rin wasn't paying much attention, but it seemed that they had decided that while accepting a request from Yuuka Kazami was downright foolhardy, turning one down was nothing short of insane. Having seen what the flower-obsessed youkai (if indeed she was one; Rin now had some serious doubts) was capable of and having gotten a "taste" of her soul, Rin sympathized. Not everyone could be a veritable engine of unholy destruction for negotiation purposes.

Rin hated bringing them into this, but she had run out of options. Again. Oh sure, she could always just turn herself in and let Yukari's Angels do the job. But Rumia wasn't likely to survive the process. That was the only thing keeping Rin from just up and putting an end to this whole disaster. Rumia had to come out of this alive. Rin owed her that much.

Unfortunately, Rumia…wasn't talking to her anymore.

Well, that shouldn't be a surprise. Honestly, after how horribly Rin had treated her, it was a wonder that they had ever been friendly at all. Rumia was right: Rin had stolen her away from everyone and everything she had cared for and subjected her to horrors unimaginable. She had forced her to ride along with the nightmare that was Rin's life.

Okay, so maybe it had been an accident at first. A misunderstanding. And hadn't circumstances changed afterward, making Rumia's release too dangerous to attempt? It had been for her own good, after all.

At least, that was what Rin had kept telling herself. Now those words sounded hollow.

Had it really been for Rumia's sake that she had kept her for so long? Or was it just because Rin was scared of being alone again? Had she really deluded herself into believing that Rumia would _want _to stay with her, that they really would become friends? If so, than she really was an idiot. Rumia was her hostage, nothing more.

But she didn't have to be so mean about it!

It was because Rin had let her go out and be with her friends. Talk to them. Touch them. Feel what the world outside was like. Remind her of what she had lost. It wasn't fair! Rin had been trying to do a good thing, but it had just turned Rumia against her! Maybe Rumia was her prisoner, maybe they really weren't friends, but it was the only thing Rin had. Was it too much to ask that at least one person treat her decently?

Well, duh, yes it was. Rin was a terrible person. Ergo, it only made sense that people would treat her terribly. She deserved it. Everything she tried only ended up hurting others, and there was probably more than a few corpses that would be walking around today if it weren't for her.

But it wasn't like she was trying to do bad things! She wanted to be one of the good guys, she really did, but everything just kept working against her! Whenever she tried to help, things would go wrong by pure chance. Whenever she meekly did what other people told her to do, she got hurt. And when she tried to stand up for herself, other people got hurt. It was like she was cursed or something like-

Wait, someone was coming. Rin stiffened up. Her sharp ears had picked out the sound of someone approaching the house. They weren't trying to be at all stealthy about it, so they probably weren't an enemy. In fact, they were whistling cheerfully.

_I think that's her, _she told Rumia.

Rumia said nothing.

Then the door swung open and the newcomer announced herself with a happy, "Good evening, my lovelies!" She danced into the kitchen, giving a small twirl as she went. "I had a _wonderful _day, and I'm sure yours was just-" Then she noticed Rin and blinked in surprise. "Oh!"

Rin cocked her head in curiosity. The new person was…well, she had seen weirder, but this girl was still interesting. It was a young woman (but then, most people were) with long aquamarine hair and sparkling eyes of the same color. She wore a black-and-red dress with a green spiral insignia on one side, near the hem. Her hair was tied with a large frilled ribbon. Most noticeable were the two ponytails that hung down around her face and were tied together at her throat with a smaller ribbon, like a necktie. As far as fashion statements went, it was certainly different, but Rin wouldn't count on it catching on any time soon.

Either way, this was probably Hina Kagiyama, the roommate of the Aki sisters and the person Yuuka had sent her to see. Rin really didn't see how this person, goddess or not, could be of any help, but hey, who was she to judge? Clearing her throat, she said, "Uh, hi."

With that, the surprise on Hina's face vanished, to be replaced by a wide smile of delight. "Oh, hello!" she said, kneeling down so she and Rin were at eye level. "I wasn't expecting guests, but someone as cute as you is certainly welcome!" She held out her hand. "My name is Hina Kagiyama, sweetie. What's yours?"

Welcome. Cute. Ha, if she only knew. Careful to keep the taint and all other negative energies under tight control, Rin reached out to accept the handshake while saying, "I'm…Mary." Mary was the false name Yuuka had told her to use, under the assumption that the bounty meant that her real name was kind of infamous.

Then something odd happened. As soon as their hands touched, Hina immediately jerked her hand away as if she had been burned. Rin went stiff.

Hina stared at her fingers. There was no mark on them, but she had clearly sensed _something. _"Oh…oh my goodness," she said. She looked back at Rin and slowly straightened up. "Oh, my dear. I think I know why you're here. You have a terribly nasty curse on you, and need help getting rid of it. Is that right?"

Well, close enough. Rin silently nodded.

"Oh, you poor thing," Hina said, shaking her head. "Of course I'll help you. But something like this will take some time to-"

"Hina?" Minoriko stuck her head out from the hallway. Seeing her roommate standing there, her eyes went wide and she hurried over, putting herself between Hina and Rin. "Wait, wait, wait! Before you say anything, you need to hear the whole story!"

"Whole story?" Hina tried moving around Minoriko to get a good look at Rin, while Minoriko kept moving to block her. "Why? What happened to Mary?"

"Not sure about that just yet," Shizuha said as she entered the room. "But I'm more worried about what might happen to us."

When Yuuka had sent Rin to meet with these three goddesses, she had given her a letter, which included an explanation and a set of instructions. Of course, Rin had taken the time to read it carefully before her arrival. The explanation had been accurate enough, though it had left out the part concerning Rin's identity and the irrelevant bits of her history. However, avatar of a Fallen Angel, growing darkness within her, another innocent mind inside her own quite possibly at risk, all there. Which was surprisingly forthcoming, considering the source. However, she had gleaned that Yuuka definitely had a history with the Shizuha and Minoriko, one that was less than positive, if all the cheery mentions of "letting bygones be bygones" and "allowing you amend past misjudgments" were any indication.

The instructions didn't make a whole lot of sense though. They seemed to be about some kind of ritual involving dolls. Rin had been a pretty good student before her meltdown, but magical theory had always been one of her weaker subjects.

It was this letter that Shizuha was now holding out to Hina. Looking confused, Hina took it and read it.

Then her eyes got very, very wide, and she read it again. Followed by a third time. Rin had to repress a sigh.

Forcing a smile, Hina tilted her head to look at Rin. "I'm sorry Mary, but would you excuse us for a moment."

Rin nodded, and the three goddesses quickly retreated to the next room. This time, Rin made sure to pay careful attention to their conversation.

Hina was first to speak. "Yuuka Kazami?" she said as soon they were behind closed doors. "She was sent by Yuuka Kazami?"

"Looks like," Shizuha muttered. "The seal on the envelope was hers, and the penmanship matches up from those death threats she sent us last year."

Death threats. Rin winced. Ho boy, what had she wandered into?

"But what could she have to do with Mary?" Hina wanted to know. "Could she be the one to curse the poor girl?"

"I don't think so," Minoriko said softly. "Mary confirmed that it was this…Fallen Angel thing, but that might have been just a story."

"Hey, what is a Fallen Angel anyway?" Shizuha wanted to know.

"I'm not really sure," Minoriko admitted. "The term sounds familiar, but…"

"Um, actually, I know," Hina admitted nervously. There was a shuffling sound, probably from some kind of fidgeting. "Angels are the people that took over the Outside World and forced the Youkai Sages to create Gensokyo in the first place. Or at least, that's what I've heard."

There was a silence, and then Minoriko said cautiously, "So, a _Fallen _Angel would be…"

"One that went bad, I think?"

"That sounds redundant," Shizuha said. "If they're bad already, wouldn't one, uh, Falling mean it's on our side now?"

Sighing, Rin slipped off her chair and walked over to the room where the goddesses were. "No," she said, opening the door. "It means it went _bad. _This one turned into a homicidal maniac that wants to kill everyone and everything, and just might be strong enough to do so."

The three goddesses stared at her, their face white. Shizuha nervously licked her lips. "A-And you've got one inside of you?"

Rin shook her head. "Just a piece." She pointed at her own head. "But it's strong, and it's getting stronger."

"Oh, ah, heh." Shizuha laughed nervously. "Uh, yeah. Maybe…maybe we're not the right people to deal with this? Like, shouldn't you go to someone more…powerful?"

Rin sighed. "Yeah, we talked about that. Only thing is…you read the part about how I've got another, uh, soul inside of me? One that's attached to the piece."

That drew nods and confused looks from all around. "Yeah," Shizuha said. "Don't understand that at all, but hey, I've heard weirder."

"Yeah," Rin said. "Uh, this whole thing isn't her fault at all, and I'm trying to keep her safe, but we're pretty sure that whatever they'll do to get the piece out, there's like no chance she'll survive it." She sighed, her shoulders slumping. "Or me."

"Oh," Minoriko said. She squeezed her lips tightly together and glanced nervously at her comrades. "Well, that's sounds…problematic."

Hina shook her head. "But…I'm sorry Mary, but I honestly don't know what help I can be. I remove curses and misfortune, yes, and I'll admit to being pretty good at it, but this is far out of my league! It'll be years, decades, maybe even over a century before I can even begin to attempt something on this level!"

"Yeah, Yuuka said that would probably be the case," Rin said. She pointed at the papers still clutched in Hina's hand. "So she sent along, uh, help? I think?"

"What?" Frowning, Hina shuffled through the papers and looked over the instructions. "Oh, I see. Well, this is…" Then she blinked several times, and as with the letter, reread what Yuuka had written. Rin didn't dare let herself feel hope, but she had to admit that she was holding her breath, even if breathing was no longer necessary.

"Well, I don't…" Hina turned the diagram sideways. A small smile was forming. "This is…Huh."

The two autumn goddesses edged up to her. "What is it?" Shizuha whispered. "I couldn't make heads or tails out of it, save that involves a bunch of your dolls."

"It does," Hina told her. "But it's a lot more than that. And if what Yuuka says about the fragment is true…" Slowly she lowered the papers to look down at Rin, a very strange smile on her face. Not sure what to make of it, Rin looked up at her expectedly.

"Guys," Hina said, still smiling. "I…I think I can do this."

…

Compared to Mugenkan, the House of Orchids was small, diminutive, and quaint. It was a brown one-story building with round windows, a sharply sloping tiled roof, and a sizeable patio. Inside, there were only three rooms: the living room, the kitchen, and restroom, with a shed for the tools in the back. It was airy enough inside, but was really little more than a cottage. Yuuka was fond of it though. It had a nice, rustic charm while still maintaining an acceptable amount of civility.

Normally, it would be decorated with the flowers from which it took its name. However, earlier that morning Yuuka had ordered them relocated and the furniture all cleared away. Now glowing blue Mykr's Sirens hung from the ceiling and a latticework of reinforced vines clung to the outside, providing the walls with extra support and covering the windows completely.

It was a dangerous thing Yuuka was about to do. The creature she was about to unleash was notoriously unstable, in possession of incredible physical strength, and had the power to utterly annihilate anything just by sheer force of will. However, she trusted that her precautions would be sufficient to keep her controlled. After all, Yuuka had bested her once already, and had been at quite the disadvantage at the time. Now the numbers were in Yuuka's favor and they were on her home turf, and Yuuka had three times the power she did then. Triumph would be difficult, but far from impossible.

Yuuka stood in the center of the living room, rolling the crimson crystal around in her fingers. She had to admit to just the smallest feeling of trepidation. Yesterday, she had unleashed a different monster, and the results had been less than satisfactory. Now she was about to release another one. Granted, she was confident in her abilities to keep this one under control, but hubris had gotten the better of her before.

She shook her head. Enough. Now was not the time for second thoughts.

Holding the crystal high, she stared into its facets, admiring how brightly they lit the room. With all the windows, doors, and fireplace sealed off, the only other illumination were dim lamps, which made the gem's violent crimson glow all the more striking. The power contained inside was certainly great. Ironic then that it had been intended for her. That little soiree in the Blasted Lands may have had serious unexpected drawbacks, but it really could have gone a lot worse.

Fortunately, she was familiar with the crystal's origin. It had been designed by a race of elves of all things, from a world much richer in magical energies. Their original purpose was to capture freefloating magic and store it for later use, though they had later been converted into traps for magical beings that left life essence behind. Once sprung, they were extremely difficult to open again, unless you so happened to be the one who had done the sealing. The crystals had a kind of memory. They "remembered" those who used them, and responded accordingly.

However, opening the crystal wasn't Yuuka's main source of concern. Unlike those released by most youkai and fairies, the life essences inside would not naturally form a new body upon release. In fact, had she not sealed them so quickly, they would have been lost forever. As such, a six-sided star was now engraved into the floor and surrounded by glowing runes. In the center of the star was a small pile of ash, taking from the burnt corpse of a child. The placement of the symbols would encourage the energies to use the ash to form themselves a new vessel and restore the imprisoned creature to life.

Taking a deep breath, Yuuka knelt down and placed the crystal on the pile of ash. She sent a single mental command infused with a heavy dose of her not insignificant will and stepped back.

The effect was immediate. The crystal flared white, causing Yuuka to involuntarily shield her eye. Then a tiny dot appeared within each of the facets. The dots grew, becoming holds, and from those holes red mist seeped out. Restrained by the spells that Yuuka had laid down, they swirled around violently until the crystal had been reduced to diamond dust.

Kneeling down, Yuuka closed her eye and started to chant, her voice a low, rhythmic monotone. The glow of the runes increased in response, and the red cloud suddenly recoiled. It jerked back and forth as if it were being jabbed at by blades. Then it twisted around into a slender vortex.

Yuuka held up her hand and spoke a word of command. The tip of the scarlet cyclone struck down into the center of the ash and sucked it up. The ash spun around as the cyclone contracted, forming into a small, humanoid shape. From there, the ash spread out and grew, covering the swirling life energies creating a hard shell.

And then it was done. In the center of the star was a grey statue of a naked little girl. She was lying on her side with her legs drawn up and clutched to her chest. Her eyes were squeezed shut.

Then cracks formed over the statue's surface. The grey shell fell away, revealing pink skin underneath. There was a gasp of fear, and the shell exploded off completely.

Yuuka smiled as the now living (or as close as her species would allow) girl looked around wildly, her red eyes wide with fear and surprise.

"Hello Flandre," Yuuka said warmly. She held out a hand. "Welcome back to the world of the living."

…

"_Int. __Kourindou_

_Enter Rinnosuke, still in his towel_

_Rinnosuke: Hello ladies. Look at you man. Now back to me. Now back to your man. Now back to _me. _Sadly, your man is not a half-youkai shopkeeper. But if you were to dress him up in thick blue robes and put a pair of glasses on his face, he can at least attempt to cosplay as me._

_Kourindou falls apart, revealing deck of Palanquin. Rinnosuke holds up his arms and his robe falls from the sky, slipping onto him perfectly. _

_Rinnosuke: Look down, now up again. Where are you? You're on a flying boat, with the man your man can look like. Look down, now up again. What's in your hand?_

_Two Bomb powerups appear in his hand. _

_Rinnosuke: It's two spellcards that you love to use. What's this?_

_The Bombs fall from his hands, replaced by a geyser of sparks and lights._

_Rinnosuke: The spellcards are now lasers! Anything is possible when you live in Gensokyo._

_Shot pans out, revealing that Rinnosuke is being given a piggy-back ride by Marisa, who is straining under the weight._

_Rinnosuke: I'm on a witch._

_Marisa: Get…off…_

_End scene._

…

_Yeah, did you know that when I first thought of that joke, that commercial had just come out? That's how long that bit has been waiting to be used. But it has nothing on the scene where Rin meets Hina. Seriously, I've sitting on that one even before I decided to make Yuuka an Outer God. _

_Also, Reimu's reaction to her enormous donation is based on my own whenever a surprise review pops up._

_Hint, hint. :P_

_Anyway, I do think it's that time of year again! So next update will be a Christmas special. Jingle all the way!_

_Until next time, everyone! _


End file.
